S3E02: The Divine Feminine: Soprano Michele Kennedy
This week we catch up with Bay Area native, early music scholar, and soprano Michele Kennedy on everything from her early days singing with the San Francisco Girls Chorus to her triumphant return to the Davies Symphony Hall stage as a soloist.
We manage to avoid embarrassing stories from her collegiate a cappella days at Yale (where she sang with Giacomo) but we do manage to veer the conversation into her performances of composers like Florence Price, and new premieres of string arrangements of Harry T. Burleigh’s spirituals with the Gold Coast Chamber Players.
Music excerpts
“Rejoice, Greatly” from Handel’s Messiah, performed by the Dessoff Choirs under the direction of Malcolm J. Merriweather
“O virtus sapientiae”, by Hildegard of Bingen, performed by the San Francisco Girls Chorus under the direction of Valérie Sainte-Agathe
“Rejouyssons nous” by Cypriano de Rore, performed by Trio Eos
“Cor Mio”, by Salamone Rossi, performed by Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble
“Sunset”, by Florence Price, pianist Bryan Baker; hosted by San Francisco Choral Society
“Manhã de Carnaval” by Luiz Bonfá, arr. Debra Nagy, performed by Debra Nagy, oboe; Mélisande Corriveau, viola da gamba; Eric Milnes, harpsichord
“My Lord, What a Morning”, trad., arr H.T. Burleigh; strings arranged by Z. Grafilo, performed by the Gold Coast Chamber Ensemble
Episode references
Theme Song: Mr. Puffy by Avi Bortnik, arr. by Paul Kim. Performed by Dynamic
Archival photo of Michele Kennedy with the San Francisco Girls Chorus
Episode Transcript
Intro [00:00:01] Hello! And welcome to In Unison, the podcast about new choral music, and the conductors, composers and choristers who create it! We are your hosts: I am Zane Fiala, Artistic Director of the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco, and I’m Giacomo DiGrigoli, a tenor in IOCSF, the Golden Gate Men’s Chorus, and the SF Symphony Chorus. And this is, In Unison! (I like being in unison!)
Zane [00:00:35] Today we're chatting with Bay Area soprano and early music scholar Michele Kennedy. And we thought, why not start off with some of her music? Here's an excerpt of Michele singing "Rejoice Greatly" from Handel's Messiah. [00:00:48] [Music excerpt: strings play a jaunty introduction before a soprano sings "Rejoice, rejoice, greatly / O, daughter of Zion"].
Zane [00:01:21] Joining us today on In Unison is Michele Kennedy, and Michele is a versatile soprano soloist specializing in both early classical music as well as new music. She's been featured in performances of just about every major work in the standard repertory, appearing on stage of many of the greatest venues in the country. Michele is also a member of a couple of incredible ensembles, Lorelei Ensemble, a group that creates and champions bold artistic work that points towards a new normal for women in music and Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble, which focuses on both early music and contemporary music. In the past year, she has debuted with Ars Minerva, Les Délices and Opera Lafayette in some trailblazing digital forums. And just a couple of days ago, Michele was a part of a streaming program put on by the Gold Coast Chamber players and the Alexander String Quartet called Dvorak's America, which explored the impact of spirituals and Native American music on Dvorak during his time in America. A graduate of Yale University and NYU, Michele is committed to working toward greater equity and representation for BBI, which stands for black, brown and indigenous, LGBTQ and female voices across the field. Michele, thanks so much for joining us today.
Michele [00:03:44] It is such a pleasure to be with you. Thank you.
Giacomo [00:03:47] Yay, Michele, it's so good to chat with you! I... I have to say, we always start with ice breakers, but because I've had the pleasure of knowing Michele since I was... we were wee children together at Yale many moons ago, I almost skipped this part. But there's no way we're skipping it because this one is going to be a fun one, too. [laughter from Michele] So, Michele, an ice breaker for you so that everyone else can get to know the wonderful human being I know. Here's an ice breaker for you. The hours of sunlight, they're getting mercifully longer. The flowers are blooming, nature's healing and summer with all of its delights is fast approaching. So, Michele, tell us, if you were a summer dessert, what would you be?
Michele [00:04:28] This is a tricky question for someone with an avid sweet tooth. But I did. I chose one which is mango and sticky rice is my all time favorite dessert. I've spent some time in South Asia. My husband's family has a lot of roots there. And I remember having my first dessert in West Bengal, mango and sticky rice, and I was just a devotee from then on. And I find it to be just the perfect foil to a hot summer day, fresh, ripe mango, and then the richness of the sticky rice.
Giacomo [00:05:06] Mmm...
Michele [00:05:06] So that's my dessert of choice.
Giacomo [00:05:09] But the mango’s got to be just right, doesn't it? It's got to be that perfectly ripe.
Michele [00:05:14] Yes. In those seven minutes when it's perfectly ripe [laughter from all]... not unlike an avocado.
Giacomo [00:05:23] Well, speaking of... speaking of relating it to time, if that piece of music were a dessert, if a piece of music were a dessert, what piece would you have this summer?
Michele [00:05:35] Mmm... This is such a wonderful and semi overwhelming question. I think the dessert that comes to mind is like chocolate mousse topped with wild summer berries. I love the richness and the full bodied nature of the mousse with the flavors and all the colors and tanginess of the berries and trying to think of a musical corollary to that [laughter]. It's challenging. I will say, having just done this project featuring the works of Dvorak alongside the works of Harry Burleigh, that a lot of Dvorak's chamber music reminds me of the combination of timbres present in that dessert. Right? It's a beautiful engagement of strings, particularly an emphasis on the viola, which was Dvorak's own instrument. And, you know, all the warm tones of that low soundscape intermingled with this beautiful writing for violin and for these sort of ethereal, higher colors. And the blending of those two together is just delectable. I love this question!
