 |
 
 |
My
Musical Journey | Pictures
from My Life |
|
|
From the earliest times I
can remember, music touched me deeply. Now doesn’t that sound CORNY!? But
really, it’s true. I can remember sitting underneath our family
Christmas tree as it turned around on a revolving tree stand which
played Brahms’ Lullaby. I would throw my head back and howl,
tears streaming down my face. I wouldn’t let up no matter how
long it played. So finally, out of understandable exasperation, my
parents disconnected the music part of the tree stand! They thought
that it made me sad and I couldn’t explain to them how beautiful
I thought it was. I still remember those feelings and they are the
same feelings that I have today when I sing a Mahler symphony or a
beautiful Lied. How funny it is that a great deal of my musical life
now revolves around the German repertoire. Perhaps that was more than
a coincidence that it was Brahms’ Lullaby.
Credit where
credit is due.
All of my life I have had people tell me that I had a very good voice
and it was always very natural to me, and although I chose to develop
my talents in other directions in the beginning, I have always loved the
human voice. When I look back over my playing career, most of it was spent
playing in orchestras for singers. I felt a certain amount of frustration
with singing in the beginning because my musical abilities were so developed
from all of my instrumental studies and I was still a ‘baby’
as far as singing was concerned. I feel certain that I had to discover
all of these musical skills that I have today to make me the specific
kind of artist that I am now. Despite the fast progress that anyone may
make in any chosen instrument or instruments, it takes time, searching
and living to become an artist. Suffering, yes, but always staying on
the Path. I am very fortunate to have been guided all along that Path
and rarely left to stray by so many beautiful and wise people.
First of all, a man named Charlie Evans, my first music teacher, who gave
a short-legged little girl organ lessons, never telling me things were
too hard for me and letting me do it anyway even when they were; a lady
named Clair Johnson in Dallas, who opened my heart and mind to music and
was my first flute teacher; Peter Lloyd, who taught me real intimacy in
music and how to find the music starting from the stillest part of myself;
Mignon Dunn, who freely gave of herself to develop my voice and my repertoire,
and who basically taught me to “sing out, Louise!”; Sarah
Caldwell, to whom I bravely made a first singing audition, who in return
“bravely” gave her principal flutist her very first real opera
singing job, and continued to believe in me, giving me greater and greater
musical challenges; and one of the greatest teachers, friends and mentors
that anyone could ever hope for, Christa Ludwig, who took the natural
voice that I had been given, took it apart and put it back together again.
Through many voice lessons, life lessons and intimate talks gave me the
courage and desire to find the artist in myself, giving me the wings to
fly and pushing me out of the nest when I was too afraid to try, giving
me the courage to realize I could do it!
And last, but not least, my ever loving husband, brilliant musician, exceptional
tenor, diction ‘dictator’, amazing computer whiz, voice coach,
teacher and my ever present ‘long ears’!
|
Growing up as a kid in Texas I was the product not necessarily of a musical family but a family who definitely loved music. Of course no one knew much about proper classical music although I had a lovely collection of classical music albums that I played and practically wore out. The likes of the Disney Orchestra playing such things as Shéhérazade of Rimsky-Korsakov while they told the story of Alladin’s Magic Lamp and of course the children’s classic, Peter and the Wolf of Prokofiev. I played them over and over and could see the story so clear as Rimsky weaved melodies that showed me the landscape and the magic! |
| Theater Organ. I also heard from an early age my parents play the Hammond organ. I begged so to learn to play and was told as soon as my feet touched the pedals I would be given lessons. I stretched my legs everyday and tried to learn my parents’ music. When I was somehow able to start playing the right notes by watching over their shoulders, my parents, despite my short legs for the pedals, began my musical journey! I got so good so fast that I was playing all of the music that they had been assigned by the teacher and I was given even harder classical arrangements to play. By the time I was around seven, I was presented in full recital by the Texas Organ Club and billed as the Little Ethel Smith! My repertoire which included such things as Rhapsody in Blue, I’ve Got a Feelin’ I’m Fallin’ and Slaughter on 10th Avenue! |  |
 |
