Global Voices Shine in Songs and Arias

Myriad voices filled the lofty ceilings of the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts (MCA) Concert Hall this past Saturday, as the College’s annual “Songs and Arias” performance began. Seven vocal students sang in the event, performing a mix of solo songs and duets.

The show started about a decade ago as an avenue for student vocalists to showcase their talents in a departmental performance.

“The event began as a concert that would feature the singers who enjoy and excel at singing the classical repertoire,” voice teacher Carol Christensen said. “The singers selected for this concert are far enough along in their technical studies to learn, perfect and perform a set of challenging songs, arias or small vocal ensembles.”

In preparation for the event, the performers met in one-on-one lessons with their respective voice teachers once or twice a week.  Typical rehearsals involved technical vocal exercises for the first 15 minutes, allowing students to focus on techniques like breath control, range, legato, agility, placement and tone color.

“Students would then spend the rest of the lesson working through the technical and interpretive challenges each song offers, and had to take the initiative to practice their repertoire between lessons and rehearsals,” Christensen said.

This practice outside of rehearsals helped the students to completely memorize all of their music for the show. Practice schedules varied only for duet rehearsals that required group meetings.

Jack DesBois ’15, who sang a cycle of Shakespeare songs by 20th century English composer Gerald Finzi, noted that individualized rehearsing kept an element of surprise among the performers on the night of the show.

“We didn’t really know what the other singers [were] going to be bringing to the concert on Saturday,” he said.

Hannah Johnston ’15, who performed both a solo and a duet, enjoyed the rehearsal and performance atmosphere despite this separation.

“It was nice to come together and watch what people have been working on and to be really proud of [my] friends for doing something impressive,” Johnston said. “The performance allowed us to join as a musical community to support one another.”

Christensen reiterated this cohesiveness and sense of community.

“The students I have in the concert this year are all seniors, so we have spent many hours together over the years,” she said. “I consider them all to be very close, special friends.”
Although the “Songs and Arias” performance featured some English songs, a large portion of the numbers were in German, Italian or French.

“Working with any voice teacher, you really start with the classical repertoire, which usually means Italian arias at the beginning, maybe moving into German arias, lieder, and a bit of French,” DesBois said. “It’s been really wonderful to start singing in English.”

Johnston, who sang Carl Maria von Weber’s “Kommt ein schlanker Bursch gegangen” as one of her pieces, concurred.

“The vocal recitals are about a smaller group of people getting together to perform a classical repertoire,” she said. “It’s about expressing music in the classical tradition in many different languages.”

Christensen agreed, pointing to the College’s strong language programs as a positive influence on the rehearsal process.

“Many Middlebury students are quite adept at a foreign language,” Christensen said. “We have fun delving into the meaning of the text, and talking about what [the students] can do from a vocal and interpretive standpoint to bring the song to life and make it their own.”

The performance of “Songs and Arias” itself was quite powerful, featuring a range of talented singers. The acoustics of the performance space fit well with the songs, and all of the singers were clearly audible from the back of the Concert Hall. The performers were very focused during their songs, and clearly sought to keep the audience’s attention with hand gestures and flourishes. The foreign language pieces were well done, and the duets were seamlessly coordinated. DesBois’ performance particularly resonated with me, featuring a broad variety of moods and tempos which ranged from more slow and somber numbers to fast-paced songs with humorous sound effects. Unfortunately, the hoarseness in his voice from a recent cold was evident in parts of his Shakespearean cycle, and the inclusion of four whole selections made his segment seem a tad lengthy.

Overall, the “Songs and Arias” show was a triumph which delighted audience members from the student and broader communities.

“It was obvious how much effort went into preparing for the show,” Devin McGrath-Conwell ’18.5 said. “The variation of the styles and songs reflected in the program is a wonderful tribute to the talent of the performers. I enjoyed every moment of it.”