Zane [00:06:58] [laughter] That's a great answer!
Giacomo [00:06:58] [laughter] Let's start the conversation with a little bit of your Bay Area history. For those who don't know, you actually grew up here in the Bay Area and have now returned to live in Oakland after a long stint in New York. And of course, being bi coastal as a as musicians often are. And as a young lady, you sang with the San Francisco Girls Chorus. How did that choral music experience shape your early music career?
Michele [00:07:25] Immensely. I would say I went from an extremely shy little girl-state where my first instrument was the piano from age three, and I used to just love sitting there even before my feet would touch the ground and just getting lost in the world of the piano for hours and piano is the perfect instrument for an introvert because it just envelops you in your own world. And I found when I auditioned for the Girls Chorus and started singing in their level three, age eight, I was still so shy that I didn't even really look up at the conductor. It's very inward, little girl. And I think that it was a lot of elements in the Girls Chorus that helped draw me out and come into my strength as a musician. The discipline, the rigor, the regularity. We would rehearse every Tuesday and Thursday and then in a concert week, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, sometimes the weekend as well. And for me, that started to feel like it was in my bones, those rehearsal hours. And I started to trust, I think, more and more that muscle memory and my capacity as a storyteller, as a young woman, which I think was a really powerful vehicle coming to adolescence in particular. And I remember I used to sometimes feel like I was two different people, one at school where I was brainy and, you know, had friends and had some good times, but was also really self-conscious and really shy, especially in middle school. And then the young woman I was in Girls Chorus where I was becoming a section leader and sometimes a soloist, and I felt kind of in my stride in a way that I couldn't really access at school. And even though that felt a little fragmented for a while, I think that those two identities have become more integrated over time and that the discipline, the rigor and also the spirit of collaboration in the Girls Chorus, where you learn to calibrate and balance your voice alongside the voices of others, has just been a totally invaluable life skill. And the last thing I'd say is that the repertoire exposure was just fantastic. You know, we did children's roles at San Francisco Opera. We worked with Chen Yi. I remember coming to speak with us about a phenomenal piece that she had written for treble voices. We did Vivaldi, you know, baroque settings from the Ospedale. We did music by David Conte, other living Bay Area composers, Kirke Mechem. I mean, it's just the range was phenomenal and I will just forever be grateful for that.
Giacomo [00:10:08] What was it that first sort of spurred you on to become a member? I mean, here you are like probably perfectly content as an introverted child at the piano. And now all of a sudden you're at eight joining this choir. What was the impetus for that?
Michele [00:10:24] [laughter] Well, I think ages three, four, five, six, I was pretty diligent about practicing the piano. And then I think as I started to get older, I began to sing more and more when I was supposed to be playing the piano. So I think that my parents [laughter] were sort of on to me and they had me audition for a couple different choirs. And we tried out actually a few different ones before I joined the Girls Chorus and they thought that that seemed like the best fit for me. So I think it was really it was parental instincts, what it was [laughter] that got me there.
Zane [00:11:01] Here is an archival excerpt recording of the S.F. Girls Chorus singing Hildegard von Bingen's plainchant "O virtus sapientiae" under the direction of Valérie Sainte-Agathe. [00:11:13] [Music excerpt: a female soloist sings a flowing and melismatic melody over a drone sung by a chorus. The soloist is eventually joined by a few more singers to sing the melody, while the chorus maintains the same drone note.]
Giacomo [00:11:29] And as part of your return back to the Bay Area, you also recently returned to the Davies stage pre-pandemic to perform with the San Francisco Girls Chorus as a soloist. How did it feel to come back as a soloist, as an adult?
Michele [00:13:28] Amazing, like a full circle revisitation of my own life, like I could bring the self-possession of my current artistry kind of back to my girlhood in this kind of healing way and hopefully also be a model for the girls in terms of mentorship and all the stuff that we cultivate, you know, in physical artistry, body work, alignment, fitness, and more than anything, a sense that our voice is valuable, that what we have to say matters, that the composite that the collective has a unique power, but that every voice contained within it is essential and vital. I think that that's the most powerful thing about choral singing in general, but particularly for young women. I think it has a transformative power, especially in adolescence. So it was really fun. And in the program, which was Christmas... Christmas time, we integrated a bunch of different styles from across the globe and we also... we interwove the girls' testimonies, so they spoke kind of throughout the program. And that was just so fun and personal to celebrate all these different traditions. We did a whole bunch of Sephardic music and celebrated the cultural intersection of that repertoire, which I really, really adore. And I joined each level within the Girls Chorus School and the professional level ensemble for just different types of repertoire. We did a beautiful Hanukkah setting. We did some Cuban-American folk songs. We did some Sweet Honey in the Rock arrangements. I mean, really just this phenomenal range. And I think for me, especially coming up in Oakland as a black and biracial young woman and celebrating this kind of multicultural intersection with all 250 of the girls was just like a singularly personal and healing experience for me.
Giacomo [00:15:44] It sounds like the cross section of the repertoire, the breadth of repertoire is something that's been pretty consistent from when you were singing to coming back as a soloist. What's different?
Michele [00:15:58] I would say... and you laugh because performing at Davies is just about the most formal venue one could imagine [laughter]. But I think the nature of formality and the approach to performance in the Girls Chorus has changed and evolved since I was in it. I think when I was in it, in part because in the mid to late 70s, founding a feministic organization in the Bay was a trailblazing thing to do. There was a sense that it was like a little bit muscled, you know, like any big risk, like we're going to make a statement, we're going to do this. And there was a little more kind of fire. And I think, frankly, fear about being perfect on stage, performing to our best, getting all dressed up and buttoned up, and go on stage, you know... so like finesse-making, but not exactly like zen-making [laughter], you know, it was kind of a pressure cooker. And I just remember performance nerves were just sort of pro forma and I didn't really have tools with which to understand them.
