Summer programs and festivals for singers are not in short supply in Europe, particularly in the Mediterranean. What is not so readily available is a rating guide, especially for the smaller, less-publicized programs and festivals—a vocal Zagat’s, as it were. Things are not always what they seem on paper, and attending these programs represents a large investment. This summer I had the good fortune to discover a top-notch, high-achieving program in Madrid: Interpretation of Spanish and Latin-American Song.
Designed as an intensive study of the Spanish and Latin-American song repertory for singers, pianists, and guitarists, the program is administered by the Madrid campus of Saint Louis University. It all takes place in residence at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid. This beautiful, centrally located facility features ample practice space and an appealing recital hall that hosts all the festival’s performances.
In 2008 15 singers, all women, participated in the program. Instrument-alists in the program included four student pianists, all men, and three student guitarists, also men. Interestingly, the voice faculty was also all female and the instrumental faculty all male. This is remarkable to me now, but I can’t say I was particularly aware of the gender divide while in Madrid. Does a stereotype lurk here somewhere? Do we think of Spanish music as something women sing and men play? I’ll leave that for another time, or perhaps for a course at next year’s festival.
The faculty was impressive, both individually and collectively. By that I mean that the sense of shared knowledge and collaboration created a warm and supportive atmosphere in which the students flourished and made enormous progress over the mere 10 days of the program.
Alicia Nafé, a generous diva, heads up the vocal faculty. She really knows how to teach and can convey the stylistic traditions of her native music to students from all cultures. (The student body represented many nations, including Spain, the Netherlands, Scotland, Mexico, Canada, Italy, Denmark, Costa Rica, Russia, and the United States.) Nafé taught the more advanced students in a masterclass format—and I observed some remarkable transformations in a short period of time.
Nafé’s protégé, mezzo-soprano Gudrún Ólafsdóttir, another fine teacher and singer, worked with the less experienced singers in the program’s Vocal Arts Workshop. Ólafsdóttir also served as occasional translator in the masterclasses, though most of the faculty spoke English and many of the students spoke Spanish.
Each student had regular coachings with two excellent faculty pianists, Juan Antonio Álvarez Parejo and Julio Alexis Muñoz. The students in the Vocal Arts Workshop coached with pianist Alexis Delgado, who proved to be the perfect support and confidence builder. The program director, Francisco Javier Jáuregui, also a wonderful guitarist, played in one concert and participated in the repertory coachings.
Not everyone had the chance to work with guitar, which was unfortunate with such fine faculty and student guitarists available. Two student guitarists came to the program with their singers and another came on his own.
The festival makes a big effort to create a highest-level comprehensive experience for participants. Along with the musical work, a member of the Spanish National Ballet taught a daily flamenco dance class. This was under-attended. Those who were absent didn’t know what they were missing. Understanding the rhythms of Spanish music viscerally is vital to singing it, and this class was a real plus.
Another excellent teacher—a historian and Renaissance man who also acted as docent on museum tours and on a bus trip to Toledo—contributed to the comprehensive training with a daily Spanish class. These morning classes were also under-attended, a lost opportunity for those who chose to sleep in.
The program provided a large, varied list of recommended repertory to the students, who were left to their own devices to choose songs to study. Some students came with their music well-prepared; some weren’t prepared at all, primarily due to lack of experience. This is one area of the program that I felt could have been less casual, though repertory decisions settled out very quickly in the first day or two.
Along with the “art song” repertory, the program paid great attention to arias from zarzuelas, the 18th and 19th century lyric dramas that incorporate spoken and sung scenes, operatic and popular song, and dance. The name “zarzuela” derives from a royal hunting lodge, the Palacio de la Zarzuela, near Madrid, where these entertainments were first presented.
Access to the conservatorio’s library was also invaluable. The collection contains a wealth of Spanish music that is under-represented in the United States. The library encourages photocopying, so I partook enthusiastically and didn’t ask too many questions about legalities. But seriously, I discovered many pieces that my university library has since ordered and added to its collection. In addition, we were invited to the home of the late Joaquín Rodrigo, where his granddaughter directs a foundation and publishing enterprise that features all of her grandfather’s works.
In the United States we know only a small amount of the library’s body of work. There is much to discover. One of the missions of this festival is to champion the Spanish language repertory and bring it to a larger public. The “composer-in-residence” for the festival, José Peris Lacasa, is well established in Spain, but was completely unknown to all the participants, including me, and I have been a performer of the works of living composers for my entire career. Lacasa has written some wonderful songs and deserves to be known outside of Spain.
Performances at the festival included a joint faculty concert at the beginning, which provided an effective introduction to the faculty and the music. Two student scholarship recitals followed, featuring singers who had attended the program in past years. The final concert, a recital, featured all program participants.
For this final concert, participants performed songs they chose in consultation with the faculty. For the most part, this system was successful. A small but poignant detail at this final event added a lot to the festivities: the presence of flags from all the participant countries, displayed in an arch across the back of the stage.
The Madrid public turned out for the performances, so the four concerts were all well attended. This was the first year for the program in Madrid, so this was very encouraging. (The Spanish music faculty of Saint Louis University, led by Francisco Javier Jáuregui, moved the festival from Granada, where the scenery was beautiful but the facilities inferior.) With the willingness and enthusiasm of the Madrid Conservatory, the program was able to grow in both size and quality.
Tuition for singers in the masterclass program, pianists, and guitarists was 795 euros, and the Vocal Arts Workshop for less-advanced singers was 595 euros.
The program provided housing, for a reasonable 250 euros, in apartments owned by Saint Louis University. As far as I know, all had wireless Internet, laundry, and some housekeeping. Meals were not included, but the conservatory has a nice cafeteria for lunch. Wonderful, inexpensive food is plentiful in Madrid (but if your currency is the U.S. dollar, don’t expect anything to be cheap in Europe).
Students receive a lot of customized attention, devised by a collaboratively minded faculty. The program is small enough to maintain a sense of community support that is refreshing. Program directors want to keep the festival small, despite some new initiatives in the pipeline, such as a Young Artist recital series during the year, and expanded composer participation. The program featured two scholarship recitals this year and is making efforts to raise funds for more tuition assistance in the future.
What we take away from any experience is directly related to how it makes us feel. What this festival does successfully is create a warm camaraderie in which student artists feel safe and are willing to take risks.
You can find details of this year’s festival at http://spain.slu.edu/music.
