Will Liverman: Process, Artistry, and Art Songs
Will Liverman’s international career as a singer spans new music and standard repertoire. Here he shares his strategies for learning as well as his delving into composition with CS. He also imparts the wisdom of a true artist for developing nuance in all of the repertory he performs.
It’s a warm day when I greet GRAMMYtm Award-winning baritone Will Liverman as he enters the Zoom room. He’s on a gig, and I ask him to set the scene. “I’m currently in Cleveland in the middle of a concert version run of Jenůfa featuring Nina Stemme and Latonya Moore, and they’re spectacular…it’s a joy for me to just sit there and listen to them sing. I did it once at Santa Fe. It’s crazy to repeat an opera like Jenůfa. It’s not done that often, and I had only my second or third time singing in the Czech language.”
When asked what roles he likes to revisit most, he replies, “The Bohème boys—I’ve done more Schaunards than Marcellos, but it’s always great to come back to those characters. There’s just so much humanity in that piece, which is why I think it’s so relatable.” He adds The Magic Flute to the list. “Most of the works that I’ve done have been new works, and they’re serious, intense things and stories. So to be able to counter that with doing things like “Flute” and being able to have fun and play on stage—I just love the play in Papageno because you can find an infinite amount of choices to make in that role.”
Liverman shares about learning about his status as the Met’s first black Papageno, “There was a [Met] librarian who may have tipped me off to that…. What comes to mind is Terence Blanchard doing ‘Fire’ [Fire Shut Up In My Bones]—having our first Black composer in 2021. He has this great saying that ‘he might be the first, but not the first qualifier.’ You know, there were so many people before him. And same for me—great singers that should have made their debuts in ‘Flute’s’ and ‘Bohème’s’ and things like that before me. But they paved the way so that I could get in the gate. It was a really special thing to discover that, when I did it back in 2019.”
Liverman has found international success in wide-ranging, standard dramatic and comedic operatic roles, while continuing to be a top go-to artist for new works, working with the world’s leading opera companies and with the industry’s top conductors and singers. I ask him to share about his role preparation process.
He begins with the newest music. “I like to dive into the why or the what, the story—getting the setting right, and the characters, and understanding the land that I’m stepping into. I feel like most new works in general these days are based on something or a character. So that’s always a challenge, like stepping into someone else’s shoes—representing Malcolm X or Charles Blow or Dizzy Gillespie—these great figures in American history that have shaped our society—and how do I find myself in these roles in this story? So, [I spend] a lot of time in the character development and what I want to say with the music—especially for the new works, because they aren’t really recorded. A lot of the stuff is brand new.
“I always get with a coach. If I can’t meet with them in person, I’ll have them make a track or something of the score after I’ve spoken the rhythms and done my homework—just so I can have something that I can always just go to on my phone, on the subway or on the trains. For me, new works [are] all about repeating things so many times. But I find the new stuff very challenging when it comes to the rhythm. And a lot of it is vertical, so it can get rangy…so you’ve got to really build and take the time to sing it into your voice.
“And the same thing for the standard repertoire as well, with the extra added layer of translating it if it’s in a different language, of course. I’d say that’s the big thing. And I know we talk about this a lot, but we can’t overemphasize the importance of just the bare minimum of knowing what it is you’re singing.” He laughs and continues, “And it’s hard because you’ve got to repeat things a lot and also give yourself a subtext, because oftentimes this text doesn’t have an immediate connection, depending on if it’s some old art song with old text that’s just from a distant time. You have to find your way into it so you can really understand it and deliver it. Otherwise, we don’t believe it. I spend a lot of time with the text—as much as I can.”
Liverman addresses the challenges of actually finding the time to learn repertoire. “That’s the thing that varies. Once you get out there in the world, things are just so different at any given time. You have to always plan ahead for when you want to learn something, because you might be in the midst of a show or a heavy season where you’re limited with the time that you have to learn. I have to kind of find pinpoints and roadmaps: okay, I’ve got these three weeks off before this gig—that’s going to be the time to nail down this recital or this role, and kind of piece it like that. You gotta have a plan.”
We discuss the scarcity mentality many performers bump up against when it comes to saying no to an opportunity. I ask Liverman if he’s ever said yes to too much. “Yeah, that is such a real thing that you just brought up. There are more singers, as we know, and not as much work. Companies are pulling back and doing what they can to keep surviving, and sometimes the seasons are less than what they were. So, it is hard to say no to an opportunity. My agent Alex would laugh at me because he always tells me to kind of slow down a bit; it’s like he knows I’m gonna be going back-to-back for this thing.