Michele [00:17:11] I think now the Girls Chorus has integrated in a bunch of vocal pedagogy and body work and has cultivated this kind of whole person approach to singing, really conservatory-level expertise. And I think that as the organization has come of age, there's been along with it this kind of fully embodied practice, which I very much admire and for myself came to later as an undergrad and in graduate school. But I think it's totally invaluable for young women to start to have that psychosomatic understanding of their person. So to see that element of the Girls Chorus grow has been really wonderful. I think also that they're doing so many interdisciplinary collaborations now with Berkeley Ballet, with, you know, with dancers across musical forms. And I just see more physicality and more physical freedom than there was when I was coming up in the Girls Chorus. And I think with that brings... particularly for young women and all the messages that we get from the world about how we ought to hold ourselves and usually how little space we should be taking up with our voices. I think that this is like the antidote. This is the celebration of the largeness of the full embodied way of standing in your strong female voice. And I just see that aspect of the Girls Chorus getting stronger all the time. It's really great. It's great to witness.
Giacomo [00:18:47] I think that dovetails into something that you and I have talked about quite a bit on our own, but that I find really fascinating, which is this notion of the divine feminine. And you sort of spoke a little bit about it and around it as you were as you were talking about the Girls Chorus. And in your practice, can you tell folks maybe what is meant a little bit about this idea of the divine feminine?
Michele [00:19:10] Definitely. Definitely. I should say first that I think divine to me means sacred, spiritual, uh... a matter of the spirit and the soul versus physical and material things. To me the divine feminine means a fully embodied experience of being a woman in the world, a fully celebrated and unapologetic voice, and also kind of as a counter to a lot of the prevailing hierarchies and power dynamics that we all witness and I think are waking up to on deeper levels, particularly in 2020 and 2021. I think of the Divine Feminine as a way of centering, nurturing, compassion, listening, collaboration and kind of nourishment, in a word, centering nourishment in our sort of villages and the way that we live. And to me, that's just such a powerful way of being and a welcome contrast to a lot of the messages that we get, particularly from a capitalist system that has a lot of rigid hierarchies built in.
Giacomo [00:20:36] Yeah, and I think the Western music tradition has a lot of that built in as well. I mean, those hierarchies, the who... who holds the baton, and who is the archivist and what is the rep that will be performed. I mean, it's very interesting to see all of that breaking down. And I have to say that a lot of your work you mentioned, I think I heard a little bit earlier, but in feminism... relating to feminism, early music and your friend Hildegard von Bingen, who is everyone's friend, I should say...
Michele [00:21:06] Everyone's friend [laughter].
Giacomo [00:21:07] She's rather brilliant. And you are an academic expert and sought after soloist and ensemble singer of early music, mixed in with a lot of contemporary pieces. So how does some of the work of early music composers, specifically folks like Hildegard von Bingen or Isabella Leonarda, inform your work today?
Michele [00:21:24] I think they impact my work profoundly. Hildegard's chant settings, in particular, were... I think the first time I remember as a girl encountering my sense of early music, especially chant, solo chant with virtuosity and with a full freedom of expression... it kind of blew my mind that those things could coexist. And the more I have lived with Hildegard's chants over the years, the more I've enjoyed that aspect of it was sort of a set format and modality that's very recognizable in medieval music. But so much play, so much ornamentation, so much passion within that framework. And I love that. I love that. And I think particularly in the realm of early music, whether it's Renaissance music or whether we're talking about, you know, the motets of William Byrd or Lassus or De Rore or Giaches de Wert or something, where there's a very set, I don't know, world of parameters when it comes to imitative material and formal structure. I love the works that explore a full freedom of expression within those forms. So I think Hildegard, as a pillar of my repertoire, has been really liberating in that way. And I especially love... I'll give you an example of this... performing Hildegard alongside contemporary works. So my female trio, Trio Eos, which is comprised of myself and Jessica Beebe and Marian [Montalbano], soprano/soprano/mezzo, we performed seemingly 500 years ago [laughter] January 2019 with the Folger Consort in Washington National Cathedral in D.C., which is a beautiful space for any kind of music currently. We performed a run that was built on Hildegard chants in this really fun way. So we would sing them, sometimes solo verses, sometimes all three of us together. And then the band, the medieval band would kind of riff around it. And with this sort of improvised cloud of sound around Hildegard's chants. Super beautiful! And then we interspersed these three contemporary works written by female composers. Kate Soper, who's one of them, Shulamit Ran was one, and Susan Botti, who wrote this super cool soundscape set to birdsong, the world of birdsong, in which we both sang and we played these like elaborate instruments. That was a challenge, let me tell you. [laughter from Giacomo] But it was so... I love that dialogue between contemporary music and Hildegard's music, because there's something that feels so timeless about her settings and kind of fluid. And I feel like it's just a great complement to new music.
Zane [00:24:31] Here's a little bit of Michele singing with Trio Eos, performing "Rejouyssons nous" by Cipriano de Rore, live at Bartram's Garden in 2019. [00:24:41] [Music excerpt: a trio of female voices sing in French to implore listeners to rejoice in the moment and in the merry month of May. The music is intricate with intertwined vocal lines.]
Giacomo [00:24:42] Well, it's also mind blowing to think of this, you know, Hildegard, this abess, and I think the juxtaposition is very interesting. I want to lead this into a little bit of some of the work that you do with the Lorelei Ensemble. And maybe first you can just tell us a little bit about the Lorelei Ensemble.
