While many may dream of the jet-setting world of an international opera singer, others have a more local idea of the idyllic artist’s life. A typical day might mean a rehearsal in the morning, a business lunch with a colleague, a coaching or two in the afternoon, then a stop back home to rest and dress for the evening’s performance. Toss in an occasional European recital tour or an opera somewhere warm, and life is grand.
Conductor Kent Tritle—and the numerous singers in his ensembles—seem to have achieved just that ideal. (Though surely even the most idyllic setup brings its share of stress and bother!) “It’s really unique how it’s come together,” he says, describing his de facto role as the Kapellmeister of New York.
Tritle is founder and music director of Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, the acclaimed concert series that just completed its 20th season at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, where he is also director of music ministries. He is the music director of the Oratorio Society of New York and Musica Sacra, the longest continually performing professional chorus in New York. He recently joined the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music as director of choral activities, and he teaches organ performance and choral conducting at the Juilliard School. An organist by training and a highly praised performer, Tritle also finds time to serve as organist of the New York Philharmonic. That’s a lot of singing gigs, and a lot of singers who earn all or part of their livings thanks to Tritle’s many contributions to the field.
“It’s beyond my wildest dreams,” says Tritle, whose interest in choral music grew alongside his 10 years of experience in musical theatre. “I never had any idea that I would become a concert conductor, but I felt a great desire to do oratorio,” he adds. He credits some of his success to his willingness to be involved with organizations above and beyond the typical role of a music director. “It takes a tremendous amount of entrepreneurial spirit to get things happening,” he says.
For Tritle, that spirit has meant a hands-on approach to marketing, finance, fundraising, and other business aspects of running a performance organization. Under his leadership, Sacred Music in a Sacred Space grew from an idea to an institution. It also enabled him to “practice the conducting I was learning at Juilliard,” which strengthened his career as a choral conductor. Through close work with the board and founder of Musica Sacra, he helped to increase the group’s budget and greatly expanded its concert season.
The singers in Tritle’s ensembles are comprised of numerous types of professionals. “My ‘home team’ has varied career tracks,” he explains, from career choristers to music educators, singers immersed in contemporary music to “college teachers who solo out of town but can also sing a Palestrina motet.” Of the hundreds of singers in New York, he says, there is a “professional choral pool of about 100 singers who do most of the concert work” and make at least part of their living singing choral music professionally. Maybe more singers pursuing concert work would enrich the New York choral scene.
Tritle’s soloists also come from varied backgrounds. He keeps an eye out for singers coming through the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the Juilliard Department of Vocal Arts, but he also is open to referrals from soloists he already works with. Most importantly, he offers solos to the singers in his choruses as well. “Everyone in the professional choral pool has good chops,” he says. Among all his ensembles, Tritle has approximately 100 solo roles to cast each year.
What does it take to sing with Tritle’s home team? He looks for the qualities that he says are enhanced by experience singing in choirs: solid technique, stylistic flexibility, and good reading skills. He usually first hears singers on recordings, and then may ask for an in-person audition. Tritle has many of the same standards for soloists as he does for choristers, who frequently solo in his ensembles or elsewhere. For singers who wish to be considered for a solo role—including the 115 annual applicants to the Oratorio Society of New York Solo Competition—Tritle listens for “that additional something special, that personal communication that comes off the page.”
“Oratorio lives in that world between art song and opera,” he continues, emphasizing how important it is for singers to find personal meaning in the words of a piece. Tritle feels he is able to find that special something off of recordings, even without the benefits of facial expression and body language. “I always appreciate a live audition, but ultimately I’m looking for a connection to the heart, not a manufacture of that expression. On a CD, I can hear whether there’s communication or intention” through word inflection and phrasing, he explains.
In addition to his desire that singers not only “sing it all correctly” but also musically, Tritle has specific technical suggestions. “I’m surprised that more people don’t instinctively place consonants ahead of the beat,” he says. “The orchestra needs to know how to shape and time a phrase” from the rhythmic impulse of the singer. He also has suggestions for singers struggling with the question of ornamentation. For people still working to achieve a comfort level with Baroque music, he advises, less is more.
