Serenades Choral Travel, a wonderful and transformational organization I have been blessed to sing with seven times now, will be celebrating its 15th season—and I am happy to announce that I will be singing with them this summer in Sicily!

Originally based in Spoleto, Italy, Serenades Choral Travel (formerly Umbrian Serenades) has traveled to Soria, Spain, and is now based in Noto, Sicily—a stunningly beautiful Baroque city.

I use the word “transformational” in my first paragraph deliberately, my third season in the summer of 2013 having a profound impact. Yes, I had an amazing vacation. But it was more than that. I came away that summer with a striking clarity of purpose, purpose which translated into action.

I knew a book wanted to be written, but hadn’t yet committed to making it happen, my experience with Serenades Choral Travel (now rebranded from Umbrian Serenades) setting into motion the process which resulted in Hidden in Plain Sight: The Hermann Klein Phono-Vocal Method Based upon the Famous School of Manuel Garcia finding its way back into the world. Consequently, the Janet Spencer accompanying recordings found me and were reunited with Klein.

How cool is that?

Those who are involved in literary pursuits will know that novelists frequently refer to their characters as independent entities, speaking and acting—if you will—from a Platonic realm where their existence is brought into being by an instrument of dictation. This has been my felt experience as a non-fiction writer. In my case, I heard Klein whispering in my ear for quite a long time before I got up the courage to bring his words back into the world, the cauldron of choral art enabling me to go from listening to taking action.

The practical process?

If you really listen to yourself, that is, feel yourself singing at a high level (which involves correct voice placement), you will eventually “know” yourself in a way that goes beyond the physical realm and into metaphysics—the psychological and spiritual realms. And if you pay attention long enough, you will find yourself not only knowing what to do but how to do it.

To put things another way: Manuel García the Elder once said that singing involved pulling yourself up through yourself.

All I can say is that he was right.

Come sing with me in Sicily.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia