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Internationally renowned operatic soprano Carol Neblett has been appointed Artist-in-Residence in the Conservatory of Music by Chapman University Chancellor Daniele Struppa. The College of Performing Arts is delighted that Ms. Neblett\u2019s tenure with the institution has been recognized in this official capacity. \u00a0Ms. Neblett will coach opera students, helping them to develop in their roles, and conduct master classes for Chapman music students.\u00a0 She will also teach several vocal performance majors and prepare them for the recital season. \u00a0\u00a0We asked Ms. Neblett to tell us something about herself and her thoughts on this honor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is an Artist-in-Residence? This question has been put to me many times. I think that one must first describe what an artist is. In my case the arts that I have come to be an “expert” in\u00a0are the vocal arts, with all of their myriad applications, which can lead to various forms of the arts in general. I know many a singer who has gone into the administration of the arts having first started as a vocal artist or into stage management and other such related careers. The vocal arts for these people were in the classical field of music,\u00a0and my training, for the most part, was classical. I did get to sing some Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe, and even Rudolph Friml (when he was still alive to play the piano) at the Hollywood Bowl, Boston Pops, Cincinnati May Festival\u00a0and in\u00a0other classical\u00a0pop arenas. This was great fun for me and a challenge in a different way than the strictly classical manner of singing. It was my pleasure to do some classical theatre and comedy when I was very young. I performed in a couple of movies and opera films. I was\u00a0on How does one become an artist? This is an interesting question and I have tried over many years to answer this question with a modicum of intelligence. I do not think,\u00a0in many instances, one is born an artist, but one can become an artist after much exposure\u00a0plus training\u00a0in the arts, which includes the many forms of dance, drama, instrumental music, languages (including ones’ own native tongue)\u00a0art,\u00a0and film.\u00a0The vocal artist needs exposure to all of these aspects of art. We singers are the only instrument who can sing a\u00a0text; a play, poetry and any form of words that do or do not make sense. It is our job to make sense of these words. This requires long exposure to many languages, especially if one is going to sing art songs, oratorio and opera. During my many years of singing on the major stages of the world, I sang in eight languages and still will do so when called upon to sing here and there. I retired from the big stages in 2005 when I turned sixty. This I think was a good decision, as nothing is more painful to hear\u00a0than a singer who does not know when to quit singing! \u00a0I have performed here and there for a gala situation and I was proud to be a part of the 150 year celebration for Chapman University when I sang a Spanish song and an aria from a\u00a0great opera along with Milena Kitic and some\u00a0of the alumni\u00a0from the Conservatory of Music.<\/p>\n There are so many songs set to music in so many languages, written for the voice with accompaniment\u00a0using all kinds of instruments. We can easily think of the symphony orchestra playing for a great singer and the piano, but there are so many other combinations of instruments including the synthesizer, organ, tuba, piccolo, harpsichord, guitar\u00a0and so on and so forth as one’s imagination can\u00a0name them, that can also accompany the voice.\u00a0The formal study of some of these instruments can benefit the singer’s education greatly. The piano seems to be the most accessible of the many instruments\u00a0and of course, one needs to be able to understand the accompaniment as well as the vocal line. This is a must and at The Conservatory of\u00a0Music we require the vocal student to study piano seriously, along with the theory of music.<\/p>\n I was lucky to have been born into a family that on my dad’s side had been trained well in classical music. \u00a0My dad, Norman H. Neblett, majored in piano and political science at the University of Southern California in 1945, after he came back from WWII as a pilot who flew The Hump. My great-grandmother was a concert pianist in Boston, and when she came out west\u00a0with her husband, who had been appointed Senator at\u00a0Large\u00a0for the Territory of New Mexico, they arrived\u00a0in covered wagons with great heavy mahogany furniture that had been initially\u00a0built in England. The Walton family had been in classical music for a very long time through various channels. Sir William Walton, the well-known British composer, was a first cousin.