My interest turned from the organ to the flute when I was around eleven, and my progress was also very fast in that! I became so proficient that by the time I was twelve, I was playing the Hindemith Flute Sonata. I seemed destined to be a flutist. In my junior high years, I shot up to the top of state competitions beating out hundreds of students three grades higher than myself and was placed first in the State of Texas two years in a row. During all of my school years, I continued also to develop my keyboard skills, serving as an accompanist for my first opera singer when I was in 7th grade! I still remember the repertoire - it was Un bel di (I remember thinking, “My God - so many flats!”) and an Italian art song, Se tu m’ami, from the 24 Italian Art Songs book! Even then I had a “coaching instinct” and gave the young lady a couple of suggestions for her performance. I sang to demonstrate even though I had never sung per se and she remarked, “My! You have a terrific voice. You should be an opera singer!” Even after I graduated music school in my twenties I continued my piano playing, coaching and accompanying (as I still do today) and even played for a studio of tenors in Italy studying under the great tenor Giuseppe Campora of years gone by! |
Curtis
Years. After graduating high school I was accepted to the
prestigious Julliard School of Music to study with Julius Baker
and also won a place in the exclusive Curtis Institute, an all scholarship
school for only the most exceptional young musicians. I chose to
attend Curtis and it is from there that I have my only music degree,
in flute. During those four years at Curtis I met Noel Velasco,
a fabulous tenor who at that time was also a student there. It was
Noel who had encouraged me to study voice in earnest! He heard me
singing carols at a Christmas gathering at Curtis during my first
year there, and thought I was a voice student. We began talking
and he talked me into taking voice lessons with him and it led to
not only my acceptance into the Curtis Opera Department but also
to marriage. We are still married to this day! I studied only about
5 months before my audition for Boris Goldovsky and the Curtis Opera
Department to which I was immediately accepted. I participated for
only a year and then it was time for my graduation and to move on
and away from school. Despite being offered a double major at Curtis
to study voice, I decided that I was ready to begin a career and
went off to Boston to meet my husband who had taken the job as Artist
in Residence with the Opera Company of Boston with the legendary
lady director-conductor, the great Sarah Caldwell. There was also
a chance for me to be the principal flute in the Boston Opera Orchestra
and I took it! It was there, and also from playing opera under Goldovsky
while at Curtis that I learned what good singing was all about and
how to play “like a singer”. I can still remember playing
a production of Der Rosenkavalier with Dame Gwyneth Jones as the
Marschallin and during a break, she peeped down into the orchestra
pit and said, “You play so beautifully. You play like a singer!”
Little did any of us know … I really was! My proficiency on
flute however continued and I became a semi-finalist (the only American
that year) in the National Flute Association Young Artists’
Competition. I had gone away to study during those years with a
man that I still consider to be a mentor and a great friend and
one of the greatest orchestral musicians that I have ever met, Mr.
Peter Lloyd, who at that time was the principal flute of the London
Symphony. I continued to improve and to progress and decided to
try the Munich Competitions. |
|
 |
The Magic Flute My husband at that time was singing with the Welsh National Opera and I went to stay with him; from there, I went and played in Munich. After what I remember was a not-so-distinguished audition, I was eliminated. Returning to Cardiff, I found that Noel had received a fax from the Opera Company of Boston’s touring company. It was for me and they were offering me a role in their touring productions of the Magic Flute! I would be in two different touring productions and play three different parts. It was more money than I had ever made playing flute and I thought, “Wow, let’s go for it!.” I had been singing as a hobby (I was a closet opera singer!) during all those years as a flutist and made an occasional casual novelty audition as the opera singing flutist, but this offer was truly out of the blue and the true beginning of my singing career! It was as if Fate finally said that if I wasn’t going to do it on my own, it was time for it to be thrust upon me! |
My
Musical Journey | Pictures
from My Life
|
• |
|
Biography
| What's New | Press
& Reviews | CDs & Recordings
Schedule | Repertoire | Scrap Book | Press Kit | Contact | Home |
All materials copyright
2002-2005 Gigi
Mitchell-Velasco unless otherwise noted
