Ten Girls to Watch by Charity Shumway

Author:Charity Shumway [Shumway, Charity]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Coming of Age, Contemporary Women
ISBN: 9781451673418
Google: 8IHi_CZi2rIC
Amazon: 1451673418
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2012-07-29T16:00:00+00:00

Tanya King,

Spelman College, 1985

_________

THE FILMMAKER

“I’ve always loved movies, and we need more women behind the camera,” Tanya says. She’s off to a great start—her short film, Regaling the Ritz, about a jazz trumpeter, won top honors in Georgia’s student film competition. A jazz trumpeter herself, Tanya plans to keep performing while attending film school in New York.

Chapter Eleven

Regina had given her orders, and so I began my calls to big, famous, amazing women I had no right talking to. I left messages with secretaries and assistants and plotted out possible questions in the event any of them actually called me back. What do you know now that you wish you’d known at twenty-one? Did winning the contest affect your life in any unexpected ways?

A few hours after I placed my first big calls, my phone rang, and I caught my breath, waited another ring, then answered as evenly as possible.

“Hello,” said the voice. “This is Jessie Winston.” Jessica Winston, soprano of Metropolitan Opera and perfume ad fame? Jessie Winston, on my phone?! Her voice sounded regal, crisp but luxurious at the same time, like a layered meringue dessert. I’d seen her just a few months earlier at the Met, descending into madness as Lucia di Lammermoor, trilling away with blood on her gown. The seats had been courtesy of Robert, pre-Lily. Since then I’d considered springing for my own twenty-dollar seat way up in the tippy-top of the theater, just to prove I could access the fine arts all on my own without Robert, thank you very much, but I hadn’t quite gone in for the splurge yet. But here was Lucia di Lammermoor saying hi to me, no opera tickets necessary.

I told her about the anniversary, how excited we were and how we were hoping to bring together as many of the winners as possible. And then I said I obviously had a good idea of what she’d been up to for the past fifteen years, but I’d love to hear a little more about it. Just like that. Nothing more than a little shimmying open the window of invitation, and yet she started pouring her voice through the crack I’d created.

“I’ve been incredibly blessed,” she said, her enunciation sparkling through the receiver. “Any singer who is able to spend her time performing has to acknowledge that. But I think I’ve also been blessed by the mind-body connection this profession fosters.

“Something most people don’t think about is just how physical singing is, and I think that’s what I’m most grateful for in my job. I rely so much on my body that I notice all the tiny differences. If I don’t sleep enough, if I’ve eaten poorly or had a little too much to drink the night before, it comes out in my voice. You can hear my sins. The thing is, everyone relies on their bodies; it’s just harder to hear the screeching when your job is writing or taking care of patients or crunching numbers. That doesn’t mean it’s not there.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.