UselessNews

  Disposable by Design:   When Quitting Is Framed as Growing Up. Myself and Michael Newnham with Orchestra Toronto(April 16th 2024) The season of cheer is on its way out — and what a season it was. This year, I’m grateful to have spent Christmas with my family and friends. Last year was different. I was in a holiday production that, while musically enjoyable, triggered intense illness anxiety. Life is short, and you only get so many opportunities to be with the people you love during this earthly existence. I’ll give up other holidays for music, but Christmas is a hard one to surrender. This season, I spent much of my time singing in long-term care homes, which I find deeply fulfilling. My final caroling gig of the year was on December 23rd with my regular choir. Somewhere between homes, during a break, I was asked a series of questions by a fellow chorus member — questions I haven’t stopped thinking about. That's What She Said.. People often ask me what it’s like to make a...

The Show Must Go On...And Then What?     Lucia's hard day at work.  D ecember is my favourite month of the year. My heart practically glows when I hear Christmas carols (or songs that are suspiciously similar but not enough to trigger copyright lawsuits). And the lights on people’s houses? Immediate serotonin. Plus, in Canadian work culture, once we hit December 20th, everyone who isn’t an essential worker collectively agrees to do the bare minimum necessary to avoid being fired. If anyone complains, the official response is: “Cheer up, fool — it’s Christmas.” And then, of course, it’s my birthday month . Every couple of years I end up performing on my actual birthday, and I almost always get a wonderfully chaotic “Happy Birthday” from my colleagues — sometimes even the audience joins in. The most memorable? Counterpoint Orchestra’s Don We Now Our Gay Apparel concert in 2015. Yes. Ten years ago.       Cantabile Chamber Singers.  That concert was t...

Begging Wednesday and Festivus for the rest of us!  Babushka Mode activated.  So much to do and so little time! I, like 90% of musicians, have once again found myself in the chaotic wonderland that is holiday gig season. It looks different every year, and luckily for me this time around I’ve got a nice mix of concerts and a bit of time to actually see my family. This year, I’m taking it easier. I’ve decided that singing outside is officially for the young and ambitious. I have paid enough dues, thank you very much. I sang outdoors for a Remembrance Day Ceremony and then spent the entire rest of the week trying to warm up. I even pulled out the winter gear early, all proud of myself—and yet the cold still got me. So here I am with some caroling, four concert gigs (Burlington, Hamilton, and Cambridge), and—of course—a partridge in a pear tree. My most loathsome carol. My personal purgatory is never actually arriving at “Five Golden Rings.” Caroling: The Good, the Bad and t...

Bureaucracy and the Art of Screaming Beautifully Part 1.  On what they don’t teach you in music school, and why they probably should. Convocation 2014 Myself with Nicole Malcom. They should really be teaching this in music school.    I will never forget the first time I heard the phrase, “They should really be teaching this in music school.” It was spoken by my high school choir teacher, Maria Riedstra , during one of our independent study performance classes. She had hired a pianist to accompany us and was explaining how to properly bill the school board for their services—via invoice.      Looking back, we were incredibly lucky. Preparing a song with a live pianist in high school was a rare gift, especially in a Toronto public school. Most singing students only get that chance at a biannual recital through a private studio—if at all—before university. And since most teachers who prep students for post-secondary voice programs don’t start until around si...

Love, Lies, and Public Humiliation: Mozart’s Meanest Joke What Even Was That Last Week? And boy, has it been busy. During this production period, I’ve been keeping my regular Monday-through-Thursday teaching hours—and wow, has it been tough. I’ve done six-day weeks before, but it’s so easy to burn out after about three. My Wednesdays have been especially brutal: twelve-hour days across three separate work locations. Yikes. Luckily, our show goes into the theatre this coming week, and I’ve booked off my other gigs to give the production my full attention. Sitzprobe with our wonderful orchestra:) The cast minus me!  The cast minus Don Alfonso and Guglielmo.  The “Happy Ending” That Really Isn’t This week, our production team has been wrestling with how to end this opera—with that infamous happy ending that really shouldn’t be one. I love Così fan tutte . The music is stunning. But the show is often dismissed as silly because of its obvious disguises and the seemingly light-he...

