With every breath the poet sings a song the angels cannot sing...

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For as long as I can remember. I have loved poetry.  The sound and meaning of words creatively strung together to express an idea; emotion; a serious or a silly thought, has the power to transform a person's mood or environment in an instance. I have read and sung the words of many poets, verses of scripture; librettos, plays and novels.  The combing of words and sounds; rhythms and melodies has the  power to transcend all boundaries and can penetrate the most resistant mind and the hardest heart. When words combined on breath and vibration and expressed with  human emotion the voice,  become a marriage of mind, body and soul.

Our human song is  born of our unique experience on this temporal plane we call life.  This is a song that  the angels cannot sing. When we as singers combine our natural musical gift of voice with the discipline of musicianship, intellectual and spiritual contemplation, and life experience,  we turn our words and melodies into the highest form of gratitude we can show our divine creator.
 

What do you think?​

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Vincent Stringer

Vincent Dion Stringer, bass-baritone is observing a career on the stage and in education spanning more than three decades. A native of Hartford, Connecticut, currently, he's a an Assistant Professor of Fine Arts; Coordinator of Vocal Studies and Director of Opera at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland where he also founded and serves as Artistic Director of the Baltimore Summer Opera Workshop. Mr. Stringer has trained in several New England institutions, including earning a Master of Music in Opera Performance with Distinction from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA and a Bachelor of Art in Music from Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, MA. Additionally, Stringer studied voice at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Well noted for his advocacy of contemporary opera and new music since the early 1990’s, Mr. Stringer is also a poet and has collaborated recently on a cycle titled Songs of Love and Loss (2012) with composer James Lee III which was published by Subito Music Publishing. As a soloist he premiered Let My People Go: A Journey Along the Underground Railroad (2005) by Donald McCullough for Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, the roles of the Native King and Elephant Foot in the Phillip Glass opera, The White Raven for the World Expo ‘98 in Lisbon, Portugal and repeated the roles in the summer of 2001 for the American premiere at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York City. In 1994, Mr. Stringer founded the New England Spiritual Ensemble of Boston and in 2001 founded the National Spiritual Ensemble in Washington, DC and served as the Artistic Director of both ensembles. He's orchestrated the Ensemble's extensive performances throughout the United States and Europe. Commissioned as a Master Teacher, Stringer leads workshops on the American Negro Spiritual and Vocal Master Classes across the country. His presentations have included master classes at UNC/Chapel Hill, Wilberforce University, Ohio; Longy School of Music, Cambridge, MA; the Religious Arts Festival at East Carolina State University; the Montana Music Educator Association Convention, and Sacred Voices: A Sung Panel for Miami-Dade College.