Michele [00:26:23] Sure. Lorelei Ensemble is a Boston-based female ensemble led by Beth Willer. And there are many, many things that I admire about Lorelei, one of which is that their repertoire, it's contemporary... mainly repertoire by living composers, really celebrates the full breadth of the female voice and sonority. So they sometimes sing very contained sounds on the pure tone side. Everything from that to like full virtuosic singing, full lyric singing. And it feels to me like part of their mission to celebrate that full spectrum of color. So to me, it definitely feels like an expression of the divine feminine, as we've defined it here, you know, the sense of versatility and abundance, which Hildegard herself, of course, embodies. And the bittersweet thing is that my intended debut with Lorelei hasn't yet happened because it was supposed to be in 2020, that fateful year. And the good news, though, is that in the meantime, I've done a couple of digital premieres with them, which has been really fun, and also the tour that we were going to do then I think is going to happen next year. It's a fantastic piece by Julia Wolfe and it's called "Her Story" and is a celebration of the 100 year anniversary of women's right to vote. And it, as I've noticed with all of Julia Wolfe's work, it's just this phenomenal and phenomenally researched tapestry of history, testimony and voices from the past, voices from the present all woven together, and also a celebration of the evolution of the women's right to vote, you know. So we think of the 19th Amendment as being the pinnacle of that. But also there are many, many classes of women, including women of color, who couldn't vote until much later in the 20th century. And I just love Julia's work, how she champions the marginalized in her work. She writes about working folks. She has this wonderful chamber setting celebrating the life and legacy of John Henry and like that legend of the black steelworker and what it's... what that world is like. And she's just become a champion of women's rights and workers' rights. And that's what I think our story is, a culmination of women's right to vote, but also intersectionality of full citizenship and what it means to leave people out of that. Like essentially, to me, it feels like a celebration of a citizenry that isn't complete until everybody's voice is at the table. So next year, I think we will be able to tour that piece. We'll perform with a bunch of different symphony orchestras across the country and hopefully bring that tour de force to life.
Zane [00:29:37] So, you know, we've chatted a bit now about early composers who we might classify as early feminists. And we are also at a time when looking back on 2020 and then into the future, we're clearly at a reckoning and hopefully an inflection point with regard to art and social change, which begs the following question in that do you feel a sense of responsibility as an artist today as it pertains to social justice and shaping our culture?
Michele [00:30:05] Absolutely. Yeah... I used to think of myself when I was an undergrad around the time that I met Giacomo and I was studying at Yale. I think I used to think of myself as kind of two people. There was the part of me, the political scientist, the citizen, the human rights advocate. And then there was the musician. And when I was at Yale, I was a double major in music and political science. And I think I still felt pretty siloed about those two worlds. And I thought of them as like two contrasting parts of myself. But the more that I've come of age and understood the real power, power of artistry and my personal mission as an artist, the more I realized that they're one and the same, that they always have been and that they always should be. And I want to center that integration in all of my work. So I'll give you an example... the Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble is an octet comprised of early music experts in the field and principally musicians of color. And our mission has a couple of different components. It's aiming to present artistic excellence and diversity as one in the same overlapping terrain that ought to be celebrated all at once. It's also very much about bridging... Bridging the centuries between early music and contemporary. As you'll see in our programing, we often pair period programming with new works and it's also very much about mentorship. And a question that I think pretty much every musician in the group has asked ourselves, whether subconsciously or no over the course of our career, which is, "Why aren't there more artists of color in early music or in contemporary music? Where can I find an ensemble full of people who look like me?" And I think after we all looked around, particularly the founders of Kaleidoscope, Arianne Abela and Sheri Panthaki, they said, "Well, you know, we don't really see that group, so let's create it." And that's what they did.
Zane [00:32:24] Here is the Kaleidoscope Ensemble singing Salamone Rossi's "Cor mio". [00:32:31] [Music excerpt: a choir sings in Italian accompanied by a chitarrone. The words of the song tell the heart to not languish.]
Michele [00:32:30] I'm so proud of Kaleidoscope and our mission and how we've remained vital under the pandemic and what we'll be capable of on the other side. That's one example. One other example is the Open Gates Project, which is a new initiative in New York City. It's a branch of Gotham early music scene in which I was asked to be a co-curator, which is fun, a totally new hat for me, along with my colleague Joe Damon Chappel. And this is an early music series that centers the voices of artists of color. So it will feature both players and singers of color from all over the world, really, and celebrate what that representation means and the wider range of colors we might celebrate on the stage in a lot of different ways.
Giacomo [00:35:40] I love that. I want to follow on a little bit on the notion of the artist as an agent of social change. We spoke a little bit about 2020, that fateful year and kind of rolling into 21 of course, and as the doors of large symphony halls and even churches were shuttered due to COVID and as we consider social norms vis-à-vis the social justice movements of 2020 and beyond, we can safely say that this has clearly been a time of upheaval for a number of musical institutions. How would you describe the impact of 2020 on our musical institutions, small and large?
