L to R: Megan Taylor, Celine Mogielnicki, Mary Bonhag, Solange Merdinian, Ariadne Greif, Leroy Davis, Jeong Cheol Cha, Dawn Upshaw, and Clarissa Lyons at the Dawn Upshaw &
Friends Concert at the Classical Singer Convention performing Evan Premo’s arrangement of “Down to the River to Pray” composed especially for the singers of the Graduate Vocal
Arts Program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Finding Your T
Voice at
Bard College
Conservatory
By Brian Manternach
Dawn Upshaw and students from the Graduate
Vocal Arts Program at Bard College Conservatory
of Music wowed attendees at the 2010 Classical
Singer Convention last May. Find out what makes
this program so unique and what they are doing to
produce a new generation of complete artists.
52 Classical Singer / September 2010
hose who attended the 2010 Classical Singer Convention
knew to expect the high level of excellence that has been
associated with the headliner and namesake of the “Dawn
Upshaw & Friends” concert. But what they may not have predicted
was the impression made by the “Friends”—the students from the
Graduate Vocal Arts Program at the Bard College Conservatory
of Music in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. In addition to
the fine singing, audiences commented on the singers’ “beautiful
artistry” and their “obvious commitment to text and expression.”
In its fifth year of instruction, this unique master’s degree program
is following its own model as it prepares singers for a future in the
vocal arts.
“It’s just really nice to get that feedback,” said Upshaw of the
response to the Classical Singer Convention performance. “They
had originally asked me to come and do a recital and I thought ‘I
could do that,’ but it might be more interesting for that particular
convention to kind of demonstrate what we’re up to [at Bard] and
what we’re about. So I was really happy that they were open to that
idea.”
As the artistic director of the GVA program and the Charles
Franklin Kellogg and Grace E. Ramsey Kellogg Professor of the
Arts and Humanities at Bard College, Upshaw acknowledges,
“We’re in our infancy here, having done this for only four years,
but my goal is to create a place and an experience for singers at the
graduate level to really be able to concentrate on who they are as
singing artists and what they are doing and what they have to say.”
Kayo Iwama, pianist and head of the program, shares that
vision. “Dawn started thinking extensively about what she wanted
to impart to the next generation of singers—and specifically
addressing some of the things that she herself felt that she missed
in her own education.” To that end, Iwama identifies three points
of focus in the GVA program at Bard: “The communication of the
text; the healthy use of the body and just body awareness, which
is so important in career longevity; and, thirdly, finding a way to
develop their own unique careers.”
Upshaw finds her contributions mostly lie in the first category.
“What I can offer them is what I’ve learned from my own
experience and what I’ve learned about the process of expressing
text through song,” she says. “So I talk about process a lot. A lot
of times I say, ‘What is it that you’re trying to say here?’ And then
we get to talking about the tools we all have to use to say what we
want to say—those tools being such things like our perspective on
a text, vibrato, pitch, articulation, phrasing, dynamics—the list is
very long.”
To help achieve the second focus, of instilling body awareness
and efficiency in its students, Bard employs two instructors in
movement and Alexander Technique. Iwama emphasizes the
need to use the body “in a very natural way. . . . That’s why we
have an extensive Alexander program,” she explains. “In fact, the
Alexander teachers will even go to the voice teacher’s lessons twice
a semester so that they can help the student incorporate all the
things along with the voice teacher.”
Thirdly, students are also guided and encouraged to find
their own unique place in the musical world. “[Dawn] and I are
probably less interested in a narrow career . . . a career that is only
going one way,” Iwama says. “But we want to nurture the whole
artist and help them develop ways to create opportunities for
themselves, not just in opera but also in chamber music and art
song—and also to find ways so that they know how to develop
relationships with each other, their colleagues, as well as the press.”
This aim is met in part by Carol Yaple, a faculty member in Arts
and Career Management. Her career workshop class meets once
a week to address different aspects of developing the professional
lives of the students. Through her own instruction as well as a
series of guest lectures, Yaple’s course addresses wide-ranging
topics including yoga, nutritional health, audition feedback, the
inner workings of an opera house, preparation of a role, program
notes, and press kits.
“Carol also participates in one of our core seminars in which the
students work together to develop a recital program,” Iwama adds.
