During my freshman year, I served as a reheasal pianist for a bunch of on-campus shows, performing with G&S at the Loeb, but I was most involved with the DHO. From there I started getting into producing: twice for DHO and once for HRDC (Into the Woods). While I absolutely love opera, I cannot sing at all, so producing was the best way for me to involve myself and be as close as I could to the actual performances without being on stage. I am also a broadcaster for WHRB and have an opera show Sunday nights every other week. I was in wind ensemble for a while too as a clarinetist. This year, I’ve scaled back a little (because it is my senior year, and I am writing a thesis) but I am treasurer for DHO.
What is your assessment of Harvard’s artistic community and culture? Do you feel this is true of other artistic endeavors at Harvard?
As a student in the Music Department who often spends his summers interning or working for music festivals, I find the artistic atmosphere at Harvard a little strange. I think it is a shame that, for the vast majority of students, artistic expression must be relegated to extracurricular activities, and I question why we must break our backs to get extracurriculars off the ground when they are, in fact, what many of us live for and prefer to do.
For instance, DHO struggles each year to mount an operatic production. This year, it will be a stunning production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte. Yet, as the DHO treasurer who must worry about the costs incurred in renting lights or costumes or printing up hundreds of posters, I always dream about a world in which undergraduate groups would not have to fight for singers, staff and technical directors. Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to spend half of our small budget transforming the dining hall into a temporary theater? I never question the effort we all put into a performance, since the end product is always worth the sweat and fretting. But I have learned that participating in the arts at Harvard cannot be considered just an extracurricular activity: it requires worrying over the lack of theater space, basic rehearsal space and the insane costs of renting lights, even before thinking about performing a show or putting on a concert.
I don’t mean to suggest that there are no resources to turn to: On the contrary, the Masters of Dunster, the Porters, are unbelievably supportive and we are fortunate to have received a grant from the Office of Fine Arts this year. But the inherent limitations [the DHO and Harvard artists face] in what we do aggravate me more and more.
What do you find rewarding about performing opera? What inspires you, as a busy college student, to continue to participate in an art?
Well, I’m not quite sure how it happened, but I really can’t live without opera. I drag a whole bunch of recordings with me to school every year and especially when things get crazy, listening to opera or concentrating on DHO has a calming effect – I’m sure most of us would say the same about our extracurriculars…Personally, I value the quality of the singing above all else, but perhaps it’s the many levels of any opera performance (orchestra, singing, acting, scenery, costumes, etc…) that keeps me interested. And one must never forget that singers and opera-lovers are usually a little bit crazy too!
What has been your most fulfilling artistic/academic experience?
For a one literary theory class I took last semester, taught by one of my favorite professors, Alice Jardine, I was assigned to approach opera from the point of view of the performer for my final project. I interviewed several singers, conductor, and a director about the portrayal of madness in operatic productions. It was really, really fascinating to see what they all had to say and where their opinions diverged and was quite refreshing as well to focus on performers instead of on just the music itself. Hopefully this will be something I can return to in the future.
I can’t single out any one theater production I’ve worked on as the most fulfilling. They each have things about them that stick out, as one might well imagine. The sets on Into the Woods were amazing. The singing during both The Magic Flute and Così are amazing, and it is hard to believe that all the singers were/are undergraduates here at Harvard.
How has Harvard been a home to you? Has being here changed you, (i.e. have your four years at Harvard affected you or your performance art, or has it?)
Well, I should say first of all that I can only take Harvard in small doses – two years at a time, to be exact. I took a year off in the middle because I wasn’t getting out of it what I should have been… Suffice it to say that what I will remember most about Harvard is the people I was able to come in contact with.
Artistically the highlight has surely been studying piano at Longy School of Music with Wayman Chin. It’s been an amazing time and I wish I could be around to study with him for a few more years. Working with him has given me an entirely new way of listening to both others’ playing and my own.
Characterize yourself or your taste in arts projects in five words.
Crossing boundaries and smirking! (I think that applies both inside and outside the classroom for me…)
Well, if all goes well, I’ll be in France next year teaching or working – still waiting to hear. I’ll give myself a year or two before even thinking about more school. I’m toying with the idea of pursuing arts administration – too soon to tell.
Do you have any entertaining performance stories?
Well, I think the story that takes the cake is the time last year for DHO when we rented a U-haul truck to transport a genie from Pfoho to Dunster. Yes, it was as painful as it might sound, despite the fact that eight people were trying to push the thing into the truck. Now, there just happened to be a massive snowstorm this day as well. Driving through Cambridge in a big U-haul that could barely accelerate and that could barely stay on the road definitely took years off my life!
There was also a time sophomore year when our costume designer quit one week before the Bartered Bride was to open. I tried my best to pick up needle and thread, but one of the other producers ended up not sleeping for several days so our singers could on reasonably clothed. The things we do for art around here!!!
