Denver Art Song Project- 2015 in Review

The Denver Art Song Project hit a number of milestones this year.  You likely have heard about these successes if you follow us at our website, fan page or Eapen's fan page.

2015 began with Eapen and Mallory collaborating on a "micro-album" of Donaudy songs which were released on our Bandcamp Site.  Soon after, we created a recording of Beethoven's "An die ferne geliebte" and released the record digitally via CD Baby, iTunes and via streaming on Spotify.  Please consider buying or streaming the album as it supports our future work as the Denver Art Song Project and provides residuals to the artists.

Our Album release party was at the Arts at Cabrini Series where we performed the album and coupled some of the sets with supertitles, visual art and informative narration.  At the end we shared a Q&A session with our audience (with a glass of wine in hand).

Just before Eapen departed for gigs in New York, the Denver Art Song Project returned to the recital/recording hall and began work on their 2016 releases which will be announced soon.

I've already started a series of posts about what the Denver Art Song Project will be up to over the next year.  I'll be posting here at my blog and also via Facebook, Twitter and more!  There are so many ways to stay in touch.

As 2015 comes to a close, thank you to all for supporting our nascent group and for making  us welcome in the Colorado Music community.

Thanks to Mallory Bernstein, collaborative pianist extraordinaire, and Michael Bevers, our intrepid sound engineer who is about to become one of our featured artists in 2016.  Without your help and good cheer we could not have achieved so much with so little.

And for you, my fans, friends and supporters, thank you for making 2015 an unforgettable year of music.

My best wishes,
Eapen Leubner
Founder, Denver Art Song Project

Heading Back to NYC

The occasional updates should be coming more quickly now.  Singing work is picking up and I am returning to New York City to sing The Astronaut's Tale by Charles Fussell at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

I am rejoining my friends at Encompass New Opera Theatre.  And in preparation, I will be updating my Tumblr with my continued character analysis.  There will be a great number of links about Astronauts, Mars, Science, The Universe, in addition to the discussion of the character of Ab.  I might "spoil" the opera a bit, so only head over there if you want to see the process behind creating a role.

More soon!
Sincerely,
Eapen

Living in Song

The past few weeks have been full of some fascinating work on Denver Art Song Project's next recording.   In addition to rehearsals, we brought in Denver coach, Andrew Adams, who listened and gave Mallory and I some great feedback on ways to approach our next recording.

Simultaneously, I had a lovely conversation by email with Charles Ralph, over at Opera Pronto.  When I relocated out here, I decided to drop him a line to connect up to the opera and singing world.  Our conversation lead to my being featured as the artist of the week and Opera Pronto's newsletter was the official announcement of the next Denver Art Song Project recording, Beethoven's "An die ferne Geliebte."

In the next couple of weeks I'll be posting more about the work itself.  Mallory and I will be back in the studio at the end of August and we will be announcing our release schedule.

As always you can check at our digital store to listen to our first album, "Donaudy Songs" and please consider buying our digital album.  Your purchase of $4 (or more, if you wish) will support the cost of our recordings and our future plans for Denver Art Song Project.

Denver Art Song Project is Live. Welcome and FAQ.

Denver Art Song Project is a musical cooperative founded by Eapen Leubner with the vision to create an opportunity for Denver-based musicians to create and perform art songs.  Upcoming projects for the 2015-16 season include recordings, concerts and a first commission combined with an online conversation via Facebook Fan page and this blog.

Thank you to all who are supporting the Denver Art Song Project! You can still purchase the first set of songs.  If you like the music or know someone who would, please share the link, hit like and send kind messages of support regarding our project.

All purchases help fund and promote the Denver Art Song Projects's next album and future releases! 

As a thank you for buying the existing album (don't worry, you can buy it now and still get this great deal), there will be a discount for all supporters when the next album is launched.

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs):

Why are you charging $4 for your album?

Unfortunately, making art costs money.   DASP keeps its overhead as low as possible (Bandcamp site and Paypal are basically it).  After those expenses, all recording revenue goes to offset rehearsal costs that were already paid to performers and, after that, artists get residuals!  Spreading the word and supporting the album makes a real difference in the life of these musicians.

But why four bucks?
Because it is about the price of a frozen coffee beverage.  We want the barrier to be low! Eapen is a bit of an economics nerd and this is the optimized price point.  If you wish, you can always pay more than the minimum when you are checking out.  If you would like to support the project, please email me (eapen (at) eapenleubner (dot) com) to find out more about how you can help support the 2015-2016 season.

