NATS here I come!

This week at Art School has been a hectic one so far because of a little event in the world of the vocal student, NATS. NATS stands for the National Association of Teachers of Singing, which is divided into 14 regions across the county. These individual regions each host competitions annually, regional and state. Our division is made up of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, and the regional competition begins on Thursday. Happily, this means I am currently executing day two of three that I have to go to school this week (score!) I am beginning to feel the nerves come upon me, but I know that it will be a great experience whether or not I even make it to semi-finals.

 I thought you may be interested in how this competition works and what I will be singing, so here it goes. Vocal teachers who are members of this association send their students, each with three songs prepared. When students are judged, they may choose one song to sing first, then the judges choose the next song they want to hear and one song goes unheard. Semi-finalists sing one song privately for the judges, and if they make it to finals, they sing one song for an audience. Thursday will be preliminary day, Friday: semi-finals, and Saturday will be finals.

The songs that I have prepared were partly selected by me, and partly selected by my vocal teacher. I still haven't decided which I will choose to open with, but at this moment I am thinking I will open with "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" from Phantom of the Opera. This song has been a favorite of mine since 7th grade, when my marching band did a Phantom show. The soundtrack, including this song, is where my fundamental singing knowledge derived, so I am very comfortable with this one.

Emmy Rossum singing "Wishing.." in the 2004 movie version of the musical

My second favorite song is a classic that we have all heard at some point, "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" from My Fair Lady. This song has so much character and is such a wonderful constrast in every way to the solemn nature of my first song. I am desperately hoping they choose this one as my second song!

Julie Andrews (the great) as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady

My third selection, made entirely by my teacher, was a song I had never heard of from a musical I had hardly heard of. It is "Unusual Way" from Nine. It is a stunning ballad that I never would have chosen for myself. While it is undeniably beautiful, it feels slightly awkward in my voice, as it is a style I am certainly not used to singing. I probably wont open with this song unless my teacher insists, but we shall see. I don't have a picture for this one that I feel is appropriate for my blog! Ha! But it truly is a lovely song. If you look it up to listen to it, I wholeheartedly recommend the ever-amazing Linda Eder's interpretation of the song.

I hope you are all having a fantastic week and I will update likely Thursday night with news on how the first day of competition went. Thanks so much for reading!