Today was one of those days when I could not help but be incredibly grateful that I am a voice teacher, and that I get to work with the students that I do. Chapter One happened at today’s Honors Recital auditions, where my music faculty colleagues and I got to hear an impressive array of some of Carthage’s most talented and skilled musicians – 19 in all, who were auditioning for a place in this fall’s Honors Recital. It’s a high-stakes situation, and living up to one’s highest potential can be quite a challenge. I was so proud of Austin Merschdorf for delivering one of the finest performances I have ever heard him sing. He performed three remarkable songs by the British composer Gerald Finzi – all three of which dealt in some way with death. He opened with “Come Away with Death,” which is a text by Shakespeare that has been set by a plethora of composers, but no one has set it more memorably than Finzi. He followed that with an obscure Finzi rarity called “To Joy.” The title refers to the poet’s baby daughter, Joy, who died just after she was born- and the text is a poignant reflection on the wrenching sorrow of losing a child. Finzi was a friend of the poet and set the poem as a gesture of support, and probably never intended to share the song with the general public. It was actually never published until ten years after Finzi’s death (with the permission of the poet), and I think Austin really appreciates the opportunity to sing a song that so few people know. The last song was “Clock of the Years,” which I first fell in love with when I sang it on my junior voice recital at Luther back in 1981. The text, by Thomas Hardy, describes a distraught man who seeks out the aid of a strange entity called The Clock of the Years in the hopes that his dead wife can be brought back to life. She is revived, but then becomes younger and younger- until she winks out of existence altogether, and the man is left without so much as a single memory of her. The song is one of the most dramatic art songs ever written, and Austin sings it even better than I did – and today he sang it better than I ever heard him sing it, spanning its two-octave range (from low f-sharp to high f-sharp) with amazing ease. And the fact that he did it at 10:45 in the morning made it an even more impressive feat!
And then … as if my cup wasn’t already running over, one of my seniors- Joe Pettit- sang an absolutely amazing voice recital tonight. Joe is a young man I have known for quite some time because he is from Kenosha and a proud alum of Tremper High School and the choral program there under the direction of my sister-in-law, Polly Amborn. Joe has always been a gifted tenor with a beautiful voice- but he has also been quite shy about stepping into the spotlight as a soloist. (Polly tells me that in his four years at Tremper, he never auditioned for a solo even once. She does not believe in forcing anyone to audition for solos, and I doubt very much that she even engages in any arm-twisting. So she just let Joe do as he wanted in that regard, even though she knew all along that he had the talent and ability to do a wonderful job on any number of solos.) I am so glad that Polly came to Joe’s recital tonight because it had to be so thrilling for her to see him up on that stage, pouring such passion and expressive intensity into each and every song.
Joe asked a long time ago if I would allow him to sing an all-music theater senior recital – which is a bit out of the ordinary for someone who’s not a music theater major. I was willing, but I insisted that at least half of the recital be devoted to more classic repertoire. So his first half consisted of songs by Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, and Cole Porter – and he really made these songs his own. I especially loved the way he sang ‘Maria’ from West Side Story …. “It ain’t necessarily so” from Porgy and Bess …. and “So in Love” from Kiss Me, Kate. The second half consisted of much more recent repertoire (I think the oldest was something from Phantom of the Opera) and Joe really created some spine-tingling moments here in “Gethsemane” from Jesus Christ Superstar, “What I have done?” from Les Miserables, and even a sweet little song from Shrek. (You have to admire someone who manages to be a persuasive Jesus Christ in one song and a persuasive Shrek in the next. Now that’s versatility!)
Part of what made the second half of the recital extra special was that it featured several memorable collaborations. One of them was with Joe’s girlfriend Angela Fuller in “All I Ask of You.” The two of them managed to deliver a soaring, ardent performance that I think everyone found quite touching and impressive. Joe also sang duets with another recent Carthage grad, his good friend Rae Pare – “First Date” from Street Fight and truly exquisite rendition of “For Good” from Wicked. It’s not often that the latter is sung by a man and woman, but in Joe’s arrangement it worked out sensationally well.
The recital began and ended with trios. The opener was “New York, New York” from Leonard Bernstein’s On The Town – an amazing song which, nevertheless, Joe did not know at all until I shared it with him. He fell with love with it, and so did the two students who ended up joining him in it: Jack Haggett and Karl Stefans. They managed to completely embody the exuberant joy of three sailors on shore leave even while managing Bernstein’s tricky music. And for an absolutely unforgettable closer, Joe turned to an incredible song called “Run away with me” from The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown. Joe first came across this song back in high school and had harbored the dream for a long, long time of singing it on his senior recital- and he ended up opting for the trio version so that Jack and Karl could end the recital as they began it. And I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that this song is among the most memorable moments of any recital I can remember at Carthage. The song is about a young guy who is desperately trying to persuade his girlfriend to run off with him – wanting to pressure her without scaring her off. Life being as crazy as it is, the three of them had a ridiculously limited amount of time to practice the song together, but something about the way they embraced it and immersed themselves in it produced what almost felt like a miracle. They made the song their own and when it ended, the audience erupted in their biggest ovation of the night.
As the recital ended and I found myself reflecting on what made it so special, I realized that it went beyond Joe’s marvelous singing (which not only sounded beautiful but was also unfailingly expressive.) It was also a case of superb programming, and Joe gets most of the credit for that. He somehow put this array of songs in an order that worked brilliantly. There was a nice sense of variety and change of pace- but there was never one single moment where it felt like the movement from one song to the next was awkward or jarring. It just worked. And a second factor came up as I talked afterwards with Polly about, among other things, Joe’s disinterest in auditioning for solos or of elbowing his way into the spotlight. I think that quality has something to do with the tremendous sincerity with which Joe sings. Tonight as he sang, it never felt for a moment like he was doing it for cheers and applause. It was about his sincere love of singing. That may be one of the main reasons why – as the recital ended – I found myself during the last song unable to fight back the tears. In fact, four measures from the end the tears were stinging my eyes so badly that I found myself trying to rub them. (Fortunately, the last few measures of “Run away with me” are pretty easy to play.) I think they were tears of joy at seeing one of my students exceed his hopes and expectations – and mine – so dramatically and emphatically. And maybe they were also tears of sadness that my time as Joe’s voice teacher is drawing to a close. But I think it was also the fact that I’m often driven to tears by Sheer Excellence- be it one of the thrilling duets from Bellini’s opera Norma …. or a stage full of tap dancers in 42nd Street – and in this case, the combination of such a remarkable song and such an impressive performance was all it took to send tears streaming down my face. The same thing happened this morning as Austin finished his Honors Recital audition- and I realize only now as I reflect on the whole day that any voice teachers who is driven to tears of joy not once but twice in one day – by two different singers – is a very blessed voice teacher indeed!
Thank you again Greg for all the hours and instruction you have poured into Joe’s life for so many years. Joe is so blessed to have Polly and yourself in his life.
It’s been a pleasure.