Michele [00:36:15] Hmm. [laughter] It's made a lot of ripples on the pond. [laughter from all]
Giacomo [00:36:24] One or two, at least
Michele [00:36:25] One or two. One thing I find to be kind of fascinating about what I think is Arundhati Roy, a wonderful artist and public speaker. I think she put it as a portal. She said she'd liken the pandemic to a portal through which only the nimble would pass. Which is to say, if we don't shed the weight that we were carrying before having learned what we've learned, then maybe we won't make it through the portal. And I do think that there's been this kind of powerful overturning of the hierarchy in the classical music world in this year of reckoning in which the groups I've seen who have become most agile and pivoted through the portal most easily are the guerrilla opera companies, the pick up choirs, chamber ensembles who went through that moment of paralysis and shock that we all felt last March and April, and then took a look around and thought, "Well, what is possible in this landscape? How do I rise to this moment?" And I mean that in terms of technology, but I mean that in terms of panoramic. "What is this moment teaching me? What is the uprising, this phenomenal, unprecedented Black Lives Matter movement ricocheting everywhere across the globe. What does this mean for me in my field? What does this mean the uprisings in the Asian-American community? How can I heed that call and reflect it in my work." And I do think that it's been a very challenging moment for larger institutions, big opera companies, big symphonies, simply because they're large and they move slowly and there's bureaucracy. And I have found this to be actually a kind of singularly liberating moment for small ensembles and for individual artists, because even at this moment of widespread public suffering, when we're all missing and mourning so much, we also have so much creative agency and we have so much to respond to. And we are not beholden to large institutions because they're figuring out how to survive. So I've asked myself so many times, like, "What does this mean for me as an artist? How can I kind of grab the reins? And sculpt my career into a career that really is of this moment."
Giacomo [00:39:04] What are some examples of some opportunities you've taken to sort of see that bridging between the existing musical canon and the wider array of voices that need a seat at the table? Because it sounds like that's one of the things you're also seeing, as well, is just more of these opportunities for individual artists and smaller ensembles to say we're going to do the things that maybe haven't been getting as much attention or try experiment and try new things and new forms while there was a massive audience that's all sitting at home and individual artists who can't necessarily work together in these sort of larger ensembles. So what are some examples of work that you've done over this course of time that might exemplify that?
Michele [00:39:47] Oh, that's such a fun question. I think that the first digital collaboration I did that felt like it bridged those two worlds was with the San Francisco Choral Society, which I know and love, and which, you know, is very beloved in the Bay Area. I had done a Christmas oratorio with them in the before-times, but in the just-before-time. So like about three months before our world turned upside down and just love, love, love that community. And Bob Geary and Bryan Baker have done such a phenomenal job of figuring out, you know, what's possible under pandemic conditions, what can we still be doing? So one of the answers to that was let's put on a recital, which I think also was a fundraiser for the Choral Society. This was in October of 2020. And one of the wonderful things about it is that being asked to sing in that recital, they gave me total creative license and they said, "What would you like to sing?" You know, which is actually not a question that I've been asked all that much in my career [laughter] before this time. "How would you like to curate this?" You know, it's... it's empowering. I decided that I wanted to pair an example from, you know, the known canon with a lesser known selection. So I chose Handel's "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth", which is one of my very, very favorite arias in the entire repertoire with Florence Price's little known setting, a song called "Sunset", which is very much about that bright spot on the horizon that beckons for when we think about the life beyond, when we are missing our loved ones. And I think both of those pieces to me are like a channel to my ancestors and also make me feel in touch with them and in this, like, great continuum that we feel across generations. And I thought how powerful and cool would it be to bring Handel and Florence Price into dialogue in this recital?
Zane [00:42:00] Here is Michele performing Florence Price's "Sunset" with Bryan Baker on piano hosted by the San Francisco Choral Society. [00:42:09] [Music excerpt: a pianist plays a short introduction before a soprano sings in English while reminiscing about past memories and of home during the sunset.]
Michele [00:42:20] So that's one example. Another example is much more recent with Les Délices, the Cleveland-based awesome Baroque Ensemble I had been... I met Debra Nagy at American Bach Soloists Academy a few years ago, not their beloved San Francisco institution. And uh... she just...what a trailblazer! She took that question "what's possible under these conditions" to a whole new level. She's put on this phenomenal series called SalonEra or "sell an era", I think how she pronounces it. And we sort of sculpted the concepts for a couple of different digital songs, two of them this spring. The first one was Women and Music, featuring a bunch of baroque female composers. And the second one, the more recent, was the Orpheus myth. And that's the one that I am reminded of by your question, because we thought... I thought the Orpheus myth is timeless. You know, why has it been set for thousands of years? What is it about it? And to me, the answer is it's like our oldest frame story about the transformative power of music. But I thought if we were to explore that in a digital salon, what would that look like? And in the end, with many voices at the table, myself, wonderful tenor Jason McStoots and also the phenomenal scholar Susan McClary. We celebrated this intersection of the Orpheus myth over the ages, from Monteverdi, Charpentier, Rameau to Luiz Bonfá from the 1959 Brazilian-set movie of Black Orpheus and the backdrop of Brazilian carnival in Rio. With that timeless love story and just, you know, a little microcosmic exploration of the myth across cultures and eras. And I thought this is just such a great way to embrace what's possible under the pandemic conditions and a way to forge dialogue between known masterpieces and the voices that we all need to hear so much more from. Super fun! Super exciting!
Giacomo [00:46:02] I loved it. I had never heard anything like it. I'm excited to... to expose our audience to that, too, because I think that the "Manhã de Carnaval" is just so stunning. I mean... And I had never sort of thought to hear a piece with that. Is it a bossa nova beat? What is the beat that's underneath?
Michele [00:46:19] Yeah. It's bossa nova, baroque, it's Stravinsky...
Giacomo [00:46:20] Oh yeah. With baroque... I mean, who would have thought? I mean, you know, like... Look, if you'd put that on the symphony thing or, you know, it was a whole program of it, somebody might be like, "Uhh, you know..." But the fact that like you have this direct access to an audience and anyone's curiosity can pick it up and it can... and it could spread around the world in this really just feels like it's very specific and unique to now. And I thought it was spectacular. I think it's a really great piece. I'm excited to introduce people to it.
