Happy New Year lovies! You all are SO awesome and I am so excited that you are embracing 2020 with great love for your voice! I am so excited about 2020 because I get to sing with one of my talented students, Riley Hensley. There is nothing better than to be able to make music with a voice that you have taught since childhood-I designed the technique of that voice and to have her now be 17 years old, she will be 18 in the Spring, and have her be able to stand next to me and match me in a lot of ways with her tone, is just incredible. So, we formed a duo together that we have In Fine Leather. We call it this because we dress in fine leather items and sing fine music! I had the dream 14 years ago to form a duo with a student and it at that time began to take shape but then the dear sing I felt really was a Dramatic Soprano-her voice did not thoroughly match mine and I couldn’t match hers. She had great strength and power, especially in the top. Right there gave it away for me that she really was a soprano. I shelved the idea and didn’t think about it again until 2017 when it became obvious that perhaps Riley would be the perfect candidate to form a duo with me but she wasn’t ready yet and again, I shelved the idea. This past September, I said “Riley, it’s time to get going on the duo.” She could not have agreed more and everything just began to fall into place, including us getting our publicity photos together which happened immediately, even the website.
This weekend we finish off our Christmas album in Cleveland which is our first recording. We will be releasing later this year.
In Fine Leather is an activity of both Resonanz Opera and Skokstudio LLC, my vocal instruction company which serves singers not only locally but internationally via my teaching on Zoom in which I see my students on my 82 inch screen.
Cheers to Riley and I for a great finish to our recording. We are so excited!!
All my love to you,
Heidi Skok