“They have to go out and market it, they have to find a venue, they
have to work with the presenter, they have to find a local paper or
radio station in order to publicize their concert, and [they have to]
develop a kind of a theme and rehearse and work on their music
and, finally, present the concert. It’s a huge challenge, but it’s also
been very rewarding and very successful.”
Of course, the faculty of the two-year master of music program
in vocal performance also includes the requisite voice teachers,
diction specialists, and vocal coaches. But Iwama is quick to point
Ilana Zarankin as Le feu in the Bard College Conservatory of
Music’s production of L’enfant et les sortilèges, 2010
photo by Karl Rabe
photo by J&J Photography
Finding Your Voice at Bard College Conservatory
out that the faculty “share these values that Dawn and I have tried
to instill. They’re really open to not just one color of singing or
one style of singing . . . they are all such wonderful musicians, not
just voice teachers manufacturing a particular sound out of the
students. They participate fully and are engaged with the students
and working with them on their repertoire. We feel very fortunate
and we’ve worked hard to identify those teachers who have these
values and these skills. It’s not easy to find!”
These shared values allow the teachers to contribute to each
student’s education in individualized ways. “I don’t think of
myself as a voice teacher,” Upshaw says. “[The students] have
their own voice teachers. They have a technical teacher or lessons
with somebody where technique is included. Once I get to know
somebody especially well, I will talk probably about some technical
aspects if I feel I can do that without getting in the way of their
relationship with their voice teacher. Sometimes in a masterclass
situation, if I feel like I could be helpful with a technical comment,
I almost always preface it with ‘I, of course, don’t know where
www.classicalsinger.com 53
Finding Your Voice at Bard College Conservatory
you’ve come from and where you’re trying
to go technically and what struggles you’ve
had and what you’ve just overcome, but
this is what I hear.’”
The program at Bard also places
special emphasis on exploring new music.
Through a partnership with the Weill
Music Institute of Carnegie Hall, Bard
students are guided through a creative
process with handpicked composers to
present new works. “And we always have
commissions of operas,” Iwama states.
“Whenever we do an opera, we usually
have two or three one-acts. We do this so
that each student has a real role—that it’s
not just three people starring and the rest of
them are in the chorus or in a comprimario
role. . . . It ends up being a wonderful
collaboration and a learning process for the
singers as well as the composers.”
Performing newly composed works
draws again from Upshaw’s singing career
of more than 25 years. “Dawn says, ‘You
can’t live in a museum, you have to be
a participant in the art,’” Iwama relates.
“So we’ve always felt . . . being in music is
not really about having a career, it’s about
expanding the art and being an active
creator in art.”
“If you take care of your art,” she
elaborates, “your art will take care of you.
It may not take you the fastest way or the
most direct way or the way that you think
you should take. But if you truly believe
this and truly nurture your art and do it for
the sake of the art, then somehow it seems
to work out always that you’ll find a place
in the musical world.”
The special nature of the program caters
to a small group of students. Bard accepts
approximately eight new singers each year
into the two-year process. This allows for a
significant amount of one-on-one attention,
encouraging each student to develop as an
individual.
Bard graduate Solange Merdinian
Contemporary Commercial Music
Vocal Pedagogy Institute 2010
July 17-26
Somatic Voiceworksm
The LoVetri Method
Graduate courses offered:
• Somatic Voicework: Level I, II, III
• CCM Vocal Styles
(Musical Theatre, Jazz, Gospel, Pop, Rock)
• Voice Research Applications
All courses are worth one graduate credit.
Shenandoah Conservatory
of Shenandoah University
Winchester, Va.
54 Classical Singer / September 2010
for information:
540-665-4600
lleonard@su.edu
www.su.edu/tvpc
agrees. “I believe the program is modeled
after Dawn Upshaw’s uniqueness as
an artist: importance of words and
poetry, honesty, creating in the moment,
respecting the composer’s intention,
communicating through music, opera
and new compositions, art song, and—
what makes us unique—our own stamp,”
Merdinian says.
Richard Dyer, former head arts critic
of the Boston Globe and regular guest
lecturer at Bard, also appreciates what
the degree offers. “The program Dawn
Upshaw and Kayo Iwama are developing
at Bard helps equip adventurous young
singers for the real world rather than
grooming them for a fantasy,” Dyer says.