Why not just do a Kickstarter?

Kickstarters are great if you have a body of work.  While DASP is not ruling that out for the future, we thought the best way for you to get to know us is to share a completed project and start a community of learners and art song lovers online.  It is more important to us to create an ongoing conversation based on the production of art rather than do a Kickstarter based on just an idea.

Is DASP a non-profit?

Not at this point.  Due to the overwhelming feedback and support, we are actively exploring the option of becoming an incorporated non-profit.  We believe that there is a market in the Denver and Colorado area for an organization dedicated to Art Song performance, recording and education.  We recognize that there may be increased costs in going "non-profit" and are making sure that it is the right choice since one of the goals is to provide the most financial support to artists as possible.

Thanks again for all your support and we look forward to sharing more music with you in the near future!
Sincerely,
Eapen

Let's start at the very beginning! #yearofplay

For those of you who are not in the field of music or voice, let me fill you in on the "inside baseball" of Art Songs.

When a freshman voice student arrives at a music school, fresh-faced and 18 years old, in most cases, they are not ready to tackle the challenges of opera roles and arias.  Typically, they don't have the stamina or vocal strength and they arrive at school ready to sing.

Most voice teachers supply voice majors with a steady stream of art songs to help build their vocal technique and stamina and prepare them for the rigors of opera to come.  Art songs teach a young singer the process of learning music.  A good voice teacher can use art songs to create a checklist for singers to use so that they can approach any singing project:

1. Translate the words and study the poetry
2. Learn the history of the song, including about the poet and the reason the pome was written
3. Think about what the poem means to you as an artist
4. Learn the notes and rhythms (wait... that's step 4?)
5. Collaborate with a pianist again and again until you can perform the song well

I would not ask you, the casual listener, to go through these steps.  Hopefully by seeing this approach, you can get a sense of why art song is so important to young singers artistic growth.

I have had a great deal of fun returning to my art song roots over the past couple of months to create my new Denver Art Song Project collaboration.  Please do check it out and remember, there will be more to come on June 15, 2015.

Happy Listening,

Eapen

What is an Art Song? (Continued) #yearofplay

Yesterday, I wrote a bit about why we are called the "Denver Art Song Project" and why I chose Art Songs (yes, still pretentious) as my genre of choice to work with during my #yearofplay.

Today, let's dive into a way to experience an art song.  Sure, I could give you a lot of "homework" to prepare to experience this little song.  Instead of throwing work at you, let's do a little experiment:

Read the instructions first... then do the steps... then, if you want, comment below and let me know what you thought, experienced, felt or how you were inspired.

1.) Hit play on my song "O del mio amato ben".

2.) Now listen as you look at this picture:

Learn more about this picture here

3.) Was there anything about the picture that you noticed as you listened to the song?  In your opinion, how did the picture and the music match?  Feel free to comment below!

Score some bonus points... Cruise through the amazing MET online collection.  Is there a picture that captures the spirit of the song to you more than this one?  If so, why?  Post a link to the pic in the comments below!

Hope you enjoy this little game!
Eapen

Why art songs? #Yearofplay

With the launch of the Denver Art Song Project, a number of people have sent messages to find out "What is an art song?" and "Why aren't you recording opera arias?  You are an opera singer!"

Great questions and thanks to all of you who asked and thanks to all who have already pre-purchased the album.

Let's start with the second question first.

"Why aren't you recording opera arias?  You are an opera singer!"

I love opera.  I've been singing opera for years now and it has been the largest part of my career.  I chose art songs for my #yearofplay because making a high-quality opera aria album would be a larger project than I could have managed.  Operas are presented with an orchestra, I would have wanted to do the same for my album as well.  It would mean pulling together a lot of talent and the logistics of recording might have overwhelmed me.  I've always said, that I should keep my goals modest at first and focus on achieving a final product, not get stuck half-way because my ambitions outstrip my organizational skills.

"What is an art song?"

Art songs are poems set to music.  Generally, they are meant for voice and piano and are meant to be shared in a small setting with friends.  There are many exceptions to this rule, but let's keep it to this simple definition for now.

