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Posts Tagged ‘sing’

Balancing Third Grade and a Grammy

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Photo: Dee Dwyer for NPR.
Grammy winners Aura Valentina Simmons, 8, and her father, Harold Simmons II, sing during a morning practice session in their home recording space before she goes to school in Charles County, Maryland. They go by the stage names Aura V and Fyütch.

It must take a special kind of parenting to help a child deal with being in the limelight. There are so many cases of celebrated children who more or less crashed and burned. Of course, there’s Shirley Temple, who went on to a fine career as a diplomat.

I am definitely rooting for the young star in today’s story.

Ava Berger reports at National Public Radio (NPR), “Aura Valentina Simmons, aka Aura V, may be the youngest-ever individually named Grammy winner, but in her third-grade classroom, she uses the same blocks to figure out fractions as everyone else.

” ‘I don’t really know about Grammys,’ Pragat Patel, Aura’s desk mate, said with a shrug this week.

” ‘That’s the energy I like — chill,’ Aura said, giggling. …

“Aura and her dad, Harold Simmons II, who uses the stage name Fyütch, won music’s biggest prize in February. Their album, Harmony, won the Grammy for best children’s music album. Before Aura’s win, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s daughter Blue Ivy Carter had been the youngest individual Grammy winner.

” ‘I would say it’s the biggest experience I’ve ever had in my whole entire life so far,’ 8-year-old Aura said.

“The 13 songs, which took over two years to write and record, follow themes of love, positivity and inclusion. In ‘I Am Love, I Am Light,’ Aura sings, ‘I love myself, I love me.’

” ‘I like to sing about that because it’s empowering,’ Aura said. ‘It gives hope to people.’ …

“Before heading to school on a recent Tuesday, Aura and her father, wearing matching pops of yellow, practiced in a basement studio at their home in Charles County, Maryland. Aura stays with Simmons during the week because he has a more flexible schedule than her mom, who is a teacher.

“Aura pulled out a violin while Simmons warmed up on the piano. … The pair fell into perfect sync and belted out their album’s title track, ‘Harmony.’ …

“On the red carpet in Los Angeles in February, Aura and Simmons also wore matching colors — this time, lavender. Aura said her fluffy skirt and matching sparkly handbag got lots of attention. …

“Simmons said he was ‘freaking out’ before the announcement, but Aura had a different concern.

” ‘ “Can you get me some popcorn?” ‘ Simmons recalled his daughter asking. ‘I am frozen and I say, “Girl, I’m so sorry — I cannot move right now.” ‘

“When they finally got to the stage to accept the Grammy, Simmons spoke about the power of children’s music.

” ‘Children’s music is more than a genre,’ Simmons said. ‘It is an intention of artists who have dedicated our crafts to educating, entertaining and empowering the next generation, which is our highest calling to care for our children globally.’

“Now, Simmons reflects on what has happened since that history-making moment: ‘Seeing the impact that it’s created — our father-daughter relationship, being a Black dad and daughter — has really put into perspective how important representation is in what we do.’

“Simmons never planned to get into children’s music. His journey started when he was 7, and he performed as a young orator in his hometown of Gary, Indiana.

“After college, as he pursued a full-time music career, Simmons taught music production and poetry to young students.

“Then, when Aura was around 6, she asked to use the microphone and play on the keyboard with her dad. …

“Their first song as a duo, ‘I Am Love, I Am Light’ in 2024, ‘went crazy,’ he said.

“Simmons had a new goal: making music that captured the life he wanted to model for his daughter — with friendship and love. …

“Now, he wants her to have her own solo career. But Aura is adamant. ‘I want to still perform with Daddy,’ she told her dad, leaning in to hug him. …

“She feels like she has two lives: one of autographs and fans and one of math games and buddies at school. … ‘I wanna learn too. I’m an ordinary girl, just like everybody else,’ Aura said.”

More at NPR, here.

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To Sing Wearing Wild Boar Tusks

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on August 19, 2024| 3 Comments »

Photo: South China Morning Post composite/Zhihu.
“Teeth Playing” is one of China’s most terrifying, and difficult, forms of folk art. Performers manipulate up to 10 wild boar tusks at a time with their mouths. 

At Halloween in the US, children often think it’s fun to be vampires and go trick-or-treating with scary wax fangs in their mouths. But the fake dentures soon come out and go in a pocket because they are so uncomfortable.

In China, there’s a performance art that involves singing with actual boar tusks in the performer’s mouth. Talk about uncomfortable! At the South China Morning Post, you can see a photo of the damage that tusks are causing a young performer.

Zoey Zhang reports on the strange art of “teeth playing.”

“A performer with a fierce makeup conceals the tusks of several wild boars in their mouth, flipping them up and down with their tongue and teeth. Throughout this process, they need to sing, read and dance.

“It could well be the most terrifying, and most difficult, folk art in China. It is called shua ya, which literally means ‘teeth playing.’

