The Romantic Tenor

Valentine's Day suggestions

2011-02-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

Valentine ’s Day comes but once a year. So it is important to get it right for your loved one. Finding the right card is very important and also providing the right present be it chocolates, flowers or a night out is key to a great day.

Creating the right atmosphere is also a fun part of the event. This could be cooking a favourite meal for your loved one or taking them to a special restaurant.

Music can add so much to all of these suggestions. This could be in the form of a download of a favourite song (or a CD for those who still prefer that). Even better is to involve live music whether that is a singer or instrumentalist.

It is quite special to have a real live musician there in front of you and I find that the people I sing to can get very emotional but usually in a happy way. It also makes for an unforgettable experience that will be cherished for a long time.

The Romantic Tenor is a special experience for me as I never stop enjoying the positive effect my singing has on people. Singing is a joy and to communicate that effectively is what it is all about for me. So whether it is Nella Fantasia, Unchained Melody, O sole mio or Nessun Dorma I always try to sing my best and make my audience happy.

As part of the Valentine’s Day build up I am offering a Romantic Tenor CD to the person who comes up with the best Valentine’s Day suggestion for a romantic idea.

So please let me have your email address and suggestion by Saturday 12th February so that I can blog it on Sunday 13^th for those looking for a last minute idea. You can do this by making a comment at the end of this blog or contact page at www.theromantictenor.com

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Neil

Preparing for an event

2010-11-12T01:19:00.000-08:00

I will be singing at the RAC Club next week at a charity event for Muscle Dreams. This is a charity run by a very inspirational man called Michael McGrath who suffers from Muscular Dystrophy but has been to both the north and south poles. The event attracts a wide range of people interested in supporting the charity and the evening will be hosted by Lorraine Kelly. There will be an auction as part of the evening with former England cricketer Chris Cowdrey the auctioneer. There will be many lots including the chance to have The Romantic Tenor to come and sing at your event!
The repertoire I have been asked to sing are Christmas carols so I have been working through what backing music I have. O holy night is one of my favourites and of course the usual Silent Night, Away in a manger, Ding! Dong! merrily on high will feature.
I will be offering my CD for sale at the event with 50% of sales going to the charity. I will need to put together some publicity to display at the venue so will find my best picture! I find that my CD's sell best at events as most people download music now so as my CD is on itunes that is where the sales go.
I will be practicing my carols today and over the weekend in anticipation of the event on Tuesday. It feels a bit strange to sing festive pieces in November but pleasant all the same as I will be singing them for a few more weeks yet!
If you are interested in coming the event is being held at the RAC Club in Pall Mall next Tuesday from 6.15pm.

Getting onto agency websites

2010-11-11T01:40:00.000-08:00

Getting work as a singer is more of an art than a science. With all those musicians out there you need someone to create the opportunity to provide music for whatever event or occasion you can find or create. Music in my experience adds so much to these moments adding and enhancing the atmosphere as it communciates at a very basic level.
I work with my wife Susan in creating opportunities through our musicians agency Viva Live Music and we have worked hard in developing contacts and opportunities. I realised that as the Romantic Tenor I needed to get onto other agencies who may be our competitors but also may work in areas we don't.
Websites are the order of the day to promote yourself so I have been surfing the net to find good quality music agencies who might benefit from my high quality music and performance. This has been quite interesting as quite a few have websites that look out of date now and are quite difficult to get round. Generally they want an e mail with some information from you so I have been putting a package together ready to go.
My recent performing has been at some prestigious venues and for well known clients so hopefully they will recognise my quality but lets wait and see.
The good news is that there appears to be very few tenors who promote themselves like this so I should appeal as a new slightly different act.
Well back to my packaging and I will post the results of my work on my blog in the future.
Neil

