Divagations

Your Journey: It's Going!

My dear Friends and Readers,

As I sit and write to you from my home in Providence, I face some very interesting prospects this year, not the least of which is my debut with the Orchestra of St. Luke's in Avery and two Verdi Requiems in February, one with an old friend and another with a new face and a new orchestra.  Teaching and performing at Ohio State in the fall is also going to be exciting as well, touching new lives and doing new things in a field relatively unchartered, as in the field of flute and voice comparison.  Doing another stage production in Toledo is also exciting, and there are plans for a new collaboration in Des Knaben Wunderhorn with an acquaintance, promising a new friendship...but how do these things really fit into our everyday lives?  How do they mesh into the fabric of living? 

I once told a very important agent who greatly admired my work what I was doing the next month and he said, "Well, that's not very ambitious of you."  My mentor used to press me harder and harder and no matter what I accomplished it was never enough.  I have heard so many singers say how they are so tired of the constant travel, living out of a suitcase and never having a home, and I myself have been guilty of this complaining.  They complain they have no private lives, they complain they have no freedom in their lives to do what they want to do, etc.  I say, when the opportunities are there, we must make an important decision.  We must decide what we will do with them.  Will we do them begrudgingly, and stack them up as notches on our belt, that help us climb some sort of ladder to stardom, bigger fees, better jobs?  Do we see them as building our careers and reputation?  Do we knock them out as a one-after-another thing, constantly wondering what will be next on the horizon, or if so and so month will fill up, or look eagerly to the time when we are paid and be off for a period of weeks so we can "have a life?"  We all do all these things at one point or another, but now I'm going to suggest something really radical: Enjoy what you do.  Of course you do...but for what reasons?  Do we have to have concerts to heal the world of its problems and its needs after tsunamis, hurricanes, wars? Or can we simply heal and be healed every time we open our mouths?

I remember a Verdi Requiem that I did after 9/11.  It was an experience that I shall never forget.  We had one rehearsal and just did it.  The audience was packed as full as the church could hold, and what a beautiful church it was.  I felt an energy from the audience and the melding of souls and minds that will stay with me forever.  There were no reviews in the papers, and none of us even thought of a review. There was nothing but the purity of the music itself concentrated for that moment in time, and crystallized into the most intense musicmaking I've ever been involved in or witnessed (except for a Matthew Passion I was involved in that same season, but even still there was something different in this 9/11 memorial). 

I think this is the closest that we can get to unconditional love.  Why can't we do this all the time?  We, as musicians and singers, used to be servants and subservient to kings and monarchs in the olden days - or as I like to say "back in the day" - and we are still "enslaved" to a certain degree.  We seem to be enslaved by our own minds and thoughts about what we do and the state of our professions, the need to make ends meet, to pay the mortgage or the rent, the need to get more and more.  It is perhaps the most difficult thing to do, but what I am asking is to sing and to play merely for the healing art of sound and vibration, the touching of souls and minds with the intention of sending out unconditional love and approaching all these opportunities we have with an attitude of gratitude, knowing that we have the opportunity to do it.  It even matters not that they like what you do, it matters not what they will say about you, it matters not if your fee is good or bad. It only matters that you have been entrusted with a sacred opportunity to lift someone up in the best way you know how.  Every time you step onto a stage or stand before someone, make it as if it would be your last call out into the Universe. Look out at your audience with love and acceptance of where they are (that they may or may not understand you), but know that you are sending them your most sincere wish for healing and happiness, and perhaps even for a moment, an escape from unhappiness or the ever present grief that has made its way in the underlying vibrations of the fabric of our very souls these days, brought about by such world suffering and brought into our own backyards by aggressors or natural disasters.  Make this your healing for you and for them.  And make your preparation for each and everything you do a meditation to clear your mind of worldly desires and fears, and fill it with the sending of only the purest Light.  Energy goes whatever Energy it might be. 

I have a friend who sends healing Reiki energy everyday out into the world to heal the hearts of so many in need after all we have endured lately.  I said, "My God, I never even thought of doing that."  And she said, "Yes, some people think it's a waste of time, but we do it anyway." 

Make the daily living of what you do a Prayer of Thankfulness to the Universe that gave you the ability to do what you do, and think not of where it's going or if it's going.  Be assured: it is going.  With the spirit and love you put into it or with the drudgery and responsibilities you heap on it no matter successful or unsuccessful, it's going. 

