Performance-related pay

Singing in front of people for the first time can be a scary experience for anyone, especially in front of peers. You feel vulnerable and scared as you await their feedback; you listen to their critiques and (if they feel like it) their compliments. You’re alone on stage, heart pumping, blood rising, face tinting. All ears are listening for strong vocal control, good tone, clear enunciation, strong support (attained by having good posture and the proper breathing technique), suitable volume, a…

Ted Talks Write-Up # 1_ I. Name and background of presenter (Approximately ½ of a single-spaced page). The first Ted Talk I watched was presented by author Lidia Yuknavitch. Yuknavitch shared her life journey with us and it was heartbreaking and tragic. She grew up physically and sexually abused by the one person who was supposed to keep her safe, her father. In her teens she had aspirations of becoming a competitive swimmer; however she turned to drugs and alcohol to help deal with the pain of…

Jameson Marvin does an excellence job in explaining how the process conductors use to achieve the highest level of performance. He begins by saying, “Mastering choral ensemble – a unified sound image of the whole – is the foundation upon which enlightened, communicative, and inspiring performance takes place.” He explains that there is a process to achieving this mastery, and it is based off of mental-aural image, which is a vision of what the music should sound like. In this chapter, Marvin…

seventeen students at the Recital. There were nineteen performances at the Recital. The first performance was by Hunter Brake, who performed Bolt by Kirk Gay. Brake played Bolt on the Tympani. Brake started the song fast and ended it slow. The second performance was by Alexi Guessford, who performed Caro mio ben by Giueseppi Giordani. Guessford, a Soprano, sang Caro mio ben. Guessford maintained eye contact while singing. The third performance was by Brittany Parry, who performed Der…

My legs shook like crazy. I looked around. My classmates were chatting as if they had nothing to worry about. I could only imagine myself squeaking or missing a note in front of hundreds of people. Maybe if I played quiet enough, they wouldn’t hear me mess up. I squeezed my clarinet tightly in my firm grasp and bit my lip. “Up next, we have the Honors Band!” The composer announced to the audience as they roared and clapped us onto the stage. I quickly shuffled out from…

The mail man recently passed by our house, and there was a likely chance the letter hid somewhere in the stack. It included information, positive or negative, depending on my performance level in the auditions. After about 20 minutes of hesitation, I carefully opened the envelope. The first words stood out to me, the ones that significantly changed my life. In big, black, bold letters, it congratulated me for being accepted as a…

Every Spring Frontier High School puts on a Spring Musical. This year it was “All Shook Up,” a musical based off Shakespeare's “Twelfth Night,” all set to Elvis Presley songs. The cast consisted of eleven main characters and an ensemble. Everyone wanted to be apart of the show, but only twenty five students would be selected. Before Thanksgiving break, the students were given five songs they could sing for at auditions. All break the actors were practicing and researching the musical, so when…

Concert Critique I went to The Quapaw String Quartet concert Friday, March 23 that was in Bevens Music Room of Brown Chapel at 7:30 pm., which was a Dan C. and Sidney West Endowed Concert. I really enjoyed this concert because the performers are always magnificent, and they are great on conveying the underlying message or feeling of the pieces they play. The performers played pieces from the Classical and Romantic period, and they were in chamber music pieces because the instruments that the…

After reading Art and the Community: Breaking the Aesthetic of Disempowerment I began thinking about where I stood on dance in the community, dance involving non typical dancers and dance as a therapeutic activity. As I was brain storming I realized I had much stronger opinions on these issues, than I realized. As a dancer, when asked what dance is to me I commonly refer to dance being an art form that allows me to express myself in a raw form. In the article Art and the Community: Breaking…

I have finally gotten the chance to go see my first play, The Diary of Anne Frank. I really did enjoy the play, even after seeing the movie almost a hundred times. From the stage setting to the wonderful interactions among the actors and actress I couldn’t shake the feeling of how realistic it felt. The emotions were there and I absolutely loved it. The central theme, production, and audience reaction were the most interesting part of this experience. The central theme of this play was focused…