Lawrence Brownlee Master Class

Friday February 6 - UM School of Music

So I knew I was in town for the weekend, so I decided to take the day off of work.  I went to this master class.  A master class is a working lesson that is observed by an audience.  There were 4 UM vocal students who sang in front of us all and then Lawrence would tell them how to improve their piece.  It was all very interesting.

The line-up was tenor, soprano, counter-tenor, and soprano.

I will speak only to the counter-tenor Vince Yi since my mother always told me that if you can't say something nice don't say anything....  Vince's voice was one of the few that truly gives me chills.  He was accompanied by his boyfriend Matthew Thompson (what a cute couple they make too.) 

 

His voice was stunning.  Floating to what seemed startospheric heights without a care in the world.  Best of luck to Vince and make sure to seem him in a few weeks for his Concerto concert when he sings Handel's "Svegliatevi nei core" from Giulio Cesare.  I'm guessing here that that would be  an aria from a opera based on Julius Caesar.

As to the rest of the master class and Mr. Brownlee.  There was no reason for him to continually be apologetic about correcting the students singing.  After all that is why we were here.  

And one last note, there was an accompanist, and one of the two women singers that was a good foot taller then Mr. Brownlee.  He looked at them with a shocking, "You grow them big here don't you" chuckle on his face.  Next time it might be better to schedule him with some of Michigan's more average sized women.