Director Wesley Balk realized something was wrong with the state of opera, or rather, the state of opera singers—or both. In his work with the Minnesota Opera in the 1970s, he noticed that a lot of the singers coming his way seemed damaged somehow. He described his experiences later in a 1990 interview with Classical Singer magazine.
“They were damaged in the sense of being so traumatized judgmentally—and so afraid of exploring and opening to new experiences, I was horrified.”
It seemed that the singers, however talented they may have been, however prestigious their academic pedigrees, were somehow stuck.
“They were giving about 25 percent of what they were capable of, which was good work according to general standards, but a small part of what they could have done,” Balk continued. “I became more and more aware that we have a wide epidemic of judgmental, destructive, controlling ways of working.” [August, 1990]
Some 30 years later, that epidemic still rages—but souls have been saved. I’m one of them.
I participated in The Wesley Balk Opera/Music-Theater Institute in the summer of 2002. My time in the halls of academia had sucked me dry—emotionally, creatively, and vocally. I was halfway through a master’s degree and at an impasse. I didn’t have a clue what to do with my voice or myself, and few people seemed able to offer help.
Did a magical three-week workshop one summer in Minnesota solve all my problems? No, of course not. I did, however, begin to untangle the web, and I began to recover some of myself in the process. In the months following the Institute, I recovered more, and then more yet. Three years later, I still count on the tools that I acquired that summer—and without fail, they continue to help me grow.
A Program Overview
The Wesley Balk Opera/Music-Theater Institute is a professional development program that has been held each summer in Minneapolis/St. Paul for some 30 years. The core educational materials are based on Wesley Balk’s work in developing ways to teach singers how to meld the various expressive tools we have at our disposal (our voices, faces, bodies, minds and emotions) into fully integrated, radiant performances.
Classes at the Institute are held six days a week for three weeks, and the days generally run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. or so. The heart of the Institute is the morning class, team-taught by the staff, a knowledgeable, approachable and deeply dedicated group of artists.
Movement specialist Marilyn Habermas-Sher and staff director Karen Miller cover some of the basic concepts of integrated singing-acting, including work with focus, facial expression, gestures, vocal expansion and character study. The movement-and-body work exposes participants to aspects of meditation practice, yoga, the Alexander Technique, and Qigong, and is integrated throughout the class. Some mornings, Staff Director Ben Krywosz leads sessions devoted to topics such as collaborative principles, genre distinctions and artistic mission. Almost every class includes musical support and input from the Institute’s three music directors.
After lunch, participants break up into small groups to study specific topics, such as vocal play, song and aria interpretation, rehearsal techniques, musical style, and vocal improvisation. (I know, I know—improvisation sounds terrifying, but pianist/coach Jerry Rubino made it so non-threatening and flat out fun that even I enjoyed it, despite my best efforts to the contrary.) The afternoon continues with scene rehearsals facilitated by the staff. In the evening, many take advantage of opportunities to attend arts events in the Twin Cities and socialize with other artists.
Throughout the workshop, Institute staff members are quite attentive to the concerns of participants. Krywosz even posts signup sheets for participants who want to join him for lunch, just to keep in touch with how they are doing and to answer any questions they might have.
The Institute is distinctly process-oriented, with no formal performances whatsoever. Rather, each participant is assigned several roles in a number of scenes drawn from various genres, including opera, musical theatre, and alternative music theatre. Half of the scenes are performed after the first week-and-a-half of the workshop, and the rest at the end. The other participants and a small handful of invited friends or family make up the audiences for the scene presentations.
Even the performances are opportunities to continue trying new things. After each scene, a period of discussion and description allows participants to consider what happened during the performance. These were some of my favorite moments at the Institute, especially the second series of performances, after people have gotten to know each other and have become more comfortable with the concepts they’re using. A sense of surprise seems to blossom—surprise that they can let themselves be vulnerable, that they can let their faces be expressive, that they can move their arms!
Singer-actors aren’t the only participants at the Institute. Directors and music directors—some of whom have attended the workshop as singer-actors in the past—also participate. Scene work includes opportunities to work closely with both staff and participant directors.
For example, one of my first scene assignments was the mezzo part in a piece called “Date,” a contemporary work in which a woman goes on a date while her ego and id bicker inside her head (I was the id). Staff member Jerry Rubino directed the music, and a talented participant director named Kate Chisholm did the staging. I also sang the role of Lena in a scene from Libby Larsen’s Eric Hermannson’s Soul, music directed by staff member Mindy Eschedor, and staged by participant-director Rick Novak.
In the second half of the workshop, I sang Augusta in a scene from The Ballad of Baby Doe, directed by staff member Ben Krywosz and music directed by staff member Barbara Brooks. The Institute staff goes to great trouble to assign singers to scenes that are not only appropriate vocally but also expose them to as many different working styles as possible.
