Classical Singer: Why did you choose to do a concert at Weill Recital Hall in New York City when you live in Minnesota?
Ms. Draayer:The idea was born when I called the New York Times to find out how much it would cost to advertise the International Rodrigo Festival I had founded at the university where I teach, Winona State University. I was shocked! A recital at Weill Hall really did seem like a more cost-effective way to advertise the festival—and much more fun. I also had been championing Joaquín Rodrigo’s songs for years and felt it was time to bring them to New York.
How did you come to choose Rodrigo’s songs for your recital?
One of my primary passions is Spanish vocal music. It all started when I was working on my doctorate at the University of Maryland. The requirement for the dissertation tape or project was that it had to consist of music never before recorded or no longer available on recording. The disadvantage to this requirement was that some of the music should have stayed buried! I was introduced to Spanish music when George Shirley, who taught vocal literature at University of Maryland in 1984, chose three topics to teach: the music of African-American composers, the music of Russia, and the music of Spain.
I chose to do my dissertation on Spanish music. I soon realized how difficult it was to acquire Spanish vocal music and how little of it was available here in the United States. Luckily I had a next-door neighbor, a native Spaniard, who would take trips back to Spain. I would give him a list of Spanish composers, not even knowing if these people had written vocal music. He would go into Spanish music stores and give them my list and would bring back a stack of music from Madrid. I gradually acquired a large collection. I decided to focus on the music of Rodrigo and Turina for my dissertation. But out of that stack of music, I only had two song cycles by Rodrigo—one from Spain that my friend had brought, and one from the Library of Congress. Since 1986, I’ve continued to work on Spanish vocal music, but I wanted to go to Spain to do more song research.
How did you acquire funding?
I thought I might be able to get a grant from my school if I wrote a book on Joaquín Rodrigo, so in 1997 I wrote a grant proposal. I got $3,000 to go to Spain. Rodrigo was still alive. I found his daughter Cecilia. She is passionate about her father’s work. I faxed her a letter and got a message from her the next day. She wanted to meet with me and told me that her father was thrilled that I wanted to write a book about his songs. They suggested I come the next summer, which was in 1998. As we communicated, she talked about international Rodrigo festivals. It struck me that he’d be 100 years old in 2001, and I thought that his centennial year would be the perfect year for Winona State to produce the largest international Rodrigo festival. We planned it for Nov 11-17 of 2001, since November was the month of Rodrigo’s birth.
What was it like to meet the composer?
I met Rodrigo the summer of 1998. He had been blinded at age 3 by diphtheria. His wife, Vidtoria Kamhi, is really responsible for a lot of who he is. She spoke Spanish, Turkish, German, English and other languages and read constantly to him. She read poetry and literature and helped him see the world. That’s one of the reasons his songs are so rich. He wrote 87 songs, not including all the orchestral and piano music he wrote.
What shape did your book take?
he book, A Singer’s Guide to the Songs of Joaquîn Rodrigo, is a guide to all 87 of his songs. I included word-for-word translations, IPA transcriptions, idiomatic, poetic translations, biographical information on Rodrigo and Victoria Kamhi, and background information on each of the songs and song cycles.
How did you plan the International Rodrigo Festival?
To fund the festival, I wrote grants. I got $30,000 worth of funding to pay for all the people who were coming in. We hired international-level talent: a guitarist, a pianist, and a chamber group. We planned lectures and even a world premier of a play on his life. His daughter and many other famous people were coming to the festival.
The festival was becoming so big, I knew I had to advertise the festival in New York. But a one-inch ad in the New York Times was $750, and you couldn’t specify where it would go. It could go in the sports section for all I knew! So I began to think that a concert in New York would be a great way to publicize Rodrigo’s music and the festival.
How far in advance did you plan your concert at Weill Hall?
I called Carnegie in January of 2001, only 11 months before the festival. It is very unusual to be able to find an open date that late, but someone had cancelled their concert which was booked for September 29th, so I was able to take that date.
What did Carnegie charge you to give a concert at Weill in 2001?
The information they sent me says they have three concerts a day on Saturdays and Sundays. Friday and Saturday evening concerts were $1160. A concert at 3:00 Saturdays and holidays was$1100. A concert at 5:00 was $1000. Saturday and Sunday evenings were $1160. Weeknights were $750. On top of that you had to pay insurance of $125, piano tuning: $180, security: $85, ushers: $450, tickets: $200. My total for Saturday evening concert and all the extras came to about $2265. Included in the fee was a rehearsal Friday afternoon for two hours. All these costs went up $25 each right after I paid my invoice. We also had to pay airfare, hotel and food for two people.
Did this fee come out of your own pocket?
I got a $2,000 grant through Winona University, which helped a lot.
What happens with the money generated from ticket sales?
The contract actually says that the performer gets the “receipts”… “…less admissions and other taxes, if any, and less brokers’ fees, commissions, (including, without limitation, all commissions and other charges payable in connection with credit card sales) and discounts, if any, payable in respect of such monies.” When planning how much to charge for tickets, remember that Weill seats 268 people, 96 in the orchestra and 72 in the balcony. They specify in the contract that there is no standing room.
