Classical music is a graying, static art form that stirs no passion in today’s youth–or so goes the inaccurate stereotype. Here are five young classical musicians who aren’t just grabbing the torch, but running with it–and orchestrating plenty of light, sparks and musical heat in the process.
Nuiko Wadden
Age: 26
Experience: 8 years
Instrument: harp
Like so many kids with instruments, Nuiko (new-E-co) Wadden didn’t so much choose harp at the tender age of 6 as her parents chose it for her: As Wadden puts it, “My mother really likes it.” Mom, by the way, has held Lyric Opera season tickets since 1966, while Dad plays clarinet in Evanston’s Northshore Concert Band.
For Wadden, who grew up in Wilmette, the musical epiphany came at the Tanglewood Institute in Massachusetts, the summer before her senior year at New Trier High School. “There was a teacher there named Lucile Lawrence and she was in her 80s at the time. She was really intense. She would grab your arm and make you do all sorts of things with the instrument. She would encourage you to be taken over by the experience. … I made a decision that I didn’t want to stop playing when I went to college.”
Continue she did. Wadden went to Oberlin College, then Rice University, where she earned a masters in music performance. Described by critics as one of the most gifted harpists of her generation, she’s captured first prize in the young artist competition sponsored by the Minnesota Orchestra Volunteer Association and substitutes with the Houston Symphony. Yet her moments between concerts matter just as much, if not more. “The thing I most enjoy about the harp is the process,” she says. “You spend a lot of time practicing and a lot of time by yourself. The performance aspect is a very small portion of your time; it’s not the main attraction.”
Wadden has no area performances currently scheduled.
Kristin Figard
Age: 24
Years experience: 6
Instruments: violin, viola, piano, harpsichord
Before she could legally drink, Kristin Figard landed a spot in the orchestra for “The Lion King”–yes, that “Lion King”–playing viola for more than 280 shows at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. Even earlier, at age 17, Figard won the Steinway Society Concerto Competition.
Now consider that Figard also has prize-winning gifts on violin and a brilliant future on harpsichord–an instrument she took up just four years ago–and you’ve got the makings a classical music phenom. Not that Figard takes herself too seriously: She took up harpsichord at Northwestern University, she says, because “I was looking for the easy `A.'” And she was nudged into viola by an instructor trying to fill a missing quartet seat. “I thought I had a great excuse for getting out of that one. I said, `I don’t have a viola.’ She handed me an instrument and said, `Here’s middle C–and by the way, we have a concert tomorrow and you’re the only violist.'”
Still, Figard professes a love for music that’s contagious and shows in her playing. “I actually find it relaxing to have more than one instrument to play,” she says. “I’ll focus on piano one week, viola the next week, and it keeps everything fresh. With the harpsichord, you focus pretty much on early music; with the viola, you can play pretty much anything. It really, really is satisfying.”
Figard–who started lessons as a toddler–often plays with her 21-year-old sister, Tracy (also a multi-instrumentalist). “It’s absolutely fabulous. We breathe together, we think together and, as soon as we could accompany each other, we were doing it. There’s an extra electricity when you play with someone who’s your own flesh and blood.”
See Figard live: 2 p.m. Dec. 3 at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, 500 N. Dunton Ave., Arlington Heights; free, 847-392-0100. Also 12:15 p.m. Dec. 11 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.; free, 312-744-6630.
Joseph Kaiser
Age: 29
Years experience: 11
Instrument: vocalist (tenor)
Growing up in Scarsdale, N.Y., Joseph Kaiser went through plenty of vocational ruminations. “I wanted to be a ninja,” he says. “That went on for a year. I wanted to be a chef and an Olympic sprinter.” Instead he settled on singing. “It was high school and I wasn’t good at anything else.”
If success wasn’t on Kaiser’s mind then, it should be now. As a third-year member of the Ryan Opera Center–the Lyric Opera’s training wing–the Montreal native looks destined for big things, thanks to the clarion quality of his voice and hunky good looks. He’s also just finished work on Kenneth Branagh’s film version of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” where he stars as Tamino. Given the success Branagh often enjoys at the box office, this could be Kaiser’s breakout moment.
The film also tested a career gamble that saw Kaiser switch from baritone to tenor three years ago. The move stemmed from a 2002 Montreal competition Kaiser entered. “The jury was a who’s who of opera: Marilyn Horne, Jon Vickers, Teresa Berganza–just an incredible collection of singers–and they all told me that I should be a tenor,” Kaiser recalls. “And I thought that if these great singers are telling me this, I should take it seriously.”
See Kaiser live: In “Salome,” 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Tuesday, Lyric Opera of Chicago, 20 N. Wacker Drive; $31-$179; 312-332-2244, ext. 5600 or www.lyricopera.org.
Timothy Sawyier
Age: 20
Years experience: 10
Instrument: oboe
At an age when many kids dive head-first into modern rock and hip-hop, Timothy Sawyier is passionate about the joys of classical. “When you actually stand in awe of composers such as Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, and try to understand their craft, it’s hard not to be challenged,” says Sawyier, a Gold Coast resident attending Philadelphia’s prestigious Curtis Institute of Music.
Sawyier can remember the moment classical music–and the oboe–made an impact. It was at the Cirque du Soleil, weeks before he had to choose an instrument for 4th grade classes at the University of Chicago’s Lab School. “It just so happened that one of the acrobats was playing the oboe when walking on a tightrope,” he recalls. “I didn’t even know what it was: I wanted `the one with the needle on top’ that the clown was playing.”
Today, he’s gaining notice as a chamber player with a bright future. In his performances with Chicago’s Music in the Loft series, he’s proven himself extremely talented and versatile. He’s also landed a $25,000 Music for Youth Foundation Award in 2004 and an appearance on NPR’s “From the Top.”
See Sawyier live: In the 2007 Kleiner Benefit Concert, 4 p.m. May 6 at Roosevelt University’s Ganz Hall, 430 S. Michigan Ave. $125; 312-243-9233.
Susanna Phillips
Age: 25
Years experience: 2 (Phillips has been singing for 10 years.)
Instruments: vocalist (soprano)
Ask Susanna Phillips for an analogy to describe her opera-singing approach, and she reaches back to her time as a high-school basketball center. “It’s like shooting free throws,” she says. “You practice it so much that you know it’s going to be a very simple, flowing thing. You want it to be spontaneous and real, but you have to have the work behind it.”
Given Phillips’ creamy, beautiful voice, make that a slam dunk. The Huntsville, Ala., native has come a long way since seeing “Madame Butterfly” with her parents on a New York City vacation 10 years ago and deciding to give opera a try. She applied to some 13 colleges, including Juilliard.
“I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I thought it would be major in music,” she says. Juilliard School accepted her and it’s been a rush ever since. “In this field of opera and classical singing, I’m able to explore many, many facets of my interests–including history, languages and mathematics. But far and above that, it is a passion of mine to sing and make music. I love exploring that with my friends.”
The soprano will wrap up her second season at the Lyric Opera’s Ryan Center this April, and then it’s off to other opportunities, including a summer singing with the Sante Fe Opera. Still, “I’m going to keep my apartment here,” she says. “It’s such a great city and I’d find it hard to leave.”
See Phillips live: In the Ryan’s “Rising Stars in Concert,” 7:30 p.m. March 30, Lyric Opera of Chicago, 20 N. Wacker Drive. Free to Lyric donors, call 312-332-2244, ext. 3500 for information.
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