Do you like to sing?
Talk?
Breathe?
You can learn a LOT from this week's guest on Stranger Connections podcast.
What if you were a professional singer who learned two decades into your career that you were singing in the wrong vocal range?
Heide Skok had this gain speed bump in her life. Finding her true track, she teaches others how to sing 0 whether it's for fun, or on the stage.
I enjoyed learning more about what Opera really is, why breathing exercises are more than for singing, ho NOT to feel shame as a singer, how self-love is a tool for you voice, and Skok's journey to find what was happening to her voice and vocal chords.
Her new Opera album is out, and you have to check it out:
"Mahler: Ruckert Lieder, Heidi Skok and John Simmons.
Her school is Skokstudio Vocal Instruction (facebook).
Skok is the founder of Resonance Opera and REST vocal technique!
Talk?
Breathe?
You can learn a LOT from this week's guest on Stranger Connections podcast.
What if you were a professional singer who learned two decades into your career that you were singing in the wrong vocal range?
Heide Skok had this gain speed bump in her life. Finding her true track, she teaches others how to sing 0 whether it's for fun, or on the stage.
I enjoyed learning more about what Opera really is, why breathing exercises are more than for singing, ho NOT to feel shame as a singer, how self-love is a tool for you voice, and Skok's journey to find what was happening to her voice and vocal chords.
Her new Opera album is out, and you have to check it out:
"Mahler: Ruckert Lieder, Heidi Skok and John Simmons.
Her school is Skokstudio Vocal Instruction (facebook).
Skok is the founder of Resonance Opera and REST vocal technique!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Operate for me is more than justthe voice. It's theater. I don't
want people to see Heidi Skok onthe stage. I want people to see
Baba. I want people to seeQuaissi. The character has to come to
life. The character sleeps, thecharacter eats, the character breeds, the
character goes to the bathroom. Thecharacter burps. Stranger Connections is the embodiment
of Lisa David Olsen's perspective of we'reall just friends who just simply haven't met
(00:24):
yet. It's an exploration of theweirdly wonderful side of life and a look
at the single commonality we have witheach other, our differences. Slip off
your shoes, pour a cup ofyour favorite and let's meet this week's barrel
of quirks. Welcome to Stranger Connections, where I celebrate wonderfully weird people and
quirky stories. I'm your curious beastand host, Lisa David Olson, the
(00:49):
practically world famous business humorist and interactivespeaker. If you haven't brought me to
your group yet, why haven't you? Let's play all right, So I
want you to subscribe to the showa Stranger Connection, because this episode is
going to have some great links toa brand new album, and I'm so
excited to have this guest. Allright, let me get my intro ready.
(01:11):
Heidi is well known for her workin helping singers to find their voices
and vocal range. Now, aswe talk about this stuff, I want
you guys to realize you don't haveto be a singer to need to find
your vocal range. There's all kindsof things around this, so keep that
in mind. She has traveled theworld and also won some awards. She's
taking time out of her busy scheduleto be with me. She has even
(01:34):
performed at the Metropolitan Opera, CarnegieHall, and I'm sure a whole lot
of places in between. She's avocal instructor and I didn't understand that we
also sing from our pelvic floors,so I'm interested in that. And she
has a brand new album out thatI can't pronounce. Please welcome Heidi Scoke.
Thank you for being on Stranger Connections. Hi, Lisa, thank you
(01:57):
so much for having me. I'mso honored. Well, me and my
pelvic floor are very excited to haveyou on the podcast. Good Good Good,
Yeah, there's breath Support is hugelyimportant, even if you're not a
singer, it's just hugely important.Well, I gotta say I've been digging
through your work on Facebook for along time, and then in preparation for
(02:19):
today's episode, I was looking atsome of your your teaching. You teach
via zoom and you're sitting in youroffice now, so if you're listening in
audio, you'll see this on myYouTube channel. How the heck does a
person become an opera singer? Well, that's an interesting question because I don't
really think I was looking to bean opera singer, to be honest.
I mean, as a kid,I always sang pop. I mean,
(02:42):
my favorite one of my favorite singersin the seventies when I was growing up
as a young child was Donna Summers. So I was always singing and playing
and belting. I had a verybelty voice playing the piano and singing,
and I was always had this lowvoice. As you hear I have this
low voice. But I was toldas a child that that was wrong to
(03:02):
have that voice. So my veryfirst voice teacher, when I was twelve,
pushed the range up high and tookthe chest voice away, which was
the beginning of a tough twenty fiveray, you know, pretty much twenty
to twenty five year vocal journey thatwas really down the wrong track as a
soprano. And so I'm now acontralto. I'd taken me a long time
(03:23):
to find my way, but I'mfinally singing in my authentic voice. So
yeah, I mean, I reallywasn't looking for it. It all just
kind of came to me. Itwas step by step, and then you
know, I just went through KearnegieMellon and then after that I was with
Pittsburgh Opera. I was in thechorus and then he really liked me and
advanced me into singing solo parts.And I made my Pittsburgh Opera debut when
(03:46):
I was twenty in nineteen ninety andit just kind of went from there.
And then I made a recording togo to wolf Trap, which is a
huge launching pad for singers in Americaopera singers, and I was accepted out
of so several hundred applicants, andthen that brought the Metropolitan Opera calling.
Because the meta wolf Trap is reallythat launching pad. Everybody at any opera
(04:09):
company looks at who's going to wolfTrap and so in nineteen ninety one,
I was going to wolf Trap.So I in short ended up having an
invitation to sing for the Metropolitan OperaYoung Artist Development Program, which is now
the Lindemann Program, and I gotin within ten minutes, and so I
did that program for three years fromninety one to ninety four. But it
(04:30):
was tough because I really wasn't asoprano, and there were a lot of
tough I mean, I was vocallyalways fried. I'd have to plan out
my days as to how I wasgoing to get into these rehearsals and do
things without being horse the next daybecause I was literally shoved up. My
larynx was just so high and everythingmade me hoarse. And so even when
I was at wolf Trap. Ihate to admit this, but I do
(04:50):
share this openly because singers, Ijust don't want anybody to feel shame.