Since an art song is a poem set to music, this makes life easier for you as an audience member.  Here are some pros and cons:

Pros:
- You don't have to learn the whole long story of an opera.  These are little bite-sized musical experiences!
- You don't have to learn the translation of an entire opera.  (bite-sized!)
- You don't have to keep track of characters in an opera.
- Art songs are shorter than opera (3 minutes vs. 3 hours).
- As with most poetry, you get to do your own interpretation.  Take a look at this poem:

One's-Self I Sing

  One's-self I sing, a simple separate person,
  Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

  Of physiology from top to toe I sing,
  Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say
      the Form complete is worthier far,
  The Female equally with the Male I sing.

  Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,
  Cheerful, for freest action form'd under the laws divine,
  The Modern Man I sing.

(Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass. Text from Project Gutenberg)

Your interpretation could likely differ quite differently from mine based on your own personal experiences.  This could conflict with your values or support them.  With an opera, you have more to learn about the story and that could slow or cause you to misunderstand the song.

Cons:
- Art Songs.  What a pretentious name.
- They are short and we always want more.  (We do, don't we?)
- Sometimes we have to learn a bit about why the poem was written or sometimes about the poet themselves. (I'll look to provide that context in my liner notes and blog posts!)

Over the next few days, I will be posting some more thoughts about Art Songs and why we chose this genre for our recordings.

Newly announced: Denver Art Song Project #yearofplay

By now you have probably seen the stories posted on this site.  These stories all link to the song text of art songs by Stefano Donaudy.

So what do we know so far for my #yearofplay?  I've been exploring art songs in a new way outside of learning the notes and rhythms and collaborating with a pianist.  I am focusing on three songs by Stefano Donaudy.  I am focusing on playing with social media to announce and drive a personal artistic endeavor.  And you may have seen some weird pics pop up on Instagram

All of that leads up to this announcement:

Introducing the "Denver Art Song Project".

This musical cooperative is dedicated to exploring and sharing art song repertoire and giving voice to new, high-quality recordings from Denver area artists.

The first collaboration of the DASP is a micro-album of three Donaudy songs sung by Eapen and accompanied by Mallory Bernstein.  Michael Bevers is our engineer.

You can listen for free at the site and, if you'd like, pre-order all three songs for $4.  We will release the full set of songs on June 15, 2015.

You can follow Denver Art Song Project on Facebook and at the newly redesigned and mobile-friendly www.eapenleubner.com.

Year of Play Update #yearofplay

I have been soliciting feedback about my projects for "Year of Play" and one of my test subjects said, "How many points have you scored for yourself lately?"

Tweets- 3 (3 points)

Pictures- 3 (6 points)

Blog Posts- 4 (8 points)

Podcast- 0 (0 points)

So, all in, that is 17 points in advance of the big announcement.

As you may recall, the idea was to do more in social media and make some art.  These postings had to do directly with my big musical project.  The rules were that the posts had to relate directly to the final product that is going to be released soon.

I think I achieved my goal of creating a semi-major musical project and challenging myself to change my approach to learning music.  My goal was to go way outside of my comfort zone and I definitely achieved that with "Song Fiction".

I had hoped to create some podcasts, but it took more time than expected and they may end up being released later.

I will be making a big announcement about results of "Year of Play" on June 1, 2015, so stay tuned!

Song Fiction No. 3

It's quiet out here.  So very quiet.  When people say that it is silent in space, they can not understand how immensity of silence.  It is the silence of eternity and the tiny noises I make disperse into that endless silence to be forgotten by all.  Looking down on the earth, I can see the clouds hanging over earth and ocean and I can hear my breath going in and out.  It's so still that I can hear the sweat coming out of my pores.

4 hours ago
The door clanged shut behind me and I felt the usual slight adjustments to my vestibular system as I loose the frame of reference of the station behind me.  I love that instant.  It is the instant that you know that you truly outside the bounds of our world.  After 24 hours in an airlock waiting be slowly depressurized, it would be like taking a breath of air after surfacing.

The view always takes my breath away and I pulled myself out of the airlock and positioned myself to slowly shut the hatch door.

Now
I can hear a lot of radio chatter, my emergency thrusters on my suit are drained though.  I'm looking down at the Earth and wondering, what now?  I take a small sip of water and cough slightly.  The voices in the radio go silent.

"We can try to maneuver towards you..."  "There is an option of programming a..."
The voices sound very far away, even with the headset in my ear.

Sometimes you can't explain a series of small accidents and mistakes and you can't recover.  You can only live with the experience and reset your expectations.  In my case, resetting my expectations was turning to face Earth.

