Skinnamarink

I attended a "Voice Care Symposium" in Banff last week. It was fantastic, with speakers ranging from surgeons discussing the molecular structure of vocal folds to wacky Los Angeles "Sing Like the Stars"-type voice coaches to. . . . BRAM from Sharon, Lois, and Bram.

If you're not Canadian, or over 20-or-so years old, this may not interest you, but for me it was one of the major highlights of the whole event! Bram was presenting at this symposium to offer the perspective of a singer who has significant hearing loss - he is completely deaf in one ear, because of an acoustic neuroma, and wears a BAHA (bone-anchored hearing aid). Because we had been sitting through 3 full days of somewhat dry lectures at that point, he brought out his guitar and had a sing-along with the audience. It was awesome, and he was very entertaining. I didn't realize how likeable and funny he is.

I learned a lot at the conference, particularly that it's very nice to sing "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly" with a room full of otolaryngologists, opera singers, and speech pathologists.