\u00a0Great Grandmother Walton (nee Ashenfelter)\u00a0brought her Steinway “B”,\u00a0this instrument\u00a0occupied a single covered wagon and was given much care to travel such a distance across treacherous land. Today, my son has this very piano in his home, having graduated with honors from Vanderbilt University in piano, voice, composition and conducting. We are indeed a musical family. When my grandmother was born in Silver City, New Mexico, she studied the violin seriously and went to University of California Berkeley\u00a0to major in violin and English. Leona Walton then\u00a0went to New York to study with Persinger and Eunesco.\u00a0Leona Neblett\u00a0premiered the Wieniawski Violin Concerto\u00a0with the Los Angeles\u00a0Philharmonic in 1929, making this the west coast premiere of this wonderful piece of music. Later, I played this piece after 15 years of study. You guessed correctly, I was two years of age when first introduced to the violin. Do not ask me what I played, but by three I do remember some of the songs that I was learning. My grandmother made sure that I sight sang each piece I was learning and she introduced me to the theory of music as I was being trained. The theory of music is one\u00a0of the most important subjects the singer and other musicians must know well to understand music in depth. \u00a0As an artist in residence, I would have a student study composition as well as counterpoint. Most of our students in voice are required to take these subjects.<\/p>\n My mother had a beautiful natural soprano voice and all of her family on her dad’s side could sing so masterfully without formal training. They were ranchers and farmers, eventually doctors, lawyers, accountants and so forth, and\u00a0they sang all types of music, mostly the big folk tunes of the time and church music. I learned many a great song from my grandfather Brown when we would go out into the\u00a0ranch land in\u00a0the bumpy\u00a0pickup\u00a0truck\u00a0or on horseback\u00a0to round up and feed the horses and the cows.\u00a0I was a true \u201cGirl of the West,” which I later was privileged to sing, record and film live at Covent Garden\u00a0Opera house\u00a0in England in my\u00a0late\u00a0twenties and into my early\u00a0thirties. Placido Domingo was my partner in this great Puccini masterpiece of an opera. Without quite knowing what was happening to me,\u00a0I was being groomed to be a musician and eventually, my interest in singing took over from my studies of violin and piano. Today I play piano\u00a0for my students during their lessons, although I certainly appreciate the help of a skilled pianist to play their concerts, as I am not as\u00a0accomplished on the piano as I would like to be. Although an artist in residence wears many hats, one cannot wear them all expertly, so I sincerely appreciate our skilled collaborative artists and their abilities to play so\u00a0beautifully for our students when they perform their concert work and for opera rehearsals. Many of our opera scenes, which are performed in the Salmon Recital\u00a0Hall to sold out crowds,\u00a0are accompanied by the piano. We are lucky to have such a fine group of players.<\/p>\n So, I have set up a partial explanation of the training of an artist in residence and I will continue to divulge more. In high school my choral director,\u00a0Dr. Thomas Wilson, recognized that I had a good voice and he encouraged me to join the Madrigal group of singers, as well as\u00a0remain in the large choir. This experience was so important to my future singing career. In four years I sang many a musical play, did some comedy and drama,\u00a0and even\u00a0was allowed to be the soprano soloist in a faculty recital of Haydn’s Now began my very serious studies with William Vennard, who wrote a great book\u00a0called “The Mechanism and Technique of Singing”. He was a kind man and a fine, fine teacher of voice and started me on the correct path to good technical singing. I learned many songs and one aria, which put me in good stead to win some competitions in my teens. I was still\u00a0attending high school at the same time I was\u00a0matriculating at\u00a0USC and so I was a very busy young woman .My musical connection to Jascha Heifetz continued, but by now, he was advising me about vocal repertoire, as he so loved the human voice.\u00a0 His many violin\u00a0transcriptions were based on some\u00a0of the great art song composer’s works.