Before Jazz, There Was Opera: A Conversation with Sofia Riggio

New Orleans has long been a mix of tradition and innovation in the arts. From its early role in shaping opera in the New World to its continued influence across musical genres, the city remains a place where history and ingenuity meet. It is where artists find their means of expression.

In this episode, we explore what it takes to build a creative life in the city with Sofia Riggio, a New Orleans–based conductor and soprano whose work reflects both deep classical training and a commitment to contemporary expression. Originally from New York City, Sofia brings a multidisciplinary and linguistic background in operatic and musical theatre performance, combined with experience as an educator working with students of all ages.

A graduate of Loyola University New Orleans, where she became the first student to complete a master’s degree in conducting. Sofia serves as Co-Director of Symphony of New Orleans (SONO) and choirmaster of The Voices of New Orleans (VONO), where she leads both choral and orchestral performances that blend professional excellence with community accessibility. She represents a new generation of artists navigating multiple roles while maintaining a cohesive artistic identity.

Together, we discuss the discipline required to master an art form, the adaptability needed to evolve within it, and the influence of a place in shaping both artistic direction and opportunity. What does it mean to honor tradition without being confined by it? How do emerging artists sustain themselves creatively and professionally? And in a city like New Orleans, how does community shape not just performance, but purpose?

This conversation offers a thoughtful look at the mindset and vision required to sustain a life in the arts, while highlighting the broader cultural ecosystem that makes such a path possible.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Long before New Orleans became synonymous with jazz, the city stood at the forefront of another musical tradition, opera. In 1796, New Orleans hosted Sylvan, its first opera performance, establishing a cultural legacy that has literally weathered storms and lives in rehearsal rooms, on small stages, and within community ensembles, where the boundaries between performer and audience, professional and amateur, are increasingly blurred. At a time when classical music is often perceived as distant or exclusive, a new generation of artists is reimagining its place. They are not only preserving an art form, but reshaping it. Welcome to Brungart Law's Lanya, where we provide a little extra perspective through conversations with individuals from across the spectrum of society. I'm Maurice Brungart, your host. I enjoy engaging with experienced, knowledgeable, and passionate people for the opportunity it affords to enrich our understanding of the world through their eyes. The more we learn, the more likely we can become better versions of ourselves and guide others towards the same. Today's guest is Sophia Riggio, a New Orleans-based conductor, soprano, and educator. A graduate of Loyola University, New Orleans, she was the first student to earn a master's degree in conducting from the institution. Sophia serves as co-director of Symphony of New Orleans, Sono, and choir master of the voices of New Orleans, Vono, where she leads both choral and orchestral performances that blend professional excellence with community accessibility. Fluent in Italian and experienced in both operatic and contemporary repertoire, she has conducted and performed internationally, including world premieres in the United States and Italy, while maintaining a strong commitment to music education and inclusive artistic practice. Welcome to the program, Sophia.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Thank you so much for having me, Maurice. I'm really happy to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Well, it's a privilege to have you, and I'm grateful that you accepted the invitation. Well, why don't you let us know about where you were born, uh, raised, and you know, your immersion in the Italian language and how that shaped your identity? All that in one nice answer.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Two two sentences or less, I'm sure. Um I was raised in New York City and I uh was born into an Italian family, but being an Italian-American family, I didn't have the pleasure of knowing Italian, of course, before um going to Italy when I lived there um when I was 16. And so I spent the year there before that was my junior year in uh in high school, and I learned Italian, and it just stuck with me, um, much to my the chagrin of my uh my Spanish professors. So I uh I kept it and um I figured that it would be a really good start to my career because I knew I always wanted to be in opera, I wanted to be a performer, um, and this seemed like the natural linguistic step to take.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

So, two questions. What neighborhood uh did you grow up in in New York City, and where in Italy did you spend this time when you were 16?

SPEAKER_02 3:06

So I grew up in Inwood, which is I like to say the Bronx part of Manhattan. It um has a lot of the cultural aspects of uh the Lower Bronx, and physically it is on it is the most northern part of Manhattan. It's right on the tip. Um, and so I grew up there, and there is a huge uh Hispanic influence um in that particular neighborhood and a really big artistic influence in that neighborhood. So you get a lot of opera singers and ballet dancers, probably because it was one of the least expensive neighborhoods to live in in Manhattan. Um, and that that allowed that allowed uh an artist to come into Lower Manhattan for whatever gig they might have had. But um, that's where I was raised. Um, my father moved there when he came from uh West Virginia to move up to New York City to do recording gigs. He's a French horn player. Um, so he did gigs on Broadway, uh recording gigs, and he uh stayed there and and and raised a family there with my mother. And uh, in Italy, you mentioned, sorry. Yes. Uh to answer that question, of course. I uh I went to Viterbo, it's called, which is a city close to Rome in the region of Lazio. And I lived there with a host family, which I will forever be grateful for. Um, and they really helped me to become a more worldly person. It was an experience that I will never forget.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

So obviously, your father had some influence being a musician. What about your mom? Uh, what what role did she play in sort of your artistic leanings?

SPEAKER_02 4:53

So my mother uh is an artistic person, but she is a nurse at a public school currently, and she was a nurse in Philly for a long time. She worked in hospitals. Um, so she always encouraged me to have an artistic career, but she wanted me to have a successful career, and those two aren't necessarily, you know, they they don't they're not always compatible all the time. So she encouraged me to be a singing-dancing doctor. And so I've got the first two parts down, but I'm I'm working on the doctor part.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Okay. Um, now your father he made his living exclusively as a musician, or did he have to supplement uh the the income?

SPEAKER_02 5:38

So uh he was exclusively a musician for a really long time, and then he supplemented with uh teaching music, which still, of course, counts as being a musician.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

Uh but he is and always will be a musician.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

And the 16-year-old Sophia, were you already into music or singing at this time?

