VoxAmaDeus Welcomes the Return of
Soprano Sarah Davis
VoxAmaDeus is happy to announce that Sarah Davis will return to its concert stage on Friday, October 11, as a soprano soloist in Mozart’s Grand Mass in c minor at the Kimmel Center, conducted by Valentin Radu. Sarah is more active than ever and has spent, and will spend, plenty of quality music-making time in the Philadelphia area. Here is Sarah in conversation with Richard A. Shapp.
RAS: Sarah Davis, welcome back to the electronic pages of the VoxAmaDeus E-Newsletter. It’s been a while; what have you been doing?
SD: The last concert I sang with VoxAmaDeus was the Vivaldi Gloria in December 2011 at the Kimmel Center. It’s been a whirlwind since then! I am thrilled to be back singing with Valentin and my friends in VoxAmaDeus on October 11. It is an honor to have been invited to sing with such esteemed colleagues and to get the chance to perform this glorious music—the Mozart Grand Mass in c minor.
RAS: So, Sarah, please tell our readers about some of the musical highlights of your career over this past year and a half or so.
SD: I’ll start with the busy time in the spring of 2012 before moving to New York City. First, I sang the lead in Barbara White's world-premiere, one-act opera Weakness at Princeton University. This was one of the most amazing shows that I’ve ever been a part of. I played a fierce Celtic goddess, who narrated and sang the entire show. I was cast with two very talented contemporary dancers who played characters in the story. I interacted and danced with them throughout in a uniquely staged, passionate and emotional journey. The sound world accompanying me was created by a chamber group on stage with instruments that consisted of a gorgeous shakuhachi Japanese wooden flute, an electric guitar, a bassoon and percussion. Talk about unique!
Of a more traditional nature, I was the soloist in my first Beethoven Ninth Symphony, with the University of Pennsylvania Choral Society. I also sang a huge program in Ohio at Kent State University with my mentor Scott MacPherson conducting. The concert included Poulenc’s Gloria, Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (a dream come true for an American soprano to sing), and finally P.D.Q. Bach's spoof operetta Oedipus Tex! for which I donned a hilarious cowboy get-up and sang in a super-twangy accent!
RAS: When did you head off to New York, and what were the musical highlights?
SD: For the summer of 2012, I moved to New York City to sing with the world- famous Caramoor Festival as an artist-in-residence. At Caramoor we studied advanced techniques in bel canto singing and performed Rossini, Vaccai and Verdi. After Caramoor, I stayed in New York and participated in Cage Hop: John Cage Centennial Concerts. I also managed to squeeze in the role of Fiordiligi from Mozart’s Così fan tutte with the New York Lyric Theatre. She’s one of my favorite Mozart characters—feisty and full of great musical challenges!
RAS: After the Big Apple…?
SD: During the fall of 2012, I returned to Philadelphia to premiere songs by three Philadelphia-based composers for the Network for New Music at the Annenberg Center. I enjoy singing a wide variety of music. The honor of being the first to interpret a piece of music is immense. I love collaborating with composers and testing the limits of the human voice! Later in the fall, I relocated down to Texas, my home base, for a change of pace and to be with my family for a little while.
But at the start of 2013, I was back up in the Philadelphia area singing for several coveted “salon” venues, as well as my first Brahms Requiem with the University of Pennsylvania Choral Society.
RAS: Please explain what constitutes a “salon” performance.
SD: A salon performance is held in an intimate venue—usually someone’s home—that can accommodate 30 to 50 guests. The repertoire is typically chamber music and art song, with a little opera sprinkled in! There can be one featured performer, or a wide variety of musicians…it just depends. This is a great opportunity for musicians to break past the formality of the concert hall and give an intimate, direct performance where everyone shares the moment together. I like to speak and interact in a salon setting, sharing information about the composers, the poets, my interpretation and any backstory that will make the listening more vivid and enjoyable. The audience can immediately relate, once it’s been broken down for them, making the once completely foreign piece—for example, a never heard Russian song—a memorable, emotional listening experience.
I came up to Philadelphia and New Jersey to sing a song recital of Rachmaninoff, Schubert and Debussy with pianist Norma Meyer for the Maurice River Music Salon Concerts in Maurice River, New Jersey. During that time we also sang for a high school in Haddonfield, New Jersey, teaching the students about vocal music and encouraging them to pursue music in college. It is a great joy for me to see the reaction on kids’ faces when I open my mouth to sing. So many of them have never heard a classically trained singer live!
Next, I was invited to sing at composer and performance artist Andrea Clearfield’s coveted salon in Center City Philadelphia. I prepared Schubert’s masterpiece for soprano, piano and clarinet, “The Shepherd on the Rock.” If you get a chance to attend one of her salons, it is a wonderful, eclectic array of performers—everything from jazz, folk, classical to rock.
Last June I sang a lovely song recital in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts in another salon-like setting. I prepared a mixture of gorgeous songs by Debussy, Strauss, Barber, Previn, Sibelius, Dvorak and others. All of the repertoire was on the theme of “night”—which the audience LOVED. I engaged the audience with a discussion about the poems and the composers before I sang each piece, even having some audience members stand up to read the translated poems. This made the experience so much more meaningful and memorable for everyone. Art song will always be my favorite medium in which to sing.
RAS: And now on to this fall…
SD: I was a guest artist at the PanAmerican Music Festival in Dallas, Texas, this past September. This festival is dedicated to educating youth about North and South American music (Colombian, Brazilian, American…folk and classical). I sang Colombian art songs and some Jake Heggie, Copland and Gershwin at Southern Methodist University, Texas Wesleyan University, and a few local high schools.
Also in September, I was a guest artist with the Texas Hill Country Opera, singing at the historic Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas. One of the nights included a youth education concert teaching youngsters about opera!
Other upcoming Philadelphia engagements include singing works of Jewish-American composers with Network for New Music on November 3 at the Ethical Society. Also with Network, in April 2014, I’ll sing the world premiere of a new song cycle by John Harbison. That same month, I’ll join again with University of Pennsylvania Choral Society to sing Verdi’s glorious Requiem. And oh yes, out West, I’ll sing Mozart arias, his Solemn Vespers and Mass in C Major with the North Valley Chorale in Phoenix, Arizona (more Mozart—bring it on!).
But first comes the Mozart Grand Mass in c minor with Valentin and my friends of VoxAmaDeus on Friday, October 11 at 8:00 p.m. in the Perelman Theater of the Kimmel Center. I can’t wait to see so many familiar faces.
RAS: Thank you Sarah. I look forward to hearing you again after these many months.