Victoria Minton

Long time, no post. . . .

Victoria Minton — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 18:37:11 +0000

Extremely sorry I have not posted in a while, things have been a bit busy in my house. My mother was diagnosed with cancer during the middle of the summer and things both emotionally and physically have been a bit trying, yet through it all, everyone has been so supportive. My family and I can hardly believe all the love we’ve been shown through this. My church organized a blood drive for my mom, and my FCA group at school has been praying vigilantly. We just feel so blessed for such amazing friends. Mom’s tumors have shrunk by almost half, and doctors are amazed at how fast she’s getting better. I am also participating in All-State with my school choir and have now reached the second round. I now get the amazing opportunity to learn one of Mozart’s works, and I’m extremely excited.

Thanks to all that have been praying for us, and I promise to be in touch much more frequently!

2011 Fort Worth Opera Festival

Victoria Minton — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 01:32:43 +0000

The Fort Worth Opera put on another great festival this year. There were four operas: Il Trovatore, Julius Caesar, The Mikado, and Hydrogen Jukebox. I got to be a part of ‘Il Trovatore’, and not only was it a great honor, but a lot of fun as well. I got to meet great artists such as Dongwon Shin (who might just be the best tenor I have ever heard in person), Marjorie Owens, Malcolm MacKenzie, and more. Here are some pictures of the cast party, as well as after the final ‘Il Trovatore’ show:

Dongwon Shin, 'Count Manrico' in "Il Trovatore"

Victoria Livengood, 'Azucena' in "Il Trovatore, and Laura Mercado-Wright, 'Inez'

"Il Trovatore" director David Lefkowich and "Inez" Laura Mercado-Wright

"Il Trovatore" Assistant Director Michael Yeshion

Tyler Simpson, 'Ferrando' in "Ill Trovatore"

Ava Pine, 'Cleopatra' in "Julius Caesar"

Marjorie Owens, 'Leonora' in "Il Trovatore"

Randall Scotting, 'Julius Caesar' in "Julius Caesar"

Conductor Joe Illick

Rehearsals coming outta my ears

Victoria Minton — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:02:00 +0000

These days I don’t know which rehearsal I am even heading to. Its been sooo hectic. Rehearsing for two different shows those being Pirates of Penzance with the Grand Prairie Arts Council and Il Travatore with the Fort Worth Opera. Its been 7 days a week. Then today I have an audition for another important show in yet another city. WHEW! Its been nice rehearsing for the opera because people are starting to remember me. Hey, anytime a grammy nominated Opera Diva remembers lil ole ME is a great day!! This is certainly a plus towards my goals. I haven’t had much time to enjoy our gorgeous weather we have been having but I hope You have!! -V

Twister!

Victoria Minton — Mon, 16 May 2011 14:57:49 +0000

Wow our weather lately has been in something of a quandry. Severe thunderstorms every evening and some of those turning into Tornados. I guess that is Spring in North Texas. Some of these storms have continued to drift eastward and caused much havoc in other states and cities including some people losing thier homes and even their lives. My heart aches and I am in prayer for these families. Although the technology is so far advance over the last 25 years for detecting Tornados, we still don’t seem to be able to protect ourselves very well. Makes me wonder what more we could/should be doing.
Hope your spring is coming up daisies!! -V

To catch a thief

Victoria Minton — Wed, 11 May 2011 19:19:24 +0000

I have had the unfortunate experience of having my iPod stolen…. TWICE! Yep, my new iPod touch I got recently is gone. I pleaded with those who might have taken it to return it, no questions asked. But I realize the chances of getting it back now are slim. Its sad on so many levels but mostly for me because I do store a lot of my opera music on there and I had stored several recordings of arias I did with an accompanist we paid to come to our house and play piano for me. I can re-buy every song I like from iTunes but, I can never get those recordings back.
I guess someone is enjoying my iPod right now. I guess they needed it more than I did. (sigh)

Happy Birthday To Me!