Singing Lessons

2010-11-10T01:32:00.000-08:00

This can be an emotive subject for singers. Having lessons is like bearing your soul sometimes. Your voice is very much connected to your emotional state and when expressed will often reflect how you are at any particular time.
The right singing teacher for you is hard to find. I have been very lucky over the last five years in working with Marie Mclaughlin. She has had a very successful singing career performing in all the top Opera houses in the world. She is a truly inspiring person and teacher with a wealth of knowledge and understanding of the voice. She also has perhaps the most important aspect of a singing teacher - good ears!
I see Marie when I can and when she is available. She still sings around the world working on her career so a lesson is very important when she is available. I am of the view that I would not be doing this without Marie's encouragement and confidence in me and also the occasional kick in the backside I often deserve.
In lessons we spend time warming the voice up through exercises and then move on to repertoire I am currently learning or performing. Marie also helped a great deal in the CD recording I released recently especially when working out what needed to be improved.
The development of the voice, especially the tenor voice does take time and I have been studying with Marie for five years. I now find that my voice is really beginning to work and this is born out in the reaction I get to my performances which is mostly very positive. There is so much to coordinate when singing and it takes time for the body to develop to the right place.
As my voice has developed so has the repertoire. My voice is essentially a lyric tenor but it is quite a heavy sound which does cause some excitement. I can sing some of the bigger repertoire requiring good sound and long phrases which gives me great satisfaction.
I continue to develop my Romantic Tenor repertoire and have an event which will mainly have songs from musicals in December which is great fun. I am also working on four operatic pieces for auditions which I hope to undertake next year. This includes Italian, French, Russian and English. Languages were not my strong point at school but I am learning!

The Romantic Tenor on Woman's Hour

2010-11-09T00:52:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate enough to be heard by a radio producer at a charity event in November 2009. She was intrigued by my story of two careers and was very complimentary about my voice. She rang me the next day and said she would try and fit me into one of her programs on radio 4. I didn't hear from her again for some time and then she let me know that the program she had in mind did not quite fit my story.
I heard from her again in September this year and we discussed the fact that my singing career was taking over from the chartered surveying. She put me forward for an episode of Woman's Hour based on career change. I was then contacted by another lady who produces for Woman's Hour. She was very interested in where I was in my life and we discussed the difficulties in changing career mid life. I was her favourite man for her show she said but was up against a few others.
Well a few days before it was confirmed I was on (I subsequently found out that I was up against a solicitor who had become a stand up comedian). I arrived quite early at Broadcasting House and was taken up to the Green Room. I met the other two guests who were to be on the show Martha who had lost her job in publishing and was now studying at Oxford, myself and Blaire a life coach. We had a chat about what we were going to say with the producer and then Jane Garvey creeped in to introduce herself.
Radio is so informal and I seemed to be overdressed in my romantic tenor suit and tie (jeans were the order of the day). We moved into the studio for a sound check and then off we went. What the audience don't see is that two other contributors to the show were in other BBC studio's round the country and there was a long pre recorded piece. Jane did a professional job of linking the themes and asking the questions. I sat there as focused as I could be on what I wanted to say and to ensure I mentioned the Romantic Tenor and Viva Live Music!
Well 45 minutes went very quickly and I got three opportunities to talk which went very well. We were then saying our goodbyes and straight out of the studio onto the street! I walked down to the tube with Blaire as we reflected on the discussion and how enjoyable but brief the experience was.
For those who want to listen to the program you can find it on the BBC website for 19th October Woman's Hour. Or go to my website and find it on the latest news page.

Good to be back

2010-11-08T15:06:00.000-08:00

Well I have not blogged for sometime and now I have the time will be adding news and interesting information on the Romantic Tenor on a regular basis.
For those who don't know I was on radio 4 recently on Woman's Hour discussing the difficulties of changing career. This is very real for me as I have no work in my other career as a chartered surveyor in local government going on now.
I am stepping up my profile as the Romantic Tenor and also creating more opportunities to sing. I am also working more closely with my wife Susan on Viva Live Music our musicians agency.
I hope you find my blogs interesting.
Neil

The Romantic Tenor - Singing Bel Canto

2009-05-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a Donizetti Opera these last few weeks and enjoyed singing a new style. In fact I seem to have saved the day as the previous tenor dropped out and there appear to be few tenors who can sing Leicester in Maria Stuarda. Perhaps even fewer tenors from England!
I seem to have stumbled on the music that fits my voice as the role has been getting easier and has had the effect of polishing my voice. Never has it been easier to produce or sound so good.
This is a very good thing as there are very few tenors in the world that can sing this repertoire with ease. I shall be looking at the Bel Canto repertoire more closely; for those not familiar this includes Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini mainly and was brought back into popularity by Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne to name a few.
Watch this space!
Neil Simon
The Romantic Tenor

Neil Simon The Romantic Tenor latest news

2009-01-11T12:48:00.000-08:00

I had a very busy time at Christmas which started with a visit to Lapland with my family to meet the real Father Christmas! My son Nick was very impressed with the real deal who knew his name and had a real beard. We had snow and similar temperatures to the UK - about -2 degrees.

