Aldeburgh Music

Juliana Gondek, (Handel, 1977) a successful international performing and recording artist of thirty years plus, and Professor of Voice and Opera/Chair of the Division of Music Performance at UCLA (Univ. of California at Los Angeles), and Head of Voice Faculty of the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival shared her memories:

I had the great privilege of attending the Britten–Pears School summer sessions in 1977. What made the experience even more remarkable was that Pears had "discovered" me while giving a series of master classes at my college in Los Angeles, and he invited me to come at his own personal expense, covering my tuition and housing for all three courses out of his own pocket. I could not have come otherwise.

The three courses that summer were on Handel (focusing on Julius Caesar, Theodora, and Jephtha), Schubert, 20th century British song and vocal chamber music. Additional faculty were John Shirley-Quirk, Laura Sarti, and renowned Handel scholar Winton Dean. This was the summer just after Ben had died, and Pears seemed to be in a rather fragile state. I will never forget watching him launch into a favourite Schubert Lied, singing so elegantly and delicately, making it almost to the end before breaking down in tears remembering Ben at the keyboard.

Among my fellow students were Roger Vignoles (who, as a result of our friendship in Aldeburgh, became one of my primary recital pianists, playing important concerts and recordings for me in the U.S. and Europe); Graham Johnson; Canadians Ingemar Korjus, Stephen Rawls and Bruce Ubukata; Australian Rosamund Illing; Alaisdair Elliott; Alexander "Sandy" Garden; Philippa "Pippa" Dames-Longworth; Marilyn de Blieck from Ayr; and my favourite (and my roommate for the summer) Marie McLaughlin from Hamilton.

My Aldeburgh experience served as an influential calling card for me later in my career. At an audition I sang for Raymond Leppard, I happened to mention I'd attended Aldeburgh. I can't say for sure that this was the cause of my subsequently performing a long string of major concert engagements with Ray over the next dozen years or so but it must have helped!

I have so many vivid memories from that summer, but what I remember most is a comment of Pears’ that sharply changed the course of my life. I'd been a violinist for fifteen years when Pears first heard me sing, and I had not worked out my vocal technique at all. Rather, I'd gotten by to that point on the strength of an interesting colour to my voice, eclectic taste in repertoire, musicality/artistry/musicianship, and by carefully avoiding singing anything that showed the flaws in my technique: nothing too high, nothing requiring long breaths, nothing that sat on an E-flat, nothing with more than two 16th notes in a row! Stuff like that.....

On the second or third day of the first session, Pears was coaching me in front of the class and he suddenly stopped and gave me this long, scrutinizing, laser-beam of a look, then said, very slowly: "My dear, you are a very clever singer". Those eight words changed my life because I instantly knew that this was no compliment. Rather, he'd "nailed" me - exposed me, if only to myself, for the faker that I was. In a flash of self-awareness, I knew that either I needed to acquire a solid vocal technique fast or I needed to forget about singing. Pears "tough love" gave me the resolve to find a great teacher and finally learn how to sing properly, enabling my career.

Nicolas Chisholm (English Song, 1981) wrote: I have been Headmaster of The Yehudi Menuhin School for almost 21 years and still perform as a tenor from time to time, though the job here takes up more and more of my energies. My lessons with Sir Peter Pears, John Shirley-Quirk, John Carol-Case, Nancy Evans and others still burn bright in my memory.