The biggest challenge any online forum faces is the difficulty in understanding the character and intention behind the written word. It is equally difficult to form an accurate image of the writer based solely on his or her posts, because readers often infuse the words with their own emotional perspectives. This is also one of an Internet forum’s biggest appeals, since it allows individuals to flesh out their thoughts without fear of the filtering that self-consciousness may create.
In this and future interviews I will attempt to bring into flesh some of the most avid members of the Classical Singer Forum. Katherine57 joined the forum in November 2000, and at 728 posts to date she remains a very active member.
Katherine57, who are you? Where does your alias come from?
My name is Katherine Kaufman Posner. When I was 20, I was a national winner in the Metropolitan Opera auditions. I sang with the San Francisco Opera and at the Santa Fe Opera. I did a lot of touring with Boris Goldovsky and his Opera Theater. Maestro Goldovsky was a great influence on my life, as he was with many other singers. I also sang many recitals and oratorios while I was in New York, have a master’s in opera theater from the Manhattan School of Music, and have taught at three universities, including Duke University and University of North Carolina.
I now have a private studio in Raleigh, N.C. and at 64, am as busy as I have ever been. On the forum, I am Katherine57, which is how old I was when I first started to participate.
What is your profession?
I am a singer and a teacher of singing. I teach Bel Canto.
How and when did you start singing?
I sang solos in church and school from about the age of 13. I do not remember who discovered that I had a voice, or even what I felt about it then. Before attending university, I did not intend to be a musician. I was interested in cultural anthropology. But I was offered the chance to take “early entry” into college and so began my higher education as a vocal performance major when I was 16, following my junior year in high school.
How and when did you start teaching?
I taught a little as an undergraduate but formally became a teacher with my first university job at Langston University in Oklahoma (my home state). I needed to make a living to start with, but I fell in love with teaching and decided that it would be my life’s focus, not to the exclusion of singing, certainly, but still the dominant thing in my life.
What attracted you to the Forum?
I find there is a lot to learn from others. When we talk about technical things, those discussions get rather heated on occasion, but they are never dull. In addition, we talk about repertoire, how to select a teacher, any number of things. Even when I don’t agree with other posters, there is a lot to think about.
I have participated in several of the currently available forums, but this is the only one I am following now. I think I like the seriousness of this forum and despite the fact that Puccini’s opera title comes out “Madame ****erfly,” I still like the fact that language is expected to be mature.
How does the Forum help you?
I have picked up some interesting viewpoints and ideas on the CS Forum. As I am an “older singer” and many of the “forumites” are young professionals, I am able to stay in touch with what is going on and who is who. Sometimes there is a posting from an impresario or manager. I also appreciate the comments on various companies and training programs, etc., which can be helpful to my professional students.
What do you feel you bring to the Forum?
I have 40 years of teaching and singing experience to share. I have confidence in the approach I use in teaching singing. I believe it works. It worked for me when I was a student; I see it work for my students.
What plans do you have for the future as a singer and a teacher?
As a singer, I plan to sing as often as I can and to continue to tackle new repertoire. I am fortunate to live in an area with lots of performing opportunities and am grateful that there are quite a few people here who want to hear me sing. I am always trying to improve my voice and will always work toward that goal. I think it is important for a teacher to stay in the best voice possible for as long as possible.
As a teacher, I bring the spirit of singing to my students. Singing is tied to growth of the person as a whole. I have seen so many people change before my eyes as a result of gaining increased vocal freedom and a larger ability to express their personhood in this particular way we call singing. They get more confidence, even stand straighter, [and] feel better about themselves. I cannot imagine anything, of the things I am capable of doing, that is more important than participating in bringing this growth to another human being.
What would you like added to the Forum?
Not a thing. It is fine as it is.
What is your approach in the Forum?
I often use a Socratic method in my postings on the Forum. I learned it from my dad, who was a minister and often taught that way. He said, “We learn by rubbing our minds up against other minds.” I think he meant that the discomfort of that encounter with different ideas causes us to think. And I feel this has been so true for me in my personal development.
There have been many times I have refused to accept a new notion, of technique, of how to approach a certain composer, of many different notions. Then I have come around to seeing how right and important that rejected notion was. My desire is not to inflict my ideas on anyone, but to ask them to think about their own ideas.
