Breath control! Support your voice! Support, support!!

Those words ring in my memory as I recall instructions from past voice teachers of mine, like Avery Crew, whom I studied with in high school, and Rosemary Russell, my college instructor. Avery Crew responsibly would not take any students under the age of 16 because voices took time to mature. Ms. Russell was an organist and didnâ??t even know she could sing until her beautiful, low mezzo-soprano voice gradually began to mature.

These teachers were not deterred by young, unwieldy, big voices. They were part of an era that understood the importance of technique and ability to project voices in a concert hall. They were not in a hurry to push young voices, especially ones such as mine that wouldnâ??t blossom fully for another decade or so. I was a young contralto, a minority among other female singers. I used to envy the versatile sopranos as I lumbered along, attempting to harness my voice through proper technique and taking care of my health (big voices donâ??t always come in big bodies). I learned to project my voice (especially important for low ranges) and sang without the Microphone God appendage. I didnâ??t overuse my voice and never had problems with vocal cords, etc. Singing eventually wasnâ??t my fulltime career, but I never stopped solo performing, part-time, professionally. And Iâ??m still going strong decades later.

Today I read with interest Anne Midgetteâ??s New York Times article, â??The End of the Great Big American Voice.â? Oh, to be endowed with not just a big voice, but that rare Great Big Voice, a voice that unreservedly could envelop a captivated audience with its spiritual radiance! Such were the voices of opera greats I remember and admired from afar. But surely, itâ??s not the end?

Listening to Anne Midgetteâ??s audio presentation accompanying her article, I wonder if the Big Recording God would not be willing to share the throne with beautiful Great Big Voices that donâ??t always record as well as small voices, yet display their magnificence more fully with good technique in an opera house. Nothing at all wrong with smaller voices. But not all music was written for small voices in a recording studio. Truth is, Iâ??d rather listen to Pavarotti than Bocelli on a concert stage. Just my not-so-humble opinion.