I was so afraid to tell anybodythat I was suffering with this vocal range
problem and pain in my throat whenI'd sing and I'd be horse, and
I thought maybe it was something Iwas doing wrong with my technique or something.
So and I was a people pleaser, I always felt I had to
please everybody. So I just kindof, you know, ended up having
(05:13):
to take steroids. Believe it ornot, I was going on the side
I'd never told anybody during you know, when rehearsals, Before rehearsals, I
would go to a voice doctor andask for steroids because I couldn't get through
the performances. And I couldn't figureout why I couldn't get through the performances.
So anyway, long story short,I loved being at the MET,
but it was the wrong range.And then I went away. And then
(05:36):
in ninety seven I asked them whatdid I do wrong? And they said
I had been with the wrong teacher. But that wasn't it. It was
still my journey. Took time tounfold, this whole operatic journey took a
lot of time. And so afterthat, I ended up coming back to
the Met in nineteen ninety eight anddid a lot of singing with them until
two thousand and three when they retiredme. And I thought that was the
(05:57):
worst thing in the world, butit turned out to be the best thing.
I know. It was one ofmy steps towards finding myself. So
and then after that I ended upcrashing and burning in two thousand and six,
when I was singing with the AlbanySymphony Orchestra. It was a really
super high piece with a B naturalat the end, and I just couldn't
do it, and I was goingover it and over it and over it,
and I, you know, friedmy voice. I could barely talk,
(06:19):
and again had to run down toNew York City to the voice doctor
on the side without telling anybody becauseI was ashamed, and took the steroid
shot and came back and I wasable to get through it, but it
wasn't good, and I felt likemy whole journey as this so called soprano
was decent. I mean, Iobviously made it to the Metropolitan Opera and
(06:41):
I'm super grateful for that. Ithink a lot of that was my persistence.
I have a persistent spirit, andsometimes I can also get you into
trouble because I think I kept persistingdown the wrong road. But after that,
I decided, you know, andmy teacher at the time told me
to switch to METSO, which Idid. But long story short, I
had to raise and then I wentthrough a divorce and so things took time,
(07:02):
but I ended up in twenty nineteengetting back to the piano and belting
again and singing these these pop musicthings. And you can find a couple
of my videos on YouTube. Onethat I did was Randy Newman's I Think
It's going to Rain Today, andso that really brought this, ah,
this chess. It kind of broughtme back down to earth to where my
(07:24):
voice was. And so in twentytwenty one, Nayap in New York International
Opera Program was having a blind audition. They called it an anonymous audition project,
and so I said to myself,well, now it's my time to
go into the studio, record somethingin a contralto key, not metso metso's
(07:45):
higher in a contralto key, andsee how I'm received, because nobody will
know that it's me except the gentlemanthat was running the program. Like they
couldn't see you, or they couldn'tsee me. It was a blind voice.
Yeah, it was just the voicethat people were listening to. But
that show the voice. They don'tsee you. They had to spend their
chair around to see who it is, right, I mean, I simply
just wanted Lisa to get the approvalthat I was indeed a contralto and so
(08:09):
I just prepared the one piece.It was a Wagner Aria from destraengul To.
The character's name is Erda, andI recorded it and sent it in
and I made it to the nextround of the semifinals, and so I
did get to sing online, youknow, with a black screen for several
German houses. But I did notadvance past that, and I did not
want to because I only had thatone thing, and I was supposed to
(08:31):
have two and three and you know, four things. So I had told
the director of this anonymous project thatI just wanted that, okay. So
within a week they let me knowthat Jane Eaglan, the famous Wagnerian soprano,
was going to be doing an onlineclass with them for a week and
would I want to be a partof it for Wagnerian singers, and so
I said yes, So I signedup and I sang for Jane, and
(08:54):
the first thing she said was wherehave you been? You know, she
definitely confirmed the contralto for me.And then the following summer I went and
did her Wagnerian program in Boston andthat was wonderful. I really worked up
all my wagner repertoire. But onething led to another, which led to
another, and so I had acareer for twenty plus years as a soprano
and now I'm back out having asecond career, which doesn't happen all the
(09:18):
time, as a contralto. AndI made that debut in twenty twenty three
with Saint Augustine in Saint Augustine withFirst Coast Opera as Baba in the Medium,
and that's one of my primary rolesnow and I had a huge success
with that and then a wonderful cast, wonderful director. And then in the
fall, Tulsa Opera called me atthe last minute, like you know,
(09:39):
I had like less than twenty fourhours notice to jump on a plane to
help them with their production of theMedium because their Baba had had fallen sick.
So I judged them, i know, because Bob has already got so
many issues as it is, shedoesn't need to add that to her.
So yeah, so it was,you know, really kind of interesting because
(10:01):
I had no rehearsal. I justhad a quick walk through and had general
idea of what they were doing.But I just lived into the character.
That's one of my characters, andso, you know, and things have
just rolled from there and now I'mmaking my debut this fall again in Florida
with opera for earth is Quassi anddialogues of the Karmelites and lots of recitals.
I've made my album which I'm superexcited about. It's what's the name
(10:24):
of that? It's The Vasen DunkLeader by Wagner Rich Recard Wagner, and
it's also I also released The RiquitLeader by Maler Gustav Mahler. And I'm
excited because as far as I know, I've researched quite a bit and I
never found anything. So if somebodyfound another contralto key, let me know.
