Sondra Quotes & Sayings

Answering the call of God is not something we do after details have been laid out. Nor is it something we do because others want us to do it. It's something we do because we know it's right. Because we love Him. — Sondra Kraak

[ ... Dance] involves every possible feeling (as potential), because it is of the body, which is lived (inescapably) as a body of feeling. Some of these feelings we can name, and some we cannot, since we associate feelings with language only when we name them. The body lives sentience on a preverbal level. Dance exists first on this primordial level, not on an intellectual plane (even though it requires skill and intelligence). Its inmost substance cannot be reasoned, only experienced. — Sondra Horton Fraleigh

I have the best job in the whole world because I get paid to do something I love. How many people do you know who can say that? — Sondra Radvanovsky

When I was 11 years old, I wanted to sing Tosca. — Sondra Radvanovsky

You think of 'Outlaw Josey Wales,' you immediately think of the old Indian guy, Sondra Locke, the old lady with the glasses, beautiful old actress. — Ben Mendelsohn

Singing bel canto is like walking on a tightrope - especially with a larger voice like mine. — Sondra Radvanovsky

I think Chicagoans have a great set of values. You know what I mean? Kindness. Morals. Ethics. People in Chicago do the right thing. If somebody falls on the street, someone will actually stop and help them up. That doesn't happen in certain other cities. — Sondra Radvanovsky

I'm American by birth, but I consider myself Canadian. — Sondra Radvanovsky

I only want to be famous to my friends.
book: stuff i think about — Sondra Faye

For me, bel canto is medicine for the voice. — Sondra Radvanovsky

Some of the greatest masterpieces of art are created against the odds of reality.

from the book: stuff i think about — Sondra Faye

She stole my dreams. I wanted to show her I can survive and now that won't happen — Sondra Torres

After I turn 50, I would like to sing Verdi's 'Attila.' — Sondra Radvanovsky

I walk around the house in my pajamas all day if I want to. — Sondra Radvanovsky

Trying to look glamorous while singing is not easy. — Sondra Radvanovsky

Opera - above and beyond anything else - is about the music, and it should be about the music. — Sondra Radvanovsky

As a Jew, I had no desire to challenge my childhood prejudice. But as a teacher, I could not do otherwise. — Sondra Perl

Being in love is highly overrated.
book: stuff i think about — Sondra Faye

I'm not doing anything that hasn't been done before, you know...dying, it's been done to death. — Sondra Lynn

When I teach master classes, I tell young singers if the foundation isn't good, the house will crumble. — Sondra Radvanovsky

People have this idea that opera singers are overweight and sit at home eating bonbons. But I consider myself an athlete. — Sondra Radvanovsky

I think the power of opera has been shifted from the music to the director, because this is a very visual age that we live in. — Sondra Radvanovsky

I guess my first professional experience was when my church choir director told my mother that I had a gift with my voice and said that I should think about auditioning, at 11 years old, for the chorus of our regional opera company. — Sondra Radvanovsky

love is always moving towards you — Sondra Faye

If I can transport audiences for the three or four hours they're at the opera, to make them forget all of their worries, the bills they have to pay and all that, then I've done my job. That, for me, is very gratifying. — Sondra Radvanovsky

Life's not a preformance. Remember that. You've got nothing to prove.' Life as a performance focused on her and the ways she didn't measure up. Life as a gift focused on the Giver. — Sondra Kraak

surrender is giving up control bt nt lossing power — Sondra Ray

When you do a 'messa di voce,' that means you start soft, you crescendo into loud - and then you go back to soft again. Some people call it circus tricks, but in bel canto, it's really written into the music. — Sondra Radvanovsky

We live in a very disposable society, and people want everything right away, but unfortunately, vocal technique doesn't come overnight. — Sondra Radvanovsky

Opera tells stories that all ages can relate to: love, death, revenge, etc. — Sondra Radvanovsky

Most voices get weaker and frailer. I seem to be getting better with age. — Sondra Radvanovsky

When I was signing up for the University of Southern California's music program, I flipped a coin to decide my major. If it came up heads, it would be flute - tails would be voice. — Sondra Radvanovsky

HD is not forgiving. Once you see your face for the first time in a movie cinema, you run straight to the gym. — Sondra Radvanovsky

I don't like happy stuff. I'm not funny. — Sondra Radvanovsky

Hidden inside every flower are seeds of imagination, destiny and future dreams. — Sondra Faye

Temperament and tightness often go together. But if you're tight, you can't sing. So I have to have that tension in my body but not in my voice. — Sondra Radvanovsky

There is a lingering pain that comes with some people's LGBT identity, especially in a society that has shamed their desires and forced them to fight for an opportunity to declare pride. Some of this shame can be deeply internalized, even if it's overcome in practice (and mostly so in attitude). LGBT people may believe the asexual people who want their support have never fought this type of shame and may not accept that "your orientation doesn't exist" can be as damaging as "your orientation means you're bad." Asexual people are usually perceived as sexually conservative or sexually abstinent, and LGBT people may have been attacked for the sex they may desire, so it could be very difficult for them to accept that someone who embodies a supposedly "ideal state" they've been pressured to emulate could possibly have comparable problems in Western society. — Julie Sondra Decker

