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Go west young
man: The story of how I fell in love with |
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Cast of characters in
somewhat chronological order from 1997 to the present day: I was a 18 year old senior in high school who was set to tour with Up With People! for a year, when the ice storm hit. "The Ice Storm of '98" left inches of ice on everything in upstate NY, VT and Canada. I was living next door to Jo Ellen at the time, and during this period of no power and heat she sat me down to talk about my future. She knew that I enjoyed performing and was curious about my goals. I told her some stuff and she recommended that I ditch Up With People and come study with her if I wanted to be a "real singer." Needless to say, I took her advice and don't regret the decision one bit! A few lessons later, I auditioned at Carnegie Mellon. One of the adjudicators actually chuckled when I went for the high note. I didn't get in so off to Plattsburgh State U of NY I went.
The years following that first crazy experience
were quite the same...many long hours of mowing, singing 6 days a
week, and plenty of movies. One thing started to change
though. I began driving out here so that I wasn't confined to
the schedules of Kris and Norman and their one usable car (they also
have a Volvo wagon, but that serves as a dog bed/resting
place, not a mode of transportation).
Why do cars need head gaskets anyway? (Especially when they crack and I am left to find a solution.) This time the solution was driving half way across the country at 60 miles an hour bouncing as if I were riding that damn mower through a field. Let me tell you, the shocks on U haul's are not quite those of a Cadillac.
I think I have gone on long enough.
However, before finishing I must take a moment to ponder some math and give
a subsequent thank you. First off, the math (in a style that
MasterCard made famous):
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 Design by Tim Takach Layout and maintenance by Tom McNichols Copyright 2005 tommcnichols.com |
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That following year, my freshman year, Jo Ellen
had two old friends (who happen to be world famous opera singers)
come for a performance and master class.
Almost a decade later I realize this was her plan from the first day
she spoke with me; get me going in classical voice, bring in the big guns, and
get my voice in shape.
Kristine Ciesinski and husband Norman
Bailey came, gave a wonderful performance and then came the master
class. I sang for them, they tore me apart, and after the
class asked my parents and I if I would be interested in spending
the summer studying at their home in ID. Sounded
like a good time...I hadn't traveled much up to that point and
decided it would be fun. Never would I have thought, 8 years
later I would again be sitting in the
So there I am, a 19 year old kid, living with a
retired Wagnerian opera singer and his wife, the singer of the great
operatic bitches (think Salome and Wozzeck), singing for a couple of hours
a day,
six days a week for the 10 weeks I had free that summer. I
also spent many hours watching movies in their incredible media room,
cooking dinners, and mowing their 20 acre plot of land. My
lessons were beyond tedious. Norman had a very clear plan in
his head for how to turn out a voice over a decade, and that summer
was square one...tear down the voice to build it up correctly.
Luckily, I had only done a little bit (about a year) of singing
before showing up that summer, and therefore there wasn't much to
undo. By the end of that summer I barely had a B natural on
top. 8 years later I am confident I can find success in this
career; seems Norman knew what he was doing all along...
Obviously a 19 year old can't expect to not have
a bad summer job. It started with being a no one
in the kitchen at the local airport. Two years later, when I
went back for work and was told there isn't anything available, I
went down the street to the Grand Ole Grill. I walked in,
introduced myself to Christian and Christy (the owners, Christian is
the chef), had a short interview and they said they had a place for
me. In that first week I learned more about cooking than in
all my previous years of life, (thank you Christian, you were always a
great teacher! p.s. people love the crepes and the
hollandaise!) and began to think that I may really become friends
with these two folks. Five years later I am sitting on their
deck writing this story. I think that first interview proved
true; we consider each other family.
As soon as I had my own
transportation I began exploring the area. I have seen every
state and national park in the ID, WY, CO, UT corridor, as well as
having found tons of little swimming holes and fun afternoon hikes
along the way. It was many of these things that really grew on
me. Besides the dramatic views of the Tetons, there was
actually a ton to do in this valley!
Let's talk about the house I got to live in all
these years. Let me start by saying how wonderful it was to
NOT have to stay with them, but rather stay with Christian and
Christy up the road. Not that I didn't love staying with Kris
and Norman but now I don't have to worry about loading the
dishwasher incorrectly. (Laughs to all you who know what I mean!).
Back to the house...I had never been in a home like this before.
