The seven weeks I spent in Chautauqua flew by more quickly
than I ever could have imagined. My colleagues made up one of the most
friendly, fun groups of people of which I have ever been a part and the
opportunity to work with my dear voice teacher, Marlena, and all of the amazing
coaches and guest faculty was priceless. I have never sung better in my life than
I am singing now and I can’t wait to get back into school and start tackling my
last year at Juilliard. I feel like I am sinking in to being a professional
singer, step by step. I finally have the confidence that the voice, technique
and musical skills are there. So now, as I go into this final year of study and
the auditions for the professional world beyond school, I can go in with the confidence
that I will have success- and that is really exciting! Singing has never felt
so easy, and the easier it feels, the more fun it is, the more you can do with
it!
After flying home from Israel, I had just over 24 hours at
home in OH (contrary to the several days I had planned to have) before I needed
to get to Chautauqua for RA training (I know… predictable, right?). It was so
good to have the time with Dad and time for a quick wardrobe swap before
heading off again. And no better time to remember that your driver’s license is
expired than the night before you plan to drive across two states at 6 am (when
you are jetlagged, many things are possible)! I learned, however, that as long
as your license hasn’t been expired for more than 6 months, it is easy to
renew, as I arrived to the BMV at 8 am and was out in 15 minutes with the most
glamorous license picture ever. I contemplated asking them to send it to me for
my new headshot, but that seemed like overstepping.
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| Singing RAs after the Sing-in! Sydney, Lindsay, Charlotte, me and Matt |
Just over four hours later, I arrived at the Chautauqua
Institution: a gated utopia along the Chautauqua Lake, full of multi-million
dollar properties and gray hair. Not my preferred scene, but absolutely
stunning to the eye and a place of opportunity that I would come to appreciate
deeply. I was greeted by my roommate for the summer, Charlotte, a soprano from
Toronto whom I had met at the audition for Chautauqua. This girl friended me on
Facebook and asked to room with me after chatting for 10 minutes, and you know
what? I couldn’t have had a better roommate. I am very thankful for her
forwardness J
My RA training commenced; it was mostly the construction of a ping-pong table,
writing names on ballerina door tags and sitting listening to Brad Nunn (the
man in charge) make ridiculous jokes. Alas, I will miss Brad.
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| Steven and me by Lake Chautauqua |
Finally, people started arriving and moving in. We started
meeting all of our colleagues and making first impressions. I drove to the
Buffalo airport to pick up my BFF, Steven, a bassoonist from Juilliard, to
bring him back to Chautauqua for our fun-filled summer adventure.
The program ran a lot like the program at Juilliard. We were
given personal daily schedules at the end of each preceding day that included
our rehearsals, coachings, lessons, masterclasses or other voice program activities.
We had a program of 47 singers, all of who performed at the annual “Sing-in” on
the second day of the program. Such talent! What a delight it was to perform
with such talented colleagues all summer.
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| Charlotte and me by the lake |
At this point, I had already started to struggle with some
major allergy issues. My vocal folds were very swollen, despite the fact that I
was faithfully taking Claritin. This proved to be a major issue for me for the
next 2 weeks until I finally talked to the nurse practitioner and she
prescribed Prednisone. Every time I tried to sing, it felt like lifting an
elephant. Meanwhile, I was trying to prepare music for a masterclass during the
second week with American composer Ben Moore, as well as 3 French operetta
arias for a recital program in the third week. Charlotte was also struggling,
and we still wonder whether the real issue was our dorm room, but the steroids
did their job and after just one day, the swelling was down and I could access
the top of my range once again (after all, what is a high mezzo without a
top??). Never in my time at Chautauqua could I access my full range as it
normally is (high C’s aren’t something I stress about, but they weren’t
dependable in upstate NY), but I was able to regain ease of singing, thanks to
(steroids and) Marlena’s magical teaching.
Besides our musical work, our days were filled with card
games (my team almost always won at Euchre, thanks to my faithful partner,
Sebastian, and my acute trash-talking skills), volleyball, basketball, ultimate
Frisbee (well, that was just once because the art quad was filled with natural
sculptures that we hadn’t shown the proper respect… sorry, artists), hanging
out at the docks, walking around the beautiful grounds and attending
concerts/comedy shows/whatever was on the program in the amphitheater. I can
understand why people retreat to this sanitized little utopia for vacation,
taking a moment to escape the troubles of the real world. There certainly is a
certain magic there.