“But it’s hard—as singers, we gotta keep working. The bills are always gonna be due, and you have to find that balance. And I feel like I’m just now finding that for myself: the power of saying no and just trusting that something else will happen and I’ll be fine. If I am smart about how I handle my finances and what I have coming up, I could take that time to just recuperate and recharge, because that’s just as important. It’s so easy to get burnt out in this career.
“I think I kind of had to experience that the first time coming out of the pandemic on the highs of doing “Fire.” I’ve had, like, one or two seasons where things were really going and, you know, getting just a glimpse of what that was. I’m like, man, it could be a real grind. We can look from the outside in and see people on the stage at the Met or La Scala or wherever, but it takes a toll. It’s in and out of the hotels and you’re not getting a chance to see family. It’s important to have those breaks—to have something to hold on to—to find some sort of stability and foundation somewhere so you can execute your job.”
Our conversation shifts to Liverman’s creative work as a composer and recording artist. Was there was a particular time that fired up his writing? “I would say the pandemic definitely fired up my writing of art song. The creativity was always there—I just never unlocked it. I guess I always felt that maybe I needed permission to do it because I didn’t study composition. But growing up in a Pentecostal church where a lot of the things we do—or everything we do—is by ear, I had an innate ability to create because of what I learned in church. And I’ve written little things on the side, but just for fun, like little piano things here and there. I just never really embarked on that path until the pandemic when everything was shut down and I had all this time on my hands. And it started because my good friend Lauren Snouffer commissioned me to write this song, ‘A Golden Day,’ with poetry by Paul Dunbar. And that’s sort of what put in motion this art song writing.
“Going back to why I love art song in general—all the colors and nuances, and so many different ways of saying and shaping something. And just the marriage of the music and the text and the intimacy that comes with that. I just was like, yeah, I love piano and I love the voice. I love art songs, so I want to write more art song.”
Liverman shares what he considers as he writes, such as a specific voice type (outside of commissions). “I think it all starts with the poem, spending time with the text. And from that, sometimes it starts with the melody that I’ll hear that’s inspired by what I’m reading, and I kind of go off that…one of the best parts of discovering how to create for art song is just the voice and all of the different voice types.
“And working with Lauren—she’s super collaborative—it was a moment for me to learn more about how to write for soprano, the specific ranges and pockets to stay in and when to go up and trying to follow in the footsteps of the great composers that write super well for the voice, and just trying to do as much listening as I can and, most importantly, trying to just sound like myself. And not try to do something that’s out of my wheelhouse—just staying true to the genres and things that I grew up with that I love to play, and finding out what my sound world is within all that.”
Liverman speaks about what he likes about art song—preparing it, performing it—and why he thinks it’s important for singers to sing. “I’ll start with why I think it’s important. I think it helps build artistry in a different way—not that opera doesn’t. There’s so much to be learned in every lane of performing. But specifically for art song, there’s just so much detailed work that you have to do that just makes you disciplined when you’re putting together a program, because it’s just you up there. When I want to gauge how I’m doing vocally, recital is the best way to do that because there are so many different songs and settings, and it’s just a good way to kind of gauge where the voice is and what you’re capable of doing.
“More than that, I think it’s the collaboration—it’s really special to work with someone and put together this song and say it how you want to say it without a director or a conductor—it’s just you and the pianist, and you have complete control over how you want to sing and what you want the song to say. And I think that’s where the artistry is really found. I feel like I can always gauge an artist best, and what they have to offer, in a recital setting, because there are just so many different ways of telling stories, so much rep out there that’s just so expansive and [shows] what’s capable through art song.
“And I just think it makes the singer well rounded…it’s just such great training with intensity and attention to detail to the text—always the text—it keeps us really tethered to this thing that we’re carriers of—text and speech. I think art song hits the deepest when it comes to that—the marriage of the song and the text.”
This fall as singers, voice teachers, and coaches begin programming and assigning studio repertoire, it’s helpful to know that Liverman’s music will be available for purchase. “I signed with a publisher: Just a Theory Press. I had a new album come out June 27th of “Dunbar/Moore Volume II.” I made volume one of six songs, and this is the second volume of 10 songs—more of a complete album. All of those songs will be published, and I look forward to the fall when people can access the music in high, medium, and low keys.”
Our conversation closes after Liverman offers this inspiration for classical singers: “What we have to offer is so important, and with everything that’s going on, there’s a lot of despair out there. But as they say, that’s when the arts shine the brightest. Even though we always get rained on, the arts persevere because people will want to go back to the thing that grounds them. It’s always a theater night or going to see a play. We’re always the ones to be there, as it should be. And I think we will be okay in the end.”
Visit willliverman.com and justatheorypress.com for more information.