She is down there somewhere.  It is probably 2 p.m. and she is picking up our children from school. She doesn't know that our goodbye is happening right now without her.  She is thinking about feeding the kids and maybe letting them play outside since it is the first warm day of spring.  She told me that it would be nice today.  I don't have any doubts about the moments I spent with her anymore.  I don't have any regrets either. She gave me everything I could want.

I cannot do the math to figure if the air will go before the heat arrives.  At some point the suit is going to make me feel so trapped that I will loosen the clasps holding a glove in place.  And then I will be silent.

I stop those thoughts now and I think about the beauty below me and her smile.

***********************

Find out more about #yearofplay by reading the text of this song.  This little piece of fiction is one of the stories that runs through my head as I'm working on the first part of my upcoming work with the "Denver Art Song Project".

Song Fiction No. 2

Paris, 1883

The two friends looked up the grand staircase and watched as Vergine descended.  As she walked down the stairs, the room was hushed.  The hostess certainly new how to make an entrance.  Vergine's eyes swept to the right and then the left, searching for her husband.

Meanwhile the two men, captivated, observed her in two very different ways.  Pierre's eyes captured the mathematics of her profile.  He saw the angle of her face as it was positioned away from shoulder.  He thought the proportions of her features absolutely perfect in every way.  If the crowd of tuxedos and ball-gowns around him could read his mind, they might think his love for her a sterile, scientific thing.  His love for her was measured and quantified in every way.

For John, time stopped.  He saw the light shining on her pale skin and the way her hand clutched her dress.  The image seared into his mind and he took a small step back.  There was only raw frenzy of the folds of her black dress as she raised it slightly to descend the staircase.  For him, he saw no numbers or measurements, he only felt the vertiginous feeling of her descent and the almost haughty look over the crowd.  As Vergine reached out her hand, he wanted to reach out to take it.

Instead, he raised his hand and grabbed a glass of champagne off of a silver tray that was passing by.  He watched Pierre's white gloved hand take his wife away to circulate amongst the guests.

Paris, 1916

The old man hobbled into the John's studio.  It had been years since the frenzy of the 1884 Exhibition.  Pierre had stood by his wife stoically, knowing that nothing untoward had happened.  He had been amused by the portrait had taken the supposed disgrace in stride.

Vergine had been broken hearted when her friends had shunned her for her supposed indiscretions.  She removed herself from the receptions and galas for what seemed like years.  She swore that she would never again pose for another one of those "god-damned" painters.  She changed her mind.  The flattery of the artists was too much to resist and Vergine had the curious American ability to forgive and forget.  It was that virtue that had attracted Pierre in the first place.  Holding a grudge seemed so boring and, heaven knows, he had needed her forgiveness on several occasions.

Now old, Pierre looked at the door to the studio and rapped his cane against the door.  There had never truly been any bad blood between the two men and when they had embraced outside of the studio, the felt the connection of two soldiers who had weathered a particularly bad battle together.

As Pierre's near-sighted eyes focused in on the painting, he became acutely aware of the sound of his cane on the wood floor.  He felt a pain in his chest as he saw the painting.  As he slowed down his pace to take it in, he inhaled sharply.

The strap was gone.  The table was missing.  It was not his Vergine as he had remembered her.  The clarity of the portrait was gone and the rougher hews of line and texture of the study added an almost imperceptible undercurrent of lust that had been absent in the portrait that he had seen in 1884.  Pierre still knew every angle and curve of his wife and he held his breath for a moment.  His free hand searched for a chair and he sat down.

"Pierre, old friend," said John, "We must talk."



"Study of Mme Gautreau by John Singer Sargent c1884" by John Singer Sargent - [1]. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

***********************

Find out more about #yearofplay by reading the text of this song.  This little piece of fiction is one of the stories that runs through my head as I'm working on the first part of my upcoming work with the "Denver Art Song Project".

The Random Top 10 for 2014

So since I found the 2013 post, I thought I would do the 2014 post now as well.  Talk about cleaning up my to-do list!

As always, these items are in no particular order and really don't have a whole lot in common.  They are just things that happened to my family and I in 2014.

10.  The Mustache Moves In

My opera career sometimes takes me well outside my comfort zone.  Take for example my experience with Encompass Opera's "A Wake or a Wedding."  My director and I had a meeting early on in the production of this new work where we talked about our goals for my character, Raimondo Vecchiofaraone.  In collaboration with our outstanding costume designer, we looked at the text of the show, my characters motivations and tried on potential costumes.  The character was a romantic lead in terms of the music but as a character he was definitely "buffo".  Raimondo was a wanna-be suave lover who was mostly infatuated with being the greatest operatic tenor in the world.