(10:46):
But as far as I know,it's the only contralto key out there,
and to us that may not bein that world. What does that
key mean? It's lower than theit's lower than the typical key that mezzos
and sopranos sing. Wow, Socan we have an example maybe one of
the lines? Can you sing something? So I get the idea and you
get your panel right there? Inderurkeyight is fun? So just lie lows
(11:30):
lies lower. Wow. You know. The other one I think is in
turkey tight and dogging. It's justit's a step for maybe a step and
a half higher, which I can'tget into those higher notes. I really
kind of cap off at a Gas you should have twenty some years ago.
Yeah. Yeah, it's something.No, yeah, that's a life
lesson that is so much more thanjust the strain and putting your body through
(11:54):
the steroid shots is just a quickfix. And that's what you do in
light. Give me that analogy towhat others should do when they feel,
you know, describe that feeling oflike I don't think this is the right
spot. You know, how canwe put that into Hey, people don't
do that? Yeah, don't beafraid. I mean that's my biggest message.
In fact, now I've joined handsI should share with you. I've
(12:15):
joined hands with Cleveland Clinic with theVoice program there, doctor Michael Benninger.
He literally saved my life. Idid have vocal cord surgery because of all
the trouble that I'd had. I'dlove to speak openly about this. I
had vocal cord surgery on November firstof twenty twenty two, and I have
to tell you that in August oftwenty twenty two, everything began to collapse
(12:37):
on me. My voice just beganto shut down. I was so so
vocally fatigued, and I had battledthese voice problems and over the years,
when I did go to a voicedoctor, they always said, well,
you have a case of nodes,and you know, nodules will most likely
ninety nine percent of nodules come off, will will disappear with vocal therapy.
(12:58):
And I've helped a lot lot ofsingers overcome notes because I've been through so
much myself. I do a lotof therapy type work. And so I
called William Riley and Linda Carroll,who were too wonderful, highly regarded vocal
instructors and therapy voice therapy people inthe New York City area and I worked
(13:20):
with them for years and have beendear friends. And I called them up
and said, croaking, I've gotthis problem. And so they called Cleveland
Clinic for me, doctor Michael Benninger, and within twenty four hours, doctor
Benninger had me in his chair andscoped me and he looked at it and
said, wow, you really youhave a polyp on the left chord.
And he thought it had been therefor years. I mean, and that
(13:41):
would make sense because when I wasa child, people were always saying something
was wrong with my voice because itwas a rasp to it. In addition
to the lowness, I always feltlike there was something obstructing me, but
I didn't know. I thought maybethat's what it was, because nobody ever
told me, and I guess Inever shared it because I was afraid to
share it. So long story short, he took it off cooped very easily.
I was quiet for six days anduh, and then I rested my
(14:05):
and then I began therapy with Lindaonline, and within six weeks I was
back to singing, and I hada wonderful debut and things felt so much
easier. In fact, it hadmoved up the voice, the level had
moved up higher, and so Lindainitially thought that I could could sing metso,
but then it very shortly after thatdropped back down to contralto. And
so I don't have those I don'thave the metso range. But I'm so
(14:28):
grateful, and so I openly nowshare the journey because so many singers go
through this. There are so manyfamous singers that go through this and have
these issues, and they're afraid toshare it because they're afraid that they'll be
looked at as like not a goodsinger, or people will be listening to
what they sounded like before the surgeryand then after the surgery. I could
(14:50):
have given a whot about that.You know, I really don't care.
I think my journey, part ofmy journey is to share this. So
in partnering with Cleveland Klinic, they'regoing to be putting my pitching my story
to all the news outlets across thecountry. And because I really want to
help get the message out there tonot be afraid or shamed of vocal issues.
(15:11):
It doesn't mean that you're bad.It doesn't mean that you're a bad
singer. It doesn't mean that youdon't know what you're doing. In my
case, I was in the wrongrange for so long. That was part
of the aggravation. And you hearthat people say I can't sing, Well,
you weren't born knowing how to printyour name. You weren't born knowing
how to walk or just even poura glass of water. So why do
(15:33):
we think, oh, no,I can't sing, I'm too shy.
The bird chips in, So it'sjust like you have to learn it.
So why not put some time intoit. That's what I think too.
Now for people who are let's let'slook at how would you break down what
is opera to like a second grader? Would you? How would you explain
(15:54):
it? Because there is acting incharacter involved. Well, for me,
opera is like it's theater. Imean, I know a lot of people
have different versions of opera. Theythink that it's all about the singing.
Opera for me is more than justthe voice. It's theater. And so
when I step on the stage,I don't want to play any roles anymore
that I can't relate to. Idon't want people to see Heidi Skok on
(16:15):
the stage. I want people tosee Baba. I want people to see
Quasi and my Baba is terrifying.I mean, people leave like wow,
what just happened? You know?The character has to come to life.
The character sleeps, the character eats, The character breathes, This character goes
to the bathroom, the character burps. All of this. I want the
(16:37):
character to not be stiff or unmoving. The character has to be a real
person to me and not just somestaged folly kind of thing, you know
where I was told to move hereand told to move there, which you
do. Yeah, you have tofollow. You have to do that to
the best of your ability, followwhat your director wants. But you have
to bring the character to life.And so so for me, opera has
all of it. It has ithas acting, singing damn saying that,
(17:02):
you know, the production part ofit are paint, you know, arts,
scenic design, it has everything.So it's it's a great art form.
