Sara Geber walked confidently to the stage as her audience chatted in hushed anticipation. Petite and professional, Geber works by day as a real estate agent and highly respected organizational consultant. With a slight tremor in her voice she announced she would perform “Far From the Home I Love” from Fiddler on the Roof, the plaintive goodbye sung by Tevye’s second daughter while waiting in the train station. Being in Fiddler in the Roof, and singing this particular song, had been Geber’s dream for 40 years. “Tonight,” she said, “I will perform it for the first time.” And she did, beautifully, with not a dry eye in the audience.
This past July, Geber and 14 other singers with differing backgrounds and skill levels enrolled in “The Lifelong Singer,” a division of the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival and the brainchild of the festival’s artistic director, Val Underwood. Based at a prestigious boarding school in the green hills of Mauna Kea on Hawaii’s Big Island, these vocalists took instruction in technique, performance, musicianship, sight singing, deportment, IPA, and diction, as well as Alexander Technique and yoga classes. Six days of training culminated in two performance evenings.
Realtors, administrative assistants, doctors, a nurse, and a broadcaster were among those who traveled to the Big Island from all points of the globe. Each had his or her own very personal reason for being there. Some were preparing to sing in public for the first time after years of lessons. A few seasoned professionals attended to hone and freshen vocal skills. Some sang in choruses and wanted to improve. Big Island pediatrician and chorus member Stephen Kaplan laughed as he described his reason for signing up: “I’d like to learn how to sing without destroying my voice.”
Creating a training program for mature singers was uncharted territory for the festival, Underwood explains.“We started this new, summer music event three years ago. Set in a very inspiring location, it is rapidly becoming popular with aspiring professional musicians whose lives in music lie ahead of them.”
To attract young pre-professionals, Underwood and crew have hired some of the world’s best names, artists such as Daniel Beckwith, Peter Grunberg, Timothy Long, Juliana Gondek, Ken Cazan, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jeannine Altmeyer, and Kurt Ollmann.
Still, something seemed to be missing. As they fielded more and more inquiries from older singers, festival organizers came to believe a program should exist for that age group. Inspired by serious, mature singers they know who suffer from a dearth of training opportunities, the Lifelong Singer program was born. “Age shouldn’t be a barrier to pursuing a training program in the arts,” says Underwood.
Festival staff didn’t know exactly what to expect. It was one thing to deal with ambitious young vocal students. It would be quite another to work with singers in midlife. Having achieved a certain station in life, would they be demanding or perhaps require a lot of handholding? Would they complain loudly if something about this new program was not to their liking? Would the faculty find working with Lifelong Singers challenging and worthwhile?
Those concerns proved to be unfounded. Strangers to each other from day one, the group quickly bonded into a tightly knit, supportive unit. They held each other’s hands, and knew very well how to nurture themselves and each other. Frequently, Lifelong Singers emerged from lessons or classes tearfully ecstatic. Surprisingly sweet and innocent, they seemed profoundly grateful for the opportunity to leave behind the cares of their mature lives and immerse themselves in a week of singing.
One participant had studied piano as a youth. At his bar mitzvah, his synagogue offered him a scholarship to receive a formal Jewish education and become a cantor. Feeling that wasn’t the direction he wanted to take in life, he declined the scholarship to pursue a career in marriage and family counseling. His desire to sing never abated, however, and as an adult he began taking voice lessons. After studying voice for 12 long years in the Bay Area, his colleagues at The Lifelong Singer shared in the joy of his first public performance.
Maui resident Sarah Oppenheim-Beggs’ return to singing after experiencing serious physical challenges is another moving Lifelong Singer story. A few years ago a hearing problem, which turned out to be a benign brain tumor, began to affect her 25-year career as a performer and voice teacher.
Oppenheim-Beggs’ confidence in her ability to hear and sing high notes began to ebb, and following the removal of the tumor, she found herself undersinging to compensate for her hearing loss. Arriving at The Lifelong Singer in July, her rebuilding was soon underway.
“After my lesson, I found Sarah sitting on a bench, her eyes filled with tears,” a classmate wrote. “I gave her a hug and asked what was wrong. She told me that they were tears of relief and joy. In Sarah’s lesson, Val [Underwood] had noticed that she favored her left side, which led Sarah to reveal that she had lost most of the hearing in that ear. He instructed her to focus on her good ear and use it to her advantage,” wrote the classmate.
“I just had a feeling I was in the right place at the right time,” says Oppenheim-Beggs. “Val was gently assuring that we could fix the problems by redirecting my awareness, which gave me confidence. I hit the high notes easily that had been eluding me for years. He gave me the confidence to let go of tension and fear, and I just trusted that here was a teacher who really knew how to help me get back on track. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I was going to have such a regeneration of my singing spirit!”
Underwood and his staff at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival remain gratified by the program’s success. In an unusual and unexpected turn of events, mature students displayed a charming simplicity and sense of gratefulness sometimes lost on young, ambitious, competitive singers. What started as a simple training program for older singers became an instrument for dramatic personal transformation in their lives.
Why do we sing? Should we always continue to express ourselves through music? What happens when a singing career is over? Should we stop singing at a certain age? When should we stop training? Exploring the answers to these questions is the essence of the Lifelong Singer program. Truly idealists, Lifelong Singers sing because they love to sing.
Faculty member Agatha Carubia summed it up neatly. “The Lifelong Singer program does not exclude singers because of age or lack of résumé. There is no pressure, no competition. We afford the mature beginner, the former singer, and the young aspirant the opportunity to be taught at a high level and to immerse themselves in their music.
“Singing is a great tool for self-awareness, self-expression, and true discipline. We grow deeply every time we devote ourselves to one practice and leave all other cares behind. I see the Lifelong Singer program as a haven for former or late-blooming singers who still would love to attend a summer program and reclaim their former joy of singing in the inspiring, healing setting of Hawaii.”
If you go:
The Hawaii Performing Arts Festival’s Lifelong Singer’s second session will be July 1-6 at the Hawaii Preparatory Academy in Waimea. For information on the program, faculty, lodging, and travel, visit the festival’s website at www.hawaiiperformingartsfestival.org or call 303-221-0399.
