We're Proud of Our Past and are Presently Working Hard to Assure Even Greater Success in the Foreseeable Future
We're just about to arrive to our 28th anniversary of the originally called "The Royans School for the Musical Performing Arts" and today's named, more to the point, "The Royans Professional Vocal School".
Looking back and assessing our past, as an owner, president and master vocal coach of the company, I have to say that I'm proud of what we achieved over the last three decades. The fair amount of well known singers today in Toronto and some other cities and provinces of Canada, US and Europe, have come out of our school. At the time, we had a pretty bold statement "Beginner to Pro-Singer in 10 Hours, Guaranteed!", and at that time, in the precious past, my clients and I lived up to this statement minimum to say 150%.
The people then (in 80s and 90s) were much more "awake", much more alert, much more active - intellectually and physically - and had more desires. The immigration of those years was pretty active, especially from countries like Russia, Italy, Greece and other civilized societies, where the parents - immigrants were arriving to this land with the agenda to give their children and grandchildren the best and mainly, the best of education. They worked really hard in constructions, factories, plants and what have you and all the money made, they directed towards the betterment of their offspring.
They were picking up the phones, prior looking us up in the Yellow Pages directory and various print publications, which, needless to say, today unfortunately are non-existent. No, they did not have any access to internet yet, thus they did not waste their valuable time staring at the screen and acquiring a fair amount of radiation for that matter, not to mention they were not bombarded by a billion choices, but rather they were relying on their intuition, their common sense and the word of mouth.
Respectively, their kids were given more love, care and attention. A lot of them also had a love for music (in a real and authentic understanding of that word) and thus, wanted to achieve a goal to become somebody, or maybe even a pop or rock star. Their motives though, were by far more authentic and genuine then, they did not have one and only agenda to make "financial success" and "help their families"!!! Nothing wrong with that, but in my opinion, it should not be the main goal. It should be the true calling for love of music and a calling from within and of their hearts and souls.
I personally loved those times and enjoyed my business of making stars by far greater than today. I'M PROUD OF WHAT I'VE DONE!
Today, I continue to "carry the torch". However, "THE TORCH" has become extremely heavy to carry, "which is nearly breaking my back" (lol). The people today are bombarded with information and can not exist, live or think without their 24/7 access to the internet. They're confused in their numerous choices and therefore, doubting everything and everyone. Today it takes quadruple energy to achieve a quarter of the result.
The economy today also dictates that it is the market for the consumer. Don't you worry, they do know about it and they interrogate me and my staff to the fullest. Finally, and with the great difficulty, "the sale" was made. Now themselves or their children are in our studios...
As it appears to be, half of them have learning disabilities, no attention span of any sort, they hardly can read and definitely cannot write without spell-check. They refuse to speak on the phone, even to discuss their appointments. They have to text or e-mail with extremely incoherent language skills, which at times is impossible to make "heads or tails" of.
When we receive the young children, and often with talent, we assume that that's exactly what they want to do - THEY WANT TO SING! When we ask them that question, if singing is their passion and perhaps may become their future profession, we're getting the answer from one of our 10-year-old student's, "No, I want to be an engineer". Go figure! It must be parents who are trying to instill in their minds that the music is not a profession and you can not rely on it (I agree that there is some truth to it). However, the child with artistic tendencies should not be discouraged from his love, passion and talent, just because the parents might think that it might not be a lucrative profession for him down the road.
Also, four years ago, I was running a workshop where I had 11 strangers and at that time future winner of Canadian Idol 2007 - Brian Melo. He "saved the cake", as the rest of them were sitting there as complete zombies and telling me during the introductory interview, that all of them (young girls primarily) wanted to become opera singers. All of the previous years, when I asked young girls who they would want to become, the answer was premeditated - Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and before that, Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. Now these parents are afraid of "Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll", so they're putting in their youngsters minds, who don't know any better, that opera is the only genre they can embark upon, as in the parent's minds, this is the safest field for their children, since these children "unfortunately" happen to have some musical talent.
So, needless to say, I saw the seeds being planted some time ago. In my opinion, now they're in the full bloom.
So, by the law of averages, given the very good beginning, from approximately 1984 - 2004, and not very satisfying present, I'm hoping that the future will be that much more fulfilling, based on experience of the past and the present. I just wish that my staff and I would not have to work so hard in our present to:
ACHIEVE A BEAUTIFUL FUTURE!