And it's kind of sad that it'skind of seems to be fledgling right
now because you know, people aregetting older the audiences that the tend opera,
and so so many opera companies aretrying to find ways to be interactive
with the younger generation. And it'sit's good. I don't think people say
(17:25):
opera's going to die. I don'tbelieve opera's ever going to die now,
same things we're going through and locallywith our symphony. It's like it's just
evolving. We're trying to get theyounger people in. So you try and
change it to make it different.But I think part of it is to
explain it. Like you're doing nowand you're getting your album out there and
you're actually incorporating your your studio sotell people about your studio. Well,
(17:48):
I love to help voices because Ireally don't want people to go down the
rough road that I went down.So I tend to help all kinds of
voices, pre professional profession and all. The youngest person that I have,
and I've never had a person thisyoung, but she was brilliant. Her
parents asked me to take her,so I looked, and sure enough,
she's four. So the youngest personI take is four. And then I
(18:11):
think the most advanced student that Ihave is nearing eighty years young. So
I don't believe in age limits Itake. You know, I think I
mean, I'm fifty six, andI'm going to say that I feel like
I'm just getting started, Lisa yea. And in the opera world, they
have this age limit where they sayat thirty basically you're cut off, you're
(18:33):
too old. But dear friends,at thirty, you're just getting going.
Yes, And in opera, especiallyfor the Wagnerian voice, it's not unheard
of to just be getting going inyour fifties like I am. So do
you know, don't listen to anyof that. But I love to help
all kinds of voices I have rocksingers, pop singers, jazz singers,
a couple of opera singers, acouple of classical singers, a lot of
musical theater singers. I have singersmaking albums and putting them out on Spotify.
(18:59):
I have some pretty big students workingwith me. Now there's a wonderful
young singer, Naomi Jane. Checkher out on Spotify and all of the
streaming platforms. She's fantastic. She'sgaining a following very very quickly. So
I work with all kinds. Igot singers singing in different opera houses,
you know, everywhere. I mean, I just kind of work. I
love to build technique and I loveto build confidence in singers. I love
(19:23):
to teach self love. And you'vegot oh I'm sorry, self love,
go ahead. Yeah. I thinkthe self love thing is the most important
thing. And the confidence because inthis business, not often are you going
to hear that you're good. Idon't know why that is. People don't
want to praise, and that's thesad thing about it. We're also competitive,
and it's so silly because I'm ahuge believer that there's a place for
(19:45):
all of us. Yes, there'sroom, you know, everybody. Yeah,
otherwise you wouldn't be given your giftand you wouldn't be here as you
know. So yeah, so there'sI don't believe in any of that stuff,
but I help all kinds of singers, and I really I build vocal
technique that really is strong and gentle. I call it rest. It's resonance,
sensory, textile. I believe insensation and feeling things. I show
(20:06):
it through different types of you know, tools that I have here in the
toys. I call them right becauseyou add physical movement. It's not I
don't want people to think you're standingin front of a mic or you're standing
there clutching your hands together old schoolstyle. I've seen you do videos on
a balancing board and working your yourscales and doing physical movement with the breath
(20:29):
work, and then people can lookat your videos and learn more about square
breath, which I learned in therapy, and you use that to ground and
you know, people, if youlook at that for several times a day,
fail your lungs. Right. I'mhuge into breath work. I mean
I start every lesson with positive affirmationcards of all kinds of different kinds,
(20:52):
and I have singers sit in achair and then they put their feet on
this med massage or that I haveso they get their circulation really going through
their feet. I'm in and I'dlove to help you. But you have
a beautiful voice. So my voice, all right? So what what is
my voice? What do we thinkmy key would be? Then I was
in a singing group, but ithad nothing your speaking voice. Your speaking
(21:14):
voice to me sounds like an altoe. An altoe, yeah, like my
voice. I kind of hear myvoice in Yours Gone a day sent to
mental Joel. There you go,There you go. So in order for
you to do that, the breathwork is so hugely important. So after
we do affirmation cards, I doa lot of breathing exercises. I have
(21:37):
eight breathing exercises that I call theScoke Studio Breathing Platform and we work from
there. So and then we dotech work and then people sing what they
want to sing, and we havea good time. It's positive in here,
no negativity. So how can peoplefind that? I know you do
a lot online, so yeah,you would, you would just go to
Skokee Studio. Yes, I do. Like a third of my business is
(21:57):
online. That's really grow I'm lookingat you, Lisa on an eighty two
inch screen, and I have allof the I have my earbuds in my
ears, and I have the setupof the mic, and everything goes through
a mixer, so we really hearyou really well, and we set the
singer up on the other side withall the right settings and all the right
equipment. So I work with peopleall over the country, as far away
(22:19):
as California and then even into Vermont. So and then if you want to
come in too, I'm in theGreater Cleveland area northeast Ohio. I have
people coming in from Akron, WestlakeCleveland, so it's not just Lake County
people and you just come in andyeah. So you'd go to skokestudio dot
(22:41):
org slash lessons and you'd sign upfor a welcome lesson and that's us and
we take it. Ask people understandphonetically yes, s kok Studio one word
at skokestudio dot org slash lessons andcongratulations to get on your new album.
I'll be adding a link to thatas well. I think thank you so
(23:03):
much. I'm so glad you've foundyour voice woman, and that we finally
connected, and I can't let yougo before asking you to share a dare
or a prank story one you knowof, or anything like that, anything
in that realm you know at list. I racked my brain about all of
that, and I've enjoyed watching yourpodcasts and hearing your stories of all the
pranks and that pranking is your passionand I just absolutely loved that. I
(23:26):
love it. I think for me, after really thinking about it, I
think the biggest prank that's ever happenedin my life was going down the wrong
road for twenty plus years as asoprano. I mean, talk about a
prank to yourself, right, youknow right, I'm believing others, yes,
yeah, And I believed others whenthey all were saying I was a
(23:47):
soprano and I'm just not. AndI think it's funny. You got to
laugh at it, Like people say, are you angry about that? People
that did that and helped you godown that wrong road? And I'm like,
absolutely not. I'm still at leastyou found it in some Yeah.