“The students not only develop their vocal
and linguistic equipment and hone their
performing chops, the way they would in
more conventional programs, but they also
learn to take charge of their own destiny,
acquiring artistic and entrepreneurial skills
that will advance their own careers in the
constantly evolving ecology of the music
business. ‘Careers’ really isn’t the right
word—they learn how to build a life in
music, the way Dawn and Kayo did.”
“In addition to Dawn and Kayo’s
support,” Bard graduate Celine Mogielnicki
adds, “I found such warmth and
support from all my colleagues. There is
absolutely no unhealthy competition—only
competition within yourself to improve and
grow. It’s a healthy environment that’s truly
focused on how we can be better channels
of the composer’s wishes—no unnecessary
ego, no pretense. Just striving for the
highest quality of music making.”
So, can an audition identify singers
who are talented, driven, and supportive
team players? “I have a theory,” Iwama
says, “that somehow that goes hand
in hand. If you are really interested in
communicating something real, then you
yourself are an honest person—that you
care about relationships and you care
about collaboration. There’s something
about singing that just reveals the soul in
a way that nothing else does. So if you’re
in an audition and you’re really listening
for that and if you feel touched by that
express.
Finding Your Voice at Bard College Conservatory
where excellence comes to
person, I think that in most cases you’ll be able to have someone
who has those qualities. We try to find a core of honesty. And
with Dawn, she has this kind of unerring ability to identify that
in another singer because she herself is such an honest and direct
communicator.”
“I’m fascinated and inspired by the young generation of
musicians that are coming out of conservatories or colleges and
universities these days,” Upshaw says. “And I’m not just talking
singers. They, in my mind, are incredibly versatile. They have
an understanding of many more musical styles than I did when
I came out of school. I feel like because the world is changing—
maybe a greater interest in world music, for instance—we’re all a
little broader minded in a very healthy and good way. So I feel that
there are some talents and skills that young people coming out of
undergrad programs are equipped with that come kind of naturally
to them because of the way the world has changed. That means
we can respond in a different way in training and in working with
them and in supporting them through their graduate years.”
Mogielnicki agrees. “Bard gives you license to really make your
own path, your own trajectory. I see myself singing music that is
interesting and that fulfills me. That includes opera, concert rep,
song recitals—but it also means making my own concerts that
highlight social issues that I believe in. Really, I’m leaving Bard
with a sense of boundlessness!”
“We realize that our program isn’t for everybody,” Upshaw adds.
“You’re drawn to a certain place, you feel ‘at home’ in a certain
place and not in another. This is a very, in a certain way, unusual
and particular kind of program for a certain unusual and particular
kind of musical artist.”
“We truly appreciate [the students] for the individuals that they
are,” Iwama says. “My hope is that when they leave they realize that
they themselves can go out and create this environment wherever
they go—in a school setting or an opera company or whatever
collaboration—that they always assume the best in others and
themselves, too.”
Superior conservatory
training at a world-class
research university.
Prestigious, resident
faculty and exceptional
student talent. It’s all here:
www.music.umich.edu
For more information about the Graduate Vocal Arts
Program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, visit
www.bard.edu/vap/.
Tenor Brian Manternach has appeared throughout the
country in opera, recitals, and concert work. In the last year, he
has presented recitals at colleges and universities in Michigan,
Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. Manternach has taught
studio voice at the University of Notre Dame and is currently the
director of choral/vocal activities at Juan Diego Catholic High
School near Salt Lake City. He holds degrees in vocal performance
from Saint John’s University of Minnesota (BA), the University
of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (MM), and the Indiana University
Jacobs School of Music (DM). You can e-mail the author at
bmantern@gmail.com.
Voice & Associated Faculty
Melody Racine, Chair
mezzo-soprano
Timothy Cheek diction
Caroline Helton soprano
Freda Herseth mezzo-soprano
Martin Katz conductor, coach,
collaborative piano
Stephen Lusmann baritone
Joshua Major opera productions
Carmen Pelton soprano
Rico Serbo tenor
Martha Sheil soprano
George Shirley tenor
Robert Swedberg opera productions
Shirley Verrett soprano
Daniel Washington bass-baritone
Stephen West bass-baritone
www.classicalsinger.com 55