“Shua ya is a stunt used in traditional Chinese opera designed to portray the dark, dangerous and complex psychology of villainous characters.

“The tusks of male wild boars that it uses are polished and disinfected and usually reach the length of an adult index finger.

Performers need to manipulate four to 10 tusks in their mouths, using their lips, teeth, and breath to make them move, conveying the emotions of characters.

“Lowering the tusks indicates relaxation and satisfaction, while shaking them vigorously indicates anger. …

“Shua ya has a history spanning over 400 years and is a distinctive feature of opera performances in Ninghai, a county located in Zhejiang province in eastern China.

“The most classic shua ya performance is Jinlian Slays Jiaolong. Jiaolong, or the Chinese water dragon, diverges from the auspicious portrayal of Chinese dragons, causing chaos and bringing misfortune to people. Artists portraying Jiaolong need to master shua ya to perform the part of a villain.

“The stunt is recognized by the government as an intangible piece of cultural heritage. Due to the arduous training process, the art form is on the brink of extinction. Its exponents must keep sharp tusks in their mouths at all times, except when eating or sleeping, until they can speak clearly. It typically takes over a decade of practice to fully master.

“Xue Qiaoping, 41, from Zhejiang province, is a sixth-generation inheritor of China’s shua ya art and one of its few female performers.

“She told China Central Television: ‘When training with eight tusks in my mouth because they are very hard, my entire gums were worn out. I couldn’t eat or drink for a week, only relying on intravenous drips for nutrition.’

“When she reached 10 tusks, Xue needed to use both hands to open her mouth wide enough to fit in all the teeth. Her mouth cracks after each performance.

“Meanwhile, Li Yi, 19, from Henan province in central China, is a shua ya artist with 1.4 million followers on Douyin. He has been practicing this stunt for eight years.

“ ‘My mouth has torn and ulcerated more than 70 times, my jaw muscles enlarged, my teeth were ground down and my appearance changed dramatically,’ Li said. ‘But I am willing to devote my youth entirely to traditional culture.’ “

More at South China Morning Post, here. No paywall.

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Singing a New Language

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on April 5, 2022| 7 Comments »

Photo: Wen-hao Tien.
Taiwan-born artist Wen-hao Tien (left) started inviting people from around the world to teach her songs from their homelands as part her exhibit on immigration experiences at the Pao Arts Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

Singing a new language can be a good way to learn that language, but even if you are not trying to learn it, you can experience the emotion in it. Consider all the choruses around the world learning the Ukrainian national anthem these days. Who is not moved by the feeling of solidarity, whether you are a Ukrainian, a singer, or a listener?

It may take an artist, perhaps an immigrant artist like the one in this story, to explore the mysterious, emotional side of the phenomenon.

As Patrick Cox reports at Public Radio International’s the World, “Opera divas sometimes have to sing in languages that aren’t their native tongue. So do popular singers. The Beatles sang in German in their early years. Today, BTS sings in Japanese as well as their native Korean.

“Is it easier to sing than speak in a foreign tongue? And what is the difference between singing and speaking?

“Taiwan-born artist Wen-hao has put that to the test as part of her exhibit ‘Home on Our Backs,’ about the immigrant experience, at Boston’s Pao Arts Center.

“Tien, who has lived in the US for 33 years — much of that time in Boston — wanted to explore the sound of homelands as part of the exhibit.

So, she started inviting people from around the world into the exhibition space to teach her songs from their places of origin.

“Among the musical numbers she learned: a Dutch Indonesian song, a Sanskrit chant, a Shaker hymn, a French song, and the ‘Happy Birthday’ song sung in Brazilian Portuguese (which Tien now considers far superior to any other version).

“For Tien, learning to sing these songs — even when she didn’t fully understand the lyrics or the cultural context — was a highly emotional experience.

“That didn’t surprise William Beeman, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota. He said singing is ‘enhanced communication.’ …

“He knows this in a personal way [as] Beeman was an opera singer for a time. He said that learning to sing can be a bit like becoming a young child again — and it often sparks childhood memories. 

“ ‘The first thing that a teacher has to do in order to be able to get a person to sing is to kind of regress to the time when they were 4 or 5 years old,’ he said. That is usually a time when people can sing ‘freely and openly without any inhibition.’ 

“Which is also what Wen-hao Tien taps into with her ‘Teach Me a Song’ project. The songs tend be old ones — learned at a young age. …

“Tien’s exhibit also features her artwork, including an elaborate dress made of red plastic bags. The inspiration sprang from a family visit and a clutch of red plastic bags from a grocery store nearby to the exhibition space, where her parents always shopped. 

“ ‘My parents used to visit me from Taiwan,’ Tien said. ‘The first thing they would do when they arrived is to take the subway and go to Chinatown.’ They’d go to a grocery store in Boston’s Chinatown and buy a ton of food. Tien remembers the last time they did this was not long before her father died.

