Showing 7 of 7 quotes
Vocal study before age 20 is likely to be injurious, though some survive it in the hands of very careful and understanding teachers. ”
One does not study for a goal. One sings because one can't help it! The 'goal' nine times out of ten is a mere accident. ”
Inspired by the purse rather than the soul, the mercenary side fairly screams in many of the works put out by every day American publishers. ”
The student who deceives himself into thinking that he is giving his life like an ascetic in the spirit of sacrifice for art, is the victim of a deplorable species of egotism. ”
Time and again, a student will send me an urgent appeal to hear her, saying she is poor and wants my advice as to whether it is worthwhile to continue her studies. I invariably refuse such requests, saying that if the student could give up her work on my advice, she had better give it up without it. ”
Just as the bird sings or the butterfly soars, because it is his natural characteristic, so the artist works. ”
Acquiring a repertoire in these days, when the vocal literature is so immense, so overwhelming, that the student with sense will devote all his energies to work and not imagine himself a martyr to art. ”