Re:sound #93: The Singing Show

This hour: a Japanese blues singer, an aging opera fan, and homemade recordings of a rural children's choir.

Opera Mom
by Matt Glaser and Dean Olsher (The Next Big Thing, 2002)
Jazz violinist Matt Glaser grew up in a musical household. And the connection his mother had to music was so strong that, in her later years, despite her debilitating loss of memory, it was one of the only things that kept her connected to her surroundings and her family.

Musical Migrants: Yoko Noge
by Rachel Hopkin (Falling Tree Productions, 2008)
Yoko Noge moved from Osaka, Japan, halfway around the world to the west side of Chicago for one reason only: the blues. Her first home here was a cockroach-infested, $20-a-night hotel, but she was too excited to care. She just wanted to learn how to sing.

Langley Schools Music Project
by Katie Mingle (Re:sound premiere, 2008)
In Canada in the 1970s, music teacher Hans Fenger recorded 60 of his students singing in a gymnasium and pressed a few records to hand out to parents. The recording was revived in 2000 and turned out to be an unexpected hit, climbing to the top of the billboard charts and spawning a VH1 documentary. Not bad for an amateur kid's choir.

Middle C
by Tristan Whiston and Carma Jolly (Outfront, CBC, 2007)
Tristan Whiston performed as a solo soprano for the first time at the age of six and, after years of hard work, enjoyed an accomplished singing career. But eventually, Tristan gave up one of the most precious things a singer has as he made the transition from female to male.

This episode of Re:sound was produced by Delaney Hall.