Zane [00:46:46] Let's listen to some of Michele singing "Manhã de Carnaval" by Luiz Bonfá arranged by Debra Nagy. [00:46:53] [Music excerpt: a soprano sings in Brazilian Portuguese with an unusual accompaniment of harpsichord and viola da gamba. The singer sings of a joy that has returned on the morning of the day of Carnaval.]
Giacomo [00:51:17] And I'm equally excited to maybe have you share a little bit about the Dvorak's America and the Gold Coast Chamber Players program that just went up a few days ago because you also had some solo pieces in there that were just mind blowing. I mean, the juxtaposition of old and new and the Dvorak versus the Burleigh, I mean, stunning. Can you tell us a little about that program?
Michele [00:51:42] Sure, sure. This is another example of a project that has been many moons in the making and actually went from a version that we weren't sure we could make happen pre-pandemic, because the Gold Coast Chamber players, the Alexander String Quartet and myself, and also Mary Youngblood, the wonderful Native American flautist in the program.... We just weren't all available in the same week [laughter] in the before-times. But then about eight months later, after the world changed enormously, I got back in touch with Pam Freund-Striplen, the Gold Coast founder and wonderful violist. And she said, "You know, we would really like to pursue this Dvorak-Burleigh conversation. And I wonder what you think." And I was so happy that we are back in touch because, you know, sometimes you just meet a kindred spirit and you just know you want that person to be in your life. That's how I felt about Pam.
Michele [00:52:43] And everything about how this project has evolved has just deepened that feeling not only toward her, but also toward all the players in the Alexander Quartet who are just the "menschiest" [laughter] and such beautiful musician. So one other thing that still kind of blows my mind is that the timing of this project was serendipitous, not only because given the way we're all living, we could bring this combination of musicians together, but also because even two, three months ago, pre-vaccination, we wouldn't have been able to record it the way that we did without masks in the same space with, you know, strict hygiene protocol, but still in a way that we could make in person chamber music. And for me, that was the first time in over a year that I had done so. So I had to come really early so I could just be ready to cry for the first half an hour [laughter] and then regroup so I could sing later. But what I also love about this is it has that dialogue that we're talking about. But I think there's also, I should say, a little bit of a danger in being too hasty in trying to diversify our programing. I think it's easy to do these sort of knee jerk responses in this moment and to try to sort of rush that process. Right? Like it's not going to be overnight that we go from Beethoven and Haydn reading, writing on the stage to centering Florence Price and Harry Burleigh. Right? This is the... we need to share the stage, figure out what that conversation is like and approach it thoughtfully or else, in my way of thinking, we do the process an injustice. So what I love about this project is it was just so thoughtfully curated from the beginning. And Pam is the mastermind behind it.
Michele [00:54:38] But she also... she invited me to the table as a co-programmer, which I was totally honored by. But we came to the design of the program together and we thought, how can we center the friendship between Dvorak and Burleigh, which is so personal and vivid and something we can all relate to in the program. And ultimately we decided let's do it interstitially. So break up the movements of the quartet and quintet of Dvorak's, interspersed spiritual settings of Burleigh that are kind of thematically related. So you can actually hear musical tropes echoed between them, which is so cool because that's what their friendship borne out. Right? Is this like this musical dialog and respect and what I love about that and also Mary Youngblood, the integration of Native American folk tunes and improvisation, particularly in American grace, like most beloved... "Amazing Grace", rather, that most beloved American melody... that we could bring all those voices to the table in this tapestry of American music that is multicultural by definition. I just... I thought that that was such a powerful vehicle and kind of the opposite of that knee jerk... Like, [snapping her fingers] "let's just... let's just plug in whatever we can do to diversify our programing." [laughter] Not... not all cursory, you know? Considered,curated, personal. And I think that that's part of the lasting power of it, at least I hope so.
Giacomo [00:56:21] I hope so, too. You... You've exposed me through that program just through so many things. I mean, I wasn't even aware of the relationship between Dvorak and Burleigh, and I just have so many new favorites. I mean, mostly your performances of old favorites. But did you have any particular favorites from that program?
Michele [00:56:41] Oh, my goodness. Hard! Um... "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is a very beloved melody in my family, particularly in the Kennedy family, my dad's family. The... My grandmother, Willa May McKinney, loved spirituals, loved hymns. And it was one of just several just beautiful, beautiful, timeless melodies that, you know, we heard as lullabies when we were kids, just gorgeous. And in my family, I think those melodies were so beloved. "My Lord, What a Morning" and "Swing Low" in particular.
Zane [00:57:22] Michele, can you tell us a little bit more about these spiritual arrangements by Burleigh? They were spirituals, but they were set with string quartet and voice, is that right?
Michele [00:57:32] Yes. Yes, that's a great question. So Harry Burleigh originally arranged these four spirituals. We did "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "My Lord, What a Morning", "By An’ By". Those are the three. Those are the three Burleigh and then "Going Home" was a separate stand alone. So the three Burleigh were originally arranged for voice and piano. That says... If you get Harry Burleigh's volume of art, songs and spirituals, which everyone should get. It's amazing! That's the voicing. So Zach, the first violinist in the Alexander String Quartet rearranged Burleigh's arrangements for strings and beautifully so. So that kind of sonority was a little bit novel for these settings. And what I would say that they have in common is a strophic form linguistically and musically. And one of many things that I admire and love about Harry Burleigh's arrangements is that he'll take a relatively straight ahead, often for just very pleasant sounding and recognizable harmonic language. A lot of the spirituals are in F major or A flat major, and he'll start there and kind of paint the beginning of the first strophe there. And then he just will permutate the harmonic language so inventively. And it goes into all these different realms with blues notes and 7th and 9th and 11th chords. And then these like ethereal upper harmonies that paint the world beyond our sense of heaven or the horizon however we might define that, our sense of hope and brightness alongside the great depths of these warm colors that in this arrangement were so beautifully realized by the strings, especially the low strings, doubled up viola in the quintet now, because that was Dvorak's instrument of choice and also that low sonority alongside the bass instrument complement Harry Burleigh's arrangements so beautifully.
