Soprano Judith Milardo was a single mother trying to make ends meet, well past the age of candidacy for Young Artist Programs, singing primarily in churches and chorus jobs in central Connecticut. Not many would have considered her a likely candidate for a concert career which would take her on regular trips to ports of call frequented by the rich and famous in the south of France. But, as Judith tells Classical Singer over a rich spread of antipasto and olives—she’s Sicilian by origin, and when it comes to feeding guests, she just can’t help herself—it always pays to be prepared.
In 2000, an empty nester, she took her first vacation to Europe. To save money, she stayed with a good friend, a retired music professor with a home in the south of France. Of course, she brought her music, planning on having fun with some late-night jam sessions.
“What I hadn’t planned on, or even known,” she says, “is the fact that he knew every musical person on vacation there—producers of small concert series in the area, conductors of local orchestras, Europeans with a passion for music and the wherewithal to make it happen.”
Not to mention hearty appetites—both for good food and good music after dinner. So at one particular dinner party which she says “started the whole thing,” everyone was happily in the mood for music when Judith’s host announced that the American soprano Judith Milardo was in attendance, and would she favor the company with a song?
“No one could have been more surprised than I was!” she says. “But of course I’d brought my music—I bring it everywhere I go—so I just got up and did my best.” The impromptu dinner party concert was very well received and followed by introductions at cocktail parties from Montfrin to Versailles . . . and by the end of her vacation, she’d booked a concert season for the following summer. And she’s been back nearly every year since. “In Connecticut, I’m a voice teacher, a church section leader, a choral singer,” she says. “In the south of France, I’m the American celebrity.”
“It sounds like a dream come true,” I tell her, reaching for another imported Italian olive.
“It really is a dream come true. Europeans love music. They are so classy, so cultured. Singing at these concerts, being there in the culture . . . it’s a bit of heaven on earth. I’d always thought I was a bit of a displaced European!”
Her adventures on her “singing vacations” have given her plenty of wonderful stories to tell, including the occasion she sang French for the French in fear and trembling. Then to her relief, a young girl in the front row laughed at one of the jokes in the comic piece. “I thought, I must be singing the French all right if she’s laughing!” Milardo recalls.
Then there was the night of introducing George Gershwin to a European audience, and the time she shared the stage with an uninvited guest artist, an enormous migratory poodle. But most importantly, the concerts have given her an opportunity to live her musical dream, which has always been to earn some artistic reputation outside of her immediate circle. Beating the odds, she’s done it.
How does she keep her contacts fresh? By being the undisputed queen of social networking. She has over a thousand Facebook friends and a unique skill for connecting musicians. Tellingly, she refers to her contacts not as contacts but as “my musical friends.”
What’s on the horizon for Judith Milardo? She maintains a highly successful studio for all ages in Cromwell, Connecticut. “I find teaching incredibly rewarding,” she says, and always focuses her energies on teaching during the winter months.
In the summer? She’s off to the south of France again.
