Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to China!
Kelly and I arrived yesterday, which was Wednesday, October 8th, here in Ningbo. I meant to talk about the preparations I've made for the trip before I came, so I guess I'll start there and move on.
For the last couple of weeks I've been trying to fine tune arias, technique, and languages for my songs and arias in the competition. One of the hardest was my Chineses Lyric Song called I Live at the Source of the Yangtze River. It is very beautiful, but having never sung in Chinese, there are obvious difficulties of the song. To help me prepare I worked with the KU Accompanying Apprentice Kwok Liu from China. I also ran through the pronunciation with the Lyric's Marketing Intern CK. CK let me know that the song is a very popular Chinese song who's melody almost everyone knows. Thanks CK! No pressure to do this song correct at all! After working with both of them I now feel a lot more comfortable with it.
I continued prepartion on Monday, the day before the big trip, with a coaching with Lyric Opera of Kansas City Artistic Director, Ward Holmquist and a final voice lesson at KU with John Stephens. John has been working very systematically with me to help me free my voice and send it out into the hall. While the changes we are making seem very rudimentary and basic, they are making drastic changes to my voice. I'm feeling more connected to my breathe and body than ever before, and I am very grateful for him being that wall of vocalism to keep me on the right track.
As a conductor and coach, Ward has had opportunities to work with some of the best in the world, and this was my first opportunity to work with him so intensly. We worked on Rodrigo's aria from Don Carlos Per me guinto. Ward helped me to really access my musicality and artistic abilities by showing me how to read what the composer left for us in the music score. Never before have I been able to understand a score in such a way. He challenged me to be the artist he knows that I am and wished me well. It was a very treasured coaching for me, and I'm looking to having more opportunities to work with him in the coaching room and on the stage.
Thank you Ward!
After a 50 minute flight to Chicago, 13 hour and 33 minute flight to Shanghai, and a 3 hour bus ride I am now safely and soundly in a beautiful little city called Ningbo, China. It's a very business filled city with lots of traffice, high rise business buildings, and beautiful landscaping. My wife and I were met at the airport by several volunteers of the competition who were English majors at the Ningbo University. They are all very kind and eager to be helpful. I also met several other contestants who traveled with us from the airport to the hotel as well. 
Two American Soprani, Audi from the Washington Opera Young Artist Program, and Lis from Philadelphia. I also met Korean Bariton Il Hun, Hungarian Baritone Janos, and Slovenian Soprano Irena. All were very nice and excited to be here as well.
Today is Thursday and I've had a chance to run through my prelimanary round pieces with my accompnist Long Wu. He is very nice and quite skilled as a pianist. He had to sight read two of my songs, but had not real trouble with either of them. My preliminary round songs are Hai gia vinta la causa, Harlekin's Aria, and Mein herz ist Schwer. I'm feeling very strong vocally and comfortable with my songs. Tonight we draw lots to see what order we will compete in. The singing begins Friday night at 7 p.m. I'll be sure to keep you all informed on my progress and when I'm singing.
Until then God Bless!