Spring Break

I know I am not in the majority here… but thank GOD spring break is almost over.  In addition to being in school, I also have a job.  A job that I do not get to work at a whole lot, because of rehearsals and classes.  The job is easy, it’s something that I have been doing for quite a while, so at this point it can be kind of brainless.  Not to mention slow!

It’s not the restaurant’s fault.  The people are easy to work with.  Management is good and understanding. It’s just that everyone is out of town, customers and employees.  The absence of other workers coupled with my inability to work a normal schedule while I am in school means that I was scheduled for about 10 shifts this week.  That’s a lot by the way when you consider there are only 14 shifts in a week.

It’s hard when all I really ever want to do is work on music.  It’s kind of become an obsession.  But by the time I get home from work, I am way too tired or I have other obligations.  For instance St. Paddy’s day was this week and I have a cultural obligation to celebrate the feast of the good St. Patrick.  A feast which includes copious amounts of Jameson and Guinness getting absorbed into the sea of green.

I do look at the break as an opportunity though.  I was getting a little tired vocally, I had been doing a lot of singing.  I was also in it pretty deep.  And now even with the tiniest break and a pretty slow week at work, I find that I am so ready to dive back in.  This is what breaks do for us, they give us the ability to refresh and renew and remind us why it is that we love what we do.

It’s hard to accept sometimes, because it always seems like there is so much to be done.  But we need that reality check, ya know?  It was the restaurant (not this one specifically) that made me realize four years ago that I was wasting my life.  (Haha, no offense to the restaurant or the people that do this honorable work.  Because it IS honorable work and it is hard work and your servers, bartenders, cooks, and managers are incredibly underrated and undervalued, so if and when you get the chance, say thank you, they are working hard too.)  Or not wasting my life, but more that I wasn’t fulfilling my calling.  I don’t so much believe in destiny, but I do believe that we all are blessed with certain talents or aptitudes and our minds and hearts, I think, can be more attracted to certain things, and if we really pay attention then that is where we will land.

And while I love wine and bourbon and good food, it wasn’t doing the trick.  It wasn’t until I started singing again, for real, that I finally found that my thirst was being quenched.  The minute I got back on stage, nay, the minute I got back in the rehearsal room for my first show back with the Asheville Lyric Opera in the chorus of it’s 2008 production of Lucia di Lammermoor, was the minute that I knew that I had arrived and I was never to stray again.  That in some form or another, I was going to be a part of music and music was going to be a part of me.  Now, I’ve had to be reminded of this from time to time. And that, I think, is just one reason that we have breaks.

But, THIS break is over and I am ready to get back.  Back to school, back to music, back to rehearsal. My voice feels good, St. Patrick was good to me, I now feel like I can take it to the next level.  I am hungry for more, much more.  And I am thrilled, absolutely thrilled, just to be here.

That’s all for now.  Thanks for taking the time.  I wish you all well and to enjoy the rest of your breaks if you have them or when you have them.  And come back fired up and ready to make your mark on the world.  I know I will!

 

“The full person does not understand the needs of the hungry.” -Irish quote

“I believe in the sun when it is not shining, I believe in love even when I feel it not and I believe in God even when he is silent.” -another Irish quote

All My Best,

Kevin

A Reboot

Consider this a reboot of “How Karaoke Saved My Life”. I am very excited to return with great adventures and tales about where I have been. Currently, I reside in Knoxville, TN and I am continuing my education, pursuing my Master’s Degree at the University of Tennessee in vocal performance.

Singing has of course always been my life long dream. But it took years of not being able to sing as a child. Then several more years of being able to sing but not with any sufficient training, aside from choir and a choir teacher/mentor. Then Undergrad, where I began to thrive, but still always felt like I had no idea what I was doing. Suddenly, I am in Houston, TX in what I like to now call “Grad School 1,” and completely miserable about my choices.

The next several years take me on an adventure that I will be more than happy to share with you all in the coming entries. You’ll hear about late nights and early mornings. Waiting tables and Bartending. And LOTS of Karaoke! And frankly, I am not sure how many of the stories I can remember from the old Karaoke days.

But mostly we are going to talk about opera and singing and music and all of the passion that goes along with it. I will also talk about the goings on at the University of Tennessee and the UT Opera Theater as well as any professional things that may come up.

