RESIDENT

Roughly four years ago, shortly after I had made the move West to San Francisco, I received a call from my manager with an inquiry from San Francisco Performances, who were wondering if I might be interested in taking over as their vocal artist-in-residence.  While SF Performances had no idea that I had just moved from Manhattan to the Castro, they had unwittingly given me what was part of the most wonderful welcome to my new home in the Bay.

One of the primary concerns I had about leaving New York City was my ability to work at home. One of the great joys of my musical life during the course of the 8-9 years that I lived in New York City was that I was able to work at home with a fair amount of frequency.  The invitation from SF Performances was a welcome sign that San Francisco would hold the same privilege.  Between my work with SF Performances, the San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque and the many other institutions and musical colleagues with whom I collaborate here in the Bay, I must say that I have never felt more welcomed by a musical community.  My musical life and circle of musical friends and colleagues here is one of the primary reasons why I have fallen so madly in love with this city and am so proud to call it home. 

These past four years with SF Performances have been a fun adventure, and tonight's recital at the Herbst is a milestone of this residency.  As the vocal artist-in-residence, SF Performances tasked me with building awareness in the Bay Area of the relationship between music and text, and the art of the vocal recital.  Through this residency, we have organized classes and interactive sessions on exploring what art song is and discussing how composers reflect text in their music with all sorts of groups, including high school and middle school students, university and post-grad students, as well as the general adult audience through salon concerts and community events.  I've also had the chance to mentor young singing musicians throughout the Bay Area, in a variety of levels ranging from advanced students at SF State University to the bright young women of the San Francisco Girl's Chorus and the ambitious young singers of the Bay Area Vocal Academy, and many more Bay Area music education institutions.

Watching so many pairs of eyes light up upon realizing the connections between text and music and seeing the relevance of this timelessly important material to our lives today has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life in music. Cajoling listeners of all ages to give themselves permission to hear the words and music and have the courage to engage with an art form that has the illusion of being only for those who already know about it has taught me that this music really can be for everyone, and that it is up to us, the standard-bearers of this art form, to continue to ensure that people are exposed to it and encourage people to engage with it.  In a day in which generations of the general public have been deprived of basic music educations, due to these programs being cut in schools over the past decades, the work of the SF Performances Residency is all the more important to the art form's continued survival and growth.

Tonight, there will be so much to celebrate. There is the work of these French geniuses of 100 years ago, there is the joyous work of this residency, and there is (of course) also the release of Illuminations, which comes out next week. But beyond all of this, I'll also be celebrating the deeper reasons behind doing all of this: To continue to bring more and more people into the fold, encouraging people to keep loving music, words, and the places where they so beautifully intersect.