The Mainestudio

Congratulations to Riley Suzuki for her beautiful senior recital performance tonight!

** DATE UPDATE ** Please see the comments below for an improtant change about our October 2nd performance.

So excited to make music with Erin McCarthy and Susan McDaniel at Fermata Farm next month! Singing these songs of equality and hope has been giving me life and I can't wait to share them with you.

Head to https://www.eringmccarthy.com/tickets for ticket info and covid safety protocols.

Check out Lana at the end of the month!

What an honor to join my wonderful colleague Amir Shirazi of Transpose PDX to talk about creating inclusive environments for transgender and gender nonconforming singers on OPB's Think Out Loud yesterday!

Transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming singers finding their voice How can the music world create a more inclusive environment for all voices? That's a question that’s top of mind for some musicians and educators. We hear from Ash, the artistic director of Transpose PDX, a Portland nonprofit that has a community choir and acapella group aimed at empowering transg...

Congratulations to student Lana Sage, who will be attending the Boston University College of Fine Arts in the fall!

My student Rick Sadle has been working super hard on a short film, original song, and music video recently. It's been a joy to watch this project grow and I'm so impressed and proud of the end result! Check out the music video at https://vimeo.com/523227899, and you can learn more about the film here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mislead-a-short-film/x/17942373 #/

Mislead, a short film As we age, the heart is stripped naked of pretense and delusion. | Check out 'Mislead, a short film' on Indiegogo.

Long passion project post:

Friends, I've been working really hard for almost two years to coordinate a major webinar that's coming up on March 20-23. This intensive training event is for voice teachers, choir directors, and anyone interested in teaching singing to transgender and non-binary students.

I could not be more excited and proud of our clinicians and content. William Sauerland is teaching our choral day, together with colleagues from Purdue University and Portland's own Transpose PDX leadership team. Liz Jackson Hearns and Alexandra Plattos Sulack and their incredible team from The Voice Lab, Inc. are teaching our applied voice pedagogy days, together with powerhouse guest clinician Ruchi Kapila, MS, CCC-SLP of Intervested and The Hyndsyte Project.

To top that all off, we have a spectacular bonus session with Portland's Q***r Opera titled: "Beyond the Pants Role: Mindful Casting for Q***r Singers", featuring panelists Chuck Dillard, Rebecca Herman, Jena Viemeister, and Wyatt Jackson.
I'm so grateful to NATS Cascade Chapter for hosting this event, and to Joannah Ball, Pollyanna Hancock Moody, Beverly Park, Anne McKee Reed, and Jill Soltero for their amazing assistance with organization, promotion, and logistics.

As you can see, our clinician technology check this morning was ridiculously fun, and the sneak peek into this information was TANTALIZING! What an incredible joy to see this all coming together.

If this is a topic that speaks to your heart or you know someone who might be interested, it's not too late to register. Registration fees are $125 for Non-NATS members, $100 for NATS members (of any chapter), and $50 for students. All sessions will be recorded and available to registered participants for 2 months after the event, so you can catch up if you have conflicts with the schedule.

You can find the full event schedule here:http://natscascade.org/.../2021/03/TNBWebinarScheduleB.pdf
And you can register here: http://natscascade.org/2021-pedagogy-registration/

Thanks for hanging in there with my long post! I'll leave you with Transpose PDX's vision statement:

"We are the ripple-starters, the ambassadors of change, and the consciousness-raisers. We humanize trans folks through the most human of art forms — singing! Through rural outreach performances we become visible; may the people who encounter us no longer feel alone, gain the courage to be their authentic selves, and be inspired to start their own ripples."