SPEAKER_02 6:00

I was a true theater kid, and so for those of you who are not familiar with what that means, it means that I was a kid who loved to be on the stage, I loved to be in the spotlight, and it really shaped my love for performance. I wanted to express myself in all ways on the stage, and so I like to do plays, I like to do musical theater. I think I like to say that my the highlight of my uh career on the stage was probably playing Sharpe from a high school musical. But um, that's that's of course not really the truth, but uh that it was very, very fun for me to grow up on the stage.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

And how did you end up choosing Loyola in New Orleans coming from a big city such as New York's uh city?

SPEAKER_02 6:49

Well, New York has such a huge personality in so many different ways. And I wanted to be in another city with a huge personality, and I could not for the life of me think of any other place in this country besides New Orleans that had the same the same level of of culture and community that New York has.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

But but again, so you're this teenager, you came back from Italy, now you've almost mastered the Italian language. Uh now you're looking at your uh post-secondary school prospects. But again, what pointed you in the direction of New Orleans? Was it a book? Was it listening to jazz and knowing that originally again? What how how did you you know target New Orleans?

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Well, besides the cultural aspect of the city, um, I wanted to be in a place that had um had access to music at all points. So I could only think of New Orleans as really the forefront of that um geographically. So I chose it not only because I wanted a big city with personality and because I wanted new experiences. I never had lived in the South before. Um, and I also wanted a city that I knew had really strong ties to music. And of course, being a classical musician, I took a big chance on coming to New Orleans because New Orleans necessarily isn't known for being a place of uh of classical music, it's not really classical mecca. So I took a really big chance coming down here, but found myself surprised by the amount of interest in classical music.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Okay. And once you were pursuing the formal educational side of this, uh what did you find Loyola did best for you and perhaps where it faltered in preparing you for this particular field?

SPEAKER_02 8:54

That's a great question. Um I don't want to make Loyola seemed I I don't I don't wanna make Loyola seem like like it's any sort of bad school, of course, in in saying what I feel like they lacked in education. But I do feel that I wish that there were some more rigorous courses to take there, um academically speaking, specifically, um, because I had to do a lot of individual, I had to do a lot of individual work, either with specific professors or by myself in order to kind of fill in the gaps in my music history, in my music theory, and uh all of those things that involve the the academic side of music. But you know, physically as a as a performer, I think they did a really great job in preparing me to be the best that I could be on stage. Um now that's as a singer, but as as a conductor, I didn't have a structured master's degree that they offered for conductors, which turned out to be really in my favor because I was able to build my own degree and have opportunities that somebody that is in a big school, maybe like LSU, uh with huge conducting program might not have. So I got to conduct all of these operas during COVID, especially, um, that allowed me to get that experience under my belt. During COVID, they really needed a conductor because they needed a physical reminder of not only where the beat was, but how to hear the music because it's very it was very hard sometimes to hear each other across the room when you're wearing masks. So I was able to be that physical conduit. Um, and that that got my foot in the door in terms of having experience conducting operas. And then after that, I just fell in love with it and it it allowed it to be more of who I am.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

For those of us sort of ignorant of this aspect of the industry, for lack of a better word, tell us what it's like getting educated, taught to be a conductor. What's involved in that?

SPEAKER_02 11:27

So, like I mentioned, it's a lot of um academic preparation, right? Knowing what goes into a piece, how it was written, why it was written. Um and physically, what goes into it for me is a lot of time spent at home practicing and imagining an orchestra in front of me. I used to go into class um some days when I was an undergrad thinking I could just wing it. I could just go in there and read the music and let my gestures tell the story. And to some degree that is the case, insofar that we need to be intuitive in our gestures as conductors. But it requires much more practice than people think, and it requires a lot of um forethought into how you want to run a rehearsal. What would be the most efficient way to run this rehearsal? What kind of group, what kind of ensemble is in front of me at the moment? What do they need the most? How can I be the most efficient tool to create beautiful music? For you, what is conducting ultimately about conducting for me is ultimately about being the conduit for the composer and for the players in front of me. I want to be able to honor what the composer wrote, of course, but I also want to be able to give the people in front of me the best possible experience playing together. And I and I know that a lot of conductors get made fun of for having a big ego. Um, and that's that's an uh it's a whole issue in which people think that conductors are up there, and some really are, but people think that some conductors are up there because they enjoy the spotlight or because they just want to tell people what to do and because they want the clout of it all. But for me, I I want to just be the tool. I want to be able to have the ability to run a rehearsal efficiently, to bring beautiful music, something that speaks to all of us physically to an audience and to the players, back to them.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Demographically, how common is it for women to be conductors?

SPEAKER_02 13:54

I think you know the answer to that one. It's not so common. Um, it's it's starting to get more common, certainly, which is wonderful. I mean, there's a whole um institute for female conductors in uh uh in Dallas, I believe, um, that that occurs annually. But it is not so common. It's not so common looking back. I think presently and in the future, certainly. Um, but I as a young, as a young woman, feel that I sometimes have to prove myself to just to be there. Um, and of course, a lot of that could be in my head, you know. I've heard that from from other female conductors before as well. But sometimes especially when I was starting as a conductor, I felt that I needed to prove myself not only because I was young, but also because I am a woman. And that's not something that people typically respond to uh with automatic respect in this field.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Well, let's go in that direction briefly. And uh without worrying about this being just your subjective perception. If you had to lay money down, now do you find, at least for yourself, that you do have to do a little extra? Prove yourself in order to be accepted as a conductor. This is sort of a leadership role here. And uh have you found yourself, at least at times in the past, that you have to work a little harder or you have to be taken more seriously, uh, or perhaps that subconsciously it is a mental obstacle you yourself have to get over that perhaps male counterparts, it just simply doesn't factor into their performance.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

