The Teaching Tenor

BY SARAH BRYAN MILLER
Post-Dispatch Classical Music Critic

March 2, 2003

George Shirley lends an ear and gives some advice to promising young singers

George Shirley is a born teacher. It's what he started out to do; it's what he's doing right now. And in between, he's enjoyed an international career that has spanned more than four decades.

Shirley, a tenor of renown, has been in town for the past week to work with the promising young singers of Opera Theatre of St. Louis' Artists-in Training program. There are 17 of them , ages 15 to 18, from public, private and parochial schools, both in the city and the suburbs.

Three voice teachers and two vocal coaches, at Webster University, Washington University and the University of Missouri at St. Louis, work with the students. Tuition for a years worth of lessons and experiences like working with Shirley is $750 and there are scholarships available for those in need. (Monsanto, notes Opera Theatre director of education Allison Felter, "is the corporate angel and founder of this program.") Shirley is one of a number of outside teachers who have taken turns working with the A-I-T students. On his third trip to St. Louis for the program, he says he's impressed by it, ''and moved by what it's doing for these young people."

It's terribly easy to ruin a young voice, and teachers have to be careful in how they work with teenagers. "I think that young people can benefit from some technical information, depending on how it's given," says Shirley. "They need to learn how to stand so that their posture is helping, not hindering; how to take a breath that satisfies the lungs; what a balanced tone feels like to produce. It's all information they can process and put to use."

Shirley began his vocal studies at 13, as he went from alto to tenor. His parents, "untrained musicians,'' sang in church and encouraged him. A native of Indianapolis, he grew up in Detroit, where the public schools had a fine music program. After college he taught music for a year and a half, until he was drafted, and found himself in the U.S Army Chorus. That inspired him to pursue a career as a singer.

From 1959 to 1980, "I sang 99 percent of the time," in America and abroad. In 1980 he was offered a professorship at the University of Maryland at College Park;
in 1987, he moved to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "I always wanted to end my professional life as a teacher," he says.

He does an admirable job in that role. One Tuesday afternoon, he worked with a half-dozen young singers in the comfortable Washington University studio of voice teacher Christine Armistead. His tools include imagery, exercises and demonstrations in a still-rich, strong voice.

The first up was Audreia Norman, s senoir at Normandy High School. She's working on a setting by American composer Thomas Pasatieri of "The Harp that Once through Tara's Halls." Shirley is kind and helpful, making gentile suggestions. Audreia is having a little trouble with the words, so Shirley asks her to rephrase what she's saying.

"What you want to do, always, is to master the text, away from the music," he tells her. "There should be a sense of spontaneity, that you're making it up even as you're singing the piece." Audreia offers a retelling of the poem that shows she's thought it through.

Then Shirley has her speak the text, using the same approximate pitches as the written notes. It sounds strange, and Audreia, like those who follow her, is embarrassed by the technique. But, reminds Shirley, "The original human language is the cry of the baby. They don't have words…
Great singers have that cry in the voice."

Afterwards, Audreia, who says she's planning to major in music education at St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, N. C., says she "got a lot out of it. You have to feel (the meaning) for yourself, and not just what they tell you. You have to feel it from the inside. I used to not trust that. Now I trust it, because I've found it works. In the midst of it, I've learned to trust my emotions."

Armistead, who is the soprano Christine Brewer's teacher, also works with six Artists-in -Training. She was the first resident teacher for the program, starting a decade ago. They try to select a certain percentage form the inner city; one of the strengths she sees is that A-I-T brings students to university campuses, and encourages them to continue their educations after high school.

"During the audition process, we listen for akind of innate talent. In some cases, that's more obvious than on others-but we're not afraid to take them in the infant stages," she says. "The students get to have some real camaraderie with other singers, especially the guys. This program means a lot to them and we have to be sensitive to them."

Back in the studio, Shirley is working with the fifth student of the day. Chip Broze is a tall senior from Parkway Central with the makings of a really outstanding baritone. He's embarrassed when he makes a mistake, but Shirley says he shouldn't be.

"Do you know what a servomechanism is?" asks Shirley. "A rocket is a servomechanism. Once it's launched, it constantly makes corrections to its course. And that' how human beings learn. Don't be afraid of failure; we learn by making mistakes. It's the only way that we can get it right."

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