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| After the Ben Moore Masterclass |
Musically, I was to work immediately, preparing several
sings and ensembles for Ben Moore’s masterclass/recital on July 6. It was very
exciting to work with a living composer on his own music and I loved his
writing- very melodic, accessible and also interesting rhythmically and
harmonically. Meanwhile, I was very thankful for my three weeks in Paris as
Bénédicte, my French diction teacher at Juilliard and a wonderful coach,
assigned me three operetta arias in French to perform on her July 11th
recital. It was a lot of French to learn, but so rewarding! The recital was an
absolute blast to be a part of, with wonderfully talented and fun colleagues
and FUN music! After that, I had time to focus on finishing up my work on
Mercédès, Carmen’s gypsy friend for our big Amphitheater performance on August
6th. I got to sing two Mahler songs on a recital program with Mikael
Eliasen on July 25th, which, upon hearing that he was doing a program with
Mahler songs, I decided that I needed to be a part of it. Worth. It. I sang
“Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen,” a piece I have performed often sing the
Schubert Institute in 2016 and a new one, “Urlicht,” from Mahler’s 2nd
symphony, which I have always waited to sing, thinking it was still too big or
too low for me. That was also a wonderful experience. All the while, I was
working on Donna Elvira’s aria “Mi tradi” from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, one of the operas that Juilliard is doing next
season, for the casting audition in September. Cross your fingers for me!
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| Bénédicte's recital crew: Philippe, Lydia, Matt, Béné, Joseph, me, Magda and Shelén |
Carmen was a blast
to be a part of. I loved singing a small role and getting to do a lot of
watching and learning from others, while also contributing to a number of
beautiful ensembles and getting a few solo bits. I had so much fun with the
acting; my first role as a woman J.
Everyone in the program was involved, which was very stressful for many people
with all that was going on at the same time, but I loved getting to collaborate
with the whole group. Our performance was at the beginning of the last week of
the program, and true to form, that was not the end of my performing! On the
final day of the program, just as we had the sing-in, we had a sing-out, for
which I had prepared the “Mi tradi” aria. I had also been invited to sing a
small program at one of the more lavish estates on the Institution grounds, the
Purell house. Yes, that is Purell like the hand sanitizer. So several of us put
together a small program of songs and arias for that. And I also decided to
sign-up to perform two chamber pieces in one of the last open recitals of the
summer on August 10th, which I thought was the last day of our
program, but was actually the day after… oops! So we had had a huge party the
night before and almost everyone had left the morning of, but when you love the
music, the show goes right on! I performed the two Brahms’ viola songs with two
colleagues from Juilliard (Elijah and Julius) and “Scherza infida,” an aria
with bassoon obbligato from Handel’s opera Ariodante
with my favorite bassoonist, Steven, and the ever brilliant, Kanae.
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| Lydia (Frasquita), Amanda (Carmen) and me (Mercédès) in Carmen |
I cried as my colleagues were leaving that day because the
summer had been so rich and full and I was ready for it to keep right on going,
as the school year does. I will miss random trips to Boxcar Barney’s for ice
cream, singing loud, operatic versions of “Happy Birthday” in local restaurants,
sitting together in the cafeteria, squeezing a meal into a 30-minute break from
rehearsals, letting other people take my car on late night trips to McDonald’s,
having prayer meetings on Sunday nights, shopping at the flea market and
finding gems among the old ladies’ donations, laughing because your friends’
laughs are funnier than the joke, nighttime walks by the lake… and I think
mostly, the plethora of friends’ smiling faces greeting you everywhere at any
given time: in the caf, in the dorm hallways, on the path to the music
buildings, among the practice shacks, at the docks, in Bestor Plaza, at masterclasses,
before and between lessons and coachings… I am so thankful and so full. I grew
a ton as a singer, as a musician and as a person. And I am thankful that my
home base is in NYC, so that I can reconnect with these people more often.
A few weeks remain before I return to NYC on the 28th
for a teaching fellowship intensive, and soon thereafter, the recommencement of
classes. During that time, I will be performing in 4 recitals around the
Northeast part of the country with my dear traveling ensemble from last year
(Mary and Melissa!) and learning some Bernstein for a piece I am covering at
Juilliard in the fall. I look forward to the few days I have at home with Anna
and Dad, but am also glad to stay busy. I love making music and feel incredibly
blessed to have such amazing opportunities to do it!
Life is good!
Marie
PS if you have gotten this far and are thinking, "Well, when are we going to get to hear what you are doing, Marie, not just reading about it?" Send me a message and I will send you a link to some of my performances from the summer! Orrrrr come to one of our recitals: Aug 16 in Ann Arbor, Aug 18 in Archbold, Aug 20 in Harrisonburg or August 23 in Rochester!
