🎼soprano, voice teacher, anti-cap, has a cute cat. shiny maker (😷 chains & earrings). slowly forming a global coalition of musicians 4 clean air. Linktree ⬇️
Sep 3, 2024 • 20 tweets • 5 min read
How many musicians have to literally die on stage before music world takes this virus seriously?
How many more?
What will it fucking take?
My entire former??? network is musicians & it’s so fucking cool to see that they all collectively decided that risk of death literally ON STAGE is an acceptable risk to participate. Totally fine, nothing to see here. How does that not absolutely shake you to your fucking core?
May 29, 2024 • 24 tweets • 5 min read
I must admit, seeing “concerts” described as unnecessary consumerism is difficult bc once again I’d like to ask the ?, what should musicians do? Are we advocating for the end of live music? I agree there needs to be accessible ways to share in music that aren’t crowded stadiums…
… but I really struggle with this implied end game that music will be online only or something. Should musicians livestream their events? Yes! Should venues be more accessible? Yes! Are tours unsustainable on a burning 🌎? Yes! But once again, what should musicians do, actually?
Apr 3, 2024 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Not just you! People’s vocal health is deteriorating. COVID seems to increase people’s allergies & acid reflux severity, which irritates the voice anyway. Pair that w/ lung damage, laryngeal nerve damage, & endothelium inflammation & edema on the vocal folds & this is the result
Plus the merry go around that is Not Covid Cold of The Week. People’s voices can’t catch a fucking break to allow the inflammation to go down & the mucosal layer to be restored for optimal vibration
Mar 4, 2024 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
1. DMing you on fb to harass is not ok. I’m sorry that happened. 2. May I respectfully engage you, then?
Covid is a genocide being normalized much in the same way Gaza & others are. Disease has historically been a tool of the oppressors — masking in public shows solidarity. 🧵
Not masking in public makes those spaces more dangerous for everyone, but esp for disabled, immunocompromised, & the deeply marginalized people who are dying at an alarming rate.
Relevant to your academic position, esp in music spaces, covid continues to spread unmitigated.
Oct 30, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I sang with the Symphony Tacoma Voices when this happened — a choir not too far away from Skagit Valley. Choirs have since been REELING. Music education orgs commissioned a study that the world ignored. Now, school choirs are daily superspreaders & have been for 3 years.
We were also unmasked that week, rehearsing that week. It could have been my choir. It didn’t have to be though — this should have caused a wave of solidarity through all music organizations. Yet the choir I sang with last year had a superspreader of 28. Many aren’t documenting.
Aug 11, 2023 • 19 tweets • 4 min read
Officially at the “I will sacrifice whatever clout I have in connections to academia to go scorched earth on the powers that let this happen”. I am done pretending Covid is an untouchable topic and that we all just have to navigate in our own special way.
I have had so many passionate students have to stop studying or have been struggling with dysphonia for months and I can’t bear to witness it anymore. Music academia is a small world and I’m about to become a problem that’s more visible than pleading tweets & Facebook posts
Aug 9, 2023 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
I honestly wish this was satire but I can’t even write this stuff anymore. He starts talking at 1:36.
This is textbook dysphonia, likely covid. This sound indicates his vocal folds are not adducting well. While talking about how Covid isn’t surging is a problem. W/ Covid voice
To elaborate, I am hearing a few things immediately:
-shortness of breath in the onset; it sounds like gathering the air to the adduct the VFs is a lot
- MUCH lower pitch than his typical speech
- slower vibrational rate & rate of speech in general. He is clearly being v careful
Aug 8, 2023 • 25 tweets • 5 min read
Today my 15 year old voice student and I cried together, as I told her she likely has to go to a doctor to get her vocal folds looked at, because she didn’t recover from her “summer flu” infection in June (it was covid)
This student likely has to drop out/stop singing during rehearsals (next show is in October), w/careful monitoring of her vocal progress. Professionals like Lea who are continuing to promote this show must go on attitude are directly endangering students like mine by poor example
Aug 4, 2023 • 20 tweets • 4 min read
Would love assistance from a “it’s just a cold” person during my voice lessons with distraught teenage students who think their voices might be gone forever bc they have been severely affected by a recent Covid infection (which delayed a musical & caused dysphonia in TWO leads)
Look my students in the eyes, sing with their inflamed voices. Tell them it’s just a cold. Tell them their distress doesn’t matter. Tell them they can expect this to happen repeatedly.
Nothing makes me more upset, actually. These kids DONT ‘HAVE THE TOOLS’ to protect themselves
Jun 29, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Anecdotes aren’t science, but I’d like to reshare my experience with a choral superspreader of 28 people back in May 2022, as it provides pretty solid experience that a good mask works. The church we rehearsed in was purposefully updated w/ ventilation to the outside.
The ventilation was on during this rehearsal, IIRC bc I looked up to check, seeing as ~2 weeks prior, citing CDC happy green map guidelines, the choir had dropped our masks required to recommended. They had duckbill N95 they would hand out for rehearsal when it was required.
Jun 1, 2023 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Trying to listen to part 2 of the Pam Smart Case on morbid and one of the host is clearly inflamed (again) and has cleared her throat 5x since I started counting 5 mins ago. Podcasters — stop fucking around with your voices if you’d like to keep your money maker.
6 & 7
Jun 1, 2023 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
I don’t think some people over 40 understand how fed up millennials & gen z truly are. There is no future for us. We have been used as political bargaining chips our entire lives while getting nothing in return. There is historical precedent to where this will eventually lead.
Everything is way too expensive. We all work constantly, often multiple jobs. We have no savings accounts, pensions, or plans for retirement (lol). Many of us still rent at exorbitant prices. The planet is desperately trying to warn us to stop this lifestyle. And yet, here we are
Jun 1, 2023 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Just found out that my grad school has a masters of music ed with Massachusetts licensure available andddddd where was this 10 years ago 😫 if only k-12 weren’t currently a Covid cesspool and falling apart and mostly still fighting for music to just exist in schools
Maybe one day when the world isn’t exploding, but good to know the option is there now
May 29, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
With no consideration for protection of the physical/mental health of the musicians on stage performing for them
It’s just so annoying the loop of “I NEED to go to a concert but CANT wear a mask bc it cramps my vibe!!!” Well baby it really cramps your favorite bands vibe if they’re too sick to play their instruments or sing bc you keep infecting them for “your mental health” I’m so over itt
May 29, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
As expected, tears of the kingdom has been devastating to my capacity for being productive since it’s such effective escapism for my persistent burn out I’ve been feeling since about December, currently working on increasing my schedule demands soon but it’s been hard 😫😮💨
So sorry to anyone who follows me on here who has had recent interest in my studio — it’s been hard trying to figure out spots in my schedule with my 3 day/week part time jewelry job & accommodating everyone’s time zones, while also not working 10-12 hour days every day
Nov 26, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
It’s going to be really sad in 5 years when a bunch of musicians who thought they were doing good things for their career long term by performing during Covid can’t perform anymore bc they got Covid too many times
To clarify too — the world needs music, but we need music from ALL voices, and that means protecting one another with masking & ventilation, which many artists & venues refuse to factor into their shows these days. It is greatly restricting access to the arts & making it unsafe
Nov 23, 2022 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Idk I’m not a doctor, “just” a voice teacher, but I’ve seen major changes in general vocal & student health lately. My entire job is listening to the nuance of laryngeal vibration and… many are still so inflamed :(
“Just” a voice teacher who spent 6 years in college and has been teaching since 2011