Zane [00:59:49] Let's check out what Michele is talking about. Here's the string and voice arrangement of "By An' By" by H.T. Burleigh. [00:59:56] [Music excerpt: a string quartet accompanies a soprano singing in English. the text is hopeful and expresses the conviction that woes and burdens will be laid down eventually.]
Zane [01:01:48] Maybe we can circle back a bit and talk some more about the impact of 2020 on our musical institutions, especially with regard to COVID and social change. When we consider the prevailing aesthetic within the realm of both early and contemporary chamber music and how it's been defined to date, what has changed in light of the last year?
Michele [01:02:09] Well, I think a couple of things. There's a change that's accelerated in the last year that I think has been in the making for a number of years. And that is that especially in the choral music world, particularly in early and contemporary music. I think the prevailing aesthetic has a roots in an English boy choir tradition, particularly for treble voices, for high voices. And while there's much to be gleaned from that, a beloved evensong tradition, for example, King's College Choir tradition, there's just so much of that aesthetic that is designed for a boy choir that's designed for a prepubescent male sound. And I think we all know that for the most part, a grown woman's vocal health and full bodied singing is a very different sound world from that of, say, an 11 year old boy. And I think that this question is coming under the microscope for good reason. It tends to privilege certain voices over others based on youth certainly, based often on race, I think, by sort of biological... leanings in terms of which groups of people might be most likely to produce that sound. And I think also based on weight, I think that that high voice aesthetic is not something that larger women make. I think it's not an aesthetic that most women of color can meet. I think it's... It's a problematic aesthetic for the vast majority of women. And I see more and more early and contemporary music ensembles and choral ensembles celebrating the full range of vocal sonorities. This is true of men, but I'm just going to highlight high female voices, since that's the focus of our discussion today. And I think the group that is the most profoundly impacted by this evolving discussion. And I think particularly as an early music specialist, as a Baroque specialist, I think about this in my return to the field, you know. What does this mean for the world of oratorio? What does this mean for the world of contemporary music? Can we forge some new pathways here? And certainly in Kaleidoscope, for example, celebrating this. Also, my female trio, Eos, celebrates this and Lorelei Ensemble, the full array of colors in the female voice. So can we produce this very lean kind of light breath pressure produced sound? Sure.
Michele [01:04:56] But that's just one... one color among many. And how do we approach the repertoire in the concert stage in a way that celebrates all of the colors and that is built on a foundation of vocal freedom and openness for women through our coming of age. And for me, this is part of my central calling as a mentor, as a leader of master classes with the Girls Chorus, but also more generally, I think it's so important because we work for years on physical alignment, connection to our breath, psychosomatic health. And what does it mean if then we have to come to the stage and use a fraction of our voice? That takes us backward all the time and it takes us into the sort of, I like to believe, obsolete place of sort of misogynistic norms and this shrinking, small, apologetic place that women have been asked to occupy historically. So how do we move from that more toward the norms of the divine feminine, the norms of abundance, a fully embodied practice? Well, these are the questions that we have to answer. And I think that the groups that really consider it and take it to heart in their programing are the groups that will make it through the portal. I like to believe that.
Zane [01:06:23] So I have a question about the female voice. You know, I went, you know, I studied music in school. I have a master's in choral conducting. And part of my program was I had to take a vocal pedagogy class and I was surrounded by operatic female singers. And yet in my personal life, the women that I've been involved with have not been trained musicians for the most part. I did a couple of opera singers, but a couple of my relationships were with women who are musical. They love music. They like to sing. And my wife now... definitely fits into this category. But when she sings, she sings in a register that's more akin to like a tenor register. Right. Because that's just where she feels comfortable singing. She doesn't like to sing higher in her voice. Right. And I as a... as a student of music and a person surrounded by vocal students, I was always given the impression by them that, well, that just is because they haven't trained their voices to learn to release an upper register. That is where they should be singing. And Giacomo and I've talked a lot about this idea that women's voices are supposed to be high. And I wondered asking you as a vocal pedagogue, as a trained soprano voice, what are your thoughts on that? Is it true that if you're a woman and you sing low, that you're not trained or is it really a matter of physical, you know, physiology? It's something that I'm really curious about, because now I have a trained, you know, soprano soloist in front of me that I can ask this question of, because it's something that we're talking about a lot right now. Giacomo and I, in particular.
Michele [01:08:10] Yes, and for good reason.
Giacomo [01:08:12] That's exactly what I was going to talk about, was to continue that conversation, Michele, that we were having the other day about this ensemble idea.
Zane [01:08:18] Oh, yeah...
Michele [01:08:18] Fantastic. I love it. Well, the short answer to your question about women's low voices is... is "no" [laughter] Absolutely. If a woman doesn't have a high reaching voice, she can still be a very fine and professional caliber singer of course. This question fascinates me on a lot of levels. In terms of my sense of fully embodied singing, I tend to focus on the full column, the free and open column throughout the body, right? From rootedness in the feet all the way through the crown of the head. And there are so many practices designed to complement our alignment and our freedom of movement within that column, right? Certainly Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais, yoga, like all this spinal alignment work that we do to keep our column free and well aligned and efficient. And then, in vocal pedagogy, we work a lot on the open throat and on optimal positions of the jaw, tongue, you know, and embouchure. Sort of how do we work on the column and its optimal freedom and resonance here, right? In our upper body and then how do we anchor it in the lower body? And in a way, your question reminds me that I... I don't think that full column is complete without each of those elements. This is one of many paradoxes in singing and why it's not really for the faint, right?... Fine balancing act of a lot of different muscular groups, to say nothing of our psycho-emotional state on any given day, right?