Well, I mean, you're right, it doesn't. It doesn't really factor in for them. They don't have to think about that at all. Um, and like I mentioned, when I was first starting out, and not so much anymore, which is a huge relief to my to my body, of course, but when I was first starting out, I did feel that I had to make up for something or prove myself in some way that they that other male conductors did not necessarily have to do. Um, but I do, I will say uh anecdotally, I went to this uh, I went to this conducting master class in New York a couple years ago. And uh Joanne Folletta was there conducting, and she is one of the most famous female conductors out there, famous conductors presently out there. Um and she just happens to be a woman. And I remember asking her, have you ever have you ever felt or experienced any sort of judgment from either musicians or lack of respect from your peers regarding your position as a woman and in leadership? And she gave me a story in which she said that she was conducting, and she remembers the second, the principal's second violin making faces the whole rehearsal. And she remembers thinking through the whole rehearsal, wow, he must hate me. Like I must be doing something really, really wrong, and he doesn't respect me, and feeling really terrible about that, um, and maybe probably compensating as well. And then she asked that person, she asked that man what he thought about the rehearsal. And he said, Maestra, I have to apologize. My bow broke, and it was nothing about her, it had nothing to do with her. And so she told us that story, and I keep it in mind when I do feel a little bit of imposter syndrome, really. Um, and it's not so common anymore, like I said, but I do keep that in mind, and I think about it periodically because it it reminds me to not assume that somebody dislikes my style for any specific reason. And they might dislike my style, and that's also fine. That could just be because they prefer a different style and it has nothing to do with me. So I have to keep that in mind as well.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Yes, that that is very true. Sometimes it's not what we perceive things to be. Yeah, exactly. Um conducting versus singing, where do you feel the greatest sense of control versus say vulnerability?

SPEAKER_02 18:50

So physically, they both have their challenges, insofar that every movement, every subtlety in your body gets read um by the by an audience. And so when you're singing, you are the instrument. And I have a lot of students as a as a teacher of singing, I have a lot of students that will find themselves very in a vulnerable position because they are opening themselves physically in a way that other musicians don't have to. Like you are the instrument, and it is a really beautiful thing to be able to express music through your through yourself, through your own physicality, and more than just having an external instrument might. Um and so that provides a challenge in so far that you have to be feeling really aligned when you're singing in order to produce the best sound that you possibly could. But with conducting, I find myself if I'm ever challenged physically, um, it's because I find myself maybe having not practiced a certain gesture enough, and it can be awkward. Um so if I'm conducting outwards of my body, everything is being read by the musicians, right? How I breathe is being read by the musicians, how I place my hands on the ictus, right? On the beat itself is being read by the musicians, and it tells them how to play a certain beat or a certain measure or a certain phrase. Um, and so it is difficult, but I was also raised again on the stage, and so and I was raised as a ballerina, and I have this understanding since I was a child of how my body is reading to other people. So it requires practice, I will say.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

What about the unseen aspects of conducting? So you have the rehearsal, you're standing in front of the musicians, you're practicing together as a team in preparation for the ultimate performance. But I take it there's also what you're doing, not in that particular position, that also is part of the preparation. What are some of the unseen aspects of conducting that people are totally unaware of that you actually have to put time and effort into?

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Well, it starts with me in front of a score. Um, once I print out my score and I bind it, I go through by myself at home and I go through I go through everything. I look at every single marking, every single articulation, every dynamic, all of the chordal structures that the composer has laid out. And so once that is done and I feel satisfied with my level of understanding of the piece. Um, I will bring it to the orchestra. And the rehearsal process is probably the most important part of my job. Everybody will joke, like, what does a conductor even do? What does a conductor even do? Like, you just wave your arms. And at some point, that is true, but it's the process in which we get to the waving of the arms that really matters, right? It's the rehearsal process in which we as conductors have the authority to say, we need to stop. Let's try this again this way. We need to be able to communicate what the composers, what the composer's musical indication might be to the musicians. So I have the job of both preparing myself and preparing the musicians, preparing the artists to create a cohesive sound and being the conduit through which the musicians can speak to each other in the same language.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

And as much as this may sound maybe a little too touchy-feely, what about time spent getting to know each of the musicians and interacting with them? Because you know that also plays into the establishment of rapport, the fostering of a relationship. And I take it, I'd venture to say, there has to be some level of trust developed between conductor and musician, no, beyond simple respect, right? Uh, in order for everything to just go beyond simple collaboration, uh, but to turn into you know an exemplary delivery of uh what the score is.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Well, I'll say this. I think the happier the players, the better the music, really. Because they want to be there because they want to express themselves, express themselves with each other through art. And it's a really beautiful thing, and especially in a community orchestra that we have with the symphony, it's so important for me to not just be a musical leader, but also a community leader. And I take that role very, very seriously. I make sure that I know everybody's name and that I know that they have kids or that they have dogs or that what their interests are and what their job is outside of the orchestra. Um it's important, in especially a community orchestra, to know the people around you and to want to be there, right? Most of a lot of our players, we're we're we're we're a semi-professional orchestra. That means that some of our players are paid, some of our players aren't. Um, and so for those of us that are not paid, we have to want to be there. Otherwise, otherwise, why be there at all, right? It's a labor of love. And so, in order for a label, a labor of love to be to be effective, you have to love not just the product, but also the process. Um, and I really have so much respect for all of these musicians who give up every single week multiple hours of their time, of their precious time, really, to be together in a space in which we are working through really difficult music sometimes to create a product that we're proud of. Um, and so that is the truth, that is the truth with both the symphony and the voices of New Orleans. I mean, with the voices of New Orleans especially, anybody can sing, truly. Anybody can sing, and anybody can learn how to sing better. And a lot of these people have been with us for years, and they have gotten so much better in their musicianship. And it has created a sense of community that is unlike any that I've ever known, really. People want to be there, and so they show up regardless of what's going on in their lives. And to create art with strangers who become friends is something that it is irreplaceable, in my opinion, as a as a factor for building community.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