I'm so friendly with all of thembecause they all helped me in some way,
shape or form. And people onlyknow what they can know. And
people only do the best that theycan, and so it's funny. It's
(24:11):
a funny break and some people,yeah it is, and some people may
have said, it just doesn't feelright. I'm not doing this anymore.
Thank goodness to you, Heidi,that you kept with it, you went
through it, you found your beautifulvoice, and you're helping others because otherwise
we wouldn't have your brand new albumout there, and the birds wouldn't be
singing brighter because of you. SoI'm glad you stuck with it and you
(24:33):
didn't give up. I'm honored tohave chatted with you, Heidi Skope.
And remember we can only be strangersonce, and I invite you to stay
weird. I will. I'll joinyou. Thank you, Thank you,
Lisa. This has been Stranger Connectionswith Lisa David Olson
Operate for me is more than justthe voice. It's theater. I don't
want people to see Heidi Skok onthe stage. I want people to see
Baba. I want people to seeQuaissi. The character has to come to
life. The character sleeps, thecharacter eats, the character breeds, the
character goes to the bathroom. Thecharacter burps. Stranger Connections is the embodiment
of Lisa David Olsen's perspective of we'reall just friends who just simply haven't met
(00:24):
yet. It's an exploration of theweirdly wonderful side of life and a look
at the single commonality we have witheach other, our differences. Slip off
your shoes, pour a cup ofyour favorite and let's meet this week's barrel
of quirks. Welcome to Stranger Connections, where I celebrate wonderfully weird people and
quirky stories. I'm your curious beastand host, Lisa David Olson, the
(00:49):
practically world famous business humorist and interactivespeaker. If you haven't brought me to
your group yet, why haven't you? Let's play all right, So I
want you to subscribe to the showa Stranger Connection, because this episode is
going to have some great links toa brand new album, and I'm so
excited to have this guest. Allright, let me get my intro ready.
(01:11):
Heidi is well known for her workin helping singers to find their voices
and vocal range. Now, aswe talk about this stuff, I want
you guys to realize you don't haveto be a singer to need to find
your vocal range. There's all kindsof things around this, so keep that
in mind. She has traveled theworld and also won some awards. She's
taking time out of her busy scheduleto be with me. She has even
(01:34):
performed at the Metropolitan Opera, CarnegieHall, and I'm sure a whole lot
of places in between. She's avocal instructor and I didn't understand that we
also sing from our pelvic floors,so I'm interested in that. And she
has a brand new album out thatI can't pronounce. Please welcome Heidi Scoke.
Thank you for being on Stranger Connections. Hi, Lisa, thank you
(01:57):
so much for having me. I'mso honored. Well, me and my
pelvic floor are very excited to haveyou on the podcast. Good Good Good,
Yeah, there's breath Support is hugelyimportant, even if you're not a
singer, it's just hugely important.Well, I gotta say I've been digging
through your work on Facebook for along time, and then in preparation for
(02:19):
today's episode, I was looking atsome of your your teaching. You teach
via zoom and you're sitting in youroffice now, so if you're listening in
audio, you'll see this on myYouTube channel. How the heck does a
person become an opera singer? Well, that's an interesting question because I don't
really think I was looking to bean opera singer, to be honest.
I mean, as a kid,I always sang pop. I mean,
(02:42):
my favorite one of my favorite singersin the seventies when I was growing up
as a young child was Donna Summers. So I was always singing and playing
and belting. I had a verybelty voice playing the piano and singing,
and I was always had this lowvoice. As you hear I have this
low voice. But I was toldas a child that that was wrong to
(03:02):
have that voice. So my veryfirst voice teacher, when I was twelve,
pushed the range up high and tookthe chest voice away, which was
the beginning of a tough twenty fiveray, you know, pretty much twenty
to twenty five year vocal journey thatwas really down the wrong track as a
soprano. And so I'm now acontralto. I'd taken me a long time
(03:23):
to find my way, but I'mfinally singing in my authentic voice. So
yeah, I mean, I reallywasn't looking for it. It all just
kind of came to me. Itwas step by step, and then you
know, I just went through KearnegieMellon and then after that I was with
Pittsburgh Opera. I was in thechorus and then he really liked me and
advanced me into singing solo parts.And I made my Pittsburgh Opera debut when
(03:46):
I was twenty in nineteen ninety andit just kind of went from there.
And then I made a recording togo to wolf Trap, which is a
huge launching pad for singers in Americaopera singers, and I was accepted out
of so several hundred applicants, andthen that brought the Metropolitan Opera calling.
Because the meta wolf Trap is reallythat launching pad. Everybody at any opera
(04:09):
company looks at who's going to wolfTrap and so in nineteen ninety one,
I was going to wolf Trap.So I in short ended up having an
invitation to sing for the Metropolitan OperaYoung Artist Development Program, which is now
the Lindemann Program, and I gotin within ten minutes, and so I
did that program for three years fromninety one to ninety four. But it
(04:30):
was tough because I really wasn't asoprano, and there were a lot of
tough I mean, I was vocallyalways fried. I'd have to plan out
my days as to how I wasgoing to get into these rehearsals and do
things without being horse the next daybecause I was literally shoved up. My
larynx was just so high and everythingmade me hoarse. And so even when
I was at wolf Trap. Ihate to admit this, but I do
(04:50):
share this openly because singers, Ijust don't want anybody to feel shame.
I was so afraid to tell anybodythat I was suffering with this vocal range
problem and pain in my throat whenI'd sing and I'd be horse, and
I thought maybe it was something Iwas doing wrong with my technique or something.
So and I was a people pleaser, I always felt I had to
please everybody. So I just kindof, you know, ended up having
(05:13):
to take steroids. Believe it ornot, I was going on the side
I'd never told anybody during you know, when rehearsals, Before rehearsals, I
would go to a voice doctor andask for steroids because I couldn't get through
the performances. And I couldn't figureout why I couldn't get through the performances.
