An Interview with Ta'u Pupu'a by Tara Conte, ASO Marketing and Box Office Manager

This weekend, I watched a play end in tragedy.

In fact, I saw a few plays that would have some diehards trying to hold back tears. My hometown Philadelphia Eagles lost the chance to go to the Super Bowl. Again. While certainly not as tragic as the plots of Shakespeare's Othello or Puccini's Madama Butterfly, there is something quite similar between sports and the performing arts. The drama, the emotional connection to the players, the standing ovations, the awe as the voice or football climbs, descends, and lands in the cradle of the music or the receiver's hands.

For former Baltimore Ravens player and current lyric tenor Ta’u Pupu’a, the connection between football and opera is immediate. “They’re really similar,” he tells me in phone interview. “In order to be a really good singer, you have to be an athlete. The way one breathes, the positions of standing, how the air flows in and out of the body. When you sing, you have to sing with your body. Being an athlete I was able to call upon my experience of playing football…Once I got into music, I knew exactly what to do, how to study, how to prepare myself. You prepare the role you’re going to sing before you tackle it.”

However, Pupu'a, whose favorite opera is Tosca, wasn't always a lover of the genre. In fact, he says, "opera didn't come into my life until two and half years ago." Born on the small Polynesian island of Tonga, Pupu'a had a passion for football (Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, Washington Redskins) and music (R&B, rock). As the youngest of nine, his preferences were shaped by his brothers and sisters who listened to Kiss and Abba. His first introduction to classical music was in the church where his father was a preacher.

At an early age, Pupu'a moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and later attended Weber State University in Ogden. It was here that he was able to pursue a Bachelor of Music degree while on a football scholarship. The scholarship necessitated that football take center stage and Pupu'a kept his singing a secret from the other players. But when word got out about one of his performances, his fellow teammates attended and showed their support with a standing ovation.

It wasn’t only his voice that was showstopper. Pupu’a impressed Coach Bill Belichick (then with the Cleveland Browns) with his speed and strength. According to Pupu’a “Bill is known to pick underdogs…He’s a wonderful guy who takes care of his draft choices.” After stints with the Browns and the Baltimore Ravens, an injury made Pupu’a reconsider his career. He arrived in New York four years ago searching for a vocal teacher. When one took him in, “all of sudden,” Pupu’a says, “it just came. It was my calling.”

"Born to travel," Pupu'a now tours the country perfecting his craft. His recent roles include the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto for the Gateway Classical Music Society in Riverside, Connecticut; Cassio in Otello for Espresso Opera in New York City; and Maurizio in Adriania Lecouvreur for Opera in the Heights in Houston, Texas.

Now three years after his major role debut, what does Pupu'a think are the trends in opera? Movie theaters. He thinks organizations like the Metropolitan Opera that simulcast their performances at movie theaters across the country are "wonderful." Opening up price and geographic barriers, these presentations are "great because you pay 25 bucks, you have the front row, and you can sit there with your bag of popcorn." Does it get any better than friends, beautiful singers as tall as your house, and Milk Duds? (Want to experience the Met in your backyard? Theaters in Fairfax Town Center and Tysons Corner show live performances with one coming up Feb. 7).

This season will clearly be much brighter for Pupu’a than my Eagles. Falstaff at Julliard (he was accepted on a full scholarship), traveling to Italy for a month-long music festival in Tuscany, and performing at the prestigious Chautauqua Music Festival of Fine and Performing Arts in New York.

Touchdown.

Links of Interest

The Met at the Movies
Purchase tickets to "O' Lovers' Voice" featuring Ta'u Pupu'a

Do you hear what I hear....

...silver bells, the sighs of relief after realizing ALL the holiday lights work, the sloshing of warm apple cider in your favorite mug. We love the sounds of the holidays and hope you will join us for a few more this Sunday, December 14 at 3:30pm as the ASO presents its annual Children's Holiday Concert at the Alfred Street Baptist Church. The program includes favorite holiday sing-a-longs as well as Duke Ellington's jazz-band arrangement of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite. Afterward, receive your fill of holiday cheer and treats with a delicious reception. Tickets are $25 general admission and can be purchased online or via phone at 703-548-0885. This is one afternoon of holiday fun you won't have to travel over the river and through the woods for!

