A seventeen-year-old Texas countertenor cannot audition as a soprano because he’s a boy, and that sort of thing just ain’t done.
According to the boy in question, the TMEA cites “traditional vocal voicings” as reason enough to hold themselves back, obviously while thinking of those great old female liturgical singers that everyone, for some strange reason, calls “castratos”.
Here’s to hoping that the boy somehow rises above this and goes on to great things, leaving the misguided TMEA in a dust-pile of their own making.
I certainly hope that this isn’t the opinion of everyone in the TMEA, and just a bunch of chest-beating from a majority or something.
Certainly they’ve demonstrated ignorance:
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/living/11932885.htm
He’s clearly, errrrr, well, I don’t know where to start listing the things he’s unaware of.
Please don’t take these fuckwits as representative of music teachers. And I hope they’re not representative of Texas music teachers, either.
I would hope not, but I suspect they would say they are, what with their name being the Texas Music Educators’ Association, and all. It’s really too bad. That’s just unnecessarily small-minded.