\u00a0I met many a great musician at this time, including Gregor Piatigorsky, Artur Rubenstein, Gabor Reito, Isaac\u00a0Stern, John Crown, Zubin Mehta and the like. My father had become a premier piano technician and I was able to attend many a concert and recording session with him\u00a0to listen and learn. At this time,\u00a0I was also granted the right to sing for\u00a0a\u00a0few sessions of\u00a0Frank\u00a0Sinatra and Nat King\u00a0Cole. I was paid under the table, as I was not a union member, so all that is left of these sessions is\u00a0a few recordings in which my voice in its youth is recognizable to some.\u00a0 Many a finely trained singer has sung background music for pop stars, including Marilyn Horne, Harve Presnell, Marni Nixon (the queen of this art) and so on and so forth.\u00a0 These are more than respectable jobs for trained singers who can count and read\u00a0the intervals of music. I continued my vocal studies with Esther Andreas who was professor emeritus at California\u00a0State\u00a0Los\u00a0Angeles. She ran the voice and opera department for thirty-plus years. She was a grand\u00a0musician and lady\u00a0who played the piano brilliantly and taught me a great deal about music and voice over a twenty year period of time. I shall always be grateful to these\u00a0teachers and mentors.<\/p>\n One of the many important things I teach about music, which is crucial to having any kind of a career as a singer, is the ability to count and be musical. One cannot get into the profession of singing with much success without the ability\u00a0to be able\u00a0to read music well or to phrase music so that the public wishes to listen with interest.\u00a0On occasion,\u00a0there are singers who never learn to read music very well, but they have had wonderful ears and can learn by rote. The names are few, but they have an infallible ear and are coached thoroughly to do this. I think this would be frightening, as I would not know what\u00a0to do if I could not read music or words\u00a0well. In learning\u00a0hundreds of recital pieces, over a hundred oratorio\/symphonic works and 85 leading roles in the opera, I would have been up a\u00a0creek without this background and these\u00a0abilities\u00a0in classical vocal\u00a0music. So we at Conservatory of Music\u00a0insist this is a great part of the learning experience, along with the technical and musical aspects of the vocal line. We are a human instrument that cannot be put away into a case at the end of a practice session, and we have to live constantly with our instruments. We talk,\u00a0sleep, snore,\u00a0eat, cough, sneeze,\u00a0hiccough, breathe,\u00a0laugh and cry with our vocal instruments all throughout the day and night. This means that a singer has to learn to rest the voice at every opportunity possible, in order to be successful and not sound vocally worn out.\u00a0As an artist in residence, I teach this also. I know that my vocal\u00a0teacher colleagues teach the same. It is a life of stern discipline, which often goes against the social nature of singers in general.\u00a0At this point in my life, after\u00a0a forty-plus\u00a0year career, I can talk more and be more free in my actions, but this was not always the case.<\/p>\n Rehearsals in the professional world lasted six to nine hours every day of the week and one had to be warmed up and ready for these rehearsals with no excuses.\u00a0Once in a while, one had a day off and hopefully with good management, one had a day to rest here and there. We looked at fourteen hour days without pause, as one had to eat, get dressed, and\u00a0vocalize carefully before rehearsals started.\u00a0I was travelling worldwide\u00a0and eventually, I was\u00a0trying to balance a life with marriage and\u00a0children. A balance not easily achieved for sure.\u00a0 When I made my Metropolitan Opera debut in 1979 (after singing first at The New York City Opera and in Europe, The Middle\u00a0East, and\u00a0in the USSR), Rise Stevens, the great mezzo soprano of the forties, fifties, and sixties, asked me to judge for The Metropolitan Opera competitions and asked me to direct some\u00a0master classes in opera.\u00a0 Horrified that I should be asked to teach,\u00a0I wanted to know\u00a0how and what\u00a0I was going to teach, and she replied without hesitation: “Teach what you know!” So, that is what I still do today and I keep learning more and more about teaching as I progress as an educator\u00a0and musician. This work is never finished and this is what keeps this profession one of the\u00a0greatest of\u00a0interests which never gets boring in the least. I cannot imagine retiring from music ever and especially not in my area of the vocal arts.