Countertenor w/ Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen

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How’s that isolation going? We hope you’re healthy and safe.

As always, each episode of Counter Programming will focus on a "counter" of some sort. Today, we learn about countertenors.

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Countertenor Info:

• A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G3 to D5 or E5. Countertenors often are baritones or tenors at core, but on rare occasions use this vocal range in performance (via Wikipedia).
• As explained by Lestyn Davies, a Grammy award-winning countertenor, “It’s a voice produced by not using one’s ‘modal’ or normal speaking voice, but the higher range that occurs when the combination of larynx muscles and vocal cord position are changed in such a way that the air passing through the cords vibrates a much thinner outer layer."

Interview/Information about Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen:

• We talk about the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Hannah Senesh Hebrew Day School, Elton John's 60th birthday party (at MSG), castration, the Church, Princeton theses, La Boheme, and so much more.
• Here's Aryeh's website (gorgeous, right?!)
• Here's the clip that we played of Aryeh singing. AMAZING!
• Aryeh dispels some rumors about opera, so listen in to have your perspective shifted.
• We talk about the practice of castration (long gone) and how it has affected the opera world to this day.

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