So anyway, long story short,I loved being at the MET,
but it was the wrong range.And then I went away. And then
(05:36):
in ninety seven I asked them whatdid I do wrong? And they said
I had been with the wrong teacher. But that wasn't it. It was
still my journey. Took time tounfold, this whole operatic journey took a
lot of time. And so afterthat, I ended up coming back to
the Met in nineteen ninety eight anddid a lot of singing with them until
two thousand and three when they retiredme. And I thought that was the
(05:57):
worst thing in the world, butit turned out to be the best thing.
I know. It was one ofmy steps towards finding myself. So
and then after that I ended upcrashing and burning in two thousand and six,
when I was singing with the AlbanySymphony Orchestra. It was a really
super high piece with a B naturalat the end, and I just couldn't
do it, and I was goingover it and over it and over it,
and I, you know, friedmy voice. I could barely talk,
(06:19):
and again had to run down toNew York City to the voice doctor
on the side without telling anybody becauseI was ashamed, and took the steroid
shot and came back and I wasable to get through it, but it
wasn't good, and I felt likemy whole journey as this so called soprano
was decent. I mean, Iobviously made it to the Metropolitan Opera and
(06:41):
I'm super grateful for that. Ithink a lot of that was my persistence.
I have a persistent spirit, andsometimes I can also get you into
trouble because I think I kept persistingdown the wrong road. But after that,
I decided, you know, andmy teacher at the time told me
to switch to METSO, which Idid. But long story short, I
had to raise and then I wentthrough a divorce and so things took time,
(07:02):
but I ended up in twenty nineteengetting back to the piano and belting
again and singing these these pop musicthings. And you can find a couple
of my videos on YouTube. Onethat I did was Randy Newman's I Think
It's going to Rain Today, andso that really brought this, ah,
this chess. It kind of broughtme back down to earth to where my
(07:24):
voice was. And so in twentytwenty one, Nayap in New York International
Opera Program was having a blind audition. They called it an anonymous audition project,
and so I said to myself,well, now it's my time to
go into the studio, record somethingin a contralto key, not metso metso's
(07:45):
higher in a contralto key, andsee how I'm received, because nobody will
know that it's me except the gentlemanthat was running the program. Like they
couldn't see you, or they couldn'tsee me. It was a blind voice.
Yeah, it was just the voicethat people were listening to. But
that show the voice. They don'tsee you. They had to spend their
chair around to see who it is, right, I mean, I simply
just wanted Lisa to get the approvalthat I was indeed a contralto and so
(08:09):
I just prepared the one piece.It was a Wagner Aria from destraengul To.
The character's name is Erda, andI recorded it and sent it in
and I made it to the nextround of the semifinals, and so I
did get to sing online, youknow, with a black screen for several
German houses. But I did notadvance past that, and I did not
want to because I only had thatone thing, and I was supposed to
(08:31):
have two and three and you know, four things. So I had told
the director of this anonymous project thatI just wanted that, okay. So
within a week they let me knowthat Jane Eaglan, the famous Wagnerian soprano,
was going to be doing an onlineclass with them for a week and
would I want to be a partof it for Wagnerian singers, and so
I said yes, So I signedup and I sang for Jane, and
(08:54):
the first thing she said was wherehave you been? You know, she
definitely confirmed the contralto for me.And then the following summer I went and
did her Wagnerian program in Boston andthat was wonderful. I really worked up
all my wagner repertoire. But onething led to another, which led to
another, and so I had acareer for twenty plus years as a soprano
and now I'm back out having asecond career, which doesn't happen all the
(09:18):
time, as a contralto. AndI made that debut in twenty twenty three
with Saint Augustine in Saint Augustine withFirst Coast Opera as Baba in the Medium,
and that's one of my primary rolesnow and I had a huge success
with that and then a wonderful cast, wonderful director. And then in the
fall, Tulsa Opera called me atthe last minute, like you know,
(09:39):
I had like less than twenty fourhours notice to jump on a plane to
help them with their production of theMedium because their Baba had had fallen sick.
So I judged them, i know, because Bob has already got so
many issues as it is, shedoesn't need to add that to her.
So yeah, so it was,you know, really kind of interesting because
(10:01):
I had no rehearsal. I justhad a quick walk through and had general
idea of what they were doing.But I just lived into the character.
That's one of my characters, andso, you know, and things have
just rolled from there and now I'mmaking my debut this fall again in Florida
with opera for earth is Quassi anddialogues of the Karmelites and lots of recitals.
I've made my album which I'm superexcited about. It's what's the name
(10:24):
of that? It's The Vasen DunkLeader by Wagner Rich Recard Wagner, and
it's also I also released The RiquitLeader by Maler Gustav Mahler. And I'm
excited because as far as I know, I've researched quite a bit and I
never found anything. So if somebodyfound another contralto key, let me know.
(10:46):
But as far as I know,it's the only contralto key out there,
and to us that may not bein that world. What does that
key mean? It's lower than theit's lower than the typical key that mezzos
and sopranos sing. Wow, Socan we have an example maybe one of
the lines? Can you sing something? So I get the idea and you
get your panel right there? Inderurkeyight is fun? So just lie lows
(11:30):
lies lower. Wow. You know. The other one I think is in
turkey tight and dogging. It's justit's a step for maybe a step and
a half higher, which I can'tget into those higher notes. I really
kind of cap off at a Gas you should have twenty some years ago.
Yeah. Yeah, it's something.No, yeah, that's a life
lesson that is so much more thanjust the strain and putting your body through
(11:54):
the steroid shots is just a quickfix. And that's what you do in
light. Give me that analogy towhat others should do when they feel,
you know, describe that feeling oflike I don't think this is the right
spot. You know, how canwe put that into Hey, people don't
do that? Yeah, don't beafraid. I mean that's my biggest message.
