Michele Brourman, Amanda McBroom, accompanist Mary Sugar, and producer Michael Miyazaki
Notes from Charlene James-Duguid
Charlene James-Duguid generously supplied some of her notes from the class:
PEARLS OF WISDOM FROM AMANDA AND MICHELLE
This is a partial list of ideas from the McBroom Master Class
“Stillness is your friend”
“Don’t begin till you are totally comfortable and take about 8 seconds to scope out the situation”
“Expand your shoulders so you expose your heart and give audience sense that your performance is coming from the heart”
“Watch out for excessive movements in your head and body”
“Use all your lyrics as if you were swimming in chocolate”
“Be VUNERABLE”
“Before launching into a full singing version, work your song as a monologue perhaps with different phrasing and to get it in your head and body, write it out long hand as many as 100 times but realistically 25. Sing it again and again with different intentions before you choose.”
“Rehearsal is meant to try many different choices”
“Changing emphasis on syllables may provide new and exciting ideas”
“Simplicity, Truth, Stillness, Economy”
“For more richness, sing through consonants l, m, n, ng, th, v, z and you will get much more resonance”
“Dive into notes:
“Give yourself the right to luxuriate in your sound”
“Singing in the pitch of your speaking voice is very effective”
“Song is a play and so don’t play the end at the beginning”
“Allow a loving breath”
“Don’t over or under sing”
“Breath and Diction are critical”
“Take care of your audience”
“In order to get relaxed performance try song lying on the floor”
“Make all your performances personal”
“Keep your performance in a simple and gentle place”
“Every repeat of a phrase must be different”
And there were many more pearls.
A terrific experience for everyone !!!!
The class took place at the Arts Club last Sunday, and I know everyone found it a terrific experience. The team started out with a great listening excercise before the participants launched into their performances and critiques.
Here’s what the participants sang:
Rachael Goldman – I Want Them … Bald
Charlene James Duguid — Vincent
Terri Allen – Come in From the Rain
Dean Reichard – When the Earth Stopped Turning
Mary Reilly – Something Wonderful
Matt Howe – I Honestly Love You
Stephanie Dailey – The Way He Makes Me Feel
Emily Everson — Crayola
Dorie Hightower – In Buddy’s Eyes
Lonny Smith – I Was Here
Eileen Warner – It’s Hot in Here
Christie Trapp – When Love Grows Up
Joanne Schmoll – It’s a New Day
At the end of the workshop the teaching team provided a true treat. Michele Brourman gave the definitive performance of her standard My Favorite Year and Amanda McBroom closed the afternoon with her incandescent version of Wheels.
Master Class Information
Amanda McBroom and Michele Brourman will be conducting a master class for singers and accompanists. The session will offer singers and pianists a chance to present material and receive feedback from the team. Non-performing audience slots will also be available.
Participant Slots — $110 (As of 9/29 participant slots for the class have been filled. However, there will be a waitlist should slots become available.)
Audience Slot — $40 ($30 for Arts Club and DC Cabaret Network Members)
Sunday, 15 November 2009.
Registration 1:00pm
Class: 1:30 – 5:30pm
Arts Club of Washington, 2017 I St NW, Washington DC.
For additional information or to register, please contact Michael Miyazaki at MichaelMiyazaki@aol.com
Information for performer slots
Singers
- An accompanist will be provided; please bring music for your song in your preferred key.
- Singers will be given a chance to perform their song and receive suggestions from the teaching team.
- Performers are welcome to work on material by Amanda McBroom and Michele Brourman if they wish.
Accompanists
- Participants for accompanist slots will be provided a lead sheet for a standard (e.g. My Foolish Heart) in Amanda McBroom’s key
- Amanda McBroom and the accompanist will have a chance to go through the song once, and then do the song as a performance
- Amanda McBroom and Michele Brourman will then provide feedback
General
- Performer slots will be 15 – 20 minutes each
- Although getting feedback on specific performances is crucial, please understand that the vast majority of learning from this class will probably occur from watching and reacting to the work of fellow participants
About Amanda McBroom
AMANDA MC BROOM has been called “…the greatest cabaret performer of her generation, an urban poet who writes like an angel and has a voice to match.” Her name first came to the attention of the music public when Bette Midler’s version of Amanda’s song THE ROSE hit number one all over the world in 1979. But it was Amanda’s performance of her own song on the Golden Globes (she won), Grammys (she didn’t) and The Tonight Show that launched her career as a singer as well as songwriter.