I had the pleasure of singing at the local Dutch Nursery before Christmas. This was very enjoyable with a number of CD sales and people signing up to my newsletter. I even had a lady of a certain age telling me how handsome I was in front of her husband! I will be singing there again on 25th January at lunchtime.

New Year's Eve was also fun as I was singing at the Oakes Grill at Hanbury Manor. I was busy all night as I was also managing the two other bands appearing plus the Scottish piper. There were 140 guests who really appreciated my singing especially the Italian romantic songs and operatic arias. I had to sing a number of encores before I was allowed to leave for a party which I just made by midnight. I will also be appearing at Hanbury Manor on Valentines day so come along if you wamt to be serenaded.

This week has been about gearing up for Valentines Day and the rest of the year. I am in contact with a number of potential events for Valentine's Day - a great time for The Romantic Tenor! Watch this blog for more details.

The Romantic Tenor Recording Story

2008-12-06T07:36:00.000-08:00

http://www.nsn-productions.com/romantictenorcd.html

Welcome to my story. This has been a momentous and exciting year resulting in my first recording and CD being available to the public. There has been much planning and organisation and I have had the pleasure of working with some excellent musicians and engineers.

The initial part of the year was spent working with Marie Mclaughlin on my voice and on the music with coach Peter Crockford. This involved fitting in regular sessions in Kent and south London while continuing my busy property consultancy. This sometimes created some confusion as to where I was going next!

Once the repertoire and voice were ready for an outing I arranged a concert at a local school. This included all the pieces to be recorded plus one or two other operatic arias. This went down well and some of the pieces were repeated at a very select event arranged at the RAC Club with the Kensington and Chelsea women’s club. The roses and serenading caused a stir with one lady clinging on to my arm which had to be forcibly removed.

The recording itself was organised over four days in June. There were a number of sessions with piano and strings over the first two days. These laid the foundation for an amazing session with Keith Thompson who managed to record all the wind parts over four hours fitting in gigs before and after the recording session. Vocals and guitar and mandolin were the final parts to be recorded with some fine tuning added later in August.

The key to all the sessions was the Engineer John Gallen who managed to make it all happen with humour and experience. His dedication and hard work was an example to us all.

The next stage of the process was a trip to Fulham and 360 mastering. Dick and Dave were having a busy day and I had to wait for them to master a song recorded by a certain X factor winner. What exalted heights I had reached I thought. Well that was until we all realised that we had all lived in Hastings at some stage and shared quite a few stories over the day. The session made a big difference to the sound with a final polish.

I was lucky to find an excellent local photographer Ian Waldron and we met on a beautiful Autumn day in a local park setting. The pictures for the CD were just right and another local man Del of HS Recording set out the artwork for another local company Key Production to manufacture the finalised CD.

It is time now to get out there and sell the CD so I hope you will assist in buying one or two. They will make excellent Christmas presents especially for mums and grannies! I did appear recently on three counties radio and am working on further appearances on the radio and television. There may even be a feature in the Welwyn Hatfield Times before Xmas.

To purchase the CD for £12.99 including postage and packing you can pay online at

http://www.nsn-productions.com/romantictenorcd.html

I will be performing in concert in the near future and will let you know when and where.

Happy listening!

Neil Simon

The Romantic Tenor

TOMORROW WE'RE GOING LIVE!

2008-12-01T13:36:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow, after all of the planning, recording, editing, liaising etc. we are going to be in possession of the ROMANTIC TENOR CD. I am thrilled that after all the hard work, passion and vision I have had for the project, I will have the CD available for all of my fans.

It will be available on line through World Pay.
http://www.nsn-productions.com/theromantictenorcd.html

I will be keeping you up to date with appearances, news on the CD and feedback from listeners.