Thursday, January 25, 2007
Barbara Cook's Master Class
...at Carnegie Hall, night before last....Mana Allen took me as her guest, and she and i had a nice small supper beforehand and caught up on life...what a nice woman she is...I always enjoy my occasional time with her, and wish we could meet more often, but she has her family to take care of, as well as a busy teaching schedule, and so i guess we're lucky to see other when we can...it was generous of her to invite me to this amazingly fun evening in the presence of Barbara Cook, who i have always admired...
This event was the openng one for the weeklong series called THE SONG CONTINUES...2007, supported by the Marilyn Horne Foundation and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation as well. Ms. Horne was there to give opening remarks and she was lovely and gracious...in fact, the entire evening had a gracious feel to it, especially since it took place in the beautifully renovated Zankel Hall, formerly the Crnegie Hall Cinema....
And Barbara Cook was in fine form...dressed, or rather draped, all in black, she strode her 76 years ( or more?) onto the stage, schlepping her large silver leather handbag, which she plopped unceremoniously down on the stage left table that had been set up for her, replete with jug of water and glass....she never went near the table or the water for the entire two hours...this is woman who is used to harder work than these 5 singers presented to her, so she hardly worked up a thirst.....and she never stopped talking, except when the young singers were singing...never touched a drop of that cold water...admirable...what she was truly focused on was obvious: the artists before her...and she couldn't have been more charming and helpful to them...
Each of these signers has been well and throughly trained at such places as New England Conservatory, Peabody,Julliard,etc...and each looked beautiful and had wonderful dsounds coming out of their mouths as they sang Kern, Irving Berlin,etc...large and beautifully produced sounds...good singers! BUT, of course, as Ms. Cook quickly pointed out: there was far too much SINGING going on, and not enough true singing...so she quickly estabished her credo: sing from your heart and from your experience - let us in to who you are and what you feel....communicate to us parts of the inner, usually hidden, you....become emotionally naked and let us see you....
In most cases, after she saw and heard what they initially presented ( and kept presenting even after they saw the coaching right before they went up to sing, which puzzles me), she sat them down, taking them away from the infamous piano "crook", and instructed them in how to simply speak the lyric of the song...speak it as if they meant it, in a natural tone and pitch...then transfer the feeling to a simple singing of the same phrase...it truly was as if she was instructing them not to sing, but to talk...but of course their singing was more pleasing than ever, since the intention of the words was clear and foremost, not the tones they were trying to impress us with...
She uttered such wondrous things as :
"Be present to who you are"..."total access to you"..."I see an awful lot of singin' goin' on ,darlin'"..."the more you can be in touch with what matters to you the more you'll reach an audience with your singing.".."you need to let us know you are more than just a singer"..."forget all but what matters to you..."(I love that one)...."let us see what life has done to you"..."you can heal with your authenticity!" (now, you know I love that one!) She spoke a lot about what is "appropriate" for the particular song you are signing...about "the courage it took to really be there unprotected..."....terrific teachings spoken by a wonderful natural teacher...
I was so glad I saw this.
This event was the openng one for the weeklong series called THE SONG CONTINUES...2007, supported by the Marilyn Horne Foundation and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation as well. Ms. Horne was there to give opening remarks and she was lovely and gracious...in fact, the entire evening had a gracious feel to it, especially since it took place in the beautifully renovated Zankel Hall, formerly the Crnegie Hall Cinema....
And Barbara Cook was in fine form...dressed, or rather draped, all in black, she strode her 76 years ( or more?) onto the stage, schlepping her large silver leather handbag, which she plopped unceremoniously down on the stage left table that had been set up for her, replete with jug of water and glass....she never went near the table or the water for the entire two hours...this is woman who is used to harder work than these 5 singers presented to her, so she hardly worked up a thirst.....and she never stopped talking, except when the young singers were singing...never touched a drop of that cold water...admirable...what she was truly focused on was obvious: the artists before her...and she couldn't have been more charming and helpful to them...
Each of these signers has been well and throughly trained at such places as New England Conservatory, Peabody,Julliard,etc...and each looked beautiful and had wonderful dsounds coming out of their mouths as they sang Kern, Irving Berlin,etc...large and beautifully produced sounds...good singers! BUT, of course, as Ms. Cook quickly pointed out: there was far too much SINGING going on, and not enough true singing...so she quickly estabished her credo: sing from your heart and from your experience - let us in to who you are and what you feel....communicate to us parts of the inner, usually hidden, you....become emotionally naked and let us see you....
In most cases, after she saw and heard what they initially presented ( and kept presenting even after they saw the coaching right before they went up to sing, which puzzles me), she sat them down, taking them away from the infamous piano "crook", and instructed them in how to simply speak the lyric of the song...speak it as if they meant it, in a natural tone and pitch...then transfer the feeling to a simple singing of the same phrase...it truly was as if she was instructing them not to sing, but to talk...but of course their singing was more pleasing than ever, since the intention of the words was clear and foremost, not the tones they were trying to impress us with...
She uttered such wondrous things as :
"Be present to who you are"..."total access to you"..."I see an awful lot of singin' goin' on ,darlin'"..."the more you can be in touch with what matters to you the more you'll reach an audience with your singing.".."you need to let us know you are more than just a singer"..."forget all but what matters to you..."(I love that one)...."let us see what life has done to you"..."you can heal with your authenticity!" (now, you know I love that one!) She spoke a lot about what is "appropriate" for the particular song you are signing...about "the courage it took to really be there unprotected..."....terrific teachings spoken by a wonderful natural teacher...
I was so glad I saw this.
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