Reflecting back. Um that interferes with the performance.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

Ego. It's a big one. Um, I we've gotten people over the years, we've gotten so well, I'll start with this. We've gotten so many new musicians joining our community, right? Joining both the symphony and the voices of New Orleans. And I think the mistake that a lot of us make is putting our ego into it. Um, because when you have a community group, especially, everybody feels entitled to make that community group catered towards them. So we have had some people, some musicians over the years have creative differences with us and just quit because they don't agree with the direction that we're going or maybe the level of standard that we're trying to set. So ego is definitely a mistake that I think all of us fall under occasionally, at any point, really, and even myself included. I am often wondering, you know, did I do a good enough job? Did I satisfy these musicians in a way that makes them want to come back next week? And that too is ego, right? It's it's it's not always about ego insofar that you think you're the best, but sometimes it's about lack of ego as well. Um, so ego, that's that's the biggest one, I think. That's the biggest mistake that people can make, both in abundance and lack thereof.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

And I would say that's true in many professions.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

I'm sure it is.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

I'm sure it is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Definitely. Um, expanding our focus here. Um, you know, New Orleans. It it hosted its first recorded opera in 1796, Sylvan. Uh and, you know, there was an opera hosted in Charleston known as Flora in 1735, the Beggars Opera in New York City in 1750. So there's always bragging rights as to ha who actually had the first opera in the United States. But aside from that, you know, New Orleans obviously has roots in opera. Um, how do you see your role in continuing that legacy?

SPEAKER_02 29:11

Well, opera, I think, has always been on the forefront of technology and innovation. It really has. Opera was the uh the first, if not the first thing, to be uh broadcasted on television. Um, music certainly was. And regarding even radio, you know, the the first thing to come out publicly was classical music. So it's always been on the forefront of innovation. And we use a lot of technology nowadays in opera production as well, which I think can be a really good thing, um, if it's not overused, of course. But the thing about opera is that it was created for a reason. And the same is true of ballet, and the same is true of the symphony. It was created for a reason, and that reason is because it speaks to us on a human level, and we're not changing, we're not evolving. So I don't think it's ever gonna go away. I'm sorry, give me one second. I talked, no problem. It was the Amazon guy. I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

No worries.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

The package was complete, the package was complete, everything's fine. Okay, my apologies, everybody. Um, but I don't think opera's ever gonna go away because it was created for humans, and it was created out of a human need to express oneself and collaborate with so many of the different arts, right? You have the the the vocal aspect, you have the dancing aspect, the the whole production itself is huge and it often requires a lot of money. And I do understand that that's a it's a big resource issue as well, but it's not going away, and it might change and it might ebb and flow in terms of uh how popular it is. But even just 10 years ago, I saw much less opera reference, operatic reference or or ballet reference or symphonic reference than I do in today's pop culture. So I think it's making a sort of resurgence that we haven't seen in the last 10 years, but I'm seeing more of this year and last year especially. So I am constantly trying to innovate and constantly trying to problem solve as to how do I get as many people in the audience as possible to connect with what I'm presenting or what we're collectively presenting. And that's required a couple of different things. Sometimes we'll do pop music, sometimes we'll do um music that is specifically from The Legend of Zelda or Studio Ghibli films or things like that. Um, so that's regarding, you know, symphonic works and regarding opera, opera is always being made, opera is always being written. There are new operas that are coming out every day that speak to our current problems as humans, just like in 1792 they came out with operas that spoke to the the populace and the problems that they were dealing with. So, for example, I saw an opera recently that the New Orleans put the New Orleans opera put on called Blue. And it was about this family that had been really affected by police brutality. And it, I think about it all the time. It was such a good opera, both musically and directorially. It is something that is constantly on my mind and a and a really solid reference to how we are innovating and adapting to popular culture. And maybe not even just adapting, but also being on the forefront of it.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

Hmm. Um, New Orleans, where does it fit in sort of the grand scheme of things in comparison to other cities in the United States uh for its operatic contributions?

SPEAKER_02 33:31

So, as you had mentioned, um it is our claim that we had the first opera in the United States. Um, and there is a lot of opera here. There is so much classical, there's so much love for classical music here. And I think maybe part of it is because it is an old-fashioned city in a lot of ways. There's so much European influence because we have the French and the Spanish um occupation, you know, from when it was being first founded as a city. And so we do have a lot of love, I think, for the European cultural tendencies. Um, so from my experience, there is a little bit more um acceptance, perhaps, or love for classical opera and and symphonic works than maybe in other parts of the country. But every c every city has an opera house, every city has a ballet house, every city has a a symphony, at least they should. And I I think it speaks to the fact, again, that these these arts were created for humans, for human expression. And because we're not changing, again, I don't think that's going anywhere. And even though it might be more popular in one place than another, it's gonna ebb and flow, just like it always has.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Now, New Orleans is facing a variety of challenges. Um, is it a fertile ground for a classical artist?

