Rose Guccione

Rose Guccione, Voice Faculty

Preferred student age: Any
Preferred student level: Any

What do you want to impart to your students through your teaching?
Contrary to today’s fast-food and instant messaging environment, it is important to realize that learning how to sing and developing one’s voice is a slower process.  An Olympic athlete or a ballet dancer doesn’t throw a javelin or execute a perfect pirouette at birth.  Musicianship, vocal technique and communication in performance are built over time.  Enjoy the process and celebrate your progress.

Are there specific methods or techniques that you use in your teaching that may be important to share with prospective students?
First and foremost, lessons are tailored to your abilities today.  There are several components a singer has to coordinate to sing well: Breath, Placement, Diction, and Musicianship, to name a few.  Generally, I teach low breathe and high placement and release of jaw and other unnecessary tensions to help you get out of your own way to vocal health and beauty.  Though I am a professional opera singer, I find similarities in the way opera singers, Gospel singers and mariachis produce sound.  Good technique benefits everyone!

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
The times a student experiences an “Ah ha!” moment… when everything we’ve worked on clicks.

Briefly describe your musical pursuits outside Sherwood.
I sing a lot of opera – in Chicago and elsewhere!  I have served as music director for several institutions – religious and secular.  After completing the music program at Second City, I composed music for several revues with Salsation Theatre Company, NFP “comedy with a Latin flavor.”  I have sung several services at Temple Sholom of Chicago.  I created OperaGram.com to help people celebrate life events and make opera more approachable.

What is your earliest musical experience or memory?
When I was around four, I remember listening to and watching my father as he vocalized before going to a rehearsal.  The sound just fascinated me!

Please describe one of your favorite teachers or mentors.
Margaret Harshaw was passionate about singing.  It was also clear she didn't just deal with my voice and the physicality of singing...  she was equally interested in my head and my heart ("It's all mental" she would often say).  She was a fiercely passionate yet practical woman with a strong sense of right and wrong.  She did not suffer fools and had no time for playing games - political or otherwise.  She possessed a rare sense of honor.  Margaret Harshaw was a woman who taught me how to sing, how to live, how to love and how to die.  She was teacher, friend, and grandmother-figure...  I love and miss her dearly.

Who is your favorite composer, or what is your favorite musical period?
Giuseppe Verdi is my favorite composer.  This is fortunate for me, because I’ve performed several verdian operas.  Beyond Verdi, I would have to say Puccini, Wagner, Strauss, Schubert, Schumann, Mozart… opera in general.  I enjoy music from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods.  I also enjoy earlier Broadway melodies (Cole Porter, George Gershwin, etc.).  I enjoy listening (and dancing) to Middle-Eastern and Latin Genres!