When I started this blog, I really wanted to convey what following one’s life passion means to me. How being happy and fulfilled in one’s life is really the most important thing. I am going to keep that, I think. But now I feel I have a little more focus and will be able to articulate that much more clearly. SOOO… Please, Come back! Entries will be fairly regular and I welcome any comments, love and support you have to offer.

Take great care and we will talk soon.

All My Best,

Kevin

Listen to your Happiness, It’s Calling You

I wrote this about 2 weeks ago… well January 15th.  I am not quite sure why I didn’t post it, but I saved it, and I like it so I am going to post it now.  I hope you enjoy this blog from the archives… “The lost Blogs!”

The past two days have been really good days.  Yesterday was a day that started with sleeping in.  It is true that I have slept in a lot in my life, but is there a better feeling, really, when you know that you can sleep in?  Then I got up, had a little breakfast and made me some coffee, next it’s off to Tai Chi.  It’s this new thing I am doing.  I swear it was like finding an old friend. I am not really good at it… I have only been to 3 classes, but it fits like a glove.  I immediately knew I was in the right place when I started going.

After the Tai Chi class I decided to hit the cross-trainer for about 30 minutes.  I hadnt really been to the gym in about 6 or 7 weeks, after having gone strong for about 2 months.  The good news is, I only gained 2 pounds, so I am not too far off the pace.  Just a little less in shape.  I was psyched to get back, and I think my body was pretty happy too.  Then I did some push-ups and crunches to keep the blood flowing.

After the gym, I came home and made myself a healthy lunch and got ready for a quick audition.  I am now singing the role of Schaunard in La Boheme here in Shreveport on March 13.  I am really excited about this.  I think I sang really well for Steve, my boss.  And he had great and constructive things to say.  He is a good guy. 

Then I got in a little meditation.  This is something that has become very important to me in the last couple of months.  The point for me is to sit there and close my eyes and let go of all of the things.  To empty my mind.  Meditation can really take one to a very serene place.  It’s healing agents are very powerful as well.  When I meditate, I make sure to focus on love and compassion.   I get through any negative thoughts I may have by focusing on my breath.  It’s very important to always remember to breathe… anytime of day… not just when you are meditating. 

I was feeling so good afterwards, I wanted to continue with the feeling of serenity… so I went to the local coffee house, I believe it is called Starbucks?  Anyway, they have great coffee and it was free yesterday… must’ve been my lucky day, they had to brew a fresh pot.  Which is fine, I was certainly not in a hurry.  I was just going to sit there and read, but seriously, you’re Starbucks!!  Once I got my coffee, I sat down and spoke with my good friend Lena.  Which is always a wonderful experience.  She is so insightful and inspiring.  I read a little bit about meditation and healing in my book, Soul, Mind and Body Medicine, by Dr. Zhi Gang Sha.

Then at night I had another rehearsal to go to.  It was a day of doing a lot of my favorite things.  That is what I have been doing lately, listening to what is going to make me happy.  And because of that I have been filled with so much Joy.  I know life likes to throw it’s things at you.  But if we maintain an open spirit, a warm heart, and a healthy body, we can truly accomplish and overcome anything.

Thanks for continuing to stop by everyone.  It means a lot.  Feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think. 

“I have decided to stick with love.  Hate is too great a burden to bear.”  -Martin Luther King Jr.

Tales of the “Karaoke King”

I was talking to my buddy Marc the other day about some of our Karaoke stories.  He naturally had to bring up one of my all time defining Karaoke moments.  The time I sang “King of Pain” by the Police.  Listen, I am a good Karaoke-er.  I swear I can sing a lot of stuff.  But I am not as fun or as adventerous as some people, when it comes to Karaoke.  I have to practice, which is incredibly nerdy and not really fitting for the Karaoke professional.  But I am a singer and singers can be a very nervous lot.  So I hadn’t listened to this song in a while and I certainly hadn’t ever sung it and let me tell you it was bad.  I rank that as my #1 musical misstep of my life.  I couldn’t find a key.  I had to call Marc over to sing it in my ear.  A 3 minute song suddenly felt like an hour and a half.  It’s like that bad dream of giving a concert with no clothes on… except I had the words on the screen in front of me.  Just couldn’t find it, I guess.

