Amity Matthews Enhances Her Operatic Capacity

By Mike Tanchevski

Gill

St. Bernard’s graduate Amity

Matthews is pursuing her passion for opera following her 2018 graduation. Her calling as a classical singer was born in New Jersey, fostered on the West Coast, and is being honed in the Rockies, where she is a vocal performance student at Colorado State University.

Amity was initially drawn to Loyola Marymount for the energetic life of the city and the beautiful weather.

“When I first visited LMU, I immediately fell in love. Aside from being gorgeous, the campus felt like the perfect place for me. I looked around at the students I saw and could really see myself as one of them,” Amity said.

Loyola Marymount’s enrollment, slightly over 6,500 students, was another factor in her college choice. “Coming from a smaller private school, I really valued the small class sizes and wanted to find a university that would treat me the same way, Amity said. “The music department at LMU was very small, but that meant that I had a great relationship with all my professors, always had someone to turn to with questions, and had a much more individualized education.”

Classical singers develop their own career pathways, some begin auditioning for roles immediately after graduating college, and others choose to attend graduate school. “I chose to pursue a master’s in vocal performance at Colorado State University because I knew that I needed more work on all aspects of my technique,” Amity said. “Our singing voices continue to mature as we age, so my voice right now at 22 won’t sound the same at 32.”

Preparation as a classical singer is multifaceted and encompasses specialized techniques like breathing, knowledge of foreign languages, pronunciations, and physical performance movements, all part of her graduate program. “I knew the extra two years of vocal training would benefit me. In addition, I get to take two more years of different languages, opera history courses, song literature classes, and perform in various operas, all of which allow me to further hone the areas of my skill,” Amity said. “Having two more years of school and a higher education degree will help me feel more confident when I start my performance career.”

The young singer believes an important element to a good performance is a technique, that pairs with breathing. “Knowing how to properly breathe, support, and sing each piece means I’ll be less likely to strain my voice and injure my vocal cords,” Amity said. “This takes a lot of time, even for someone like me who’s been doing this for a few years.”

Another element of a good performance is the lyrics and their pronunciation. “I also spend lots of time going over the lyrics and their meanings,” Amity said. “ I sing mainly in English, German, Italian, and French but I’m only fluent in one of those, which means I have to spend extra time working on my pronunciations in order to properly sing each word.”

Opera singers also practice acclimating to the proper attire for each role. “I also focus on performance practice, which means continued on page 6