3 Composers, Two Soloists, 1 Great Night!

Well, the excitement of election season has officially come to an end. Looking for something to fill the void? Join us for an evening of Mozart, Dvorak, and Wilder featuring two guaranteed winners: pianist Yuliya Gorenman and French hornist Amy Horn.

Heralded as a “pianist without fear,” Russian-born, American pianist Yuliya Gorenman brings her artistic fire and extraordinary virtuosity to the ASO for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto #21. Now firmly established in her performing career, Gorenman first achieved international acclaim in 1995 as a prizewinner of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium. She has performed and recorded with the Bavarian Chamber Orchestra, the Hugo Wolf String Quartet, the St. Louis Philharmonic, the Liege Philharmonic, the National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic of Flanders, and many other orchestras and chamber music ensembles. Currently, Gorenman is performing and recording the complete cycle of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas in a series of eight solo recitals at The American University in Washington, DC where she is also a Professor of Piano and Musician in Residence.

Joining Gorenman as a featured soloist is ASO’s own Principal Horn, Amy Horn. She will be spotlighted on Alec Wilder’s Suite for Horn and Strings which ASO Concert Lecturer Colleen Fay calls “vintage Wilder” as it “combines elements of Jazz and popular song, but just enough of each to give the piece a distinctive musical edge.” In addition to her position with the ASO, Horn is also a Master Sergeant in “The President’s Own" United States Marine Band in Washington, DC and a doctoral candidate in Music at the University of Maryland in College Park.

Rounding out the program is Antonín Dvořák’s popular Serenade for Strings. Composed in 1875 in a mere 12 days, the Serenade remains a perennial audience favorite and came from a period of composition that also witnessed Dvořák being well-funded by a grant award and creating his Fifth Symphony. The five, varied movements of the Serenade showcase Dvořák’s rhythmic ingenuity and his now well-known ability to stretch long melodic lines across sections of the orchestra.

Details:
"O' Thankful Voice"
Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 8:00pm
Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center
Tickets are $20-$80 and can be purchased online or via phone at 703-548-0885.

08-09 Season Opener!

It's good to be back! Though we love the slightly more laid back pace of summer, we can't wait to begin our 08-09 season. On Saturday, October 4 at 8:00pm and Sunday, October 5 at 3:00pm, join us as we present "O' Inner Voice" featuring Bowen McCauley Dance at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center (Alexandria). The first program in a season inspired by the voice, "O' Inner Voice" includes Massenet's Meditation from Thais, Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Greensleeves and Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and Brahms' Variation on a Theme of Joseph Haydn and Piano Concerto No. 1 (Movement 1) with Jeffery Watson, piano.

Ticket prices are $20-80 with special Sunday matinee youth tickets (ages 8-18) only $5! For tickets or more info, call us at 703-548-0885 or visit www.alexsym.org.

Hope to see you on opening night!

Yo, ho, ho! Children's Fest is huge success!

On Sunday, June 8, the ASO held its annual Children's Fest at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center. Outside the venue, hundreds of pirate lads and lasses made treasure maps and pirate hats, heard stories, competed in a limbo contest, and learned new dances. Inside, all those pirates made sure they were heard across the Potomac at the instrument petting zoo. Who knows? Some might even leave behind life on a ship for life on a stage with an orchestra!


After the activities were finished, everyone headed inside the auditorium. You could almost feel the waves pounding as the ASO played selections from the "Pirates of the Carribbean" movies. Maestro Kim Allen Kluge, or as he was known that day, Captain Jack Sparrow, took us on a symphonic adventure. Swords became batons as we played along with the music and mimiced the instruments with our hands.

Adding to the experience was an impressive, and often funny, videography that played behind the orchestra. Interspered with artwork created by area students involved in the Children's Fest curriculum was a narrative about a school janitor. While cleaning at night, he discovers the children's artwork has come to life. Although we all know the arts can be magical, this videography gave that notion a fantastical twist.

After all the activity, excitment, and inspiration (not to mention a beating hot sun), we were all ready to retire to our own quarters and start dreaming up ideas for next year...

(Of course, we couldn't end this post without thanking everyone who attended and volunteered at the event. A very, very, very special thanks goes to Melissa Luby, the amazing ASO Special Project Coordinator who organized the event and made it an amazing success.)