The Karaoke moments were always a little more mortifying than any other performances.  My number 2 musical nightmare came at a Karaoke contest final round.  I had made it to the finals with a killer rendition of David Lee Roth’s “Just a Gigilo/ I ain’t Got Nobody.”  I remember I sang the hell out of that… I thought, there is no way I can lose this.  I was feeling pretty confident.  The finals as it turned out were to be in the style of Kamikaze Karaoke.  Just like jumping out of a plane without a parachute.  What happens is the DJ picks whatever, 5 or 6 songs, however many contestants there are and then each contestant picks one.  The songs are all fairly well known because you don’t want to kill anyone, but if you don’t know it, it could be ugly.  And if someone, anyone helps you, you are immediately disqualified.

Well, I picked Snoops “Gin and Juice.”  I have never been good at rap.  I sing opera for god’s sake.  So I am up there faking my way through a version of this song in which I know the chorus pretty well, when suddenly these drunk guys start coming and singing the song with me.  I am immediately disqualified from the contest.  It was a shameful moment for sure.  Well, I say shameful, but really it’s just Karaoke.

How great of an outlet is Karaoke.   I mean anyone can get up there and sing whatever they want as long as it is in the book.  I am always amazed when people do not want to sing at Karaoke, when everyone who is there is drunk and 25% of the singers can barely even carry a tune.  No offense.  I am not discouraging anyone from doing Karaoke.  I want everyone to do it.  I swear by it.  Those are only 2 stories of my sucking at Karaoke and I am a professional singer.  I have just done it so much that I have had a few opportunities to be good as well.

There was this time in college, when I used it to get my girlfriend back.  I had set up this elaborate date.  Dinner, flowers, Karaoke.  I am such a romantic.  Oh man, I was not very good to this girl before this, until I realized that I had made a huge mistake.  I am pretty sure she had started dating someone else.  I was f’ing determined though.  So, I set this whole thing up, I went to the bar, O’Leary’s in Ithaca, to talk to them about getting me up there at the perfect time.  The only problem was, they weren’t doing Karaoke there that night.  But at that point I was a regular and unofficially the “Karaoke King.”  So they knew me.  I brought in the CD of what I wanted to sing… my staple… “At this Moment,” by BillyVera and the Beaters.  What a great song, Family Ties, circa 1987.(Thank you Alex P. Keaton)  I was going to have to sing with Billy Vera singing in the background, but I didn’t care… it was the gesture. 

All of my friends were there that night and I was nervous as shit about being rejected, but at least I had my support staff.  Anyway the DJ is doing his thing when suddenly, he says, “Now Kevin has a very special song to sing to a very special lady out in the crowd.”  And we had already had a good night, though it was a little tense.  She didn’t really want to go to the bar with me that night, but I got  her there.  So I go up and I start singing, “What did you think, I would do at this moment… blah, blah.”  She was  clearly embarassed, but she was smiling.  Finally when I finished the song, I went over to her and gave her the biggest kiss… I knew I had won the day and the girl back.  What a great moment and a great feeling.  That relationship lasted about 4 more months.  “It’s better to have loved and lost..”  I was just happy to have had my first brave gesture at love.

Why sing Karaoke?  Because you can.  It’s totally available.  It is indiscriminate.  It’s a big time ice breaker and social outlet.  It’s a show of courage.  It’s expression.  When you get up and sing for people, regardless of who you are, regardless of the song you choose, regardless of the words on the screen, you have to let go.  You have to or you wouldn’t be up there.  Thanks for reading.

“Sing badly if you must – but sing.” Fortune from a Chinese fortune cookie

Slainte,

Kevin

Personal Power

What exactly is personal power?  Can anyone tell me?  There are so many different ways to think about power.  Some people think it’s money.  Some people think it’s looks.  Who has a bigger house?  Who has the faster car?  In the opera world it’s who’s working the most.  It doesn’t matter if you have the best voice, but “where have you sung?”

Well I say BAH! to all of that.  I think that we are right here, all of us, in our own personal power right now.  I don’t care how much money you have.  I don’t care how good you look.  It doesn’t mattter if you are the funniest or the smartest or the most talented.  The point is we are, all of us, all of those things.  As a society, I believe that we focus too much on the negative aspects of these things.  And at some point somewhere, we are convincing ourselves that we are not good enough.

Well we are good enough.  We just have to get out of our own way.  We have to learn to appreciate what is right in front of us.  It’s ok to want more.  This does not make us bad people.  It’s fine to want more money.  It’s fine to want a bigger house.  It’s great to want an amazing career.  Desire and passion are good things. Let’s just remember that it is really ok to be where we are right now.  We keep our goals in sight and we make peace with everything around us.   That is when things happen.

