Entertainer of the month: Karen Biddle

Senior Karen Biddle feels like a Hollywood star. In a black floral gown, she stands before the sea and a large crowd on a mid-July night in Minori, Italy. The twinkling stars and soft clatter of wine glasses lend the place an atmosphere of romance.

Biddle, the youngest of 40 solo singers, tries to banish the butterflies in her stomach. But as soon as she hits her first note, she feels as if she were born to sing her rendition of "Mr. Snow," from the musical, "Carousel."

"It felt like a scene from a movie," Biddle recalls.

Though Biddle appeared on the Blair stage for the first time as Mabel, the female lead in this year's spring operetta, "The Pirates of Penzance," she is no stranger to the spotlight. She began her singing career at age three at the Northwood Presbyterian Church. In 2000, she joined some of the best youth vocalists in the metropolitan area in the Children's Choir of Washington, one of the finest children's choral ensembles in the nation. During her five years with the choir, she traveled across the U.S., England, Wales and Italy, singing in over eight languages.

Seeking an education in opera singing and a closer focus on her vocal development, Biddle decided to take voice lessons. After leaving the choir, she began training with world-renowned mezzo-soprano Marianna Busching of the Peabody Institute. Biddle now meets with Busching once a week for an hour-long session.

Every lesson begins with an extensive warm-up in which Biddle sings scales. "I spend a lot of time warming up and working on my voice," she says. After warming up, Biddle usually sings Italian arias or English art songs –– brief poetic stories about nature.

Busching focuses primarily on technique, teaching Biddle vocal exercises that will improve her voice's power, projection and vibrato. "It's not just learning the song; it's actually incorporating the technique into each song," Biddle says.

Busching's use of imagery helps Biddle to visualize to which area of her body a note should correspond, facilitating Biddle's projection of high or low notes as she sings. "When [Busching] uses visual imagery, I think it's really great because I'm a visual learner," Biddle says. For example, to hit one of those bone-chilling high notes, it helps Biddle to visualize a thin string dangling above her, and she directs her voice to that image.

Biddle admits that she gets stage fright before she performs, but her anxiety ebbs as soon as she begins to sing. From her first note onward, she says, she is relaxed. "When you start singing, it's almost as if you're having a conversation with the person in front of you," she explains. "It feels like you're in a different world."

The hardest thing about singing, Biddle says, is that the state of her voice is always unpredictable. A singer's voice fluctuates with the day, time and weather, not to mention bodily conditions, she says. "There's never one day that you'll sound the same as the next. You never completely know how [your voice] sounds until you begin to sing at that time of day," Biddle says. Her voice is usually at its strongest from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. on any given day.

Because Biddle says that "you can never actually hear yourself sing," she records herself practicing in order to pinpoint the areas of her performance that she can improve. "If you record yourself, you can really tell from week to week, month to month, if you are actually improving," she says.

What has helped Biddle to grow and develop as a musician, however, is the feedback others give her. This allows her to see past just what she thinks may sound good and to really entertain her audience.

Biddle admits that she can be a diva at times –– she insists on a new pair of shoes for every performance –– but when she sings, she leaves her ego backstage.

In the future, Biddle wants to expand her talents to jazz singing, playing the piano and acting. She hopes to merge her talents in opera and music theater into a career.