Michele [01:10:04] But this combination of going deep in the body for the breath, remaining grounded, with the lift and the upper partials and this kind of sense of you know... whether you would think of it as overtones or any number of things, freedom, reverberation, sparkle in the voice and the vocal timbre... has to be mixed with that full body connection. And I think that no matter your timbre, female tenor, coloratura soprano, you're going to need that anchor to make those notes happen with optimal freedom and with the kind of chiaroscuro that we aim for, certainly in Bel Canto singing, that's like it has both the anchor and the lift, and it's a constant recalibration between those two factors. So I think that any skilled vocalist in this could be true skilled amateurs as it is of, you know, people who have been performing for decades on professional stages, checking in again with that that column, the full open column of the body and of the spine up and down the entire body with freedom of breath that lets the sound come out as fluidly as possible. That's the constant work of this. And anybody can master it, anybody of any voice part.
Michele [01:11:35] And the last thing I'll say is that I do think that your question has some echoes, like the preconceptions about how the female voice should be a certain way, and especially the female voice should be high. I think there's a lot of shadings of misogyny written in and it's like, "Well, why can't my voice have both silvery sparkle and earth tones? Why does my voice have to sound a certain way? What does it say about you that you might expect my voice to sound a certain way? What do you need when you are attached to that expectation? What does it mean for me to reassert my agency over the full range of colors in my voice?" To me, this is just... it's been a huge part of my coming of age as an artist, as a woman. And I'm just excited to see where that process grows.
Giacomo [01:12:33] Michele, looking forward to what's coming next for you, what are some projects that you're excited about seeing come to life both in the normal times and hopefully in the after times? Are you working on anything yet that you're that you're excited about, that you can tell folks about?
Michele [01:12:52] Yes! Well, I'll tell you actually that the Dvorak-Burleigh program will be performed live and in person next spring.
Giacomo [01:13:01] Woohoo!
Michele [01:13:01] [laughter]... Very exciting! And I think the full company is pretty overjoyed to bring that program to a live audience. I'm also working on something I can tell you a little bit about, not everything about, but I think about it.
Giacomo [01:13:18] I'm intrigued.
Michele [01:13:21] [laughter] It is a contemporary and actually graphic artist's interpretation of an operatic classic by Mozart. The cast will be actually entirely singers of color. It's certainly a celebration of that and it will also be illustrated and animated. [laughter]
Giacomo [01:13:47] Okay. And meant to be delivered... Meant to be delivered digitally?
Michele [01:13:53] Yes? Yes. It's going to have, I think, actually a long incubation because we're recording the music presently and then it goes to the graphic artist team and has like the whole progression of life after that. So, yes, I think it'll be in digital form and very family friendly, like made for multiple, multiple generations.
Zane [01:14:21] So,Michele, why don't you tell us and our audience where we can find you online, where can people tune in to... to you. To Michele Kennedy.
Michele [01:14:30] Oh, thank you. Well, through my website, it's probably the easiest way. It's michele-kennedy.com. And I also have a YouTube channel that I'm trying to build up and it's got a lot of the repertoire we've talked about today. Handel arias, Florence Price arias... all kinds of fun stuff. And I also... I'm on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I'm happy to send you those handles. If people want to hang out, I would just welcome the chance to talk with anybody about this work and hear people's input. So...
Zane [01:15:00] Fantastic! Yeah, yeah. We'll definitely put all the links in our show notes to... not only to you personally and to your YouTube channel, but we'll put in links to all the ensembles that you're involved with and anything else that we want to point our listeners towards. Giacomo, you got anything else for us?
Giacomo [01:15:19] Nothing... except a huge thanks and a debt of gratitude to Michele for joining us today and for sharing the gifts of your artistry and for just how incredible you are. You're wonderful. I can't thank you enough.
Zane [01:15:31] Yeah, absolutely. Thunderous applause, thunderous applause! We'll insert... [laughter from Michele] we'll insert thunderous applause right here. [laughter from Zane]
Michele [01:15:39] Wow. It's been so fun. It's been a total honor and delight for me. So thank you both so much.
Zane [01:15:44] Yeah. Thank you. Let's end today's episode with some hope for a bright new future. Here is Michele singing with the Gold Coast Chamber Ensemble, performing H.T. Burleigh's arrangement of "My Lord, What a Morning" [01:15:58] [Music excerpt: a string quartet accompanies a female singer who expresses her amazement of the morning and her hope to reach heaven.]
Outro [01:15:56] Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of the In Unison podcast. Be sure to check out episode extras and subscribe at inunison podcast dot com. You can follow us on all social media @inunisonpod. And leave us a review on Apple podcasts to let us know what you think!
Chorus Dolores [01:18:58] Music stand lights distributed and collected by Chorus Dolores, who has definitely considered being in professional show choirs at many points in their life but doesn't really need that kind of success.
Credits [01:19:13] In Unison is produced and recorded by Mission: Orange Studios. Our theme music is Mr. Puffy, written by Avi Bortnick, arranged by Paul Kim, and performed by the Danish vocal jazz ensemble Dynamic on their debut album, This Is Dynamic. Special thanks to Paul Kim for permission. Be sure to check them out at dynamic jazz dot dk.