Kuopio trip done. Spring was just as early or late as here. The only difference was the ice still left on the lakes.
I worked with two groups: a chamber choir and a large group of church choir singers. The previous had a good spread of people of different ages, the latter consisted mostly of pensioners. I quite enjoyed both sessions. My main themes were pretty simple: energy, rounded, speech-like vowels, less activity in the head area and more space for the voice. And the old straw trick worked wonders.
At times I was amazed by how good it sounded. I believe especially aging singers need lots of advice and encouragement. It was really satisfying to see that my intuition that most people could sing better than they do, was correct. I’d love at some point to work with a choir of sexa- and septagenarians and see how where the real limits of a group like that are. But maybe that can wait.
Kari Turunen 