Lisa Neher

Thank you! Let me know how it goes!

Do yourself a favor and subscribe to this amazing podcast. The community Eric builds around music making is supportive, inspiring, and genuine. The pod is worthy of being part of your regular listening!

The importance of joy and re-connecting with the love that brought you to music in the first place

Topics we covered:

Portfolio careers & following multiple passions - it's possible, even though academia really makes you think it isn't!

How to feed your own creativity, while maintaining a music studio that supports you with steady income

Follow Your Curiosity: Designing a Sustainable Music Career with Dr. Lisa Neher

Thanks to Eric Branner for having me on The FourForty Podcast to talk about Designing a Sustainable Music Career!

open.spotify.com/episode/0NDh...

All Classical Radio | All Classical 89.9 KQAC FM Portland, Oregon, 88.1 KQOC FM Gleneden Beach, 90.1 KQHR FM Hood River, 88.1 KQDL FM The Dalles Classical Radio for Northwest Oregon, Southwest Washing... Non-commercial, classical music radio and fine arts information in Portland, Oregon. Free world-wide stream. 89.9 KQAC FM Portland, Oregon, 88.1 KQOC FM Gleneden Beach, 90.1 KQHR FM Hood River, 88.1 K...

The piece we will perform is "Wherever You Are," setting a poem by @dekinesoul . It's a piece about holding two truths at the same time. Likewise, Sabina's beautiful portal paintings contrast two landscapes.

All Classical Radio | All Classical 89.9 KQAC FM Portland, Oregon, 88.1 KQOC FM Gleneden Beach, 90.1 KQHR FM Hood River, 88.1 KQDL FM The Dalles Classical Radio for Northwest Oregon, Southwest Washing... Non-commercial, classical music radio and fine arts information in Portland, Oregon. Free world-wide stream. 89.9 KQAC FM Portland, Oregon, 88.1 KQOC FM Gleneden Beach, 90.1 KQHR FM Hood River, 88.1 K...

I'm honored that my music will be shared with art by Sabina Haque as part of this collaboration.

Tune into Thursdays @ 3 on 89.9 FM locally or online at allclassical.org! You can also listen to an archive of the broadcast for 2 weeks.

This Thursday, catch Dianne Davies and I performing with Cascadia Composers on @allclassicalradio.bsky.social 's Thursdays @ 3!

We will be previewing music for our March 8th Concert Mosaic program, which is a collaboration between local composers, visual artists, and performers.

YouTube video by Lisa Neher Siren Snarl by Jodi Goble and Basil Considine

Imagine - you finally find a man worth spending time with...and your sisters EAT him. That's a day in the life of a Siren!

Jodi Goble & Basil Considine's aria "Siren Snarl" from Sirens vs. Amazons is darkly hilarious and so much fun to sing!

youtu.be/eWPodPK5WPo

Gratitude as always to Stephanie Thompson at the piano and Nicholas Emerson for recording!

YouTube video by Lisa Neher Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris from Vivaldi's Gloria

Vivaldi's Gloria is a perennial favorite! The repeated pleas to have mercy on us remind me how we all make mistakes and that part of our work as humans is to learn to admit those mistakes, ask for forgiveness, and make reparations.

youtu.be/EmG3XV8zOIc

Amazing!!

YouTube video by Lisa Neher Woe unto them who forsake him from Elijah by Felix Mendelssohn

One of my favorite oratorio arias: "Woe unto them who forsake him" from Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah.
It's a warning against abandoning God and a song of frustration and grief at the frailty of humankind.

youtu.be/jXGdcMNptOA

#mezzo

I have 2 days left in the return period, so maybe...

Oh great. My new laptop with an advertised 7 hours of battery life has a battery life of...
...wait for it...
1 hour.

❤️ Stranger Things!!

Oh interesting! My experience is definitely skewed to my demographic cohort, 30-40 year old singers (ish).
I love the show, but there are not enough roles for sopranos & mezzos.

Totally.

🤣

Soprano/Mezzo run opera companies are contributing to the exclusion of their voice types when they keep doing shows like Amahl exactly as written.

Be a part of the solution. Create opportunities, not just for you to sing a leading role, but for other brilliant and often overlooked singers.

But what does that do to our fellow soprano & mezzos?
Nothing. It ignores their talents and excludes them from casting -- relegating them to the tiny shepherd/shepherdess chorus and denying them a chance to shine.

Most small companies are run by sopranos & mezzos --because we have to be innovative and entrepreneurial in this field to work. And understandably, they LOVE the role of the Mother in Amahl--it's a deliciously juicy theatrical role. So they produce the show and get to sing the Mother.

Approx. 75% of named characters in standard opera rep are for tenors & baritones.
Approx. 75% of opera singers in the US are sopranos & mezzos.
So doing a show like Amahl over and over again without octave flipping some of the T/B roles contributes to voice type & gender inequality in our industry.

Local opera companies love to produce Amahl and the Night Visitors around this time of year. It's a great opera, but it has only 1 role for a woman, (2 if you have a soprano or mezzo play Amahl). It is LONG past time that companies octave flip some of the Kings for voice part & gender equity.

yes!!

Composers who write opera:

When is the last time you performed from memory?

Instrumentalists who are not currently in college/graduate school:

1. How often do you perform from memory?

2. How often do you perform music of the last 50 years from memory?

Yay! Thank you!

Classical chamber music circles regularly exclude singers, as if we don't belong in those circles or rep with voices isn't "real" chamber music.
It's time for that to end.

It's so frustrating, because I think many of us would like to attend to get all the info and be able to support our students to our very best abilities- but it isn't right to expect us to do so without compensation.