Students have made a great start to 2017 and I love it when a student comes to a lesson and tells me they have practiced – I am so excited!  And then they perform and you can see the results of even a small amount of practice.  Just imagine if you were able to practice every day!  It is my retirement dream to practice the piano 3 hours every morning (and then garden in the afternoon and write my novel in between). Will not be retiring any time soon however.

I have news for my vocal students.  I will be chairing a classical voice master class for the Durham Music Teachers Association on Saturday March 25 from 2-4 pm.  Singers must be over 15 but there is no upper age limit! The clinician is Julianna Tauschinger-Dempsey, and her bio is below.  I do hope several of my students will agree to sing for her.  It is a wonderful experience to sing for a professional and hear what she has to say to help you with various aspects of your singing.  Others are very welcome to come to the master class as audience. Students of DMTA teachers (I am a member) pay $25 and this is the information I will need:

1. $25 registration fee (additional $30 for non-member teachers) for each participating student.  Make checks payable to DMTA.

2. Student name, age, and level.

3. Program information should include: composer; complete composition title, including any opus number or other catalog number; and the movement, if part of a larger composition. If there is a specific question about the piece, please submit it in writing along with the registration form.

4. Teacher e-mail and phone number.   

The due date for entries will be Friday March 17.

Julianna Tauschinger-Dempsey

Lyric coloratura, Julianna Tauschinger-Dempsey came to singing after completing a year of fieldwork on Gypsies in France. Appropriately enough, the former anthropologist and professional Flamenco dancer would go on to make her operatic debut singing and dancing the role of Frasquita (Carmen) with the Boston Lyric Opera. In 2011, after a six-year hiatus, Ms. Tauschinger-Dempsey made a triumphant return to the operatic stage singing her first Despina (Cosí fan tutte) and Adele (Die Fledermaus). As a young artist with the Zurich Opera, Ms. Tauschinger-Dempsey sang the Erste Dame in Die Kinderzauberflöte (The Magic Flute for Children), Fiordiligi (Cosí fan tutte) and Anna Gomez in a German production of Menotti’s The Consul.

Also an active concert artist, Ms. Tauschinger-Dempsey first gained attention as the soprano soloist in Boston Pro Musica’s performances of Verdi’s Messa di Requiem and Beethoven’s Mass in C under the baton of Jeffrey Rink. Recently, she performed Mozart’s Regina Coeli, K. 127, with Schola Cantorum of Boston director, Frederick Jodry, and the Exsultate Jubilate with harpsichordist and early music director, Marcellene Hawk. A devoted student and performer of German Lieder and the French chanson, Ms. Tauschinger-Dempsey has given numerous recitals in her native Cleveland, as well as in Cambridge, Providence, New York City, and in and around Zurich, Switzerland. She recently sang her first Susanna in the St. Petersburg Opera production of Mozart’s brilliant Le Nozze di Figaro and will be the soprano soloist in Duke Chapel’s annual Messiah under Rodney Wynkoop. The soprano received an honors degree in Social Anthropology from Harvard University and earned a Master’s degree in voice with distinction from the Manhattan School of Music.