Susan Eichhorn Young is a voice teacher in New York City. Susan grew up in the theatre and has been acting and singing pretty much from the time she could first speak! Her career encompasses straight theatre, opera, musical theatre and cabaret. Her many years of experience moving between different performance and singing styles are highly valuable to her voice students - particularly the professional musical theatre singers who study and coach with her.
Susan's teaching philosophy is founded upon her belief that "Each singer's needs are unique, and thus, I work to meet the singer where they are: technically, musically, emotionally, and psychologically. Each person and therefore, each voice is unique, and the course of study must be developed and created to specifically meet that voice and that singer."
Content from her blog, Once More with Feeling, is currently being adapted into a book, due to be released around December 2010.
You have performed in so many different styles. Do you vary your singing technique when moving between classical singing, musical theatre and cabaret? If so, how?
The basis of the technique remains the same - but the approach changes - intimacy of style requires a change in how language is shaped and resonated, and simply how much voice is used! There are stylistic techniques - like belt/mix-belt/spretchtstimme that need to be understood for certain types of song in theatre and cabaret and in turn, need to be physicalized!
Do you adapt your teaching methods to the needs singers specializing in different styles?
I sure do! However, I believe in a basis of singing for ANY style. I call it "neutral" voice - how you line up the basis of the voice with breath and resonance. Then, depending on the stylistic demands, and the genre demands, you work toward that balance.
Have your early roots in theatre influenced your development as a singer and teacher?
Most definitely! My approach is very physical and athletic and language oriented. Language creates so much of our sound in ANY language or dialect and it must be shaped to move into tradition, style and genre. I believe in developing technique in singing as behavior - just as we do as actors. Actors don't pretend - actors "do". In creating an active "doing" it allows you to go into the behavior of the character. I believe the same in vocal technique therefore vocal behavior.
Your blog is a valuable source of career advice for professional singers. How do the vocal demands and business logistics of a career in opera differ from those of a career in musical theatre?
I think there are more similarities than we realize - just a different playpen! The voice needs to be healthy, balanced, and athletic whether it is to fill a mammoth opera house and cut through a large orchestra, or whether to become part of the equipment and sing 8 shows a week in theatre! Business is different, but it's still business. The business of show still means we deal with the idiots, the lies, the stealing, the bullshit. Just another costume.
Is it possible to build a career embracing both opera and musical theatre? If so, what advice can you offer for those singers who want to attempt it?
"Back in the day" singers routinely moved back and forth between City Opera and Broadway. I believe anything is possible if the artist is really willing and able to develop the instrument, the psychology and the spirit to know what is needed and required for each. Know what each corner of the business demands. Know what the styles and genres demand. Know what your voice can do and what it can't. Know you are NOT SLUMMING by discovering other possibilities in your artistry!!! I believe every music theatre singer needs to develop a healthy balanced singing and further, a truly dimensional and well-formed voice; and every opera singer needs to discover some music theatre in style, genre and physicality. Even if we don't pursue both, we should embrace what each can offer the other. Ultimately, a more rounded and more knowledgeable artist and performer will emerge.
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