For me, one of the most influential exercises we did was called a Values Inventory, a tool we could use to identify our core values as both performers and people. What I discovered that afternoon has shaped my life profoundly.
It’s hard for me to express how the Institute affected my performing in words—it would be easier to sing for you. But if I have to take a stab at it, I’d say that my experience made me notice how I was functioning (or not functioning) as a whole person. I had to face how my obsession with one part of my performing self (my vocal technique) was preventing me from accessing my strengths as a performer. I could not achieve any sense of flow (or for that matter, pleasure) in performing if I was constantly worrying about my technique. Every time I took a breath, it included a slight devaluing of myself as a singer. These well-exercised habits of self-criticism had been derailing my best efforts for years.
Through the work at the Institute, I began to open up to what Wesley might have referred to as “the freeing,” or that state of trusting yourself and your voice enough to dance freely between the various elements of singing-acting. (It’s frightening, but in a good way.) The full realization of many of these things didn’t take place for me until long after the Institute ended, and I still have to struggle to accept myself as a whole performer—but I have never been so engaged as an artist, or so enthusiastic about what I do as I am right now, today. That is, at least in some part, thanks to my time at the Institute.
Out of curiosity, I e-mailed a few other Institute alumni to ask them about the most valuable lessons they had learned. Without exception, they each described their own battles with “judgmentalism”: “I benefited enormously from the very act of de-emphasizing judgment and evaluation,” said one, “… it set me free to explore and experiment, and the fruits were, and continue to be, revelatory.”
“I was so focused on everything being perfect that I was struggling to let go and ‘just do it’, so to speak,” said another. “This program helped me break out of that tremendously.”
Without exception, each one discussed the delight that comes with singing to explore, experiment, celebrate and express, rather than to judge.
“The work I have done at the Institute has been the best learning tool I have been given thus far to fully understand how to improve my craft while not losing the joy and playfulness that brought me to it in the first place,” another singer explained.
Each one used the word “safe” to describe how they felt at the workshops, and each one said they would love to return for another summer (even though one participant had already attended the Institute three times!). Through writing this article, I’ve realized that I, too, would love to return sometime. There is so much more to learn.
Practicalities
The 2006 summer Institute will be at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Tuition for the program is $1,500, and covers all classes. Each participant receives a notebook chock full of materials that will keep them thinking and learning for years to come. Everyone also receives a set of Wesley’s “attitude cards” (one of my prized pedagogical possessions). Occasionally, some scholarships are available, though they are few. If you are interested in attending and money is a problem, I encourage you to explore private fund raising. The summer I attended, one participant covered her costs by holding a recital in her hometown.
Those from out of town can find nearby apartment-style dorm rooms (with a community kitchen and lounge) on campus. There is no meal plan for participants, but there are many restaurants within easy walking
distance of the campus, and the cafeteria is just across the street. Practice rooms are available for all participants.
Participation in the program doesn’t require an audition. Wesley believed that every artist committed to performing deserved his attention and saw no need to compare one singer against another. As a result, the Institute accepts all singers on a first-come, first-served basis. The Institute requires a recording with the application, so it can cast participants appropriately in scenes that will allow them to explore the performing process.
The Legacy
Wesley Balk’s investigation into the singing-acting process was in a constant state of evolution. Each year he developed new ways to look at the challenges singer-actors face in delivering unencumbered performances. Unfortunately, in 2001, failing health forced him to retire from teaching. He passed away in the spring of 2003.
That summer, the staff of the Institute faced a serious challenge. How could they continue Balk’s work while still honoring their own artistic growth? They couldn’t let the Institute stagnate, and yet, if they allowed too much to change, would it still be the Wesley Balk Opera/Music-Theater Institute?
Collectively, the staff has chosen growth. They have expanded Wesley’s concept of the complete singer-actor to include the flexible use of the face, body, voice, emotions, and mind in expressive singing. They have also added opportunities to explore the various relationships between the singer-actor and the material (score, text and staging), the art form (genre distinctions, music-theatre, opera, etc.), colleagues (how performers interact with directors, creators, and each other) and his or her community (why do we perform at all?).
Because the Institute staff continues to experiment and develop new ways to look at the problems we face as performers, your experience may be different than mine. However, the Wesley Balk Opera/Music-Theater Institute will always be dedicated to expanding participants’ capacity as expressive artists. They don’t merely teach artists to survive in the world as it is, but strive to create a world in which any dedicated performer can achieve radiance.
Wesley Balk is the author of The Complete Singer-Actor (1977), Performing Power (1985), and The Radiant Performer (1991). For more information about the Wesley Balk Opera/Music-Theater Institute, see www.wesleybalk.org