Victoria Minton — Tue, 03 May 2011 21:17:15 +0000

Last Saturday was the day that little old me turned 16! Let’s just start when I woke up to the smell of cinniman rolls and coffee! Yum. I sat in my usual spot and had a giant arrangement of flowers placed in front of me! I LOVE FLOWERS! We spent the rest of the morning icing my red velvet cupcakes. About 200 of them! One of my long lost friends spent the entire day with me as we rushed the last minute preparations for my party. Then, the best part. I put on my pretty new royal blue cocktail dress and we headed to the venue. Once we arrived, we stepped into the room and realised it was hotter in this room than it was outside!!! The air had just stopped working! We pulled these GIANT fans into the room to cool it down, and opened the doors to the patio. We got the food ready and set out the cupcakes hoping they would not melt.
I was so excited when my friends began to arrive. Many more people than I ever expected to actually showed up. That is a nice feeling. The band was the best part though. My long time friends, Cameron, Landon, and Preston from In His Hands Band were the entertainment (www.inhishandsband.com). For days now since the party my friends have been telling me that IHH were amazing, not that I didn’t already know that! The party overall was like something from a movie. It was just plain perfect, thanks to the brilliant planning of my Mommy, and the wonderful music from my friends, and my other friends being crazy along with me. Perfect is the only word I can use to descibe it. My Perfect Sweet 16 I will never forget. What a memory. Boy was I sore the next day!! haha!
Well, I hope this April is treating you right and that with my upcoming anthems and shows I might soon…. see you in the audience! -V

TAKS troubles and blues

Victoria Minton — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 02:24:37 +0000

I must say that TAKS is one of the most annoying things a student will ever have to do. You answer a few questions, and then wait for the rest of the school to complete their questions. Not to mention the lateness of lunch, and the all together silence that graces the usually catasrophically loud hallways. Not talking is the thing that gets me though. I am a highly social person so sitting quietly for an entire day is rather insane. On the good side, I always feel very smart when I finish because these tests are always seem to be the simplest test I take all year. Is that my imagination? Is that scary? Hmmmm. Two more days of this insanity and we will be done. In the evenings I have rehearsals for Pirates of Penzance and then this weekend I have an audition for Anthem singing so things are pretty normal on the home front. Hope you are planning to see Pirates of Penzance! Go here for dates and tickets ww.artsgp.com. Hope to see you in the audience! -V

Upcoming Show Information for May and June

Victoria Minton — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 22:00:07 +0000

I am very happy to announce that I will be playing the lead, ‘Mabel’, in the Grand Prairie Arts Council’s production of “Pirates of Penzance”! ‘Mabel’ is the lead, and one of the great things about this show is that is is a comic opera, which is rarely done in community theater. The show will be over the weekend of June 16th-19th, and tickets can be found at Grand Prairie Arts Council.

Things will be a little tight for me, however, because the rehearsals are at the same time as the rehearsals for “Il Trovatore”, with the Fort Worth Opera. I will be one of the Ladies In Waiting, and will be at Bass Hall the last couple of weeks in May. See the Fort Worth Opera web page for more details.

North East Orchestra

Victoria Minton — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 00:59:26 +0000

This morning I woke up at the same time I usually wake up to get ready for school. You may be asking yourself… Isn’t it saturday? Isn’t she a teen-ager? Well the answer to both of these questions is yes. Today of course, was a different Saturday. This morning I had an audition for the North East Orchestra. It’s an opportunity to sing with the orchestra if you can win the spot. I groggily stumbled out of bed, grabbed a towel and headed to awaken myself with a shower. Only half-way through my shower I realised I could barely hear, breathe, or stay awake. Welcome to congestion. I finished getting ready early so Daddy drove me and himself to Star-bucks where I ordered a tall vanilla soy late (since before competition or singing what-so-ever any dairy is obviously out of the question) plus, with the way my allergies were acting today, I didn’t think I needed any extra hassle. Anyway, Daddy and I arrived ahead of schedual and spent ten minutes just trying to figure out what section of this massive building the audition was in. We meandered around a bit and finally found our destination. Luckily, we were STILL early. I had time to rehearse my song a few times through, and then preformed it for the judges. The hardest part was I had to do the entire song from muscle memory since I still couldn’t hear!! Of course that gave me some anxiety because I had no idea what I had actually sounded like. My piano accompanist assured me that it was the best I had ever sang it, so I had to take her word for it. Suprisingly the results for this audition came TODAY! This is highly unusualy but the gal running the thing said she hated wait for answers on auditions herself and so we was going to deliver the news today, as soon as all the competitors had completed thier auditions. This thing was open to young artists and that included not only vocalists but instrumentalists too. I got the call around 5pm and unfortunatly placed second which means I do not get to preform with the orchestra. DARN, better luck next year I guess. The top prize went to an instrumentalist so at least I know I was the top vocalist that auditioned. So hey this career is a career of 50 no’s and 1 yes, so I keep on keepin’ on, and I’ll make it someday… And when I do I’ll see you in the audience!!! -V

Anthems

Victoria Minton — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:13:32 +0000

Well I won’t be singing the Anthem for Texas Motor Speedway this year, bummer. But I WILL be singing it for the Fort Worth Cats! YAY!! I will have to post dates as soon as I have them. Also, will be singing for Lone Star Park, again , dates to be posted as soon as I have them.
More audition results to come! Hope your spring is starting out Springy!! ) -V