Adriana Zabala: artistry in every phrase

Although Adriana Zabala's primary pursuit is opera, she enjoys a career that spans a wide range of musical interests including song repertoire, new works, concert and oratorio, cabaret and Latin jazz, and serving as program manager and coartistic director of the Southeastern Festival of Song. Zabala will perform in concert at the 2005 MTNA National Conference. Brian Shepard, MTNA's director of marketing and public relations, shares his conversation with the gifted vocalist.

Brian Shepard: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself as a performer and what influenced you to pursue a career as a vocalist?

Adriana Zabala: "I don't remember a time in my life without music. As a child I remember listening to my parents' records of Simon & Garfunkel, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Bach, Chuck Mangione, Mozart, etc. They belonged to the choral society of Miami, and I clearly remember my dad drilling the tenor line of Chichester Psalms at home, and I thought it was fantastic. My mother was a floutist and also played recorder in an early music group when we lived in Caracas.

"My sister sang all the time and was a wonderful soloist as a teenager. When we moved to Texas, I began to study percussion and played for eight or nine years in school and still love to play. There was always a piano around, and everyone enjoyed singing and all good music. It wasn't until I was 12 when I first encountered Mozart in an unexpected way, that I was completely seized by classical music. Within a year or so, it seemed clear that singing was what would take me deeper into that world. Soon, I was attending the Houston Symphony regularly and then spent a summer at Tanglewood, which affirmed any idea I had had about pursuing music long term. So, in short, you could say that the foundation was there early on, but my real conscious choices began around age 12 or 13, when I became passionately committed to music, and since that time, I haven't turned back."

BS: With your extensive opera background, can you tell us how you became involved in other musical genres, specifically musical theater?

AZ: "Bernstein said, admittedly paraphrasing someone else before, that there is only good music and bad music, irrespective of genre. This struck me so deeply and continues to influence the choices I make in programming and in what styles I choose to pursue.

"In the last few years I have had the amazing good fortune to work with Steve Blier, first at Wolf Trap as a young artist, and, since then, in more than four programs for the New York Festival of Song. Steve has had a major influence on me regarding programming and song repertoire that embraces and celebrates the musical theater and jazz heritage of American music. He was the first world-class collaborator I encountered who gives equal love, attention, care and expertise to Sondheim as he does to Schubert, and I was stunned by how beautifully that approach works in intelligent, creative programming. The opportunities for communication and emotional expression are often unique and direct, and it is exciting to capitalize on this in a distinctly American idiom. I think no one in the world negotiates the melding of traditional western classical music and more popular genres more successfully than Steve Blier, and his example has inspired me more than I can say. Because of this, I have become increasingly interested in musical theater in the last few seasons and look forward to an all-Sondheim program that Mr. Pavlov and I are preparing for the Wildwood Festival for mid-April, and Ryan and I are always trying to expand SEFoS's [Southeastern Festival of Song] repertoire in the music theater and jazz idioms."

BS: You're also active as program director and co-artistic director of the Southeastern Festival of Song. What do your roles entail there?

AZ: "We are embarking on our first full season at SEFoS, after a year of preview concerts and an inaugural gala concert in Atlanta. Ryan Taylor and I are co-artistic directors, and we are still settling into ideas about how each of our positions may evolve long term. We are very fortunate right now to have a board and executive committee in Atlanta, which offer an amazing system of support and efficiency regarding how SEFoS functions, but the backbone of SEFoS's existence is Ryan's prodigious organizational and business skills. He is gifted both in that sense and as a beautiful singer and intelligent musician. I must say that although Ryan and I share many administrative responsibilities, my great interest and love lie in programming. I thoroughly enjoy the research and great challenge of finding thematic throughlines and the balance, interest and variety that make a compelling, entertaining and engaging concert; finding the right cast, mix of voices, styles, personality chemistry, in addition to compelling poetry in the songs, thematic links to visual art, literature, political and cultural history, preparing remarks and writing program notes; these are all parts of the process that I really treasure."