“I would rather hear an aria sung with very little ornamentation and from the heart than meaningless ornamentation that doesn’t reflect the words,” he says. After all, clearly defined dynamics and a judicious use of vibrato are types of ornaments themselves.
He also expresses surprise that more singers do not turn to contemporary recordings to find ideas for ornamentation. As a student, Tritle says, he was taught to learn the score and create ornamentation before listening to a recording, to resist the temptation of mimicking another artist. Now that attitudes about style and ornamentation have evolved, “people must listen to other choices other soloists have made,” he says.
He also appreciates soloists who have already ornamented their arias, though he works with the assumption that they will be open to his ideas as well. But, he says, “I’m frequently happy to accept what people bring, because they know their own voices best.”
What does Tritle have to say to teachers and students who shun ensemble singing? “It saddens me when I see choral and voice departments that have separated ways,” he says, adding that he feels fortunate that “the voice faculty at Manhattan School of Music supports a large symphonic chorus.” He also notes that many professional soloists have a strong choral music background and suggests that young singers can gain many skills from choral singing. “It is important to learn how to mark in a healthy way,” he says, pointing out that choral singing builds stylistic flexibility, language skills, improved diction, and overall musicianship.
That said, he does concede that it is “the conductor’s responsibility to know what you can and cannot ask. I don’t use the word ‘straight-tone’ in my rehearsals,” he says. “If I want a straighter sound, I will ask the chorus to try to unify their vibrato” or otherwise encourage them to listen to their sound without forcing.
Tritle’s advice for singers who wish to add oratorio singing to their skill sets follows a similar logic for anyone looking to expand their repertoire. First of all, he says, “don’t do it unless you really love the music.” Singers should “jump in,” start listening, and find a coach or teacher who can assess their skills and direct them toward the right repertoire. Like opera, oratorio encompasses a range of time periods and styles, and a singer with a great ability for Baroque music may not be as inclined toward Mendelssohn or Verdi.
He also encourages singers to learn entire oratorio roles, not just arias. Sopranos, for example, should study the quartets in the Mozart Requiem in addition to the “Lux Aeterna.” This affords the singer the confidence to say that they would be able to perform the whole work when the opportunity arises.
After that, “make your demo and send it out,” he says. Unlike in traditional opera, “you don’t have to have that many roles under your belt first.” As for audition repertoire, Tritle prefers to hear musical contrasts: a lyric and sustained aria, a piece that showcases coloratura, and perhaps a recitative or two if possible.
Over the years, Tritle has worked with singers who have expressed reservations about singing in the choir while they are pursuing a solo career. They might be willing to sing in the church choir, which has a lower public profile than his concert choirs. Occasionally, singers have stopped singing with Tritle on the advice of their managers, who were concerned that they would have to work against a reputation of being an ensemble singer. While Tritle respects those decisions, he points out that “in every case, they come back after a couple of years. It doesn’t seem to have made a difference to their careers.” Moreover, the opportunity to perform serious music at a high level on a regular basis must be attractive to any musician, regardless of their ambitions.
For Tritle and the many working singers in his ensembles, oratorio repertoire not only offers a richly rewarding and diverse field of performance opportunities, but an opportunity to collaborate closely with colleagues. Singers from the professional choral pool perform with groups throughout the city, network with each other, and integrate choral singing into their musical lives. Moreover, in a city with such a wealth of professional choruses, including the many that Tritle directs, an entire community of singers can live, work, and thrive on their art.
Perhaps most encouraging is the diversity of careers that are found among the choristers and oratorio singers in Tritle’s ensembles. A good professional chorus is enriched by its varied skills of the teachers, performance artists, opera singers, and oratorio specialists, all of whom manage wide-ranging careers without being pigeon-holed as ensemble singers. To the contrary, Tritle maintains that a singer in a chorus is a stylistically flexible and technically solid musician. After all, he says, “just because I see you in a choir doesn’t mean I won’t consider you as a soloist.”
