Linda: Why I Sing
“Shut up and sing!” I have probably heard those words no less than 100 times over the course of my singing life. I sing because I have basically been commanded todo so from a litany of very patient, very dedicated teachers. Every single one of them coerced and pushed and forced and yelled me into singing. Not that I didn’t want to sing. I really did. I just liked socializing and laughing and chatting a whole lot more. Still do, in fact. But in order to understand why I sing, we need to start at the beginning regarding these near-angelic teachers and mentors of my musical life. A sort of sprawling “Mr. Holland’s Opus”, if you will, going all the way back to CY Junior High in Casper, Wyoming. My first choir teacher, Mrs. Deutsch, often screamed at me so loudly that the veins in her neck stood out. She ranted and raved, yet on and on I chatted during 7th grade choir. I knew I could carry a tune and enjoyed it greatly. But as we were learning “Fly Like an Eagle” (yes, the Steve Miller version), I began to test Mrs. Deutsch to her utmost limits. She finally resorted to calling in my dad for a meeting after school. Probably the worst thing you could do to me at the time. She had a conference with the three of us in attendance. After her initial verbal water-boarding, she told my dad that I had talent. And that I needed to use it. Oh, and she wanted me to sing a solo in one of our songs at the next concert. I realize now her plot and plan. Keep me busy enough and I may shut up. This theory was used continually by all of my teachers somewhat successfully over the coming years. Including Barlow, I might add.
I had a high school choir teacher, Mr. McIntyre, who encouraged me to audition for All-State Choir, which I miraculously got into, and there met my future mentor and voice teacher Pat Patton from Casper College, who was our guest conductor. I still remember singing “When David Heard” which at first sounded odd and disjointed to me, but eventually gave me goosebumps the entire time we sang it during the concert. That was when I knew I was in love. I was a goner for choral music.
After many such experiences with powerhouse conductors (and tireless teachers) I was able to get a full scholarship in voice performance to Casper College. I finally got to be with Pat Patton full time as my choir teacher, voice teacher and friend. He never called me Linda when he was fed up with me — just “Woodruff”. And it was usually preceded by an exasperated “shut up and sing!” I loved every single long, difficult choir rehearsal and voice lesson with Pat Patton. Recently I searched You Tube for him. There he was; a little grayer and paunchier, but happily conducting an All-State Choir somewhere in California. Making every single high school singer there feel like they were the greatest singers that walked the earth. I could see their faces behind him. Earnest, intense, smitten, Falling in love with singing.
My next stop in school was BYU where I was president of Concert Choir. We had a young, just out of school conductor who was so on fire he fairly levitated while conducting us. His name was Mack Wilberg and I loved him and his style of conducting so fiercely that I actually shut up and sang (for the most part). One day he stopped mid-phrase, and stared directly at me in the 3rd row of this 90 person choir. I knew what was coming, but I also knew that for once I wasn’t talking, laughing, or generally screwing around. My heart thumped loudly in the silence that followed. He quietly said, “I like your earrings.” Then turned back to the piano and continued on. I reached up and remembered I was wearing huge, plastic treble clef earrings. It was the 80’s after all.
Thirty odd years later and I am still singing. I love those long-suffering and dedicated teachers who guided and oft-times shoved me along the long path to UCA, and to singing with Barlow. A person who I consider the greatest musical motivator of my life, as well as a dear friend. Over the last 17 years I have seen “the look” from him more times than I can count. And the bottom line is, I really have no valid excuse for being disruptive in every single choir I have been in. Only that I am so deliriously happy to be among friend and immersed in gorgeous music that I want to burst. I just can’t seem to shut up.
But I can sing. So I do.
