Blending vocal and orchestral elements across several movements, cantatas are notoriously difficult to compose. Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg has accepted the challenge with ANY OF THOSE DECEMBERS, setting poems by Jeanne Minahan to music. The result is intimate, aesthetic, and wistful — a tender embrace of lyrics and sound.
Today, Lyric Fest pianist and Co-Artistic Director Laura Ward is our featured artist in the “Inside Story,” a blog series exploring the inner workings and personalities of our composers and performers. Read on to learn about the genesis of this Navona Records release, and what Ward hopes listeners will experience with it…
What emotions do you hope listeners will experience after hearing your work?
The emotions that I hope listeners experience from my performance is a deeply felt personal reaction to the poem being sung. If the composer does their job, they stay out of the way of the words they set and the piano part literally wraps around the poem and the singer to support what is being communicated. Poetry is such a personal art form. Each composer has their individual take on the meaning. I feel, as a pianist, that I want to enter the world the composer has created along with my singer and I want us to lose ourselves in that particular poetic world for that moment.
If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?
As a follow up to that answer, my ideal collaborator is the person who feels the same level of intensity towards the words being sung and that usually means — 90% of the time — the song is committed to memory. It is the only way to truly communicate as a singer. Look at opera — no one is walking around with a score. I feel the physical score shuts us off from the listener. That is why, unless we are presenting chamber music, Lyric Fest requires all songs to be memorized.
How have your influences changed as you grow as a musician?
Speaking of poetry, the inspiration for ANY OF THOSE DECEMBERS was very meaningful. Lyric Fest had commissioned composer Michael Djupstrom for our “It’s Elementary” concert, April 2017 — Songs of Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. Djupstrom delivered a cycle, Oars in the Water, setting poems of Jeanne Minahan. We were able to work with Minahan in our rehearsals and she became a dear friend. She would send a holiday poem each December after that and I posted these in the Lyric Fest office. They were truly special, heartfelt, and instilled a warm feeling of winter holidays, family, and nostalgia for home. For many years, several folks had recommended that Lyric Fest create a Christmas Music CD. We were not inspired with this idea, but as I kept looking at Minahan’s poems in my office a light bulb went off and Suzanne DuPlantis, my Co-Artistic Director, and I asked Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg to compose a “Winter Cantata” setting Minahan’s holiday poems. This was the genesis of ANY OF THOSE DECEMBERS.
What musical mentor had the greatest impact on your artistic journey? Is there any wisdom they’ve imparted onto you that still resonates today?
I had the perfect mentors. Patty Davis was my high school choir director in Huntsville TX. I was a pianist for the choir and I learned to sight read like crazy playing for that group. We performed first rate music, won many competitions and we all adored Patty and singing together as an ensemble. Everyone wanted to be in the choir. Patty made choir “cool.” I learned about breathing — very important as a collaborative pianist. My undergraduate piano teacher at Baylor University, Roger Keyes, gave me ears to make a beautiful sound and he recognized my abilities as a collaborative pianist and suggested I pursue a M.M. degree at Cincinnati College Conservatory in Collaborative Piano to study with Kenneth Griffiths. Griffiths introduced me to the very exciting and exacting world of song, bringing a level of enthusiasm to set my young heart on fire! Soon thereafter I received a D.M.A. in Collaborative Piano at the University of Michigan as a student of Martin Katz. Katz is a master in every way and his ability to put into words what collaborative pianists “instinctually” do honed my skills all the more. His orchestral approach to piano sound has been embedded in me.
How do you prepare for a performance?
To prepare for concerts, I know what my abilities are and I usually start practicing technically difficult music months before a concert, beginning painfully slow and gradually building up to tempo. Once I’ve learned the physical motions at the piano, I study the words and think about the sound world that fits that particular song. I have the great fortune to own a Steinway C – 7.2 – and the color varieties this instrument creates is never ending. My creative space is when I’m home alone and it is me and the piano and a new commission to explore and polish. I also adore recording.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing?
I’m lost without music so I can’t imagine doing anything else, although I do LOVE to cook and entertain. I’m kind of famous for my fried chicken.
Lyric Fest has been hailed in the press as “An irresistible mix of high art and humane feeling... As entertaining as a well-managed party” (Broad Street Review). Founded in 2003 with the goal of celebrating and revitalizing the art song tradition, it is the only performing arts organization in the Mid-Atlantic region with a primary focus on song in all its varied expressions.
Laura Ward is pianist and Co-Artistic Director of Lyric Fest. As a distinguished collaborative pianist she is known for both her technical ability and vast knowledge of repertoire and styles. Concert engagements have taken her to Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Spoleto Festival (Italy) and the Colmar International Music Festival and Saint Denis Festival in France.
