Sigma Alpha Iota

PAN PIPES • FALL 2016 • sai-national.org 18 CONDUCTING OPERA able to speak with me on the phone about her work, her influences, and suggestions for other aspiring conductors. Her love for her work and enthusiasm for her many projects was quite apparent. I was curious about what the impetus was for forming Opera Parallèle. e company focuses on developing and performing contemporary opera; each production involves collaboration with many different performers, such as dancers, choreographers, and multimedia artists. As the name suggests, they create and work alongside each other, in parallel. ese collaborations allow Opera Parallèle to reach a wider audience, become involved in the community, and bring little known but critically acclaimed works to light. "ere are many reasons for it. My first employment I had was as a professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz and, as part of my duties, I had to do research. I thought, because I have been hired as a conductor at the University that my focus would be, rather than writing books, to make musical recordings. I would specialize in looking at other works of the 20th Century that needed to be recorded and also works by well known composers that are yet to be recorded. I quickly realized because of my love for voice, and also because I enjoy very much interdisciplinary projects, I was drawn to looking at all of these operas. My first interest of course in trying to bring the opera form into the 21st Century — a lot of people have this quest, actually — started very early on. Contemporary music used to be the leading art form in bringing new trends, but we kind of lost leadership with 20th Century music. Many people will enjoy contemporary art, contemporary dance, but they don't really enjoy contemporary music, and it became a big question for me on why that was. One thought I had was that music is an oral skill and we have become a very visual society. I thought, well opera is quite a visual art form and takes sources from the foundation of who we are as a society in terms of telling stories, something basic in all cultures. I thought this is the way, perhaps, that it's a great medium to bring new music to the forefront, by doing opera of the 20th and 21st Centuries, because then you'll have the story, you'll have the visuals, you'll have the storytelling. You have all of that and yet people will get used to hearing a new way of writing music. As a young girl I had read the writings of Ernest Ansermet, a Swiss conductor. I really loved his recordings and loved the way he spoke about music. He was, in the early 20th Century, kind of the great leader of doing a world premiere of works by Stravinsky and all of these wonderful composers. I thought maybe one day I could follow in his footsteps and be one of the leaders in premiering and discovering these new composers." Opera Parallèle has a unique educational outreach program called Hands-On Opera that gives students the opportunity to participate in producing and performing an opera. ey learn and prepare the music, develop characters with singing and dance, design the costumes and set, and perform for an audience. I asked Paiement what led to the company offering this program and it had very much to do with its mission to advocate for new music. "I think everyone would agree that we have to build our audience of tomorrow and if they are exposed to the word 'opera' at an early age, they may be less intimidated by it as they grow older. One of the other reasons I started Opera Parallèle was because I felt opera was a great medium to bring relevance. It has a story so we can actually engage the audience in the community in a very specific way. We always have a theme for Opera Parallèle in our minds as we prepare the season. is year it is about belonging. For the children, we choose a children's book that's quite popular and that children can actually read; they learn about the author of the book and they can see how literacy and opera can be connected. e book we chose this year was this lovely book [Xochitl and the Flowers] about immigrants and a family from El Salvador. ey're coming to establish themselves as a family in the Mission District; it is very appropriate for our community. Generally we try to find schools that have a music program that needs our help. We go into the school and work with children for 10 weeks; we teach them the choruses of this new opera, the composer is there, they learn all the choruses, and they do all the staging. When we stage it, it is presented for their community and families for free. What I love most about it is that we go into schools and we hear the little kids saying, 'I have to go to Opera Class now' like it's just another class. So the reason for all of that is a little bit to demystify…to not only engage them, but also to connect the words so for them opera is not weird. Perhaps if they sing it at a young age they won't be intimidated by it. It's just this new, cool, beautiful thing. It's been a different way to approach opera and it's been very, very successful." Another unique program that Paiement has been involved with is the Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors at e Dallas Opera. e program is designed to further the careers of distinctively talented female conductors or accomplished musicians looking to move into conducting. Six women participate in a year-long residency that includes hands-on conducting opportunities, master classes with world- renowned conductors, and seminars on personal branding, best practices, opera management, and other topics. As a staff member for the institute, Paiement has been able to share another of her interests - mentoring. "You know, it's interesting, when I was at UCSC I offered a graduate program in conducting that was very different than most graduate programs. I only took one student a year, so it was more of a mentorship program or an apprenticeship. I have shared that concept with colleagues and with the team at e Dallas Opera. ey were thinking how there are very, PAIEMENT continued on page 22 PAIEMENT continued from page 17

• Cover