Holy week is coming, and with it comes a level of personal commitment that may exceed the normal weekend liturgical life: schedules are rearranged, extra music is learned to support the sacred days, and our bodies- especially our voices- have extra pressure put upon ourselves. Not only that, this season has seen a lot of sickness circulating, especially colds and upper respiratory infections.
I think it’s time for a small sharing on my part. If you’ve spoken to me, or attended a meeting with me in the last several months, you may know that I’ve been sick, essentially, since October. My toddler started daycare this fall and he generously shares his love- and all of his germs- with us. Since the fall, I’ve caught Flu B, double pink eye, colds, and upper respiratory infections (including RSV) that took weeks to recover from. Additionally, I’ve developed laryngitis three times this season, losing my singing and speaking voice completely. As a matter of fact, I’m sick right now.
Turns out while my level of contagion is atypical, unless you have children, it’s not just us who have suffered from sickness this year. Record numbers of sickness has been reported across the United States, even for those without children. Maybe you’ve experienced it in your music ministry too: have you had more choir members absent than normal due to sickness? Have you had to find more coverage than normal for sick cantors, subs, and ensemble members? Or have you suffered from a cough that just won’t seem to go away, and it’s not COVID?
If so, you’re not alone. The Holy Spirit intervened, and this episode was born out of such inspiration. We thought it would be a perfect opportunity to revisit an episode from 2021 featuring Lynn Eustis on vocal health. Lynn is the Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of Voice at Boston University. While the original episode focused on caring for the voice after COVID-19, we think it’s a great reminder for the solemn days of Holy Week and Easter that lie ahead.
SHOW NOTES
Bio: Dr. Lynn Eustis
Lynn Eustis, soprano, is currently Director of Graduate Studies in Music and Associate Professor of Voice at Boston University, where she joined the faculty in fall 2012. From 1999-2012 she served on the voice faculty at the University of North Texas, where she was also Director of Graduate Studies in Music. She holds the Doctor of Music degree in opera from Florida State University, a Master of Music degree in opera from the Curtis Institute of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from Bucknell University, Phi Beta Kappa.
She appears regularly as a soloist with numerous professional organizations which have included Chorus Pro Musica (Boston), Tulsa Oratorio Chorus, the Dallas Bach Society, and the Choral Society of Durham, NC, in works such as Gloria (Poulenc), Dona nobis pacem (Vaughan Williams), Mozart’s C Minor Mass, Carmina burana (Orff) and Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Barber). She has been heard internationally with the Americke Jaro Festival (Czech Republic), the Compania Lirica Nacional (Costa Rica), and the Guangzhou Symphony (China). Dr. Eustis has sung over thirty operatic roles, most notably the title roles in Lucia di Lammermoor and The Daughter of the Regiment, Zerbinetta, Olympia, Pamina, Susanna, Rosina, and Gilda. Recordings include Carmina burana (Klavier, 2003), featured soloist on Innisfree (GIA Publications, 2007) and Portraits: New Music for Soprano, Baritone and Piano (Capstone, 2007). In March 2010 she made her Carnegie Hall debut in Mozart’s Vesperae de Dominica. With Westminster Williamson Voices she appeared as the title soloist in the U.S. premiere of James Whitbourn’s Annelies: The Anne Frank Oratorio, a work for which she continues to be in demand.
Dr. Eustis is the author of The Singer’s Ego: Finding Balance Between Music and Life, Finding Middle Ground (two volumes of songs for teaching young voices), and The Teacher’s Ego: When Singers Become Voice Teachers, all published by GIA Publications in Chicago. She is a regular guest teacher at the Royal College of Music in London. Her students have been heard with Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, the Salzburg Music Festival, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Dallas Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Central City Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Ohio Light Opera, Opera North, the Beth Morrison Project, Concert Royal (NYC), Amor Artis (NYC), Chautauqua Opera, Toledo Opera, Brooklyn Lyric Opera, New Jersey Opera Theater, the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar, Music Academy of the West, the Vancouver Early Music Festival, and the Boston Early Music Festival. She is a regular guest clinician at the Royal College of Music in London.
Dr. Eustis is a native of Long Island, New York.
To learn more about her latest book, “The Singer’s Epiphany,” visit the GIA website.
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