Who determines ticket prices for the recitals?
Each performer sets his or her own ticket price. Domingo, for instance, could sell his Carnegie Hall tickets at $500.00 each, knowing that he can demand that price. My accompanist and I set our prices at $15.00 general admission and $10.00 for students. I could then request any number of tickets to be sent to me or held at the box office.
Is Weill Hall under contract to use Stagebill, or can you print your own programs?
You print your own program when singing in Weill Hall.
Did you print translations?
I didn’t print the Spanish text, but I did print the idiomatic translations that I had written for my book. I just put it on a disk, and our graphics department designed it. Again, I was lucky to be attached to a university who footed the bill.
How well was your concert attended?
Our concert was on September 29, 2001, just days after the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center. Few people were at the concert halls. The next day, Leontyne Price, James Levine and Yo-Yo Ma did a benefit concert. Seats were free, and even that was very poorly attended.
But we are artists, and this was our concert. We are going to do these things come hell or high water, so we got on that plane. I wanted this Rodrigo festival splashed everywhere. I wanted people to know what a special event this was going to be. I just hoped the papers would pick up the event and people would come.
How did you promote your concert?
You send Carnegie one poster no longer than 25 inches long and 18 inches wide, which they will post outside. If singers are attached to a university, it really helps. The university graphics department designed and printed up my programs, translations and posters.
Carnegie Hall also sent me a letter saying that I was to send two tickets, my program and our biographical material to the New York Times, and the Times would put it in their weekly listing. The actual listing we got was less than 1/2 inch high. Someone would have had to be looking hard to have seen it. Although I don’t see how anyone could afford it, if you really wanted to promote your concert you would buy a quarter-page ad and you’d run it four Sundays a row. But that was far out of my budget.
Carnegie Hall does print a list of concerts that is a long piece of paper available in their hall, but they don’t advertise. You send listings in to local free papers, but again because of September 11th we got almost no publicity. If you were to sell loads of tickets, Carnegie would give you a break on your fees, but we did not sell very many tickets.
I had about 150 posters printed by our school graphics department and sent them to everyone I knew in the New York area, asking them to post them. It is hard to know how effective that approach would have been had 9/11 not happened.
Where did you stay?
We stayed at the Empire hotel at Lincoln Center. Like all hotels in New York at the time, they cut their rates because of 9/11.
What happened in your community as a result of doing this concert?
People who knew nothing about music were excited because they knew the name “Carnegie Hall.” Articles were written in the papers here.
Was your concert reviewed?
As far as I know, no reviewers attended our performance. It seemed that music was the last thing on anyone’s mind during that time in New York.
Do you feel that your recital inspired your students?
I don’t have students who are working towards performance careers. Winona State attracts music education majors primarily, and if I focused on that as my goal, I’d be really miserable! The goal for me is to stay alive in my profession and to find joy in what I do. I want to keep learning new music and not to keep doing the same material I did twenty years ago.
What did you learn about the hall and acoustics?
The acoustics were phenomenal. I felt that whatever I did was presented in an acoustically pleasing way. I could sing piano and that’s what I got. The hall was true to what I am. I went to Peabody College (Vanderbilt University), and singing in their performance space is like singing in a bathtub. Everything is so live you get a false sense of what your voice is. I don’t want that.
Did you record the recital?
The only recording you are allowed at Weill is their “archival recording,” which is only a cassette tape. The cost is $238. Had I chosen to have videotape, I think the cost was $1500. You are not allowed to sell either tape, and you can’t reproduce it. There is a contract you have to sign. The tapes cannot be used commercially or dubbed. If you break the contract, there is a penalty of $15,000. I’ve heard of people secretly taping or videotaping their recitals.
Is there anything you would do differently if you could do the concert again?
There was one problem, and it was a big one. My pianist had an attack of nerves when her teacher from Juilliard showed up at the performance. While I was pleased with my individual performance, the ensemble in places was not satisfactory. I don’t know what I could have done to have prevented this, however, since it never happened in rehearsal.
Now that the concert is behind you, how do you feel about the recital?
When a professional colleague found out about my concert, he sniffed disdainfully and said, “Anyone can sing at Carnegie Hall; you just have to pay.” At first his comments hurt, but then I thought, “but you never did, and you never will.” I believe a New York recital is a valuable experience for any serious performer. Presenting a concert in New York is a way of saying we have something special to do. We have something to perform that no one else has. Yes, anyone can pay to do it. Does Carnegie Hall turn people down? I don’t know. We submitted our bios, previous recital programs, and a copy of our CD, Under a Spanish Moon-The Songs of Joaquîn Rodrigo. We were then notified that we were accepted to perform. I do know that when it is over, you feel like you’ve accomplished something major in your life.
I know I performed very, very well. The recital increased my sense of self-worth and the value of what I do. I framed the poster, and it is hanging in my office. Whenever someone buys one of the Rodrigo CDs I made, I send them a program from Weill. I’m very proud of the recital.
