The Steinway in my voice class room. It was completely overhauled last summer and looks and sounds much better, but goes out of tune quickly. Today I had my first voice lesson of the semester, three weeks late. My voice teacher is a lot like a personal trainer in the gym, always getting more out of me than I would otherwise give. He has somewhat controversial methods of teaching voice that he picked up from Ray Buckingham in NYC in the early 1970s. He knows how to go to the cause of the sound instead of the effect. His methods have been effective in teaching me how to sing well. But I've got a long way to go and a fairly small voice, so you won't see me at the Met or La Scala.

Tonight I also went to my first rehearsal with a Catholic University chorus--The Town and Gown Singers. I'm a "townie." They are non-audition, which was a big plus since I can't sight-sing, and that's a common requirement of the really good choruses here. T&G has a much more relaxed atmosphere than the group I sang with the previous two years. Not as good (by a long shot), but I wasn't enjoying rehearsals with them....Tonight we had some Russian black bread and cream cheese with chopped onion; and pita bread with homemade humus during the break.

(I'll work on a better photo of the Steinway during the semester.)