Gratitude - Day 22

1 - Gilbert Sloan. My high school choral director. I learned so much about the theory of music from him. He knew how to teach music. He knew how to train voices. We traveled to Denver to compete in a competition that included both high school and college choral groups. We won. We traveled to Hawaii to compete in another (we placed 2nd).

He had such a reputation for having well-trained and accomplished choirs and chorales that different civic, private and corporate groups from all over Southern California would call him to book us as their entertainment for their different parties, get-togethers and programs. Each year the month of December was sheer madness for us. We would do Christmas concerts all over SoCal, sometimes three or four in one week, traveling from San Diego to Downey to Riverside to Del Mar. I loved it.

He himself had studied at the New York Conservatory of Music. He sang with the San Diego Civic Opera. He could have done a lot of other things that likely would have paid a lot more, but he chose to teach vocal music to high school students. He taught us what was possible with music. One of his students, who graduated two years before I got to high school, went on to sing with the Metropolitan Opera. She came back my senior year and visited with Mr. Sloan. She spoke to our class and told us he was the reason she had gone the direction she did and had achieved what she had.

He is the one, more than any other, who laid the foundation for all I know about music and my ability to appreciate it. Music, especially vocal music, is one of the great loves of my life. I have Gilbert Sloan to thank for that.

2 - Dorothy Cozzens. My vocal teacher. Mr. Sloan recommended to me one day after class that I look into getting a personal vocal coach. He thought I had a voice that had promise and since he only worked in a classroom setting, there was only so much he could do for individual voice development. When I reported back to Mr. Sloan who I was seeing, he smiled -- big. He knew Mrs. Cozzens from the San Diego Civic Opera.

She was a wacky -- and I do mean loony -- woman. Every week she would work with my voice one on one. Her music room was filled with three pianos, an organ and I don't know how many cats. I sang while biting down on a pencil to learn proper mouth and throat placement for high notes. I sang raising my eyebrows to avoid going flat. I sang leaning forward with her fist placed in my gut to concentrate more on diaphragm breathing. I sang with one of her hands around my neck and the other pressed under my chin to control my naturally too-large vibrato. We sang Broadway musical numbers, arias, folk songs, hymns, and rock and pop songs. She taught me the craziest warm up exercises I had ever heard of. More than that, she taught me to not be afraid to perform. Oh, she was fun... and a real confidence builder. As far as she was concerned, there wasn't anything I couldn't do.

3 - beautiful music. It soothes. It inspires. It motivates. It moves. To listen to beautiful music is one of the greatest enjoyments of my life. I am so thankful for music.