We decided that he should have the look of a faux-exotic Clark Gable.  In other words, I grew a pencil-thin mustache!  Additionally, Raimondo dresses up as Cupid during the opera within an opera. At that point, we went with some truly bold costume choices that directly contradicted the suave, mustached man.

In the end, I was challenged to play the fool while singing as beautifully as I possibly could.  ] The collaboration of character work was the most intricate and detailed of my career so far and has inspired me to work even harder on creating memorable characters, no matter what the genre.

9.  Going Home to Work

The year started out with a trip to my home town, Rochester, NY.  I had the opportunity to sing with the relatively young company, Rochester Lyric Opera.  I worked with a stellar cast on a one-act opera by Haydn, "Lo Speziale" (the Apothacary).  It was a comedy where I played the assistant pharmacist assistant in love with the Apothacary's ward.  The music was truly delightful and our cast put together a performance that I could share with many of my friends and family from home.

8.  Play Pool
My family and I discovered a recreation center near our house that has the most wonderful swimming pool for kids.  There are nets to climb, water slides and spraying pipes.  It has become one of the highlights of my day to take The Spud, LHB and Baby Maraca out to splash and play.

7.  Public Life
As I look back on 2014, I realize that some of my favorite experiences of the year involve "public" things.  Our public library system is incredible and my family and I can sometimes end up swinging by twice a day to attend activities, pick up and drop off books or just play at the playground.

Likewise, public land such as Central Park, neighborhood parks and playgrounds and open spaces have become a large part of our lives.  I love to experience so many different locales and sights and the variety of our country and the collective commitment to public spaces have a larger influence on my happiness than I've ever realized before this year.

Within those public spaces, I realize that I love the discovery of public art.  You will definitely be hearing more about sculpture and other public arts events as 2015 rolls along.  Keep up at my instagram account where I'll be posting photos of things that make me happy.  www.instagram.com/eapenleubner

6.  The Creation of the Universe

Ever heard Haydn's Creation?  I knew only sections of it when I was contracted to sing it with The Concord Chorale.  What I did not know was that I would grow to love the message and story of this towering piece of music.  Kristofer Johnson elicited a stunning performance from the orchestra and chorus and, as a bonus, I was able to bring the whole family up to the gig.  We spent a fun-filled week in a house by a lake.

5. My Haydn Year

Seeing a trend?  With Lo Speziale and Haydn's Creation as part of my Haydn year, I rounded it out with some good friends in Harrisburgh, PA to sing in Haydn's Theresienmesse. I rejoined some good friends from previous productions and spent a lovely weekend making music with this fine chorus.

Considering I have not sung any Haydn in my career, I was amused to have the chance to discover music that I had only studied briefly in undergrad.  There is so much wit and humanity in all three of these works.

4.  Playing the Circuit

I was surprised to find myself singing at the Metropolitan Room, one of the last and legendary clubs of New York with my friends at Light Opera of New York (aka LOONY).  Our performance of French Operetta was well-received and I had a great time singing new repertoire that fit like a glove. (More on this for 2015!)

3.  Schnitzel at 2 a.m.

The Viennese Opera Ball.  Where do I begin?  I made music with a hugely talented cast.  I chased a horse-drawn carriage through the Waldorf-Astoria. And the opera singers all joined in at the Tanz that followed.  There were three rooms of buffets including Schnitzel and Sausage and cabbage at 2 a.m.  You can see clips of the folk dancing on my facebook fan page.

2. Saying Goodbye

After 9 years of adventure, we learned that life had to move forward.  Our little one bedroom apartment in a brownstone was finally too small for our growing family and sprouting children.  There were countless adventures that we have had:
LHB became the most "liked" member of the family

When the world gets tough, a girl's gotta keep on pushin'.
Posted by Humans of New York on Thursday, May 9, 2013

We became one of the faces of a NYC Health Campaign

Kitty, The Spud and LHB became a face of Fulton Street (can you find them)?

Those are just the iconic photos.  There were so many experiences that could not be captured on film.  You can read about some highlights on the blog.