SPEAKER_02 35:17

I think that that is a complicated answer. Um, there's a complicated answer to that, and I think any place can be fertile ground for a classical artist. You just need to find your the angle, you know, just like you're gonna market anything towards any audience. You need to find the right angle. And for us, we have been experimenting again. I'm so sorry about my dogs. We have been experimenting with the New Orleans opera and other opera companies um in New Orleans. It's both old opera and innovating that uh and arranging that music for more modern audiences um and creating new operas and putting on new works. So I think there are audiences for both. And I don't know how that compares to other parts of the city, but for example, in New York, I know that there are multiple opera companies that are innovating in so far that in insofar that they are putting operas on the street, even just to get people interested in them, and then bringing them into the theater for a full production. And it's working. People are reminded that this actually does feel good, that it actually does speak to the personhood of the per it just speaks to one's personhood, really, speaks to one's humanity to hear it and then to also experience it, maybe as a player or as a singer. So that's my that's my spiel.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

Um deviating slightly, you've taught both music and Italian. What parallels exist between learning a language and learning music?

SPEAKER_02 37:15

Well, music itself is a language, right? It is a universal language insofar that we all understand how it affects us and what it might communicate to us, right? If we hear a major chord, we understand that it's happy, even if you might call it fiduci. If you hear a minor chord, you might think that it might be scary or sad or whatever kind of uh mode is going to relate to humans the same way across across the the world, really. So music is easy, I think, is an easier way to delve into linguistics because everybody already understands the meaning, right? Everybody already understands that when you're hearing something really spectacular, it affects you. Um, and with linguistics, of course, you have to figure out, you know, the translations and the syntax, and there is a sense of syntax in in music as well that you might have to learn um to really fully understand it. But it's a little bit easier, I feel, to access music as opposed to a specific language.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

Hmm. Now you emphasize a holistic and individualized teaching approach. What does that look like in practice? And what does that look like as a part of your work with Voices of New Orleans and Symphony of New Orleans?

SPEAKER_02 38:43

So it is my it is my opinion that a good conductor is, like I mentioned, the tool for the ensemble in front of you, right? So, for example, the Voices of New Orleans has a couple of people that don't necessarily know how to read music at the highest level. They might be able to read music, but we're doing Mendelssohn's second symphony, Lobgesong, and it's got tons of German in it, and also really complicated um maybe chord structures or really weaving figures. And we have been able to take the people that don't know as much about music because they didn't maybe study it professionally, and we give we give them uh musicianship classes before the rehearsal itself begins, so that we can catch them up as much as possible so that they can feel more confident in being a part of this music-making commute community. Um, and for the symphony, we it is again my absolute priority to conduct for the people in front of me as well as challenge the people in front of me. And so I have to draw a really specific line. And again, this is in my preparation of how do I think about making the most efficient rehearsal. I have to draw a really specific line on how much I'm willing to compromise and how much I'm willing to uh challenge them, given a specific, you know, musical phrase or or technique. So I I have always thought that the best way to take your ego out of it is to think about yourself as the tool, right? You are the conduit, you are the tool. And beyond that, it's uh superfluous.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

So as a conductor and a teacher, no, you are in the role of decision maker and leader. As a conductor, I'm sure you're also a student and you've learned a thing or two from your musicians. What have you learned from them?

SPEAKER_02 41:00

Oh my gosh, so much. I especially, especially the string players, really. I um am a brass player by trade. I am I'm I'm both an opera singer and I grew up playing the French horn.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

And so I the influence of your father.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Yes, yes. And so I I grew up being much more familiar with band, uh band repertoire or um the the communication between brass and woodwinds. So when I got up there for the first time many moons ago, in in which I I was conducting, I can't even remember what I was conducting, but I was conducting something, oh, it was simply um it was the Hallelujah chorus, for example, right? Everybody knows the Hallelujah chorus. Hallelujah. And I was conducting that, and I remember being really quite intimidated, especially in front of string players, because I didn't know as much about that instrument family as I really should have at that at that time. So um they've taught me quite a lot about musicianship in, you know, the string family, especially. Um, and then of course, you know, they've taught me a lot about community making and what goes into sacrifice to be there every week, you know. Um, like I said, most of these people are here because they don't have the means to become a musician professionally. And so we call ourselves kind of the after-school program, right? Insofar that you go to school to be a musician, and then a lot of people will go into finance, or a lot of people will go into the corporate world after living this life as a musician, either in their undergrad or even their graduate degrees. So being the after-school program, I have learned a lot about what it takes to convince yourself that it's worth it and to remind yourself that it is worth it.

SPEAKER_00 43:15

Hmm. Well, we'll get to that in a moment. Um, as an observer, what have you learned in that role? You came to New Orleans, and I'm willing to bet that when you had your first exposure to Mardi Gras in the parades in the high school marching bands and being a brass player, uh, brass instrument player. You know, what was your initial impressions then? And how have they evolved over time watching these high school bands engage in these performances?

SPEAKER_02 43:53

It every time Mardi Gras comes around, it's like I see it for the first time. I love Mardi Gras for The bands. I don't, I could care less about the floats. I mean, the floats, I will say, are really wonderful artistically, but the beads, the stuff that they throw, the throws themselves, I simply don't care enough about it. We have so much trash in our world. I'm fine with that. The bands are what makes it worth it. I mean, these kids are marching so many hours a night. They're going to school in the morning and they're going so many hours at night throughout the whole city multiple times a week for so many different parades, having people yell things at them and cheer them on, and everything good and bad that comes in between. So I have so much respect for these kids that do this. And every time that the quad player passes me or the bass drum player passes me, I get this feeling in my body that just vibrates with every note they play. It's like being right next to an organ when it's playing. It feels so good to resonate with sound and to resonate with the community as well that is willing to do this night after night throughout the throughout the whole city. So I love it. I stay in New Orleans mostly, I gotta say. For that experience, those couple of weeks in which you hear the bands play. It just feels so good to my body.

SPEAKER_00 45:34

Well, I mean, definitely it's a physical feeling at minimum, if it doesn't affect your soul, uh, having been there. Um so here's a deeper question. Do you find that we are not really, and I mean this in the most positive sense, the word exploitation, we are not really exploiting all this talent for the benefit of those kids and the benefit of the city at large? I mean, it is obvious year in, year out, you know, the city is churning out all these musicians. It is literally legions of musicians. Yet it seems to just kind of dissipitate, you know. What do you think of that?