I don’t ask a question because I don’t have an answer that satisfies me. I ask because I want the person to whom I am writing to consider what she or he has said. So I might say, “What exactly is the physical action by which you deliver the sound to the masque?” I want my correspondent to try to figure that out. My personal belief is that there is no such physical action and that the sound cannot be directed into the front of the face. So I ask someone to explain it to me. But if I am to be fair, I have to be prepared to hear a reasonable answer, even if it goes against my personal belief. I don’t like it, but it is how we grow.
What do you believe about singing? What technique do you teach? Do you feel you belong to any particular school of singing?
I believe in natural singing. When I say “natural,” I mean singing in the way nature intended. Nature intends perfection in its creation and strives for it, perhaps failing sometimes, but continuing to strive. That is what we have to do as singers: strive for perfection.
So, as I believe that we must search for correct function, I consider myself a teacher of “functional singing.” This is not a “method” or a “school,” in the sense that a series of prescribed exercises will work for everyone. I do not think that there are different, yet equally acceptable, ways to use the voice. Muscles are muscles and we sing with muscles, essentially. The muscles of the voice should operate the same way in all singers. There is not, to my knowledge, a German, French, or Russian school of weight lifting. There is only correct technique, in this and in many things.
Correctness does not change as you cross a geographical border. I believe it is possible to sing with freedom, ease, and beauty, and that is the only school I believe in, the “Freedom, Ease and Beauty School of Singing,” in other words, Bel Canto.
Bel Canto is often correctly defined as a style of composition and a style of florid singing—but it is also an approach to singing which is characterized by this correct function I mentioned and by permitting the vocal mechanism to work in a natural way.
You have often mentioned you do not believe in covering. Can you expand on your views? What do you believe about vowel modification?
I believe that in singing, less is more. The less we “mess” with the voice, and the more we allow it to follow its natural function, the better it will be.
I absolutely do not believe in covering or doing anything artificial to achieve the sound we wish to have. I realize this is controversial. So be it. It has been clearly demonstrated to me that the vocal mechanism will automatically make whatever changes it needs to make in order for us to sing whatever notes we need to sing.
For example, when sopranos pass beyond about B-flat above the staff, there is little difference between vowels. In other words, the vocal mechanism can well handle any modification it needs to do, rather than our preplanning these modifications.
Covering to me falls in the category of unnecessary fiddling with the voice. When the registration—and by that I mean the balance of activity among all the vocal muscles which bring about pitch, vowel, and resonance—is correct then any pitch within the ideal range of the voice can be sung on any vowel and no covering is needed. Is this not the definition of Bel Canto? We are taught that the perfection of technique is demonstrated by the messa di voce, the ability to go from piano to forte and return to piano on any pitch on any vowel. Where does covering come into that? I don’t see it.
Allow the voice to do as it needs to so as to achieve this miracle we call messa di voce!
How do you bring the “natural” individual voice out, and how do you make sure it reaches its full potential?
Oh Vagabond, that is a whole book!
My process is a simple one. It is based on what I think is the definition of Bel Canto, i.e. pure vowels and perfect pitch. That is the baseline for me, the starting and finishing place. If the vowels are pure (correct) and the pitch is perfect (in tune), then the voice will be lovely. As I read, that is what the old masters taught, in essence. So, keeping in mind the ranges of the two registers, and a set of principles defining what causes the vocal muscles to respond—choice of vowel, choice of musical figure, choice of dynamic, and so forth—I set about to correct the faulty vowels and pitch, and in so doing, am correcting the registration and allowing the voice to be free. If I am successful, then the natural voice emerges.
I don’t mean to oversimplify this process. It is not simple. First comes the understanding that the vocal mechanism is largely an involuntary one. Most of the muscles of singing are outside our volitional control. This means that we cannot command them to do our bidding. We must know what brings about their positive response, that certain vowels encourage the light register to participate and other vowels bring the heavy register into play, that the heavy register responds best to high volumes and that to discourage its overuse, we must bring the volume down, etc.
There are a thousand little tools that make the voice respond better and we need to know what they are. We must know that teaching requires not only experience but being a discerning listener who is sensitive to the feelings and strivings of the student. Voice is personal. A teacher who forgets that is short-changing the student.
Finally, it is always fascinating to me that you would expect, if two voices were equally free and well-used, they would sound alike. And yet, the better, more fluently, more skillfully, more freely we sing, the more unique we sound. That is the glory of the voice, and it is exciting to me beyond my ability to express my feelings. That is why I love to teach.
And there you have it: Katherine57—singer, teacher, and forum member for more than seven years now.
If you would like to learn more from Katherine, or get in touch with her, please join the General Interest Forum and participate with us.
See you all online!
—Vagabond