There is no more time for hate or jealousy.  Don’t look at Jack and Jill next door and hate them because they have what you want.  Make peace with them and love them for what they have, even if they gloat about it.  Go ahead be the bigger person.  Believe in yourself and go do what you came here to do.   And always remember that all of us are in this together.

I am not meaning to hit anyone over the head with this today.  I was just having a conversation about personal power before with a friend.  And remembered how long it took me to realize that my power is right in front of me and all I had to do was reach out and take it.  I was not taking it from anyone, because it was already mine.  The truth is, you can’t have anyone else’s power.  You simply cannot.  Other people don’t always use theirs.  Sometimes fear gets in the way and we feel helpless.  But we can’t take anyone’s power and they can’t have ours.  That’s the beauty of personal power.  Personal Power, my friends, equals freedom.

Realize these are just one man’s opinions.  I do believe that we can accomplish anything that we put our minds to.  I have seen it happen when I’ve really wanted something, and remained content with the journey, not obsessing about the result.  I have watched everything fall into place.  It’s time to take that power back and remind ourselves that we can achieve anything.  And we will do it with love in our hearts.  Thanks for reading.

“Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”                               -Albert Einstein

Slainte,

Kevin Doherty

A Day in the Life of an Opera Singer(before the glory)

So I live here in Shreveport, LA and I sing with the Shreveport Opera.  More specifically I sing with the Shreveport Opera Xpress or “SOX” as we like to call it.  The SOX does the opera outreach for the company.  Which is cool, because we perform for over 50,000 kids in the Ark-la-tex region.  Ark-la-tex is the region where Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas border each other.  We mostly perform in Shreveport though.

It’s a pretty exciting undertaking if you think about it.  I mean, you don’t get paid a lot, you get up real early everyday and sing, well, an opera essentially, and we work pretty much everyday, at least for a little while.  Those “not as unfortunate as you might think” things aside, it’s a very cool job.  We are traveling all over the region and bringing music with us everywhere we go.  The hope is to inspire at least one kid a school.  There it is again, music as inspiration.

When we are not doing school shows we will sometimes perform for the general public.  We have been to the rotary club, the optimists club(where we got a very positive response), and today we were at a nursing home singing for mostly alzheimer’s patients.  It was  a group of about 10-15 people and boy did they seem to be having a good time.  As for me, well I connected with my music for the first time in a while.  That emotional charge that briefly takes you somewhere else.  For me the most important part is communication.  I forget that sometimes.  It’s easy to forget when you are singing in a foreign language or worrying about notes and rhythms.  This stuff has to be pretty right on.  I have resisted that for a long time.  The great one’s know that and they work their butts off, so that they don’t have to worry about words in a performance.  Then they just go to that place and stay there if they are having a good day. 

I try to include my audience as much as possible in my journey, because they are taking the ride with me.  I’m the bus driver and they are my passengers.  Today, they were so close, I just made eye contact and smiled and focused on getting  my point across, to some success, I think.  I felt good about it.  And that’s what happens, you go out there and do your job well, you feel good about it.  Especially if you love it.  Feeling good is the most important part of anything. 

Sure, I work hard for it sometimes, I have even made a sacrifice or two.  I mean, the first 3 months I was here, I was like, “what am I doing?  Why am I here?  Singing sucks!”  It’s hard enough moving to a  new place, let alone start a whole new life, even if it is only for the better part of a year.  Let’s see I left the place I love the most with some of  my very best friends.  I was dating a wonderful woman who already lived 2 hours away.  Try that relationship from 800 miles away.  I left my comfort zone.  My point is, I did what I felt was right and today has been one of those days that proved to me that I am in the right place.  The great news is, I feel that way everyday lately.  Don’t get me wrong, I have plans to get back to Asheville, at least back to those beautiful mountains.  Oh how I love that part of the world!  But for now I have made my choice and I am going to feel nothing but great about it.  It was afterall, MY choice.

Now, luckily, I have built in friends down here.  I live with 3 other people, the other members of SOX, and we all get along really well.  My next door neighbors are two other good friends of mine who work with the opera company in more of an administrative capacity.  These things have certainly made this transition easier.  And we are all here for the same purpose… to make music and feel good.