SPEAKER_02 46:29

Well, I mean, first and foremost, in a positive way, I would say that these kids want to play and they they want to be part of the cult and they want to build the culture and they want to foster the culture, and they want to be in the battle of the bands because it again feels really good. Like not only that does the competition feel good when they're playing over each other, um, when they're warming up before they actually go onto the parade route, but I think they they just want to be there because it because of the community that it fosters being a band kid. And I was a band kid too, and I loved going to band because again, creating music together is an irreplaceable experience. But you're right though, that it does it is a little exploitative um for tourists at least, you know, and I wasn't born here either, but that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate it to the maximum. I mean, I see these kids walking down the street playing again, night after night, and I have just the utmost respect for them. And I hope that other people do too.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

Let me let me rephrase it. So when I use the word exploitation, I don't mean it in the sense take advantage of. It's on the contrary. So again, having grown up in New Orleans, um these kids, you know, they come in, and if they're part of a high school band, and especially the the more famous ones, right? The Marching 100 from St. Aug, Warren Easton, whatnot. Um they're there, they're part of high school four years, they're gonna be on the streets performing, and they move on. And then you have the next group come in and the next group, and it's you know, group after group. And what I see is you know, we have avenues for everybody else that we end up fostering the talent further, we cultivate it uh and we are able to exploit it, and that's what I mean, the positive sense of the word.

SPEAKER_02 48:36

Oh, I see what you mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

And but you know, again, New Orleans is producing all these great musicians, you know, it's literally legions, but it doesn't seem as if uh we are making the most of it for again the benefit of all those kids year after year, decade after decade, and for the benefit of the city. Do you find that to be the case? We are you know we are literally missing an opportunity here to continue this further so that when they leave high school, no, they can continue performing, uh, they can continue, you know, delivering these uh ensembles, uh, you know, they can stay, that it turns into something else. Or am I just being idealistic?

SPEAKER_02 49:26

Well, I mean, I think that's part of what we're trying to do here, right, in the symphony, insofar that we are the after school program, we are what happens after school. And, you know, regarding playing in a band and playing that kind of marching music, unfortunately, the symphony doesn't offer that kind of experience, but that doesn't mean that it's not worth being offered. And so I think that what I do really like about New Orleans is that when those kids do graduate, a lot of them will turn to adult marching bands. And I so I see like throughout the year, I'll see parades going on, and a lot of these parades, these second lines even, um, will hire adult players that just don't do it professionally, unfortunately, for one reason or another. Um but I do wish that there was more cultivation for a professional experience as a musician for these kids, and not just, you know, growing up doing it. I and I and I understand what you're saying regarding the fact that I mean they grow up doing this, they have an amazing experience, and then what? Right. So I do think that a lot of these kids, and this is again why it's so hard to leave New Orleans, because you you create a culture when you're a kid, is from what I'm seeing at least. You create a call this culture when you're a kid, and then I'm seeing a lot of these graduates move on to create something else, um, create other musical experiences for themselves, like we do with Sono as well. So so I I think we do a much better job than the rest of the country does. I do think that there's more that we can do to help support musicians, especially musicians that have just graduated. But at the same time, I'm fairly proud of having been being being a transplant, of course, of the culture that also does support in whatever small way musicians that have graduated.

SPEAKER_00 51:40

And on that note, what suggestions would you have uh for you know municipal or state level officials, ways they can support you know this uh aspect of society, you know, music and whatnot, beyond simple, you know, financial support? What are things they can do that would actually start uh contributing to sustainable growth and evolution of the arts and particularly music and classical performances?

SPEAKER_02 52:18

Well, I mean, you said besides the financial, but to be honest, financial is the really the big one. Okay. Because especially under this administration, a lot of the arts funding has gone away. And so, I mean, we've been affected by it as well. You know, grants have become less and less effective. And I think as political leaders and you know, social leaders, even without the financial aspect of it, I think encouraging people to go see the arts and to go support the arts locally and to even be a part of local arts, even just in even in just a community group, is something that we should be doing, you know? And so again, financially, I think that it would be the priority, of course. I think that the more money that you put into the arts, the better products that we can create, and the more that we can support other artists as you know, as a as a as a organizational leader. But I think that there should be a bigger I think that there should be a bigger uh push to to heal the soul, especially in these times that we have art heals the soul, right? The more art that you create, the better you know yourself. And the better you know yourself, the more informed your decisions can be. And so if we are thinking critically about this, the more art that you create, the better you're gonna be as a person, really. Like the better that you're going to know yourself and you're you're gonna be able to make more informed decisions regarding your own life. So arts is, in my opinion, one of the most critical things that we should be funding. Because again, it makes for better people.

SPEAKER_00 54:24

What would you say to people uh who say, yeah, but arts and artists, you know, they shouldn't get any more financial backing than say lawyers and doctors, right? They need to compete in the private sector and the free market like anyone else. Um how how would you address that?

SPEAKER_02 54:45

Well, I understand that impulse. I really do. I mean, espect especially regarding doctors, uh the the priority is survival. Um in certain cultures, especially, um in certain municipalities, especially, um, survival is the ultimate goal. And and it leaves not a lot of room for what people might consider superfluous, like the arts. But you know, again, to be a better society, we have to know ourselves better. To be a better society, we have to make more informed decisions. We have to be able to communicate with each other in a way that is effective and not destructive. And the arts is really critical in doing that.

SPEAKER_00 55:34

Okay. Um that note, what does success look like for voices of New Orleans? You know, not just musically, but culturally.