\u00a0 What else would I do with myself?<\/p>\n So, to get back to the artist in residence status: I believe that when William Hall, Dean of the School of Music at the time, appointed me to this position, I was fully ready, having been a choral singer with The Roger Wagner Chorale in the sixties\u00a0and having taught privately since the nineteen\u00a0eighties in my field.\u00a0 I was feeling ready for a full-time job at a school of music and I had sung soprano solo\u00a0with The William Hall Master Chorale. \u00a0I believe that Bill thought I was ready to be a teacher at\u00a0the Conservatory level. I started in 1995,\u00a0by teaching a series of ten\u00a0Master\u00a0Classes titled:\u00a0“The Complete Singer.”\u00a0I taught many a professional singer while I was still having a career and also\u00a0in the San Diego area where I was living,\u00a0I was getting quite a studio together of young professionals who were singing locally and in other areas of the world. I moved to the Los Angeles area eventually, making my commute easier for this position. I suppose if I continue in this field, I should move to Orange County, but for now, I have the house with the pool and room for my three grandchildren when they visit their Nana. I also teach privately at my home and this has been a good way\u00a0of keeping in touch with the professional level of singers, which keeps me on my toes.<\/p>\n I am proud to be a member of The Conservatory of Music faculty and I look forward to an excellent collaboration with all of the arts in this college. I believe the fields of English, history, foreign languages (especially the\u00a0Romance languages),\u00a0psychology, physical education (singers on the stage need to be strong — I was a swimmer, basketball and volleyball player) are particularly important. \u00a0Of course, the other arts are conducive to producing the artists of the future. Today, learning about mathematics, chemistry and of course, business, can all be of the best assistance to a singer trying to get going in today’s competitive market. Whatever it takes to succeed is of the utmost importance and a well-rounded education is absolutely necessary. I coach some instrumental players as well as singers and this has been of great interest also. I want to be a well-rounded individual and although it is impossible to be an expert in every field, it is of considerable importance to be well versed in as many subjects as possible. I hope to impress this\u00a0upon all\u00a0of my students. They should treasure their time at this wonderful university for the rest of their lives. I know that I will do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" in-Residence Carol Neblett<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"custom_author_name":"","chapman_pin_hero_slider":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,46],"tags":[62,63,3,9,65],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-news-music","category-music","tag-artist-in-residence","tag-carol-neblett","tag-college-of-performing-arts","tag-conservatory-of-music","tag-vocal-master-classes"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nThe Tonight Show<\/em>
\nseveral times. This was all part of some terrific training, in which\u00a0I was so pleased to have participated.<\/p>\n
\nThe Creation<\/em>
\n, which is still a favorite piece of music for me.\u00a0When I was at\u00a0the University of Southern\u00a0California\u00a0in the sixties, I sang in\u00a0a small group of singers and we performed many of the great chamber works with orchestra. By now, I had completely stopped playing the violin, for which the world should be grateful! I had the scary privilege of studying with Jascha Heifetz for one semester. He was the toughest and most exacting teacher I had ever encountered and I was naturally in awe of his tremendous technical prowess\u00a0and his\u00a0truly\u00a0musical violin playing. He was daunting to be around, but before long, he discovered that I could sing, as I sang when I was frustrated over certain phrases that I was trying to play for him and the class. I was not the most talented of the group by any means. Soon, I was granted the right to study voice, when Jascha Heifetz declared to my father\u00a0that I was to be a singer and that all the classical arts of singing could be mine. I was fifteen years of age and I was thrilled that I could finally put the violin away for the final time. Although I adored (and still do)\u00a0a great violin sound and appreciate the difficulty of trying to master this instrument, I was relieved to not\u00a0have to play again, ever.<\/p>\n