1. Starting an Adventure

And now, here we are in Colorado.  Say goodbye to the Murphy Bed and hello to a little slice of suburban heaven.  There is a killer rec center nearby (four of them actually).  There is a whole world of exploring ahead of us.  Sometimes our adventures happen in our little back lawn or while walking the Spud to school and sometimes it involves a trip over the mountains.   When I look back a year from now on 2015, I know that the experiences are will be totally unlike those we had in New York City and just as exciting.

Song Fiction No. 1- #yearofplay

Stephen's feet crunched against the light snow.  It seemed to him that he could hear his footsteps echo through the crisp air and come back to him as it echoed off the walls of the campus buildings.  It was cold enough that his classmates stifled themselves with scarves and mittens and there was little chatting as they all walked towards the music building.

The cold was a sharp contrast to the library which had felt unreasonably warm inside.  It always was hot in there and Stephen had passed a couple different study carols where students' heads were slumped lower.  The library felt even warmer when he walked up to the audio desk.  Even after six months, Stephen always felt a warmth when he first caught sight of her.  He was still a freshman and closer to the feelings and passions of high school and seeing her behind the desk, perched on a high stool, made his heart beat a bit faster.

She quietly helped the line of patrons with their recordings until Stephen made it to the front of the queue.

"Oh hey," she said and looked over her shoulder.  Her boss was sitting behind the glass window of his office and he had his back to them.  "I can only talk for a second.  It's been busy and I've got to go into the back... wait a minute."

She walked back to her boss' open door and knocked, "Jim, I need five? Can you cover for me? Thanks."

She strode around the desk with a little more purpose than expected and grabbed Stephen's hand, leading him to the stairwell.

"It's over, Stephen.  I'm sorry, but I'm just not there yet."

At that moment, Stephen had stopped listening.  He'd heard it all before and thought it would be different this time.  His mind immediately went to his upcoming rehearsal and the music he would be working on.

As the cold bit at his face, he remembered a brief embrace of goodbye and saying something stupid like, "It always starts with a kiss and ends with a hug."

He looked up at the entrance to the music school, took a deep breath and walked in.

***********************

Find out more about #yearofplay by reading the text of this song.  This little piece of fiction is one of the stories that runs through my head as I'm working on the first part of my upcoming work with the "Denver Art Song Project".

Song Fiction #yearofplay

My new project is underway for the Year of Play and for some reason, my mind keeps coming back to the idea of "Song Fiction".

What is Song Fiction?

My #YearofPlay starts off with some work in the Art Song genre.  Art Songs are poetry set to music.  In general, I'll be focusing on songs with piano.  These poems can tell a story or set a mood.  In this case, I want to play with the idea of creating a piece of "Song Fiction" that accompanies the song and sets a very specific time and place for the song.  I then imagine that the story becomes the context for the song.

I'm not a terribly good fiction writer, but since this idea keeps coming up in my head, I'm going to play with it as part of my #yearofplay.

The First Game. #YearofPlay

Here we go, gentle readers.  This is the first game of the Year of Play.

I've defined my first project and will announce it soon.  In the meantime, you will see a number of posts here, tweets and Instagrams that will lead up to the announcement.

The Winning Move: Announce my project and launch date.

How to score points:

Eapen will

• Tweet about some aspect of the Project: 1 point
• Post a picture that captures some aspect of the project: 2 points
• Write a blog post about his process: 3 points
• Make a podcast about the Year of Play: 5 points

Here is my question for myself.  If I announce on May 30, 2015, how many points can I score leading up to the date?

Let the game begin!

You can follow along in a number of different spots:

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/eaps

Instagram

https://instagram.com/eapenleubner/

The Tenor Eleven Miles Away Blog

http://tenorelevenmilesaway.blogspot.com/

Podcast details:

Coming Soon!

The Random Top Ten for 2013-- A found post

I never posted this back in 2013.  I'm posting it now. I guess this means I should do a random top 10 for 2014 as well.

Every year, I post a series of reflections on my top ten experiences.  They are in no particular order and they have no thematic similarities except that they happened to my family and I.

And here we go!

Number 10-
The Murphy Bed.  Living in Brooklyn and adding to the family means getting creative with your space.  In this case, we invested in the most awesome Murphy Bed.  For those that may not know, a Murphy bed is one that is installed into the wall and you pull it down every night to sleep.  Keep reading to find out why we made the investment!

