According to my parents, I began singing long before I could talk. In fact, their favorite story was of when I was toddler. I would wake up late at night, roll over onto my hands and knees, and sing (at the top of my lungs), "Oooooooooooooooh, he floats through the air with the greatest of ease..." and I would rock the bed - hard! - on each of the italicized syllables. There is no doubt that "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" never sounded so ... loud (before or since!). Needless to say, I wore the wheels on my crib flat ... and wore out six mattresses, too! So, singing comes naturally and I've never stopped. Of course, I come by it honestly. My mother was a classically trained singer with an amazing 5-plus octave voice, so it's no wonder I picked this as a career.
When I was about 4 years old, Mom came up to me one day and asked me what I was singing. "My song," I said, and Mom took me over to the piano and had me sing "my song" again while she wrote the music down. When Dad came home, she told him the story and played "my song" for him. He didn't recognize it either, so they determined that, yes, this was "my song." Sadly, I suffered a flood decades ago and lost many of my early songs, including "my song." C'est la vie, I guess, but that started my song writing career.
Original Music
I love to write songs. Sometimes it's hard to do and I will struggle with a melody line for days or even weeks. Other times, I'll wake up in the middle of the night with a full melody running through my head. If I could choose, I'd rather have the melody just pop into my head (since those are often the best ones).
I also write wedding songs, custom lullabies through Lullaby Dreams (which are the perfect gift for the new baby in your life), Christmas songs, funny songs, protest songs, and even love songs. Click here for more information about my original songs. Below is one of those, the song I wrote to the love of my life. We lost Racheli to cancer in June 2021, and I wrote Thank You For Being You on the first anniversary of her death.
Choral Arrangements
I began doing choral arrangements so long ago I really don't recall when I started. While I primarily arrange for male voice and mixed-voice a cappella groups, I do sometimes write accompanied arrangements and arrangements for female voice groups. I especially love arranging for barbershop quartets and choruses as I've been singing barbershop for more than 50 years and am a Life Member of both the Barbershop Harmony Society and the Irish Associaion of Barbershop Singers.
Please click here to see a list of some of my arrangements. Directly below is a choral arrangement of one of my Custom Lullabies and you can click here to see a larger version of it.
Voice Lessons
It's hard to pick the favorite part of my musical life, but helping singers become even better has to be high on the list. It is so much fun to watch the development of my students each week and when one of them must miss a lesson, I really feel as if my week is less satisfying. Read on, please, to learn more about this very special part of my life.
Discover the singer within you
Do you like to sing? Maybe you're already a singer or maybe you're one of those people who sings in the shower or sings along with the car radio as you drive along. No matter what your current singing level or ability, if you like to sing and if you want to improve your vocal abilities, I can help.
Even if you've been told you "can't" or "shouldn't" sing, don't believe it! I've only met a handful of truly "tone deaf" people in my life. Most people classified as "tone deaf" are really what I call "tone ignorant;" they just don't know how to reproduce what they hear. I offer a comprehensive approach to understanding the connection between the ears, the brain, and the voice. I won't guarantee to make you a star, but in most cases I can help you "discover the singer within you" and give you the satisfaction of enjoying your singing experiences.
A bit of my singing background
I started studying voice when I was 12, first privately then later at university. I began teaching voice nearly 40 years ago, while working with the singers in the choirs I conducted and coached. Most recently, I worked as a professional choir coach through SingIsrael and offered private voice lessons at my home studio in Ra'anana. Due to family obligations, I am now back teaching in Ohio, and have online students in New York, Florida, San Francisco, Israel, Abu Dhabi, and Australia via Skype and Zoom. I offer a free, no-obligation lesson to all prospective students so please click here to read some comments from students and parents then Contact me, either by phone or email (both at the bottom of this page), to start your no-obligation journey.
Choral Coaching
Sheepishly, I must confess that everything I do is a "favorite part" of my musical life. I love all of my musical life and coaching choirs, choruses, and ensembles really is something I love to do. It's so much fun to meet a group and help it to become better. Choral coaching is very different from choral conducting or directing, of course. As a long-time choral conductor and music director myself, I find I am generally so close to the performance that I sometimes (often!) will miss things that an outside person can (and will!) notice. A coach becomes the outside eyes and ears for the conductor/director and can help them bring the group up to the desired level. I began coaching over 30 years ago and my coaching has taken me literally around the world (seven times!) and I've had the opportunity to work in dozens of countries (and to live in two of them for most of two decades).
What is Choral Coaching?
Choral coaching is a systematic approach to improving and enhancing a singing group's performance ability. It encompasses assisting in the improvement of basic singing skills, as well as the overall concepts of musicianship, performance ability, and the delivery of a successful and highly entertaining performance. In short, choral coaching is the most effective way of ensuring strong "choral development" of a group.
For a singing group to truly improve its singing and performance ability, it must develop a long-term education plan which targets four areas: Vocal Techniques, Musicianship, Stage Presence, and Choreography. And, for this plan to be most effective, it must include a program of consistent, regular coaching, as the outside eyes and ears of a choral coach always see and hear different things than does the conductor/director/director. Thus, the end result of consistent coaching is the best possible rendition of every song in front of an audience.
Click here for more information about choral coaching.
Lectures & Presentations
As I said earlier, I have had the opportunity to travel internationally many times during my life. My first trip abroad was when I was 17, when I went on a 21-day concert tour of seven European countries as part of a touring choir. That kindled my love for international travel and I've visited nearly 40 countries in the almost 50 years since.
When I lived in Israel, I created a presentation on American music titled American Music for Non-Americans, after having many questions about American music being asked by native Israelis and Olim (Jews who have moved to Israel from other countries). This presentation features 27 songs from the four recognized American musical styles: the Negro Spiritual, the Cowboy Ballad, Barbershop Harmony, and Jazz.
The response to this presentation was so positive that, after I returned to the States from Israel, I decided to create two additional presentations, one about Ireland, An Irish Homecoming, and one about Israel, Stranger in a Strange Land. These presentations feature songs from my Ireland Suite and my Israel Suite. Each of these suites feature the songs I wrote about various places and aspects of life living in both Ireland and Israel. Here is a song from each of these presentations:
An Irish Homecoming - The Doors of Dublin
Stranger in a Strange Land - The City of Haifa
Contact
For additional information, or to place an order, please call or text to the number below.
+1 (330) 520-6671
Also, feel free to email me at the below address (click the button to copy the email address or, if your browswer does not support that function, simply copy the email address directly from the text box).