HOWEVER...
WE DO BELIEVE!
Looking back and assessing our past, as an owner, president and master vocal coach of the company, I have to say that I'm proud of what we achieved over the last three decades. The fair amount of well known singers today in Toronto and some other cities and provinces of Canada, US and Europe, have come out of our school. At the time, we had a pretty bold statement "Beginner to Pro-Singer in 10 Hours, Guaranteed!", and at that time, in the precious past, my clients and I lived up to this statement minimum to say 150%.
The people then (in 80s and 90s) were much more "awake", much more alert, much more active - intellectually and physically - and had more desires. The immigration of those years was pretty active, especially from countries like Russia, Italy, Greece and other civilized societies, where the parents - immigrants were arriving to this land with the agenda to give their children and grandchildren the best and mainly, the best of education. They worked really hard in constructions, factories, plants and what have you and all the money made, they directed towards the betterment of their offspring.
They were picking up the phones, prior looking us up in the Yellow Pages directory and various print publications, which, needless to say, today unfortunately are non-existent. No, they did not have any access to internet yet, thus they did not waste their valuable time staring at the screen and acquiring a fair amount of radiation for that matter, not to mention they were not bombarded by a billion choices, but rather they were relying on their intuition, their common sense and the word of mouth.
Respectively, their kids were given more love, care and attention. A lot of them also had a love for music (in a real and authentic understanding of that word) and thus, wanted to achieve a goal to become somebody, or maybe even a pop or rock star. Their motives though, were by far more authentic and genuine then, they did not have one and only agenda to make "financial success" and "help their families"!!! Nothing wrong with that, but in my opinion, it should not be the main goal. It should be the true calling for love of music and a calling from within and of their hearts and souls.
I personally loved those times and enjoyed my business of making stars by far greater than today. I'M PROUD OF WHAT I'VE DONE!
Today, I continue to "carry the torch". However, "THE TORCH" has become extremely heavy to carry, "which is nearly breaking my back" (lol). The people today are bombarded with information and can not exist, live or think without their 24/7 access to the internet. They're confused in their numerous choices and therefore, doubting everything and everyone. Today it takes quadruple energy to achieve a quarter of the result.
The economy today also dictates that it is the market for the consumer. Don't you worry, they do know about it and they interrogate me and my staff to the fullest. Finally, and with the great difficulty, "the sale" was made. Now themselves or their children are in our studios...
As it appears to be, half of them have learning disabilities, no attention span of any sort, they hardly can read and definitely cannot write without spell-check. They refuse to speak on the phone, even to discuss their appointments. They have to text or e-mail with extremely incoherent language skills, which at times is impossible to make "heads or tails" of.
When we receive the young children, and often with talent, we assume that that's exactly what they want to do - THEY WANT TO SING! When we ask them that question, if singing is their passion and perhaps may become their future profession, we're getting the answer from one of our 10-year-old student's, "No, I want to be an engineer". Go figure! It must be parents who are trying to instill in their minds that the music is not a profession and you can not rely on it (I agree that there is some truth to it). However, the child with artistic tendencies should not be discouraged from his love, passion and talent, just because the parents might think that it might not be a lucrative profession for him down the road.
Also, four years ago, I was running a workshop where I had 11 strangers and at that time future winner of Canadian Idol 2007 - Brian Melo. He "saved the cake", as the rest of them were sitting there as complete zombies and telling me during the introductory interview, that all of them (young girls primarily) wanted to become opera singers. All of the previous years, when I asked young girls who they would want to become, the answer was premeditated - Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and before that, Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. Now these parents are afraid of "Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll", so they're putting in their youngsters minds, who don't know any better, that opera is the only genre they can embark upon, as in the parent's minds, this is the safest field for their children, since these children "unfortunately" happen to have some musical talent.
So, needless to say, I saw the seeds being planted some time ago. In my opinion, now they're in the full bloom.
So, by the law of averages, given the very good beginning, from approximately 1984 - 2004, and not very satisfying present, I'm hoping that the future will be that much more fulfilling, based on experience of the past and the present. I just wish that my staff and I would not have to work so hard in our present to:
ACHIEVE A BEAUTIFUL FUTURE!
HOWEVER...
WE DO BELIEVE!
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