Today the music world celebrates the 91st birthday year of legendary mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne (b. January 16, 1934, in Bradford, PA), and it seems appropriate for Vocal Arts DC to add a personal tribute in tandem with our annual Gerald Perman Emerging Artist Debut Recital, the seeds of which Ms. Horne planted.
As her own historic career was drawing to a close, Ms. Horne had an epiphany, realizing that the song recital had played a pivotal role in shaping her artistic identity. Like virtually every notable American classical vocalist of her generation, Horne honed her craft during an era that witnessed the explosion of a hugely popular network of recital presenters throughout America under the auspices of Community Concerts, a benevolent New York parent company.
Beginning in the 1920s, the rotating cadre of young American singers like Horne were given opportunities by Community Concerts to develop their professionalism as budding recitalists proved as vital to classical music’s popularity as the countless new audience members they reached through live concerts in underserved communities. To her chagrin, the soon-to-retire Horne saw that the number of U.S. concert presenters offering song recitals had steadily dwindled in her lifetime, which in turn translated into fewer young American singers embracing the vast richness of song literature as a viable means of artistic communication. So she launched the Marilyn Horne Foundation in 1993 with the mission of encouraging a new generation of young singers to advocate on behalf of classical song through solo recitals.
And for nearly two decades, the Marilyn Horne Foundation thrived, handily succeeding in its mission. To his everlasting credit, Vocal Arts DC founder Gerald Perman—always a champion of emerging talent as much as of song recitals—came on board immediately as one of the Horne Foundation’s loyal charter presenting partners. Those with long memories still recall debut recitals in the nation’s capital by such fledgling stars-to-be in the 1990s as soprano Christine Goerke and mezzo-sopranos Stephanie Blythe and Michelle DeYoung, to name but three who appeared under the combined auspices of VADC and the Horne Foundation.
But by the time Gerald Perman turned 90 in 2013, the Marilyn Horne Foundation had “sunsetted.” The Vocal Arts DC Board of Directors wished to honor Gerry in a way meaningful both to him and to the organization in recognition of this milestone. It therefore seemed entirely fitting to establish a fund bearing his name to pick up where the Horne Foundation had left off. And so bass-baritone Brandon Cedel, nearing completion of the Lindemann Young Artist Program at the Metropolitan Opera, sang our inaugural Gerald Perman Emerging Artist Debut recital in fall of 2013 in collaboration with his pianist and mentor Brian Zeger. As part of our series, we have subsequently presented one singer annually in a DC recital debut who is at an interim point between a degree-granting or training program and full professionalism. We’re so pleased that Brandon—like most of our subsequent Perman Emerging Artist recitalists—is very much still “in the game” with a healthy career mix of concert and opera engagements.
Other Perman recitalist “alumni” doing equally well for themselves internationally include sopranos Ying Fang, Hera Hyesang Park, Emily Pogorelc and Elena Villalón, mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo and tenor Ben Bliss. Perhaps the award for “most eclectically versatile” should go to baritone John Brancy (class of 2014). In addition to curating a pair of programs honoring the centenary of World War I with his collaborative pianist and Juilliard classmate Peter Dugan (both presented by VADC and recorded commerciallycommercial), John has won a Grammy Award (for his portrayal of the title role in Tobias Picker’s opera The Fantastic Mr. Fox), premiered works by esteemed composers Meredith Monk and George Benjamin, starred as Monteverdi’s Ulysses at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and become the go-to pre-game vocalist at Madison Square Garden to sing The Star Spangled Banner. Spoiler: A couple of the aforementioned singers will soon return to our series soon as “grownups.”
We wish all these extraordinarily talented artists continued fulfillment and enrichment through music. It is difficult enough to launch a solo vocal career; it is harder still nowadays to keep one airborne. TheAnd the deep dive into their souls required by each young singer to fully commune with the music and poetry of songs is as time-consuming as it is potentially exhausting. Yet just as all contemporary artists can tweak their odds of success by broadening rather than narrowing their artistic profiles, we as listeners reap the rewards of richer rather than leaner listening options through their musical journeys of self-exploration. And that is something for which we can all be grateful for.
