Where's My Freaking Dressing Room?!

With the Christmas audition season just around the corner Alex and Helen thought it was about time they revisited this topic. In this week's episode they discuss the advice they wish they'd been given before they started auditioning for music college. Alex and Helen talk about travel plans, how to handle seeing people you know, the dreaded rejections and a whole lot more in between.

If you've got an audition coming up soon, this is the episode for you.

Episode edited and produced by Daisy Grant Productions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To celebrate the first anniversary of 'Where's My Freaking Dressing Room?!' Alex and Helen decided to organise a dinner party and were delighted to be joined by their close friend and food and fine-wine enthusiast, Henrietta Gullifer. Having trained at Leith's Cookery School and worked at Berry Brothers & Rudd for over five years, Alex and Helen felt Hetty was the perfect guest for their dinner party.

For their anniversary meal Alex and Helen curated a four-course musical menu, featuring four of their favourite operatic moments. They then tasked Hetty with delivering a food and wine pairing to accompany the music.

Join Alex, Helen and Hetty for their one year anniversary dinner party, welcoming you in with a glass of champagne in the dizzying heights of Montmartre, moving on to a light crustini starter in Mantua, followed by a sumptuous duck main-course in Paris and closing the evening out with a chocolate bomb to accompany the richest of German romantic music.

If you like the sound of this music, food and wine menu and want more information then say no more:

• We've loaded up a spotify playlist of our dinner party opera bangers for your listening enjoyment (including a few bonus additions, you’re welcome).
• Check out Hetty’s step-by-step recipes for her four-course food menu.
• All wines discussed are available to purchase via Berry Bros. & Rudd, for more information check out our website.

Our huge thanks go to Hetty for taking on the challenge and delivering such a delicious menu in the middle of the recording process. And our thanks, as ever, to the incredible Daisy Grant Productions for editing and producing this episode.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There are three ps that come with a career in music and no, we don't mean pianississimo!

Practice. Performance. Pressure.

In every aspect of a musician's career there is an undeniable element of pressure. This week Alex and Helen dig into the different types of pressure musicians experience, from self-applied pressure to pressure exerted by colleagues and friends. They talk about both the bad and good effects of pressure, considering how in some cases performers can even benefit from a little pressure. They offer you their top tips on how best to deal with pressure, encouraging you to focus on the present moment and to trust that it's more about the entire artistic process than the end product.

Edited and produced by Daisy Grant Productions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every September Alex and Helen get that same ‘back to school’ feeling. For Helen, it’s a period of excitement as she buys far too much stationery and looks forward to getting stuck in to a new artistic year. For Alex, it’s a period of dread as he realises the summer is waning and winter is on its way. In this episode they explore what September, and the start of a new artistic year, means to both of them.

During the episode they talk about hopes for the coming year, they take stock of the year just gone and they offer you some advice if you’re starting something afresh this September. Whether it be a new job, a new course, a new house, or perhaps nothing new at all, they encourage you to take time to reflect, assess, and positively move forward.

Edited by the fantastic Daisy Grant Productions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Alex and Helen discuss how to make the most of your contacts.

The classical music industry is a small, small world. No matter where you go or what you do, everyone seems to know everyone! Alex and Helen talk about both the pros and cons of this intimate and well-connected industry, but more importantly they give YOU the tools to make the most of your own contacts. They offer some simple and effective networking tips and they encourage you to get out there and learn to network with confidence.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As musicians and performers we are trained throughout our careers to develop a critical ear, one that can assess the quality of a performance and decide what needs to be worked on in order to improve and progress. However, although this critical ear is a vital tool in our industry, it can also be our worst enemy. Present during practice sessions, rehearsals and even performances, the inner critic can often take over and attack our confidence and self-belief.

In this episode we discuss how we've experienced the inner critic during private practice sessions, rehearsals with colleagues, performances and even post-show events. We talk about how it's affected us but, most importantly, how we've learnt to handle it. Using mindfulness, journalling and objective assessments, we've found ways of controlling the inner critic, accessing it during crucial periods of self-reflection but putting it to one side when in practice, rehearsal and live performance.

Edited by the fantastic Daisy Grant.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most people think that football and classical music have nothing in common. Alex and Helen are here to debunk that myth, opening series 2 of 'Where's My Freaking Dressing Room?!' with an episode on the recent football-mania which engulfed England over the course of the Euros.

Helen was exposed to relentless hours of football coverage, Alex saw none; but together they use this episode to discuss the England football team, manager Gareth Southgate, and lessons they think the classical music industry can learn from football.

This episode sees them talk about:

• Gareth Southgate's focus on the England team's mental health and wellbeing
• The successful way in which the England team bonded
• How the team and each player handled those dreaded penalties
• Gareth Southgate's attitude towards subs, working tirelessly to make each player feel like a valued member of the team

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SPECIAL EDITION EPISODE!

This week Helen is taking over the podcast to present the research project she's been working on over the last year:

"As I hope many of our regular listeners know, one of the main aims of Where's My Freaking Dressing Room?! is to provide an open and honest account of what it can be like to be a classical musician in the UK. Since September 2020 I have been conducting a research project as part of my master’s degree at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. This research project has seen me conduct interviews with a cross-section of UK-based singers and opera companies to discuss the combined effects of the Coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, two events which undoubtedly took hold of our country throughout 2020.

This episode takes the form of a round-table discussion with four very special guests:

Monique Foulger (Opera Holland Park Associate Producer), 

Johnny Langridge (Garsington Opera Director of Development and Communications), 

Annie Lydford (Nevill Holt Opera Managing Director) 

Internationally acclaimed soprano Gweneth Ann Rand.

In this episode I ask my guests for their thoughts and comments on three themes that were highly prevalent throughout my research and I explore some of the work being done by these opera companies both in terms of supporting their artistic and administrative community during the pandemic, as well as their commitment to improving diversity.

The three overwhelming themes which dominated my research were:

1. A new sense of community which formed in the immediate months following the pandemic.

2. A lack of financial clarity as to how freelance creatives earned their living, brutally highlighted by the government's insufficient Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.

3. A fear that the industry would not have learnt any lessons following the pandemic, in particular the conflicting motives of needing to sell tickets and generate sales vs needing to promote creatives from underrepresented backgrounds in all areas of the industry.  

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.