Make Your Own Garden Grow Before my graduation recital with Nicole Malcom and Amanda Chin at York University. Dear Voice Student, So—you’ve decided to study your passion and perhaps even pursue a career in the arts. Bravo. Choosing to follow your calling, especially one as vulnerable and personal as singing, takes enormous bravery. You are not just entering a profession; you are charting a map in unmarked territory. Every artist becomes, in some way, a cartographer—mapping the landscape of their own path in a career that is as unpredictable as it is rewarding. The arts are strange that way: they’re always changing, yet somehow always the same. In a future post, I’ll dive deeper into the practical side—income streams, the many hats you’ll wear as a musician—but for now, here’s what I believe you truly need to build a career as a singer. Musicianship Good musicianship is your foundation—your compass. This means developing strong ears, solid theory, and a deep understanding of how music w...

Cosi Fast and Furious; Mozart Drift My cast mates on a hot evening off near Nuremburg, 2018.  Life in a Quick Jog Life is back to its normal pace—a steady quick jog. I’m back to teaching and singing, with a side order of early wedding planning. Right now, I teach private voice and piano lessons four days a week between Toronto and Markham. (I’m also looking to fill Fridays if anyone’s interested—see the link above!) On Wednesdays, I join my favourite local choir, Village Voices , as a section lead. It’s been such a joy to find this community, both for the camaraderie and the delicious music. We have a concert coming up in November—reach out if you’d like details! This week my car also decided to give me an early Halloween scare with my breaks not working on the highway. Luckily the phrase 'pump the breaks' came to mind and I managed to build up just enough breaking pressure to not become strawberry jam. She's all fixed now, and the only injury was to my wallet, thankfully...

 The Horrors Persist, Yet So Do I! The Last Rose of Summer After a beautiful trip, I’ve returned to reality: work, work, and yes… more work. Lately, I’ve had a lot cooking in my mind about life, the state of the world, and—what even is this crazy artform? Two weeks ago, I landed at Pearson at 6 a.m. to a beautiful sunrise, then promptly collapsed into a “dead to the world” sleep for the rest of the day. By Friday, I was back to work, Boheme buzzing in my brain. Even while traveling, I’d sneak away to practice, drilling text through long hours of transit and activity. My future brother-in-law often catches me muttering, convinced I’m “speaking in tongues again.” Guilty as charged.ften catches me speaking through text that I often forget is out loud. ...'She's speaking in tongues again!" Brahm Goldhamer, Ann Cooper-Gay and Myself after Boheme. (pic by Leslie Barcza) Back to Boheme Saturday kicked off with a coaching session with Bill Shookoff, who whipped me into shape an...

Bella come un Tramonto  The Blue Mountains and Homeward Bound Lincolns Rock, Blue Mountains “Bella come un tramonto” —Italian for “beautiful like the sunset.” When I first began working on La Bohème in 2023, this line struck me, and it still does. In Mimi’s final moments, Rodolfo calls her “bella come un’aurora” —beautiful like the dawn. She replies softly, “bella come un tramonto.” For me, that reply carries something profound: Mimi is reminding us that beauty isn’t only in beginnings. Sunsets, like life, are beautiful precisely because they end. And just like that, our Australian adventure had to end too—but not before one last, unforgettable week. Back to Sydney We landed from Darwin at a brutal 6 a.m., but Sydney makes up for rude wakeups with infrastructure Torontonians can only dream about. In under an hour we were back in our favourite suburb, Parramatta. After a nap and some laundry, we had dinner with Dom’s aunty and uncle. I cooked pico de gallo with pork tacos a...

 The White Hot North Darwin, Litchfield, Katherine and Kakadu.  This last week has been an absolute blast. We got to experience life in Darwin, Northern Territory—and all that comes with living in the land of hazard. Between the crocs and sharks in the water, the relentless sun, and the sizzling heat, adventure here always comes with a side of risk. Death honestly feels like just another neighbor in these parts. But the people are kind, and the community is strong. Out of the Northern Territory’s 260,000 people, more than half—148,000—live in Darwin. I snapped a lucky shot at Mindil Beach that I still can’t believe I got. The sunsets here are stunning. Watching the sun melt into the horizon has become a nightly ritual for tourists and locals alike, and when the last sliver of sun disappears, everyone claps. It feels almost ceremonial.  The beach is tempting—soft sand, turquoise-blue water—but dipping more than your toes is a dangerous game. On our first day, we sheepishl...