In my second career as a singer I am fortunate to be a part of the Bach Chorale, a semi-professional chorus based in Lafayette, Indiana. Our director, William Jon Gray, is also on the faculty of the Indiana University Music School and regularly invites young artists from Bloomington to work with us. Among them has been Kyle Ketelsen, who recently did the Hoffmann villains with the Washington Opera to excellent notices. It was especially gratifying this past Spring when one of our IU friends, Lawrence Brownlee, was named a winner in the Metropolitan Opera national competition. From the reports posted on Opera-L [an internet mailing list], he evidently proved a special favorite with the New York audience, easily tossing off the high C’s in the Fille du Regiment aria, and sharing the disarming joy he takes in being on stage and making beautiful sounds for the public.
Larry was seated next to me during the Bach Chorale’s performance of the St. Matthew Passion last April. I was most impressed with how much in line the voice was throughout its range, and by the spongy forwardness of the top, which reminded me in timbre of Fritz Wunderlich. I thought readers of Classical Singer would be interested to hear about Larry’s experience on the way to the Met finals and what his professional life has been like since. We had arranged to meet in Bloomington, but he was called to Europe to be on a German television program with José Carreras. Yet he was good enough to give me his thoughts via email.
How did you become interested in classical singing, given how pervasive the influence of popular culture is for young people today?
I was in a pop group as a teenager, but there was always serious music in the family, since my father was the director of our church choir, and he and my mother were the major soloists. When I was a senior in high school I was in a program called “Upward Link for Gifted Music Students.” At the end there was a recital where we all had to perform a solo piece and I did Tu lo sai. Somebody came up to me afterwards and asked if I was going to study classical singing, since I seemed to have a talent. Well, that was a surprise, since at that point I didn’t really like the music all that much, and when I was singing I was sort of mocking what I thought opera singers sounded like—I had only seen bits and pieces of things on TV. But shortly after that I went to my first opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe and I was hooked.
Who were your first teachers?
My training started with Mark Halls, Carol Baird and David Starkey. But the most influential person for me was undoubtedly Fritz Robertson at Anderson University, where I was in college. We are both tenors of about the same vocal weight and his enthusiasm for teaching was really great. There was no hyper-technical mumbo-jumbo, but just encouragement to natural, healthy, non- manufactured singing. And he always taught by demonstration, which is a big help. We’re still very close and he’ll tell me exactly what he thinks, which is also a big help.
Tenors always obsess about the top voice. Did you have to work hard to get it in line or was it a natural gift?
My voice always lay naturally high, but I didn’t know how to get at those notes correctly at the start. Fritz Robertson showed me how to bring the head voice down, rather than vice versa, and to blend it so that I would have one sound without breaks. My current teacher at IU, Costanza Cuccaro, has really opened up the notes above the staff for me. We’ve worked a lot on the shape of the vowels and she always says, “The bloom should be on the top of your voice, not the middle and bottom.” I went through a period where I was trying to beef up the middle. A lot of people at IU do it, to be heard in that big theater—Fritz calls it ‘the IU cover’.” But luckily Ms. Cuccaro knew about that tendency and wouldn’t let me give in to it. It’s all about finding the right teachers and coaches, the ones who understand your instrument and guide you in the right direction, which can be a matter of luck. I’ve been very lucky!
What was the experience of the Met finals like?
Surreal is the only way to put it. But I really enjoyed it, which I think maybe some people don’t. My attitude was that somebody has to succeed and that I had worked hard—why couldn’t it be me? It helped that I had done the auditions twice before and they told me I was too young, which was probably true. I’m 27 now, which I think is how old Bjoerling was when he made his Met debut. I thought this time I was very prepared and was singing as well as I ever had. My coach Gary Arvin and I planned out the repertoire very carefully, picking things that would show off my strengths best. We focused not just on singing the arias “nicely,” but singing them like the big boys—attention to diction, dynamics, really observing what the composer wrote down. That took some hashing out with Ms. Cuccaro when there were conflicts with what had to happen technically, but in the end we got it all together.
I wasn’t really nervous at all. Having sung so much from the IU stage helped, even though the Met is about four times bigger. But I wasn’t intimidated by the experience. I knew how many great singers had stood on that stage, but I kept thinking, “They were people too.” Deborah Voigt was the MC and she was laughing because she thought I was too excited…and I was thinking, “Just let me out there on that stage!” I said a prayer and then went and sang my heart out. That’s the most you can do.
How have things changed for you since you won the auditions?
Just about everything has changed! I have management now. I could have gone with a big agency, but when I talked to Herbert Barrett, they seemed like the right people for me. I fit a niche in their roster—a bel canto tenor who at this point will go only as far as the lighter Donizetti roles—so there won’t be massive competition with other singers they handle. I’ll be singing with the Marilyn Horne Foundation and offers for all sorts of things seem to be coming in every day. That’s another reason why I think it’s important for a young singer to have management who cares about you as an individual and about building the proper foundation of a career. There are so many choices to make it can be very confusing to sort out if you try to do it by yourself.
Advice for your fellow singers?
Find what works for you and do it better than most other people can. And always be yourself.
Author’s note: As I finished writing, I just had news of Larry’s successful audition at La Scala, where he will make his debut in Barbiere next June.