“ ‘I was in my apartment and it was getting dark,’ she recalled. ‘I looked out the window and saw two old people. Both were carrying as many bags as they could possibly hold.’  She knew it was her parents because of the bags. …

“ ‘That’s my last memory of my parents visiting me from far away,’ she said. ‘The image of them carrying many, many red plastic bags.’ … 

“Tien filed this in the back of her mind for years until these memories eventually resurfaced. She decided to make a dress out of about 35 of those bags, stitched and branded together in the style of a ball gown. …

“Tien has made a second dress out of red plastic bags. She hopes to give that one to Boston’s new mayor, Michelle Wu. Like Tien, Wu was born to Taiwanese parents.

“For more on Tien’s ‘Teach Me a Song’ project, check out ‘Subtitle,’ a podcast about languages and the people who speak them.” More at the World, here.

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Heal Thyself with Opera on Call

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 15, 2016| 2 Comments »

Tim Jonze wrote a funny story at the Guardian about hiring a therapeutic opera singer to deal with his anxiety about becoming a father.

“The soprano reaches a dramatic climax, demonstrating impressive lung power as she sustains the dizzying peak note, before bringing Quando me’n’ vo’ to its close. It is a powerful, emotionally draining performance, and one that seems to resonate around the room for some time after she has finished. Which is why I get up off the sofa and ask her if she would like a cup of tea.

“This, as you might have guessed, is not your typical night at the opera – and not only because it’s only just gone 11 am. It is called Opera Helps, and is a project dreamed up by the artist Joshua Sofaer. The gist is this: contact the Opera Helps phoneline with a personal problem, and they will endeavour to send a singer to your house. Said singer will briefly discuss the issue with you, select a suitable aria that addresses it, then perform it for you while you relax in familiar surroundings: on a comfortable chair, for instance, or even in bed.

“It’s not therapy as such – in fact, they are very keen to stress that their singers are not trained therapists – but the project does aim to help you look at your problem from a new perspective and, hopefully, experience the healing power of music.

“ ‘It’s about giving someone the space for reflection, the same way having a chat with a friend might give you fortitude to carry on,’ says Sofaer, who found success running the project in Sweden before bringing it to the UK. …

“ ‘In my experience, you either respond to the music or you don’t – I don’t think it is based on your musical education or what class you’re from or how much money you’ve got, which is the common perception. The idea that opera needs an expert audience is a complete misnomer.’ ”

More at the Guardian, here.

Photo: David Bebber for the Guardian  
Opera singer Caroline Kennedy sings to Tim Jonze to relieve his stress.

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Zebra Finches Sing in Their Sleep

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 5, 2015| 3 Comments »

Sy Montgomery had a lovely story in the Boston Globe about studies investigating  animals’ dreams. I zeroed in on the beautiful little zebra finch.

“What do birds dream about?” Montgomery asks.

“Singing.

“University of Chicago professor Daniel Margoliash conducted experiments on zebra finches. Like all birds, zebra finches aren’t born knowing their songs; they learn them, and young birds spend much of their days learning and rehearsing the song of their species. …

“The researcher was able to determine the individual notes based on the firing pattern of the neurons. While the birds were asleep, their neurons fired in the same order — as if they were singing in their dreams.”

At American Scientist, Michael Szpir titles a related article “To Sleep, Perchance to Sing.”

“It turns out that single neurons in the forebrain song system of the sleeping birds display a pattern of activity that’s only seen in the waking bird when it sings. [Amish S.] Dave and Margoliash think that this neuronal activity is part of the learning process — the birds are rehearsing in their sleep by dreaming about singing.

“Since the awake male zebra finch will sing when a female is presented, it seems natural to ask whether the male finch has an image in mind when he sings in his sleep. Margoliash won’t speculate, but if human males are any indication we might imagine they dream of fetching female finches. It’s either that or bird seed.

“You can hear the song of the awake zebra finch at: http://www.williams.edu:803/Biology/ZFinch/zfsong.html.” More.

Read what other critters dream about at the Globe, here.

Photo: Nigel Mann

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When Half-Spent Was the Night

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on December 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

The phrase comes from the carol “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.”

Somehow, the words “when half-spent was the night” instead of “in the middle of the night” (a choice doubtless made to fit the rhythm) makes one think about the meaning more. Something about a gift arriving unexpectedly halfway through a time of darkness. Something surprising and curious.

A nice gift I received Friday was an expression of gratitude for being there for someone through her first year at my workplace. With tears in her eyes. Golly. Something surprising. A welcome surprise.

Then today, tucked in the back door, a stealth gift. Hmmm. No note. Swedish colors. For Erik? I think I recognize the cookie style. It suggests Suzanne’s longtime friend, a buddy since kindergarten, known for — among other things — her mother’s cookie-painting parties at Christmas.

Suzanne is being remembered, and being reminded of fun times, at a busy season when her friend is visiting town for only a short while. These are gifts that make people feel good.

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