Engineer's Perspective 1/29/09

It's been a while since I've written, which I regret.  Another semester is under way and nothing demonstrates that more than the singer's showcase auditions.  Berklee's own little American Idol.  These auditions are the highlight of the semester for me.  It's very little work for me as an engineer so I just get to sit back and make my own picks for showcase.  It is amazingly similar to watching American Idol at home and I get to play Simon, which let's face it is what everyone does when they watch.    I debate with my co-workers about the singer's song choice, or arrangement, vocal ability and (most important to me) stage presence.  Every semester I watch and pick and know that the judges will pick differently.  I know by now what they look for but I always hold out hope that one of my underdogs will sneak in.  Admittedly I have a bias.  I have been involved with just about every Singer's Showcase since 2002.  Seven years may not seem like a long time especially compared to others who have been involved since the beginning but I've seen enough to be tired of it. Tired of the same singer's and the same songs trying to find some way to make this semester more exciting and spectacular, when really all I want is to make the show different.  I sit and watch big voice after big voice come to knock the socks off of the judges, there's very little subtlety.  There's no one that whispers sweetly commanding you to sit on the edge of your seat and really pay attention to what they are doing, or one who takes a song you've heard a thousand times and makes it fresh and new. Rarely is there even great presence on the stage. There's confidence and comfort, but it's rare to see someone who you can't help but watch perform.  Stage presence and musicality, more so than singing ability makes great singers.  Some people would argue, that singing ability at an institution like Berklee which teaches singing technique, is more important than performance ability and that they should at least be weighted equally. But a great performer can be forgiven any fault in his ability where as a great voice alone is not enough to compensate for lack of charisma. You'll say that he was good but boring or maybe you won't be able to put a finger on what you didn't like, but you know it wasn't what it could have been. A performer needs to connect with the audience and not just impress them.  And here is where the Showcase fails, it's filled with extremely talented people but always disappoints, because instead of nurturing individuality and creativity it produces the same ol' thing semester after semester.  And the result is the same ol' people turn out every year to audition and eventually all of those other great performers here at Berklee don't bother auditioning.  With a little flexibility and an open mind Singer's Showcase could live up it's potential could maybe be worthy of all of the hype.