The picture above was taken at the Fordham Christmas Festival of Lessons and Carols, which this year is happening on December 7th and 8th. It's a great event for the Fordham University Choir (as I mentioned in a previous article), and it certainly is a great time for me as a long-term University Choir member. Anyone who's big into artsy things will probably tell you rather emphatically that they are essential to the flourishing of human existence, and that's true. I've been immeasurably enriched by my time in University Choir. At any rate, though, my singing wouldn't have grown as it has in the past few years if it weren't for taking voice lessons through Fordham. Since this evening is the student recital and I'll be singing in it, here's an affirmation of the value of voice lessons.

I never took voice lessons until my sophomore year at Fordham. I'd always liked singing, I'd grown a lot in my musicianship during my time in my high school choir and so far at Fordham, and people generally tell me that I'm good at singing. I started taking lessons because one of my choral directors told me that she recommends that everyone take lessons. And that's true. Lucille Ball said that no one can teach you comedy: you either have it or you don't. That's correct, I suppose, but a good instructor will draw it out of you. (The same holds true with poetry classes. Raw talent is one thing; the guidance of others is indispensable in development. When you're an autodidact, it can be difficult to see past your own blindspots—pardon the ableist metaphor.) I've learned lots of things about my voice that I wouldn't know if I'd never taken lessons, and that's the point. (And my voice teacher, Elaine Lachica, is a swell person.)

Nietzsche made a fuss (while stiff in his pro-Wagner phase) over how art needs an ordering element, but the inner, raw, energetic element is really what's essential. That, I suppose, is true; and voice lessons are one example of the necessary ordering element for the production of today's generation of people who know how to integrate art into their lives. May the Fordham recital tonight go well for everyone participating, and may it be a great deal of fun.