In fact, now I've joined handsI should share with you. I've
(12:15):
joined hands with Cleveland Clinic with theVoice program there, doctor Michael Benninger.
He literally saved my life. Idid have vocal cord surgery because of all
the trouble that I'd had. I'dlove to speak openly about this. I
had vocal cord surgery on November firstof twenty twenty two, and I have
to tell you that in August oftwenty twenty two, everything began to collapse
(12:37):
on me. My voice just beganto shut down. I was so so
vocally fatigued, and I had battledthese voice problems and over the years,
when I did go to a voicedoctor, they always said, well,
you have a case of nodes,and you know, nodules will most likely
ninety nine percent of nodules come off, will will disappear with vocal therapy.
(12:58):
And I've helped a lot lot ofsingers overcome notes because I've been through so
much myself. I do a lotof therapy type work. And so I
called William Riley and Linda Carroll,who were too wonderful, highly regarded vocal
instructors and therapy voice therapy people inthe New York City area and I worked
(13:20):
with them for years and have beendear friends. And I called them up
and said, croaking, I've gotthis problem. And so they called Cleveland
Clinic for me, doctor Michael Benninger, and within twenty four hours, doctor
Benninger had me in his chair andscoped me and he looked at it and
said, wow, you really youhave a polyp on the left chord.
And he thought it had been therefor years. I mean, and that
(13:41):
would make sense because when I wasa child, people were always saying something
was wrong with my voice because itwas a rasp to it. In addition
to the lowness, I always feltlike there was something obstructing me, but
I didn't know. I thought maybethat's what it was, because nobody ever
told me, and I guess Inever shared it because I was afraid to
share it. So long story short, he took it off cooped very easily.
I was quiet for six days anduh, and then I rested my
(14:05):
and then I began therapy with Lindaonline, and within six weeks I was
back to singing, and I hada wonderful debut and things felt so much
easier. In fact, it hadmoved up the voice, the level had
moved up higher, and so Lindainitially thought that I could could sing metso,
but then it very shortly after thatdropped back down to contralto. And
so I don't have those I don'thave the metso range. But I'm so
(14:28):
grateful, and so I openly nowshare the journey because so many singers go
through this. There are so manyfamous singers that go through this and have
these issues, and they're afraid toshare it because they're afraid that they'll be
looked at as like not a goodsinger, or people will be listening to
what they sounded like before the surgeryand then after the surgery. I could
(14:50):
have given a whot about that.You know, I really don't care.
I think my journey, part ofmy journey is to share this. So
in partnering with Cleveland Klinic, they'regoing to be putting my pitching my story
to all the news outlets across thecountry. And because I really want to
help get the message out there tonot be afraid or shamed of vocal issues.
(15:11):
It doesn't mean that you're bad.It doesn't mean that you're a bad
singer. It doesn't mean that youdon't know what you're doing. In my
case, I was in the wrongrange for so long. That was part
of the aggravation. And you hearthat people say I can't sing, Well,
you weren't born knowing how to printyour name. You weren't born knowing
how to walk or just even poura glass of water. So why do
(15:33):
we think, oh, no,I can't sing, I'm too shy.
The bird chips in, So it'sjust like you have to learn it.
So why not put some time intoit. That's what I think too.
Now for people who are let's let'slook at how would you break down what
is opera to like a second grader? Would you? How would you explain
(15:54):
it? Because there is acting incharacter involved. Well, for me,
opera is like it's theater. Imean, I know a lot of people
have different versions of opera. Theythink that it's all about the singing.
Opera for me is more than justthe voice. It's theater. And so
when I step on the stage,I don't want to play any roles anymore
that I can't relate to. Idon't want people to see Heidi Skok on
(16:15):
the stage. I want people tosee Baba. I want people to see
Quasi and my Baba is terrifying.I mean, people leave like wow,
what just happened? You know?The character has to come to life.
The character sleeps, the character eats, The character breathes, This character goes
to the bathroom, the character burps. All of this. I want the
(16:37):
character to not be stiff or unmoving. The character has to be a real
person to me and not just somestaged folly kind of thing, you know
where I was told to move hereand told to move there, which you
do. Yeah, you have tofollow. You have to do that to
the best of your ability, followwhat your director wants. But you have
to bring the character to life.And so so for me, opera has
all of it. It has ithas acting, singing damn saying that,
(17:02):
you know, the production part ofit are paint, you know, arts,
scenic design, it has everything.So it's it's a great art form.
And it's kind of sad that it'skind of seems to be fledgling right
now because you know, people aregetting older the audiences that the tend opera,
and so so many opera companies aretrying to find ways to be interactive
with the younger generation. And it'sit's good. I don't think people say
(17:25):
opera's going to die. I don'tbelieve opera's ever going to die now,
same things we're going through and locallywith our symphony. It's like it's just
evolving. We're trying to get theyounger people in. So you try and
change it to make it different.But I think part of it is to
explain it. Like you're doing nowand you're getting your album out there and
you're actually incorporating your your studio sotell people about your studio. Well,
(17:48):
I love to help voices because Ireally don't want people to go down the
rough road that I went down.So I tend to help all kinds of
voices, pre professional profession and all. The youngest person that I have,
and I've never had a person thisyoung, but she was brilliant. Her
parents asked me to take her,so I looked, and sure enough,
she's four. So the youngest personI take is four. And then I
(18:11):
think the most advanced student that Ihave is nearing eighty years young. So
I don't believe in age limits Itake. You know, I think I
mean, I'm fifty six, andI'm going to say that I feel like
I'm just getting started, Lisa yea. And in the opera world, they
have this age limit where they sayat thirty basically you're cut off, you're
(18:33):
too old. But dear friends,at thirty, you're just getting going.
