Doreen Rao brings energy surge to Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus
BY MARY KUNZ GOLDMAN
NEWS CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC
Updated: 04/23/09 08:15 AM
Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus director Doreen Rao
is excited
about
the highlight of Sunday’s program,
the Mendelssohn Symphony No. 2, “Hymn of Praise.”
You could say that Doreen Rao, the new director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, sees the magic in music.
But the truth is, she sees the magic in everything.
Even the sidewalk outside The Buffalo News amuses Rao. It has a way of sparkling in the sunlight that makes her stop and stare. “Look at that!” she exclaims. “Can you believe that? Look at that!” She shrieks with delighted laughter.
Approaching Ellicott Square, Rao halts again and stares. “What –?” she manages. “How magnificent! Who is the architect?”
Told it is Daniel Burnham, she beams. “Oh, of course! Well, I’m from Chicago.” Burnham is associated with that town.
Only after examining and admiring the building’s skylights and mosaics does Rao finally settle in at a table in the magnificent lobby, drinking coffee she clearly does not need. She gets onto the subject of the Mendelssohn Symphony No. 2, “Hymn of Praise,” the masterpiece the choir will be singing Sunday.
“It’s a huge multimovement symphony/cantata, huge in architecture, huge in concept,” she says. “This work creates a new genre. There was nothing like it.”
In other words, the piece is perfect for the debut of this unique powerhouse who, since September, has been at the helm of the mighty BPC.
“She’s amazing,” says John Fleischman, a chorus member who acts as Rao’s assistant, directing rehearsals when she is out of town.
“She can be extremely intense, and two seconds later you are just laughing. That is one reason the pacing of her rehearsals are so good. We never waste time. She knows exactly what she wants.”
Fleischman admits to being thunderstruck by Rao’s energy. “Two weeks ago, she was stuck in New York, doing this world premiere for Amnesty International. She got stuck. There were no flights out of JFK. She called me up [to sub for her], saying what she wanted to rehearse. Halfway through the night I was exhausted. My arms were literally killing me. It’s fantastic music, but it’s hard work. I was thinking: How does this woman do this? For three hours?”
A brush with a diva
Last fall, when Rao accepted the job as director of the chorus, the BPC rejoiced. A look at her stature in the music world, and you begin to see why.
Rao teaches at the University of Toronto, where she heads the conducting program. She has written 10 books on the art of choral singing, published through Boosey and Hawkes, the venerable classical music publishing house. Her latest, titled “Circle of Sound,” explores meditation and Asian breathing techniques.
She has also published her own arrangements and compositions. “Because of her, the choral repertoire — particularly for treble voices, but for all voices — has increased incredibly,” Fleischman says. “The quality has really gone up.”
Rao’s diverse achievements reflect her unusual background. For all her academic accolades, she is anything but ivory tower.
She grew up in Chicago. Her mother was a professional soprano. Her father was the maitre d’ of the London House, a legendary jazz club.
“I sat under his armpit in the London House practically as an infant,” she laughs. “Every musician went down to the London House. And classical music was mainstream in my life. I had elements of gospel, too. I had friends in the city who introduced me to gospel. Chicago was very segregated,” she points out. “But I was in a program for gifted musicians, and we were not segregated.”
At 16, she began studying violin. “I started with the classical repertory,” she says. Back then, she explains, universities did not have the jazz programs they do now. “Jazz was associated with night life.”
Rao fell under the spell of classical music, delighting in taking parts in Mozart operas. “I’m a Mozart girl,” she laughs. Still, her diverse childhood influences remained with her. As a successful choral director, leading a children’s choir, Rao had a bittersweet brush with one of her idols, Ella Fitzgerald.
In tribute to Fitzgerald, she had written something called the “Swingalong Suite,” incorporating songs Ella sang, including “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” and “Smooth Sailing,” and having the children sing behind the beat. The choir recorded the number, and someone brought Ella herself the record.
Ella came backstage to see the chorus at Ravinia. “She invited the whole chorus — 60 kids — to come and see her sing,” Rao says, wonderingly.
The great diva died soon after that, and the plans never came to pass. But Rao remembers Fitzgerald’s generosity, and it inspires her.
The giants of the classical music world, she adds, have been equally kind. Conductors she has worked with include Sir Georg Solti, Claudio Abbado and James Levine. “They’re the greats. The greatest conductors,” she says. “What do I think of them? The world.”
Singing, feeling better
Movies about choirs — like the French movie “The Chorus” — tend to overlook the sweat of singing in a choir, the hours of painstaking rehearsal. But the preparation is the adventure Rao enjoys most of all.
“The process of producing, creating, molding, getting better at singing is one of the best-kept secrets,” she reflects. “The real story is about the transformation that occurs, the experience of getting better as a group.”
Under her leadership, the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus has been taking its singing to the next level.
“At the beginning of the year, so many people were unhappy. They weren’t sure,” says Andrea Copley, one of the chorus’ singers. Rao’s presence, Copley says, changed that. “It was so great to see them feeling the success of their efforts. They’re singing better, feeling better.”
She makes it sound so simple. And, in some ways, it is. Rao would like to see people return to the idea of choral singing as something that comes naturally.
“Choral singing for many people is something they do in their families, in their villages, in local churches. It’s something they do related to every active celebration, every event in life. That’s the way singing started in local communities.”
“Often, particularly in Europe, choral singing has left village life and family life, and gone to the concert stage. The concert stage separates people of communities from performers.”
To that end, the BPC is looking into outreach concerts, concerts that will take the singers out of the concert hall and into the community. As she works to bring about her goals, Rao has embraced the fundraising and community appearances that are the lot of any mover and shaker.
“In Canada, the first place you go to is the government. The last place you go is the individual,” she says. “Here it is the opposite. I like what has happened. Here it is one on one,” she says.
Concert Preview
Doreen Rao leads the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, and soloists in an all-Mendelssohn program at 2:30 p. m. Sunday. Music includes the Symphony No. 2 (“Hymn of Praise”); Psalm 114; and the Overture to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” For information, call 885-5000.
mkunz@buffnews.com |