Number 9-
The Second Pot.  Every morning, our coffee pot goes off.  This year we switched things up a bit and now, instead of one extra large pot of coffee, we have two very large pots of coffee.  Why?  Keep reading to find out!

Number 8-
Living in Brooklyn.  There are moments when Kitty and I collectively feel like living here is a singular experience.  Example #1- In 2012, I joined composer Andy Laster singing at The Stone.  At the concert, I sang a song called, "The Pressure Zone" with poetry by D. Nurkse.  This summer I went to a poetry reading in the heart of Brooklyn and who was reading at the show?  Mr. Nurkse!  I went a little fan boy.

Number 7-
My solo debut at Carnegie Hall.  A special shout out to my team-- agent, voice teacher and coaches.  After much hard work, I sang my solo debut in Schubert's Mass in G at Carnegie Hall with Mid-American Productions.  It was the realization of a dream, but only the starting point.  My whole part was about 3 minutes of singing.  It was lovely, but over far too soon.  I am inspired to keep at it until I get a five minute solo!

Number 6-
Continuing living in Brooklyn- The List Serv.  Kitty has become enmeshed in following listservs for various neighborhoods in Brooklyn.  On one occasion, a person advertised a carpet for sale that was exactly what we were looking for.  I went out to pick it up and, in the course of conversation, I discovered the man was a musical theater singer. Small world, huh?

Number 5-
We consumed two large bottles of Sri Racha over the year.  We are a quarter into our third bottle.  It is an addiction.

Number 4-
Continuing living in Brooklyn- reading the New York Times.  One Sunday morning we woke up and saw our carpet-selling musical theater friend and his wife in the paper!  Small world, huh?

Number 3-
Going to the theater.  It has changed a bit, though.  What was once "A Chorus Line" and "Avenue Q" has been replaced by "Stuart Little" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" with my two daughters wearing their ball gowns.

Number 2-
Continuing living in Brooklyn- singing with my good friends at Encompass New Opera Theater on their concert celebrating the life of Sheldon Harnick.  I sang with some of the biggest stars of the musical theater world.  But what does this have to do with living in Brooklyn? Remember the carpet and the musical theater singer and his wife?  Turns out his wife sang at the gala as well!  This is exactly the reason why we live here.

Number 1-
Welcoming Baby Maraca, our new son into the world The Spud and Little Heartbeat were thrilled to have a brother.  We were grateful for a happy healthy child.

Here are some other fun experiences:
January 1, 2013- I make my debut on Albanian National Television as the 2012 Tre Tenoret Concert gets broadcast to an entire nation.

Little Heartbeat is a Human of New York.

Dumplings Continue.  Panda Dumplings briefly eclipse Prosperity as our favorite, but then Panda closes down.

I may end up writing more to this.  It's been hard to compose my thoughts.  2014 musical preparations have already begun and the hour is late.

Happy New Year to you all!
Eapen

The Year of Play Starts Now.

I am not much for New Year's resolutions.  While I have tried them numerous times over the years, it was rare that I ever made one that actually "stuck."

What does he mean, "New Year's Resolution" in April?

Technically, this project began in January with a resolution.  I didn't announce anything because, like most resolutions, I was not sure if I was going to be able to make it stick.  After almost three months of playing around, I'm ready to start sharing my little adventure.

What is the Year of Play?

The Year of Play (YoP) began after a couple of years of very hard work as an opera singer.  I've continued to study with my musical team.  I've spent a good bit of time on stage and I've had some very successful musical experiences.

In January, I looked at my calendar, saw the gigs coming and realized that, while I work a lot, I have not had many musical endeavors that were truly for me and truly for fun.  I wanted to fill the spaces between shows with musical activities that I could share with my friends and family.  These small musical events would be outside of my world of the opera stage and concert hall.

Most importantly, I wanted to have fun with music where it was not necessarily my "job."  I decided to spend a year making something out of nothing, making music with friends and sharing it.  I'm calling this year my "Year of Play".

Why "Play"?

There are a lot of people who have touched my life as a musician and artist that, at the core of their teaching, center the art of making music on play.

Play is a huge part of what teaches us as children and recreation is an integral part of modern life.

Over the Year of Play, I'll be talking to some experts on the subject of Play.  I'll be learning music and infusing the process of learning with the joy and wonder of "play".  There are going to be a number of posts, tweets, instagrams and other surprises in store.

And all of this comes from when a "Serious Opera Singer" walks out on stage, looks at the audience, and says, "Let's have some fun."