Yes, And in opera, especiallyfor the Wagnerian voice, it's not unheard
of to just be getting going inyour fifties like I am. So do
you know, don't listen to anyof that. But I love to help
all kinds of voices I have rocksingers, pop singers, jazz singers,
a couple of opera singers, acouple of classical singers, a lot of
musical theater singers. I have singersmaking albums and putting them out on Spotify.
(18:59):
I have some pretty big students workingwith me. Now there's a wonderful
young singer, Naomi Jane. Checkher out on Spotify and all of the
streaming platforms. She's fantastic. She'sgaining a following very very quickly. So
I work with all kinds. Igot singers singing in different opera houses,
you know, everywhere. I mean, I just kind of work. I
love to build technique and I loveto build confidence in singers. I love
(19:23):
to teach self love. And you'vegot oh I'm sorry, self love,
go ahead. Yeah. I thinkthe self love thing is the most important
thing. And the confidence because inthis business, not often are you going
to hear that you're good. Idon't know why that is. People don't
want to praise, and that's thesad thing about it. We're also competitive,
and it's so silly because I'm ahuge believer that there's a place for
(19:45):
all of us. Yes, there'sroom, you know, everybody. Yeah,
otherwise you wouldn't be given your giftand you wouldn't be here as you
know. So yeah, so there'sI don't believe in any of that stuff,
but I help all kinds of singers, and I really I build vocal
technique that really is strong and gentle. I call it rest. It's resonance,
sensory, textile. I believe insensation and feeling things. I show
(20:06):
it through different types of you know, tools that I have here in the
toys. I call them right becauseyou add physical movement. It's not I
don't want people to think you're standingin front of a mic or you're standing
there clutching your hands together old schoolstyle. I've seen you do videos on
a balancing board and working your yourscales and doing physical movement with the breath
(20:29):
work, and then people can lookat your videos and learn more about square
breath, which I learned in therapy, and you use that to ground and
you know, people, if youlook at that for several times a day,
fail your lungs. Right. I'mhuge into breath work. I mean
I start every lesson with positive affirmationcards of all kinds of different kinds,
(20:52):
and I have singers sit in achair and then they put their feet on
this med massage or that I haveso they get their circulation really going through
their feet. I'm in and I'dlove to help you. But you have
a beautiful voice. So my voice, all right? So what what is
my voice? What do we thinkmy key would be? Then I was
in a singing group, but ithad nothing your speaking voice. Your speaking
(21:14):
voice to me sounds like an altoe. An altoe, yeah, like my
voice. I kind of hear myvoice in Yours Gone a day sent to
mental Joel. There you go,There you go. So in order for
you to do that, the breathwork is so hugely important. So after
we do affirmation cards, I doa lot of breathing exercises. I have
(21:37):
eight breathing exercises that I call theScoke Studio Breathing Platform and we work from
there. So and then we dotech work and then people sing what they
want to sing, and we havea good time. It's positive in here,
no negativity. So how can peoplefind that? I know you do
a lot online, so yeah,you would, you would just go to
Skokee Studio. Yes, I do. Like a third of my business is
(21:57):
online. That's really grow I'm lookingat you, Lisa on an eighty two
inch screen, and I have allof the I have my earbuds in my
ears, and I have the setupof the mic, and everything goes through
a mixer, so we really hearyou really well, and we set the
singer up on the other side withall the right settings and all the right
equipment. So I work with peopleall over the country, as far away
(22:19):
as California and then even into Vermont. So and then if you want to
come in too, I'm in theGreater Cleveland area northeast Ohio. I have
people coming in from Akron, WestlakeCleveland, so it's not just Lake County
people and you just come in andyeah. So you'd go to skokestudio dot
(22:41):
org slash lessons and you'd sign upfor a welcome lesson and that's us and
we take it. Ask people understandphonetically yes, s kok Studio one word
at skokestudio dot org slash lessons andcongratulations to get on your new album.
I'll be adding a link to thatas well. I think thank you so
(23:03):
much. I'm so glad you've foundyour voice woman, and that we finally
connected, and I can't let yougo before asking you to share a dare
or a prank story one you knowof, or anything like that, anything
in that realm you know at list. I racked my brain about all of
that, and I've enjoyed watching yourpodcasts and hearing your stories of all the
pranks and that pranking is your passionand I just absolutely loved that. I
(23:26):
love it. I think for me, after really thinking about it, I
think the biggest prank that's ever happenedin my life was going down the wrong
road for twenty plus years as asoprano. I mean, talk about a
prank to yourself, right, youknow right, I'm believing others, yes,
yeah, And I believed others whenthey all were saying I was a
(23:47):
soprano and I'm just not. AndI think it's funny. You got to
laugh at it, Like people say, are you angry about that? People
that did that and helped you godown that wrong road? And I'm like,
absolutely not. I'm still at leastyou found it in some Yeah.
I'm so friendly with all of thembecause they all helped me in some way,
shape or form. And people onlyknow what they can know. And
people only do the best that theycan, and so it's funny. It's
(24:11):
a funny break and some people,yeah it is, and some people may
have said, it just doesn't feelright. I'm not doing this anymore.
Thank goodness to you, Heidi,that you kept with it, you went
through it, you found your beautifulvoice, and you're helping others because otherwise
we wouldn't have your brand new albumout there, and the birds wouldn't be
singing brighter because of you. SoI'm glad you stuck with it and you
(24:33):
didn't give up. I'm honored tohave chatted with you, Heidi Skope.
And remember we can only be strangersonce, and I invite you to stay
weird. I will. I'll joinyou. Thank you, Thank you,
Lisa. This has been Stranger Connectionswith Lisa David Olson
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