CSC 2007 in San Francisco

I attended the 2007 Classical Singer Convention in San Francisco this past weekend. This was the first time I visited the beautiful San Francisco. The convention was held at Sir Francis Drake Hotel, conveniently located near the Union Square, during May 24th-May 26th.

I flew United Airlines, took the BART, arrived at Sir Francis Drake on Wednesday, May 23rd. My flight from San Diego to San Francisco was on-time, pleasant and short, lasting only 1 hour and 20 minutes. I didn't have to spend much time waiting at the airport this time either. Confirming the flight online and printing out the boarding pass saved time at the airport and let me avoid the crazy, long check-in line. I found that it matters which security gate you go in. With UA boarding pass, I could only get in through the assigned UA security check point. I chose a window seat and during the descent, I saw beautiful San Francisco terrains. Water channels and land mass seemed intertwined. Green, brown and red patches of the earth seemed so lushly in play with the diaphanous blue and white of the river and ocean that surrounds them.

I love the transportation systems in San Francisco. I was so excited to discover so many ways to get myself from the airport to the FD hotel downtown. Adventurously, I decided to take the BART, which only costed $5.15, as opposed to the $16 plus tip I would have had to pay if I took the shuttle. The internal airport railway made an easy transit from the arriving terminal to the BART terminal. The BART comes by every 15 minutes and I was conveniently downtown at Union Square in about half an hour. The only negative point for the BART was the loud noise when the subway travelled through the subway tunnels.

Sir Francis Drake was only a few blocks away from the Union Squre/Powell BART station. If I had not gotten a little bit lost walking in circle, I would have arrived at the hotel in five minutes. FD was an ancient but recently renovated hotel. Although the room was tiny, the bed was comfortable. Westin St. Francis was just across the street and would have been a much better and more comfortable stay.

Comparing the CSC 2007 to the 2005 one in New York City, the classes this year were not as exciting as the previous year. The space wasn't as nice and there was not as many classes as in the prior year. However, there was one master teacher that resonated so much with me because of her solidly technical teaching methodology. Victoria Hart is her name and her grounded understanding of human anatomy makes her a wonderful instructor.

Victoria spoke of the two elements of the singing posture: structure and release. Structure includes the posture and the jaw, while release includes the freedom of the tounge and the breath. I had a chance to sing for her. As obvious as the sun in the blue sky, Victoria pointed out my problems and attempted to guide me in correcting them.

Another interesting experience was my singing at the spotlight recital, which was held in the mist of amazingly loud noise and clamor of the exposition. As nervous as I was frustrated, I sang "Ombra Mai Fu" and the bravura aria from Gluck's ORPHEE. I was convinced that even the gifted accompanist was not able to hear me and the Gluck aria flew so swiftly passed that I couldn't attempt to keep up and let alone breathe! To my astonishment, I gratefully received various complements throughout my stay on this feeble performance of mine.

The highest note of the convention was the AUDComp Finalists' Concert. The winner sang Puccini's "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" and Gounod's "Poison aria" from Romeo et Juliette. Most of the singers sang extremely well. However, I didn't hear enough overtone. It might have been the banquet hall's acoustics. I thought of how beautiful Leontyne Price sang, with all the space and resonance, which I did not hear much in this concert.

CSC 2007 was overall a good time, especially because my voice teacher was also there. I learned some interesting bits, met a few wonderful people and enjoyed the time near SF's Union Square.