Not that it is somehow bigger or better than all the rest, but it
showed me what can be accomplished when design is paramount to
almost all other considerations. Now that I live in MN, the
home of what I call the McMansion (think Levittown juxtaposed with
the modern economy and comparably lower housing cost in MN), I can
really appreciate what went into that home. I applaud
They have become
friends over the years as well, and their homes are not nearly as
unique as they. Again, back to the house. With nearly
7500 LIVABLE square feet, 4 full and 2 half baths (perfectly
located, I may add, so that you never have to go through the whole
house to reach one), 4 guest rooms (they have tons of guests), one
media room, a HUGE master suite with matching-travel savvy-walk in
closets (not to mention the shower that has 5 faucets...love it),
gourmet kitchen, dining room, 5 decks, one pond, 20 acres of
wildlife and last but not least, the great room. This is
really where the house pivots. The room is seldom empty, has
views of all three mountain ranges, is home to one baby grand piano
(and currently a 12' Bosendorfer), stands nearly 80'x40' with a 30'
ceiling with a few exposed beams, and besides a bedroom is where I
spend most of my time. It is where I have sung away many
hours, have been a part of some dinner parties that turn to
impromptu concerts, and is the room where I have met, and performed
with, some of the worlds great. How cool that I was able to do
this in a living room.
Ok, so far I have covered the house, the people,
and the restaurant. Now on to how I spent my hours when I was
not singing. First and foremost is mowing. I I can't
count the numbers of hours I have felt like Forest
Gump, slowly making my way, back and forth, 42" at a time
through 20 acres of Idaho valley. Well, actually, the best I
ever did was to keep about 12 of the 20 acres nicely manicured and
most summers I only pulled off about 7 acres. But still, think
about how often your half acre lot must be mowed, and then multiply
that by 14! That ACE mower is one of my best friends. I
have seen the best and worst it has to offer, and have put my hands
all over its private parts...I mean the blades and belts. I
have pushed it back to the house, and have gotten it stuck in a
ditch. I have mowed over barbed wire, and have chewed through
dog toys. I have carried a beer in one hand and an Ipod in the
other while mowing. I have memorized hundreds of pieces of
music while sitting on that mower. To you, mower, I send a
salute. You provided many hours of much needed nothingness
during otherwise busy summer months.
Of course, over 8 years of travel, four of which
I have driven, there have been the fair share of snafus.
One summer, my friend Sarah Balzano flew out to join me for the
drive back to NY. We were planning to see about 6 National
parks over the course of a week. The first night of the trip,
as we were leaving Yellowstone following a beautiful sunset, my
Chevy Cavalier decided to throw its timing belt. We sat in a
hotel, a few hundred feet from the entrance to the hotel for three
days. Needless to say, we had to change out itinerary a
little. This current trip is no different. Truth be
told, I am typing this section as I sit on a flight to a friend's
wedding in Baltimore. I returned home to MN last night following
a 29 hour drive (I took a four hour "nap" from 1-5 am outside of
Rapid City SD) from Idaho to MN TOWING my Suburu outback behind a
U haul truck.
Did I mention that Krease is a pilot?
That's right, she is a
After being towed to about 9500' (base
elevation is 6500') you glide around the edge of the valley trying
to find a thermal-a column of rising hot air-start circling in the
thermal and gain more altitude. On a few rare trips we have
topped 14500' which is plenty of clearance to soar in and around the
Grand Teton, and be back into the valley with plenty of air to
spare. The best story from the house of being up there with
Kris goes as follows. I wanted to aerobatics (loops, inverted
flying, etc.) and Kris was ready to appease. After strapping
on parachutes (just in case) we climbed up to a safe altitude and
starting whipping around. It was like a rollercoaster on
steroids; wild! Flying inverted was fun, until Kris forgot to
stall the plane before beginning the spilt S to right us to the
horizon. Instead of stalling and therefore starting the fall
at 0 knots,
we simply continued to speed up from the 60 knots
required to fly inverted. Red line on the air speed indicator
was around 120 knots...when I saw the needle pass 180 knots and we
were still heading straight at the ground I got worried.
Luckily Kris didn't panic and we didn't have to jump and pull
chutes. She pulled us out of the dive slowly and didn't rip
the wings off though we had lost so much altitude it was lucky we
were only a mile or so from the airport. I will gladly fly
with her again, but maybe just fly, not hot dog around 4000 feet
above the earth.
Despite the near death experience in the glider,
a few days later I went 
With every bit of sincerity in my body, I thank you Norman. I
will never forget the investment you have made in me. Though I
know our relationship has developed beyond mentor/student, please
know that I do hope to live up to your expectations of me, and
gladly look forward to the day that I have attained the same level
of expertise and accomplishment in my career! Thank you, thank
you, thank you. I really can never repay you (and hope after
you read this that you don't consider asking for payment!)...then again, by
the time I am your age and do a similar thing for some young
singer, I think I will better realize where the repayment lie.
It isn't in the numbers I have above but rather in hearing the sound
you kept pushing to hear. I am glad I was finally able to work
towards the finished product this summer. I hope it has been
as much fun for you as it has for me!