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Tunnel Singer

From Catherine Girardeau | 00:08:13
Producers: Catherine Girardeau, Earprint Productions

Credit:
Profile of a singer who is losing her voice.

This story is a profile of Lee Ellen Shoemaker, a singer who is losing her voice to a rare neurological condition. The retired hospital adminstrator-turned performance artist is known as the Tunnel Singer, for her live vocal improvisations in the resonant darkness of tunnels and empty cisterns.

In this piece, Shoemaker tells the story, with what's left of her voice, of her journey into her singing career, and her recent struggle with spasmodic dysphonia. The reporter follows Shoemaker as she is treated with botox injections into her vocal cords, which can temporarily recover her singing voice. We hear her singing in a tunnel, before and after the treatment, and are left with the haunting notes of her lost voice.

Aired 5/21/05 on PRI's "Weekend America".
Licensed by WGCU, Colorado Springs, CO; aired
6/7/05.

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This story is a profile of Lee Ellen Shoemaker, a singer who is losing her voice to a rare neurological condition. The retired hospital adminstrator-turned performance artist is known as the Tunnel Singer, for her live vocal improvisations in the resonant darkness of tunnels and empty cisterns. In this piece, Shoemaker tells the story, with what's left of her voice, of her journey into her singing career, and her recent struggle with spasmodic dysphonia. The reporter follows Shoemaker as she is treated with botox injections into her vocal cords, which can temporarily recover her singing voice. We hear her singing in a tunnel, be...
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2 Comments Atom Feed

Emonprofile_square

Emon Hassan

Posted on June 10, 2005 at 08:27 PM | Permalink

Review of Tunnel Singer

One of the most unusual and heartbreaking stories you'll ever hear. I will say no more.
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vmerrick

Posted on June 07, 2005 at 08:51 PM | Permalink

Review of Tunnel Singer

What a pocket of humanity is this ! A woman who revels in that imcomparable delight of singing in tunnelly spots, is losing her voice. Her voice has been everything so what to do? Despair? No, DREAM !!!!!!
Learn and celebrate another way of dealing with hardship - true it's not the hardship of a terminal illness, more like sight to the photographer, voice to the singing - this was an honest inspiring piece of radio. Good production work of tunnel recordings and informative and demonstrative on spasmodic dysphonia. A solid piece of work.

Broadcast History

Aired 5/21/05, "Weekend America", PRI.

Transcript

“Tunnel Singer”
RECORDED SCRIPT - 5/1/05
00:08:13 (with long music tag for soc-out)

Shoemaker:
I was injected on March the 4th, 2005. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long, round arch, with its path high above and is two ends apparently beyond the horizon" I will say "EEEEE"for a long time.
We mow our lawn all year. We eat apples and eggs. The puppy bit the tape..

NARR:
Lee Ellen Shoemaker isn't losing her mind.

Shoemaker:
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are gray."

NARR:
She's losing her voice.

Shoemaker::
You'll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away."

NARR:
You just heard one of the vocal exercises Shoemaker records every day for her doctor. A few years ago, she came down with a rare neurological condition called spasmodic...
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Musical Works

"Inner Runes", The Tunnel Singer, Lee Ellen Shoemaker, Inner Runes, 1995.
“Woman Song”, The Tunnel Singer, Lee Ellen Shoemaker, Inner Runes, 1995.

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