Her songs have have been recorded by the likes of Bette Midler, Leanne Rimes, Barry Manilow, Judy Collins, Barbara Cook, Anne Murray, Harry Belafonte, Betty Buckley, Stephanie Mills, The Manhattan Transfer, Donny Osmond, the Chipmunks, and the Baby Dinosaurs in LAND BEFORE TIME (she wrote all the songs for 11 Universal Cartoon videos). But growing audiences worldwide became convinced that the best interpretations of McBroom songs are by McBroom herself and applaud her in concert halls around the world including Carnegie Hall in New York, the FORD Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, Wolftrap and Kennedy Center (where she sang with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marvin Hamlisch) in Washington D.C., Angel Recital Hall in Sydney, Meyer Hall in Melbourne where she headlined the Festival of the Arts and Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall in Taiwan and Pizza on the Park in London. Amanda’s concert career was documented over two evenings high atop Manhattan’s RCA building for release as AMANDA McBROOM LIVE AT RAINBOW & STARS by the DRG label in 1995 and remains her only live concert recording.
Her recording career began on an MGM soundstage where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had overdubbed the sounds of their tap routines over forty years before. It was 1980 and she recorded direct-to-disc – no tape, no overdubs, no mixing, no fixing – for the prestigious vinyl audiophile label Sheffield Lab Recordings. GROWING UP IN HOLLYWOOD TOWN became an audiophile classic around the world and set a new standard for vinyl recording and hi fi stereo reproduction. Billboard called the LP a “stunning artistic success” and Amanda became “the queen of the high end” for the purity of her vocals and the emotional depth of her songs. Sheffield released a second McBroom direct-to-disc recording entitled WEST OF OZ in 1981. Both recordings were compiled and re-released as AMANDA by Sheffield in 1996.
In 1985 Amanda and her manager Garry George partnered in their own label GECKO RECORDS and released DREAMING in 1986. Under the auspices of Monster Cable Products, Inc. Amanda performed live at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1987. From that performance and the birth of the CD format, DREAMING became a classic around the world especially in SE Asia. GECKO releases followed including MIDNIGHT MATINEE in 1992, A WAITING HEART in 1997 and the “best of” collection PORTRAITS in 1999 released in conjunction with Hal Leonard publishing company’s release of a bound songbook of Amanda’s songs.
Her love of and background in musical theatre (she starred in the New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and European productions of JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS, on Broadway in SEESAW, and in SWEENEY TODD, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC and MAME) compelled her to create a musical based on her songs. HEARTBEATS made its debut in 1989 in Los Angeles and the play has enjoyed over 15 regional theater productions around the U.S. The original cast recording was released in 1994 on Varese Sarabande Records. The musical is represented by the Rogers and Hammerstein Music library.
Long time fans still revere Amanda’s many guest starring roles on television in everything from STAR TREK; THE NEXT GENERATION to her most recent appearance at the Kennedy Center in the NBC special FROM THE HEART.
Amanda attributes her success to “divine intervention and a lot of caffeine.”
About Michele Brourman
MICHELE BROURMAN is a singer/songwriter and a winner of the Johnny Mercer Songwriting Award. Her songs have been recorded by Michael Feinstein, Olivia Newton-John, Cleo Laine, Margaret Whiting, Rita Coolidge, Donny Osmond, Michael York and Sheena Easton, as well as by some of the finest cabaret artists – Amanda McBroom, Heather Macrae, Karen Mason, Sharon McKnight, Sally Mayes, Billy Stritch and more. Her best-known song, “My Favorite Year, has become a standard in the world of cabaret. Brourman and frequent collaborator McBroom have co-written the songs for sixteen animated features for Universal Studios, which have collectively sold millions of videos and DVD’s., notably 10 sequels to Steven Spielberg’s “The Land Before Time” as well as “American Tail IV”, “Hercules and Xena”, and the two sequels to Spielberg’s “Balto.”
Together they are currently completing the score for a new musical, “Dangerous Beauty”, which had its first full production in 2008, under the auspices of the American Musical Theatre Project at Northwestern University. In addition, Brourman is the composer of another new musical, “I Married Wyatt Earp“, with lyricist , which had its West Coast premiere in 2007 at Cal State Fullerton University and was featured at the Los Angeles Festival of New Musicals. Her songs have been featured in movies (Shiloh and Shiloh Season) and television (Cagney and Lacey, Designing Women, Jim Hensons’ Animal Jam) and the children’s series The Land Before Time for which Brourman co-wrote and produced all the songs. She created the dance and incidental music for the Broadway production of “Working” as well as incidental music for numerous theatre productions.
As a pianist/musical director, Michele has worked with wonderful artists, including, Dixie Carter, Amanda McBroom, Heather Macrae, Bernadette Peters, George Ball, Lesley Ann Warren, Annie Potts and more, and played piano in Bob Dylan’s band.
Amanda McBroom & Michele Brourman at WolfTrap
Amanda McBroom & Michelle Brourman will be appearing in concert at The Barns of WolfTrap on Saturday, 14 November.
Arts Club of Washington
The class will take place at the Arts Club of Washington, 2017 I St NW, Washington DC.