I got Twin Peaks, and the part was basically written for me, which was a really big shock. I think everything really changed with the right teacher coming together, but before that I worked with Sondra Seacat; she's amazing and very spiritual, but I hadn't worked with her on specific roles. I just was in classes with her. — Sherilyn Fenn

What if you didn't have education for sports? People with a natural inclination for sports, athletes without any kind of education, without any kind of training, they would just be couch athletes instead of the world class Olympians that we have. — Sondra Radvanovsky

I love the tragic side. I don't do 'happy' onstage. I like the dark, the disturbed. — Sondra Radvanovsky

You have to be in tune with your body and know when your body is saying, 'That's enough, you're done for the day.' If you over-fatigue and are totally stressed, you get sick. And if I get sick, I can't work. — Sondra Radvanovsky

You went to your first Broadway play or musical at some point, right? Come to opera. — Sondra Radvanovsky

I prefer the keen edge of truth to the dull comfort of lies. — Sondra Allan Carr

It takes a loyal gardener to tend roses. — Sondra Faye

When I am on the opera stage, I am playing someone else. In recitals, I even have the chance to talk to the audience, which is something you don't get to do in opera. — Sondra Radvanovsky

Even when I'm not onstage singing, there's always music going on in my head. It's a curse and a blessing in a way - it's sitting in bed at night, trying to go to sleep, while the music keeps playing in your head - especially when you're trying to learn something new and you're trying to memorize it and get everything. — Sondra Radvanovsky

Sometimes you feel fragile for a few days. Don't let the PaperTigers scare you; you will bounce back & be brave again.
From book: stuff i think about
by sondra faye — Sondra Faye

Temperament can really take a toll on the voice. If you get tight in your body with the acting, then you can get tight in your voice. And then you can get tired, and you can damage yourself vocally. — Sondra Radvanovsky

When had his heart ever felt this full? There were no words. That was the problem. He loved her with speechlessness. — Sondra Kraak

I tell young singers not to listen to themselves. What I hear is not what you hear. — Sondra Radvanovsky

It's the worst feeling, coming back after a performance when you are on a real high, and you go back alone to an apartment or a hotel room. People think we sit in hotels and eat bon bons. But the lifestyle can be very stressful. — Sondra Radvanovsky

I always think of my father when I sing arias about loss and love and longing. It gave me that definite deep sorrow that one can only get from life experience, you know? — Sondra Radvanovsky

I am so proud to call myself Canadian! Thank you, Canada, for welcoming me with open arms! — Sondra Radvanovsky

I know I'm an opera singer, but we're actors, too. — Sondra Radvanovsky

A true friend knows when to give advice and when to just listen.
"stuff I think about" book by Sondra Faye — Sondra Faye

For sure, one moment really defined the path that I was to take in the future, and that was when I won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in New York in April of 1995. I had just turned 25 two days before the finals concert, and when I won, I had no idea how my life would change because of it. — Sondra Radvanovsky

And if I don't sing, I don't get paid. — Sondra Radvanovsky

My roots really instilled Chicago values in me. — Sondra Radvanovsky

I don't like confrontation; I just like to sing. — Sondra Radvanovsky

When you follow the path of the unknown, you never know what you may find.
tv show- UFOs Really? — Sondra Faye

Asexual people are often told they will one day find "the one" and develop sexual feelings and the values society attaches to them. Many asexual folks have to hear this over and over and over again, which thrusts a perpetual image of immaturity upon them. Asexuality is not a signal that a person is necessarily stunted emotionally or physically, and feeling sexual attraction or inclination is not the line everyone must cross to be treated like an adult. Maturity should not be measured by willingness or inclination to seek out or accept sexual experiences. [p. 7] — Julie Sondra Decker

I perform in opera houses in the centres of big cities. We live in 20 acres of forest. You need that space to recover and renew. — Sondra Radvanovsky

The vocal cords are a muscle, and like any other muscle in the body, they can be strained. So you have to warm up. — Sondra Radvanovsky

God is what God makes as God becomes. — Sondra Sneed

I absolutely love Canada, and I wouldn't live anywhere else. It's half American and half European, and I really enjoy that. And the people are just fantastic - nicer than any people in the world. — Sondra Radvanovsky

Art is an attempt to give substance to existence. — Sondra Horton Fraleigh

why is it so hard when i have to but so easy when i want to — Sondra Anice Barnes

I would have to say that my very first encounter with the arts was when my mother bought me my first record player when I was six years old as well as a Karen Carpenter record. — Sondra Radvanovsky

I'm going to the gym and really taking care of myself and trying to stay fit, eating properly. — Sondra Radvanovsky

When the world kicks your ass, don't step in line.
book: stuff i think about — Sondra Faye

You go to the gym to make sure you have the stamina to breathe in the corsets. — Sondra Radvanovsky

Artists shouldn't deal with business stuff; that's not what we're trained in, and most of us aren't good at it. — Sondra Radvanovsky