Memorable Musical Experiences. This Week: BYSO Executive Director Ruth Brewster

In reflecting on the many musical experiences we recieve throughout our lives, we at BYSO realize that these experiences entail varying roles, places, and times. As audience members or performers, touring with a group, or attempting a solo performance, hearing a great song on the radio, or happening across a talented group of street performers, they are all enriching and fun to share. This week we hear from Executive Director Ruth Brewster about her favorite musical experience as a listener.

"Everyone can remember a performance that made a real difference to them. It may be the first time you yourself perform, the first time you hear a violin, the first time you hear Chopin, the first time you get to play on a professional stage. For me, one of the most important performances I have ever seen was the first time I heard Joan Sutherland on the opera stage. I was 18 and a freshman in college. I had made special arrangements to see the Seattle Opera's production of Delibes's Lakme, an opera in French but set in India.
I had never heard it, had never heard of any of the performers. But Joan Sutherland, an Australian coloratura soprano, was in the title role as Lakme, an Indian princess. I don't remember the other singers at all, nor the full story line, nor anything else about the production. What I do remember is that I was blown away by her voice, her presence, her comfort at doing this incredible music. It was like being invited into a private conversation with her, like sharing a secret. She had welcomed me into her living room -the stage- to make me at home with this music.
Her vocal technique changed the whole way I thought about technique, about scales, arpeggios, about legato line and phrasing. Her presence on stage was so comfortable -not nervous or tense, not pretentious or brash.
Subsequent performances that I have seen of her in other operas and recitals only stress again and again how a true artist can bring the listener to know that beauty and simplicity work together, that the hard work she must have done in the rehearsal room pays off in the gift she gave everyone in her audiences -all we had to do was enjoy."

Thanks Ruth! If you have a great music listening experience to share, please let us know!