SPEAKER_02 55:45

Are you talking about Voices of New Orleans and the Symphony or just Voices of New Orleans?

unknown 55:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 55:50

Um, I think success for us looks like it looks like a large audience that comes not from just our friends and family, which are very important, of course, but also from a larger audience drawn from parts of the city that might not be able to experience it elsewhere. I mean, we don't charge admission for our concerts. We have we host them at Christ Church Cathedral on St. Charles, and we don't charge for our concerts. There's a suggested donation, of course, because it takes a little bit of you know resource to be able to run an organization effectively. But I think success for us looks like connection, it looks like music being played with a community that we choose. And it means it means welcoming everybody in. But if we ever get out of this, you know, scenario culturally or uh politically, I think that success really just means simply connecting and being able to create community through music.

SPEAKER_00 57:25

Uh on that note, and going back to my earlier question, are there particular regulations or policies, whether at the municipal or state level, that interfere with your ability to do that? So again, you know, especially with New Orleans being cash-strapped as it is, you know, what are things that local governments can do, you know, even if it's just a matter of like getting out of the way, that help enable uh organizations such as yours?

SPEAKER_02 58:00

I would say, I mean, that's that's that's a that's a hard question for me to answer because I don't know all the ins and outs of local government. Um, but I would say that my wish would be for local government especially to put some time and effort and money into promoting music and on a community level as well, promoting local music, right? Promoting the LPO, promoting Sono, promoting the um the Mardi Gras Indians, even, right? The black masking Indians, promoting the culture instead of just the culture for the people, for the locals, not just for tourists, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 58:47

It does. But also the tourists are part of the economic engine. Of course. And they're coming for this. Um, and so if there are ways that the city can weather either it's in an affirmative sense, right? Uh, through action or an omission, for example, you had mentioned in New York City attempts at you know putting opera on the streets so people hear it since they're normally not exposed to it. Now, is that something that can be done in New Orleans? Or is there, you know, so many bureaucratic hurdles to get like a permit and whatnot uh that prevents you from doing that?

SPEAKER_02 59:24

To be honest, I don't I think if we decided to put an opera on the street, I don't think a single city council member would care. They'd probably welcome it. And that they wouldn't get their, you know, act together soon enough to get us off the street anyway. So I I don't think that that there would be any sort of roadblock regarding that. Um, but you know, it's the little things that count. Like, for example, I led a I taught a an opera operatic literature course at Loyola last semester. This is fall 2025. And I was teaching a non-majors class. So that means that I was teaching to a lot of kids that had no prior experience or exposure to opera or classical music, but that they just needed to fill a requirement, really. And so we went through throughout this this whole course, we went through the literature that inspired various operas, and then we also looked at various uh adaptations of the operas themselves. So, for example, one of the most famous ones would be uh Labo Wem, right? So Labo Wem was originally a book or in a collection of short stories, really originally before it became published, um, about Bohemian life in Paris in the Bohemian Quarter. And then it became an opera, and then it became rent, right? Rent the musical. So that is one of the most famous examples of adaptation through opera. And these kids, I mean, I had people who had never heard opera before. I had frat boys in my class, I had people that maybe did some musical theater, but that didn't really know anything about where the influence of musical theater came from. So I had a lot of different people from walks of life in this class, and by the end of the course, I had gotten them to speak really critically about what arts does for not just the culture, but also for one's self, right? Also for one's soul.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:43

They say, you know, creativity is the actual limit to what one can do. What innovative approaches are you trying to implement uh to reshape how opera is viewed uh and appreciated and they're in New Orleans?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:04

Well, it depends what my targeted audience is, really. I mean, if I'm in Italy, I don't really have to work so hard. Um, but if I am in New Orleans, it does require a little bit of marketing strategy. So um if we if I'm conducting an opera, if I'm conducting the symphony, we will put out these really big ads on Facebook and Instagram, and we'll we'll we'll market with some really big uh catchy symphonic music that we we play on the concerts themselves. So marketing-wise, it's a lot of social media. Um, and uh also, you know, in conjunction with the fact that because it is a community orchestra, people in the in the orchestra, people in the choir, people in whatever opera I'm doing are coming from all walks of life, right? Most of these people are not professional musicians 24 hours a day. So they have their own communities in which they will market this concert or they will market this experience to those people, right? I mean, for example, there is a dentist, an orthopedic surgeon, I think, actually, in my in the symphony that plays trumpet. He plays trumpet, second trumpet. And he says that he will put on our previous concert on loop for his for his uh for his clients, and he'll invite them to it, and they really show up because you have to catch people with something that interests them. And so usually it's uh programming maybe that they've heard before or programming that they haven't heard before, but that really pique their interest because it's exciting. So we do that marketing-wise, we'll encourage all of our players to really reach out to their own communities, and we end up touching all different types of communities in New Orleans that way. It's really, it's like a phone tree. It's really a beautiful thought. Um, so we do that, and then programming-wise, in order to make ourselves, you know, more uh appetizing to the common consumer, to the common person, we will program works that are interesting and works that are new, so things that are uh well known and fun and fun to play and fun to listen to, as well as maybe new works. You know, for example, we did um The Firebird by Stravinsky, which tells a story about um, it's a it's a Russian folk story about a prince who is going to save uh a princess, and then there's a whole firebird involved, and then there's a sorcerer involved, and it's really it's it's interesting and it's it's family forward, truly. And then we also did a piece that I myself wrote um called In Boca Lupo that was about the grief of um a dog that had passed in my life. So we do works in conjunction with each other that both introduce new music and maybe give people something that they're really looking for that's just gonna make them want to jump up and dance. So we try to balance our program well enough to both interest and uh and challenge our audience.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:41

