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I’ m a longtime fan, introduced to your work by my father. When I mentioned to my Dad that you and I would be chatting, he told me his favorite recorded track of yours is The Sea-gull and the Ea-gull. I actually discovered a little gem on YouTube of you rehearsing that song— and in that video, you commented that you actually love being in the recording studio, because it feels more like the rehearsal room— more intimate— as opposed to large performance halls. Is that still true? Definitely. They are two different animals, right? They ' re not mutually exclusive. My sense of space is always different depending on where I ' m singing. On stage, the experience is a little more spontaneous, and there’ s no returning, no going back and repeating something. I actually enjoy taking smaller steps in the recording studio and repeating things, getting in as deeply as possible. I love performing live as well, but the moment becomes more about understanding my relationship to any given audience. But— and I ' ve said this many times about preparing pieces— the work involved in getting inside the piece and the process itself is most interesting to me, in addition to the collaborative work that I do with my colleagues.
Given your love of the recording studio, do you train the TMC Fellows on how to“ work the mic?” We don ' t really do much of that, to be honest. Most of them are grad school age or maybe post-grad. And I have to say, this generation— and even the last generation— it’ s a different world for them than it was for me. They record themselves all the time as a means of
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demonstrating who they are as musicians. In auditions today, often you first have to send a video recording of yourself. I certainly never prepared a video recording for a job. It’ s a common skill these days that they must know.
You were a MacArthur“ genius grant” fellow in 2007, the first vocal artist to receive that prize. It’ s a huge recognition. What was that experience like for you, and how did that honor— and funding— enable you to grow as an artist? It was a really amazing surprise. I’ m still kind of shocked by it, to be honest, but it was a wonderful pat on the back and truly inspirational. It allowed me to commission a few pieces and to travel with a piece on tour that would have been too costly for me to handle myself. Most important was the sense that I was being heard, and that my connection— what I wanted to say through my singing— was being understood.
You were also a vocal fellow at Tanglewood yourself! How did that experience shape your artistic path? I came into singing classical music unexpectedly. My family’ s musical upbringing, which was during the 1960s and early’ 70s, was listening to a lot of protest songs from the civil rights movement— Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, etc. They made music that was meant to be so powerful as to persuade, change, or surprise. Maybe even to bring to the surface some truth that wasn ' t apparent in other ways, and in a peaceful way. When I went to college, I had also become interested in musical theater. When I first came to Tanglewood, I was really
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moved and impressed by Phyllis Curtin, who was such a strong and brilliant human being with the kind of conviction that I saw about her own artistic self that I was able to relate to, given my early musical upbringing. Being in that setting and really appreciating the history, the meaning, and the power of classical music— it was just a perfect place for me to build real confidence in my choice of following this path.
You mentioned Phyllis Curtin, who lived in Great Barrington. Who are some of your other mentors, both professionally and personally? Certainly, I would say mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani. She taught alongside Adele Addison at the Aspen Music School, and I was in Aspen for three summers before I went to Tanglewood. My last summer, I worked with Jan and with Adele in the Vocal Chamber Music program, which they no longer have, sadly. At the time, Jan was still performing, and Adele was only teaching. I really count both of them as great inspirations in terms of working with living music, especially in terms of working with living composers and understanding the music of my own time— what it was attempting to say, how I might engage with it myself, and how I might create relationships with composers. I continued to take lessons periodically with Jan. She taught at Eastman, and I really became eager to make contemporary music and chamber music a priority for me. I got a little swayed— happily so— for a while, when I was invited to audition at the Met for their young artist program. I had thought that I didn ' t want to sing opera, but my voice teacher at the time, Ellen
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Faull— another wonderful mentor— encouraged me to take that audition, and that, of course, was huge for me. Really eye-opening. I began feeling like,“ Oh my gosh, opera is, in a way, the highest art form when all the elements are working well together.” Maybe it doesn ' t happen all the time, but when it does happen, it ' s pretty amazing. Another mentor for me was James Levine, whom I met and began working with through that young artist program.
You’ ve been very intentional in your decision to work with living composers. How does working directly with the composer influence your approach to a piece? I always hope that I approach both the same way, with the same process. Whether it ' s a brand-new piece or a very old piece, I find it incredibly interesting to understand— if I can really get to that point— what the composer was trying to say, and what they wanted to express. I always ask myself,“ Why is this piece meaningful? Why does it matter today?” That is more interesting to me than repeating pieces that have been done thousands or even millions of times.
Does that go back to your roots of loving music for social change? That’ s a nice way of putting it. I think that’ s probably true. I don’ t see the point really, for myself, in singing something just for the sake of making a beautiful sound. Some people do. Some people want to go to a concert and just hear beautiful music, and that’ s plenty for them. And musicians train in order to achieve that. But even as I choose music for the fellows at Tanglewood, I try to consider what they’ ve been exploring, their repertoire lists,
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May / June 2025 BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE // 9 |