And that is the point.  We are not singing on the stage of the Met, yet anyway.  We aren’t in Italy or Germany singing at the La Scala or Berlin Statsoper.  We all have a friend or two whose careers have taken off.  We are just folk.  We are just normal people who share the same love.  We get joy out of making people smile.  We get joy out of working on our craft.  We are here to do a job and feel great about it.  It is all part of the dream. 

That’s it for me today I think.  Thanks for reading.

“Those who think that the rewarding things in life are somewhere beyond the rainbow… burn their toast a lot.”   -Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh

Slainte,

Kevin

Inspiration and New Ideas

Well, everything has a beginning, I guess.  If you are lucky there can be a lot of beginnings.  It’s like spring, which is right around the corner by the way.  The weather gets warmer, the ice melts, the flowers bloom, the trees stand up straight.  Everything around you just kind of aligns itself with all-that-is.  That is what a new beginning feels like to me.  The air is fresh and there is a spring in your step.  People wonder why I never finish anything… Ha.  I simply tell them, “I like new ideas.”  Well I don’t tell them that, but I am going to from now on.  What is better than that though?  A new beginning… doesn’t it sound so promising?

Today I enter my very first blog, on my very new blog site.  It’s interesting because I have been thinking about doing something like this.  The idea of blogging has come up recently, but I have thought about writing a book for sometime now.  Today, I was on the phone with my sister, she is a master blogger.  And she was like, “just get the domain name and get it started.”  I was so nervous, because I had no idea what I was going to write about.  But she encouraged me to just get started and said that I would eventually find my voice.  And of course I will, becasue it’s about the journey with these kinds of things.  Though I am not quite sure what people actually blog about, I certainly do have this cool little space to blog about it.  So I am going to let it be organic for a little while.

I guess I should introduce myself, before I go any further.  Hi.  I’m Kevin.  I grew up on Long Island in a town called Massapequa, the youngest of 6 kids.  I grew up Irish Catholic so the big family is kind of a prerequisite.  I have moved around a little, Ithaca, Houston, NYC, Asheville, NC.  And now I live in Shreveport, LA.  Asheville is my favorite, sorry everywhere else.  I moved to Shreveport in September because I took a job singing with the Shreveport Opera.  Yes, I am an opera singer.  And I can say that, because I get paid to do it.  Though not a lot.  I definitely do it for the love and the way it makes me feel.

I have been singing for as long as I can remember.  I feel like it is the greatest form of expression and communication out there.  It’s not just words, it’s words and MUSIC.  That is the important part, the music.   Think about how a certain song makes you feel.  Your favorite song or that one song that reminds you what happy or sad feels like.  I know you can all relate.  Think about that song you had with an old girlfriend or boyfriend. I remember “Bed of Roses” by Bon Jovi and my 9th grade girlfriend.  A buddy of mine sang that at Karaoke( oh, there it is) one night a couple of months ago and that feeling came back.  That’s what music does, it takes you to all kinds of places.   Just think about that.  If listening to music does that to us, imagine what singing does.  Imagine what playing an instrument would do.  You’ve all seen someone play the guitar and tear it up a little.  That guy is getting transported to another dimension!  Seriously!  He is not actually with us during that melt your face solo.  Have you ever seen a great Cellist or Violinist?  Watch them just lose themselves in their music.  YOUTUBE!

I went to the Tales of  Hoffman, an Opera by Jaques Offenbach the other night at a movie theater here in Shreveport.  It was the Met in HD.  Pretty cool!  Boy was it worth it.  The highlight for me was Anna Netrebko.  I haven’t always been a huge fan, but after that performance, I get it!  She went to a place that so many are afraid to go.  It was commited and artistic and sexy and just smokin’.

I love watching people go to that place.  It can be so incredibly inspiring.  That’s what music is about for me… inspiration.  And when we are inspired, no matter where it comes from, we take chances and when we take chances great things can happen.  That is what I am beginning to figure out.  No fear.  Just courage and love and desire.  And a new idea.  

A Toast:  May your heart be light and happy, May your smile be big and wide, and may your pockets always have a coin or two inside.

Slainte,

Kevin

Hello world!

This is supposed to be my first post, but its not.  So I am just going to say hello to you and say thank you for stopping by to read my stuff.  I get a real kick out of doing this and I hope that I can put a smile on some faces and keep the positivity flowing.  I am an undying optimist, so if that’s too much for you, be prepared.  But if you need a lift, I am here.  I will be that good friend, who’s always smiling.

Slainte,

Kevin