In terms of who the audience is, and in today's day and age, and it's been that way for many years now, of instant gratification um and short attention spans, as they say it. But I would even challenge that as an example. My son last night, he's And he wanted to see the original version of All Quiet on the Western Front. Now that's from 1931, black and white. The acting is quite different. It's a two and a half hour movie, very slow. And you know, he he sat through it. I think he was more engaged than I was at certain points in time. Taking that into consideration, though, operas traditionally very long, especially, you know, your classical pieces. You know, it could be up to four hours. How do you deliver this to younger audiences? Uh, obviously, my son, you know, using that as an antidote. Now, there is a capacity to sit through a long performance. Um, but again, in what ways do the classics need to adapt, or should they adapt, or should it be a mix?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:00

That's a really great question. I mean, to begin with, when you think about these older operas, for example, you're thinking about, you know, Barber of Seville or Nozia di Figaro. These operas were meant to be consumed in a much more casual setting than we allow for nowadays, right? You were able to eat in the box seats. You were able to talk while the opera was going on. It wasn't a sterile environment like a lot of opera houses would create today. And so the intention span was such that they didn't need to sit for four hours at a time staring at a single thing because they could turn to the person next to them and talk about what was going on or they could eat. You know, I often get hungry in the middle of an opera, but the way that we consume it now is different than how it was meant to be consumed. And so that needs to change, number one. And number two, I have never actually been part of an opera that didn't cut some parts out, right? So we as music directors will choose what is important and honestly what is not important. And that could be sacrilegious to some of those really classical musical purists out there, but the the truth of it is, is that not all of it serves the story, right? And not all of it serves the purpose of showing an audience something new and interesting and exciting. Um, so we gotta cut some operas. We gotta cut some, we gotta cut some of the operas, right? Like it especially some of these speaking parts, a lot of our music directors will cut some of the dialogue that doesn't really serve the story at all. So in that scenario, we do try to shorten it. Um, but there is also an aspect of today's culture in which we have something called the iPad kid, right? I don't know if you've heard of this before. I'm sure you might have, yes. But the idea is that a lot of kids nowadays are raised on iPads, which, you know, as they develop really affects their attention span. It means that they're going from one thing to another. And I even find myself affected by it. Sometimes I can't think as quickly as I want to because I doom scrolled the night before, you know? So there's a lot of attention span, there, there, there, there's an attention span issue that we have, especially I think in this in this country, and that we should both cater to and also challenge. You know, we don't want operas to be four hours anymore, especially if we're sitting in a sterile environment. And if that sterile environment has to be the case, if we're not gonna allow people to talk and eat and et cetera, then those things need to be shortened, right? So a lot of uh operas nowadays are one act. That means that you just sit through maybe an hour of an opera and that's the whole story, right? You can tell a story in one hour, one complete hour. Um, so a lot of people call them micro operas or one-act operas, but these have been popping up more and more because people want to see shorter stories that still have a really big impact. It's like reading a short story instead of a novel.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:16

I like what I'm hearing. So, in if if resources were not an issue, what would be the ideal venue from your perspective for opera in New Orleans?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:29

In New Orleans, well, my ideal venue really would be smaller than Mahalia Jackson. Mahalia Jackson happens to be a huge, huge theater that uh that has essentially two layers to it. Um, and they it's just one really big uh first layer and then a second balcony layer, right? But in these smaller opera houses that you see in Europe, for example, it's a lot of like individual box seats that go all the way around the theater. And then there is, of course, you know, one big layer at the bottom, which people um will just sit in in in without any without without being uh staggered at all. So my ideal physical venue would be one that allows people to turn to the person next to them and honestly like just talk about it or or make comments about what's going on because I find myself wanting to talk to the person next to me when I'm watching a show and say, that's really cool. Did you notice how they connected this to that? Or did you notice how the costumes like really reflect this idea of whatever, right? So I want to be able to communicate about art to my fellow audience members. And so I'm not advocating necessarily that people be talking throughout the whole opera. I want people to pay attention, but I also want to create a little bit more of a casual environment in which people feel comfortable coming to the opera and being themselves.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:12

As we come to a close, two final questions. Why should anyone consider New Orleans as a place to come and learn classical voice music and perform there? And the second question: what do you want your particular impact to be?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:32

I think that people should come to New Orleans because of the wide birth of music available, right? You have this really deep and historic connection to classical music, and then you have the more predominant jazz, of course, right? And I know that I have been influenced really heavily in my classical musicianship by going to jazz concerts, by being friends with jazz musicians, by by attending jazz fest. I know that my musicianship has grown significantly as a classical musician by being present in all genres. Um, so that is a huge draw for me coming to New Orleans and staying in New Orleans, right? I mentioned coming to New Orleans because I wanted a city with a big personality, and that's true. But the reason I stayed in New Orleans is because there's no other place in this country, at least that I can think of, that has such depth of culture that is not just specific to jazz, that is not just specific to classical, that's not just specific to RB. It's everything, everywhere all at once. And that is really, really wonderful for me. And then your second question, remind me, was What would you like your impact to be? I want my impact to be because I'm not gonna stay here forever. Um, I have I have a my dream is to really travel the world and uh professionally and to live in as many places at once. So my I'd like my legacy here to be one of kindness and excellent music, excellent music making. I want to be known as somebody who welcomes in all different types of people and makes them better musicians. And in turn, like I mentioned before, when you're a better musician, when you're a better artist, when you create something, you know yourself better and you can communicate with the people around you more effectively and more kindly. So I want to be known as somebody that really fostered that environment.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:10

Sophia, thank you for sharing your experiences and uh observations to our listeners. Thank you for joining us on Brundut Law's Langat, where we provide a little extra perspective because the devil's always in the details. Please uh invite others to listen. Give us your suggestions. Sophia, again, gratitude.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:28

Thank you so much for having me, Maurice. Really, it has been a pleasure to talk about this.