SHANA OSHIRO & BRIAN BARTOLDUS | Songs of Identity
For our 2022 songSLAM Festival, Sparks & Wiry Cries solicited short recital programs from voice and piano duos that would reflect the fullness of their identities. The following is a written interview conducted with soprano Shana Oshiro, who discussed her repertoire choices and the experience collaborating with her duo partner, pianist Brian Bartoldus. Their recital is available here.
S&WC: How did your approach to programming this recital differ from your usual approach? Were there unexpected challenges?
SO: Until recently, I constructed programs based primarily on musical themes and broader concepts to which audiences and listeners would connect— from which point I would extract elements that resonated with me. In this instance, I created a program based first on my personal truth and offer it to then resonate with others.
The greatest unexpected challenge for this program was being able to adhere to the time limit and feel centered in the narrative. I had to omit one of the songs from the set and I noticed I had a slightly more difficult time connecting in full authenticity. But it’s a worthwhile exercise in adaptability!
S&WC: What does it mean to you as a performer to bring the fullness of yourself to a performance? How does repertoire play into this?
SO: Bringing the fullness of oneself to any shared situation is certainly vulnerable. And in the context of performance, it can feel even more so because we are conditioned to shape our presentations of self specifically for others’ approval and enjoyment. It feels impossible to hold that approach and remain authentic and present with the music and the poetry. I’ve found more at this stage of my life that rendering a piece that doesn’t speak to me or holds old energy of extrinsic motivation is both technically and emotionally more difficult. Yet even when a piece may contain more technically difficult passages than another, I find it easier to commit my full physical, emotional, and spiritual self to its expression.
S&WC: You chose to program pieces from one set, Eve-Song, by Jake Heggie, which you reordered to fit a narrative. Programmatically, what was the benefit of choosing pieces from one song cycle? What about this song cycle in particular spoke to you?
SO: These particular poems are a stream of consciousness and support their collective and individual meanings when presented as a unit. I did shift the order to fit the narrative that I had to share, which again helped with making it work technically and artistically.
I came upon the cycle because I was in search of repertoire representing female poets a while back, and I looked into Jake Heggie because I knew he set music to Emily Dickinson and others. When I saw the cycle’s title, Eve-Song, I was curious and became really enamored of the poetry, assuming it to have been from a woman. Then came a couple of passages that made me think, “…a woman said that?” And I went to research “her” only to discover a woman had not written them at all. And among other reactions, I was deeply curious because so much of it felt really in alignment with woman’s truth. So I wondered both how and why “a couple of men” would have created this. They were both very obliging to my inquiries.
As to the poetic substance of this work, I also felt connected through the structure of the first piece, “My Name.” Examining a narrative which I’d carried my entire existence up to a point, realizing it didn’t make sense and didn’t serve me. Confronting the shame and ridicule associated with women’s claims, ideas and manifestation of sexuality devoid of the purpose for men’s pleasure (“mad, bad Eve, the amnesiac. Eve, the nymphomaniac…”). Questioning socialized origin myths, imagining other possibilities, and sitting in the discomfort and exposure of the unknown when those false identities and narratives are shed. I was drawn then to a pathway out of that place and the discovery along the journey through each piece. Heggie made really thought provoking choices in the music he set to each piece, leaving lots of room for imagination and invitations for inner searching. Knowing his intentions also helped me to search even more deeply for my own truth and the choices I would make to convey it.
S&WC: When you proposed this program, you said, “[Eve’s] journey resonates with my experiences and growth as a woman of color in a White supremacist patriarchal society. Breaking free from the constructs of this dominant ideology and embracing my own truth has brought me a power that inspires me to sing…” In terms of your performance, what does it mean to break free from dominant ideologies? What effect, if any, did this have on your shared preparation, rehearsal, and performance?
SO: The conventions of “classical” performance don’t fit in this cycle— from artistic presentation to performance dress, none of it fits in these songs if I’m being truthful. There are ideas and standards about women’s bodies and what’s “appropriate” for performance that had to go out the window for me to perform this set. There are associations about Eve as an archetype wherein more people picture her as a White woman (whether or not they rationally believe this to be theoretically plausible) and even layering questions of origin and identity in the piece and connecting them to my identity in this world as a Black and indigenous woman— which was almost assuredly neither in Littell or Heggie’s consciousness at the time of their collaboration— gave me a sense of unique ownership of my performance and presentation of this abbreviated cycle.
In terms of preparation, I had to really delve deep into my imagination to be able to completely embody what this cycle conveys, which opened my mind to the possibilities in performing other repertoire. Working with my close friend exploring conceptual possibilities that contributed to my interpretations and choices was also its own vulnerable process, especially given that Brian is a White man. I could not have prepared this as honestly and comfortably without having known that I was doing so in the safety of our friendship as well as professional relationship. This is a level of trust that for me transcends identity markers that might imply, for some, assumed ignorance or understanding. Brian Bartoldus is simply a remarkably insightful and sensitive musician and human being. It’s hard for me to imagine collaborating with anyone else for this particular set of music.
Watch Shana and Brian’s recital here.
January 13, 2022