New Season - New Energy?

Hello All,

Well, here we are again. Back to the time when there's a snap in the air and the days are gilded with bright crisp sunshine, a time of shortening days, changing leaves and changing seasons. Oddly enough, for us singers, that means a season of 'newness' because it is the time when opera companies come to New York to hear auditions and cast for the following seasons. I have always looked forward to Fall, but I find this year a bit different: I have had a hard time getting back into the swing of things, feeling downright summer-like lazy!

What I suppose makes me feel so differently is that my summer was so busy, with so much to learn and perform at the Newport Music Festival. The Festival hosts a two-week marathon of concerts in all of the beautiful mansions in Newport, Rhode Island famous for their opulence and grandeur. It was really an amazing experience, and I had the chance to meet some really fantastic people and share a unique bond with those I worked with. It was an intense 14 days, which had its beginnings in New York City. I went in around a month earlier to rehearse (in one day) the 68 songs with the pianist that was assigned to me! Of course, we had one other meeting out at Newport and little catch-ups during the two weeks, while also performing and rehearsing with other musicians. This 12-hour-a-day schedule made the Decathlon look like a senior aqua-aerobics session. My main pianist was Tom Hrynkiw, an amazing fellow capable of technically handling anything thrown at him and play it at sight. Half my music was Poulenc songs, and the other, a conglomeration of songs in Russian, German Lieder, Italian arie antiche, a Mozart concert aria, and some corny but actually rather nice parlor songs in English! I had perhaps only 11 songs that I sang with other artists and the rest was with Tom. We started out quite well, although we had some "musicianly disagreements" and struggled to understand how to put our styles together. In the end, I can honestly say that it felt as if we had known each other all our lives. I can say perhaps my most impressive personal triumph was a little song called Baltunya (The Chatterbox), which reels off enough Russian to fill the pages of War and Peace in about 4 minutes! There were also other things like learning two songs cycles that were completely new to me at the very beginning of the Festival. These were assigned to another artist who did not end up performing them. That brought my total up to a smashing 79 songs! My big feature concert at The Breakers, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, (Songs of a Wayfarer) went amazingly well and, of all things, I actually got a terrific review for the Mozart concert aria that I sang at the beginning of the festival. I felt fortunate to be reviewed at all, since most of the time it is only the foreign artists that get reviewed, either making a North America Debut or perhaps giving an Opening Gala or Closing concert. I even got a mention in The New Yorker! You can see pictures from my Newport experience and others at Pictures from My Life.

The one thing I can say without reservation about Newport as a performer is, that it is not for everyone. There is certainly a personality type that thrives on that kind of experience, enormous workload and performance schedule. I thought I would certainly not be one of them, as I normally like a lot of rehearsals for recitals, especially when I don't really know the pianist either by their playing or personally. But what I discovered is that that particular atmosphere rather suits me to a tee; I loved having to be overly prepared and to expect the unexpected. I loved being able to wear a different dress everyday, sometimes two or three a day, as there were that many concerts going on that one might be involved in. And I loved being in such gorgeous places! Each Newport Mansion has its own appeal, and most certainly it adds to the feel and result of the concerts given there. We definitely had inevitable "Newport moments" (don't ask!), but all in all, I thought it was the most fun I've had in years, the most I've learned and the most I've grown as a performer for many, many reasons. The hardest thing about it for me was the fact that I absolutely adore the public, and I love to say hello to people that have come to the concerts. Sometimes with the schedules we had, it was really impossible, either because one was worried about talking and not having enough voice, or because you had to ‘book out of there’ and get to your next concert at another Mansion across town! Anyway - that possibly explains my slowness in embracing this very busy audition season! It is another energy entirely, and now that I have been into "The City" a couple of times, I'm getting my "mojo" back!

I look forward to performing with two groups and two conductors that are new to me this December - Chorus Pro Musica with Jeffrey Rink and the Providence Singers with Julian Wachner. Please check my Schedule to find out about these exciting projects!

I wish you all a wonderful fall and change of season. I wish you lots of rest as you ease your bodies back into the colder temperatures and as you prepare for what is not too far away, the Holiday Season! I know! Isn't that a crazy thought!

Lots of love and get to raking those leaves!!!!!

Diva G