This latest seminar at DePaul was complete breakthrough. I don’t know exactly why, perhaps it was the compressed time frame or the opera rehearsal to follow or the pressures of the academic season, but each of these students brought such an earnest and heart-felt contribution to this discussion. I have to call it a breakthrough!
I was very glad to have Rob Krueger, the Associate Dean for Administration stop by the seminar. I had met Rob originally while I was a student at DePaul a few years ago. Then I was able to reconnect with him at the NETMCDO Conference in NYC last month. He and his team provide a very supportive environment for students. Their goal is similar to mine — to help students take that ever-challenging jump into a fulfilling, stable and lucrative professional life.
We followed a compressed version of the organizational seminar, and began introducing elements from the new electronic workbook. I learned a bit more about how to facilitate a computer-focused discussion.
For one thing, I believe my future seminar attendees should download and install the e-workbook before the seminar. This can save us a lot of time. I typically like to customize and tweak the workbook right up until the seminar, so I will have to get more disciplined about making changes, but I think this is the direction to pursue in the future.
It could be that singers will even complete a section or two of the workbook on their own before the seminar, then we can begin the discussion by focusing on the results, rather than the process. It could be that I develop a two-part e-workbook in the future — part one is due to be submitted before the seminar starts, it is a pre-requisite. Then we will take part-two as a group, which will help us analyze, process and synthesize. I’m liking it.
Thank you Jane Bunnell, thank you Rob, and thank you to the dedicated and sincere students at my alma mater, DePaul University. Go Blue Demons!
It was a nice time to reunite with some singer-friends from 
In the seminar, Angela encouraged us to define a vision of where we would like to be in about five years. We were challenged to think of both life / family / location as well as our professional careers. As some folks shared around the room, Angela encouraged us to dig deeper, to “unpack” the vision from being either too vague or too unrealistic.
I was very encouraged that she worked from this wider perspective (vision, goals) toward helping each of us define a specific and concrete to do list. I call these “Action Items” in my seminars, but the idea is the exact same — in order to make strides, you have to create a list of things that are tangible and specific enough, such that you can cross them off the list when they are complete.
I am delighted that Boston Conservatory was able to find the perfect fit for our seminar as part of our fall east coast swing! The fall can be a busy time of the year with auditions and operas to learn, but the students truly benefit from the receiving the right information at the right time.
The seminar was comprised of a wide range of singers from undergraduate freshman to master’s students with professional performing experience. This was clear from the moment that singers began sharing their scores from our first exercise: the 
It was the visualization exercise that seemed to resonate profoundly with undergraduates and master’s students alike. Stephen Covey’s foundational book 
Caramoor was the perfect last stop on my summer tour! New York City was gorgeous and it was quite a thrill to have such a stunning rehearsal space for the seminar. I found it quite impressive that Caramoor chooses to rehearse right in the heart of it all at the 
Some of the action items that came out of this session were particularly well thought-out. I have only included three examples, but most of the items shared were succinct, actionable and measurable… all of the things we look for in a good game plan. Some of them included:
Upon gaining a full scholarship to 
When creating an expense record in Velvet Singer, it presents common expense categories that typical freelancers would use, like headshots, classes, coachings, piano tuning, and more. It then helps to find which tax category that expense goes with, and even gives tax advice, too. At the end, grouped expense reports can be printed to help file taxes faster.
– Edward Klorman, director of Manhattan School of Music’s Center for Music Entrepreneurship