Click here to watch the video. A director would be hard pressed to assemble a more eclectic cast of New Yorkers than those warming up their voices around the grand piano at Nola Studios on West 54th Street near Broadway. A “Chorus Line” revival? Tryouts for “American Idol”? Not quite. They have gathered together from the five boroughs and paid $485 for a workshop to become the stars they always dreamed of being and to discover the Ethel Merman within. After four nighttime rehearsals, 15 stars were born. Well, that’s a stretch, but nevertheless, some of them had never sung a note outside a shower curtain, and now they found themselves performing the other night at the Triad on West 72nd Street. They entered the stage and warmed to the spotlight, easing into their numbers with breezy … [Read more...]
The Singing Experience in Press
Over the past 38 years, Linda Amiel Burns and The Singing Experience have been celebrated by both the electronic and print media. TV features and appearances have been: "CBS Sunday Morning" by reporter Bill Geist, "Live With Regis and Kathie Lee," ABC-TV "Views," Cable News Network with Janine Sharell (CNN), "Two On The Town" with Leeza Gibbons and Rob Weller, CBS News Feature with Morry Alter, "The Joe Franklin Show," PM Magazine and Evening Magazine, ABC-TV "Eyewitness News," WBIS-TV, Cablevision, New York 1, NBC-TV "Live At Five," Lifetime Television and many more.
Numerous articles have been published in both newspapers and magazines. To acquaint you with The Singing Experience, some are available on this site:
Toe-Tapping Guardians of American Songbook
By Lily Koppel, Published in New York Times on November 2, 2008
There are not many organizations in New York that stage singing performances as part of their regular meetings - especially not a performance by someone like Marni Nixon. Ms. Nixon may not be a familiar name to everyone. But anyone who has seen "West Side Story" or "My Fair Lady," two of Hollywood's classic musicals, has certainly heard her: Ms. Nixon provided the singing voices for Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn in those films. So Ms. Nixon, who has built her reputation in popular, opera and classical music, was a fitting guest at the most recent gathering of this particular group - the New York Sheet Music Society. The society's mission is to keep the great American songbook alive, to pass along the artistry, lyrics and melodies of the country's rich treasury of musicians like … [Read more...]
Linda Amiel Burns, Theaterscene Writer, Wins Special MAC AWARD
By Jeannie Lieberman in THEATERSCENE.NET on April 7, 2008
Theaterscene is proud to announce that our cabaret reviewer/writer, Linda Amiel Burns, is being awarded a MAC AWARD by THE MAC BOARD OF DIRECTORS (Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs - www.MACNYC.com ) on Tuesday evening, May 6th at a ceremony/show at BB Kings Blues Club on West 42nd Street. Her friend of many years, Danny Aiello, the Academy Award nominated actor, will present Linda with the award. This special recognition is for Linda's 30 year contribution to cabaret and the world of live entertainment in NYC. She also served on the MAC Board for sixteen years. Linda founded The Singing Experience in 1977, and since that time, thousands of people of all ages and all walks of life, have taken this journey in self-confidence through music and song. These unique performance … [Read more...]
Linda Amiel Burns and The Singing Experience
Published in Back Stage - The Actor's Resource By David Finkle on November 1, 2007
Three men and 10 woman stand in a rehearsal studio on Manhattan's West Side, raising their voices to Raposo's upbeat anthem "Sing." Led by Linda Amiel Burns, they're warming up for a group workshpo performance. The impending event is No. 429 on the list of workshop performances that Burns began 30 years ago. That's when she introduced The Singing Experience, a class geared to would-be singers, who range fem those pursuing a singing career or honing an acting carer for which some singing may be required to those merely interested in improving their private shower concerts. The careerists I spoke with declared in no uncertain terms that The Singing Experience experiience was beneficial. Lynn DiMenna, who divides her time between hosting the cabaret-promoting At The Ritz on WVOR-FM and … [Read more...]
A YEARNING TO SING: Daughter gives mom a chance to belt out a lifelong dream
By Ellen Mitchell - New York Newsday October 22, 2002
When Sally Miller strutted her stuff before a packed house the other night, she showed a lot of rhinestones, a lot of leg and a lot of guts. Not bad for a 76-year-old, three-time cancer survivor. Miller, who for three-quarters of a century confined most of her singing to the shower, belted out a red-hot medley of Sophie Tucker torch songs. She had the audience cheering and foot-stomping to such old-time favorites as "Some of These Days" and "After You've Gone." "I just let it all hang out," said Miller of her newfound voice. "I decided if I sing softly people will conclude, 'She can't do this,' but if I'm loud they'll think, 'Oh, maybe she's good.'" Sally Miller, a woman for whom pessimism is not an option, owes her late-in-life start in "show biz" to her daughter. "Last year, … [Read more...]
THE SINGING EXPERIENCE – The Best Teacher
By Peter Leavy, Published in CABARET SCENES on November, 1999
IN THE HIT BROADWAY DRAMA, Master Class, audiences glimpsed the plight of performers studying with one of the great divas of her time. The harsh and frequently heartless methods used by the teacher may have startled viewers not familiar with such behind-the-scenes training, but many professionals would have ruefully nodded with recognition. As a young performer, Linda Amiel Burns studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse and The Musical Theater Academy. Recalling her experience under the tutelage of the renowned Lehman Engel, she found his bellicose scorn at the aspirants’ exercises highly unsettling. Years later, she still retains a sense of outrage. "He had a garden full of blossoming actors and he was trampling on the flowers." The students, perceiving their instructor’s disdain, shrank … [Read more...]
Hitting The Right High-On-Me Note
By Heidi Mae Bratt Published in The New York Post, A Post Plus Section, New York Woman "Life In The City" on Tuesday, January 7, 1997
Clad in a metallic mini, body-hugging silver shirt and go-go boots, "serious architect" Leslie McBride could barely recognize herself.Grabbing the mike, she vamped her way through Bonnie Rait’s suggestive "Something to Talk About" to an audience that lapped up every flirtatious roll of her shoulder. Waiting for the applause to quell, McBride signed, "I’ve done a flip."Linda Amiel Burns, New York’s unofficial singing Svengali, wasn’t at all surprised. After attending her "chutzpah" workshop, nearly all the performers are transformed: They come in like a mouse, and out like Madonna. "The first night they’re all hiding under their chairs," says Amiel Burns, director of The Singing Experience, a six-session workshop that teaches confidence through singing.Amiel Burns started the workshop … [Read more...]