McKinley and Murrah
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL’S comedic cantata Clori, Tirsi, e Fileno, subtitled Cor fedele in vano speri (“A faithful heart hopes in vain”), tells the story of two shepherds in love with a beautiful nymph. For Ars Lyrica Houston’s Mar. 26 performance of this Baroque “mini-opera,” audiences may be surprised by what is a very contemporary yet historically accurate casting decision: The nymph’s role (Clori) will be sung by countertenor Key’mon Murrah, and soprano Lauren Snouffer and contralto Cecelia McKinley will sing the roles of the love-struck shepherds.
But gender-bending in Italy during the Baroque period (1600 to 1750) was not unusual; male singers frequently performed female roles and vice versa. “We don’t know who sang in the premiere of this work in 1707,” says Ars Lyrica Founder and Artistic Director Matthew Dirst. “But it was common for castrati to sing either male hero or female parts, and for contraltos to sing male or ‘trouser’ roles.”
For McKinley, 27, who graduated last spring from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music with a master’s in vocal performance, and is making her Ars Lyrica debut as Fileno, the story of Clori, Tirsi, e Fileno is at least as old as the music Handel composed. “We’ve been talking about how men and women try to understand each other for centuries,” says McKinley. “As a woman looking at the score and the libretto, to me, it reads as how the genders see each other, and the difference between how we present ourselves to each other and what we really feel.”
For the uninitiated, the sound of the contralto voice, the lowest voice type for the female voice, can be startling, although, as it is upon first hearing a countertenor (a male soprano), its beauty becomes quickly apparent. McKinely notes that the music Handel composed for Fileno sits very comfortably in her range, and Ars Lyrica will perform the cantata tuned to Baroque pitch, which sounds about a half step lower what is known as 20th-century concert pitch, giving the music a rich, sensuous, and joyful timbre.
So are listeners surprised when they first hear the sound of McKinely’s singing voice?
“Very often, yes,” laughs McKinley. “People come up to me after a performance and say, ‘I expected something different to come out of you!’”
Born and raised in Virginia, McKinley sang the popular music of the day around the house as a child, but classical music didn’t come into her life until she decided to seriously study voice. Early on, she tried singing rock, jazz, and musical theater (“I always just kind of sounded like an old woman!” says McKinley.) before discovering at age 17 the beauty of Italian art songs, songs that felt good to sing and suited the unique quality of her voice.
While McKinley says the contralto voice fell out of fashion in classical music performance during the 20th century, it’s now making a comeback, which bodes well for this rising star.
“As a younger singer, I used to find it troubling to be such a low voice, because it does defy certain gender expectations,” says McKinley. “But now I find it very empowering. It’s a rare voice type, and you have to dig a little more to find the repertoire, but I like the chase. I like deep diving.”
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Berklee Indian Ensemble (photo courtesy of the Indo American Association)
EACH YEAR, HOUSTON’S Indo-American Association presents a diverse and wide-ranging series of entertainment and educational programs featuring music, dance, and film from across the Indian subcontinent.
Now in its 30th season, the nonprofit organization is a major contributor to Houston’s diverse, international community, and is helping to preserve India’s rich, cultural heritage for a new generation of audiences.
On Mar. 24 at the Wortham Center, IAA presents the Berklee Indian Ensemble, one of the hottest world music groups touring today. Its forward-thinking fusion of contemporary and classical Indian musical styles is winning fans all over the world. The ensemble has accumulated over 300 million YouTube views, and its debut album Shuruaat (“Beginning”) received a 2023 Grammy Nomination for Best World Music Album.
Founded in 2011 by Annette Philip, the first Indian music faculty member at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, the ensemble is a rare example of a university ensemble transformed into a professional, touring band, with 11 full-time members representing India, Jordan, Israel, Nigeria, Indonesia, Norway, the USA, and other regions across the globe. When Philip first joined Berklee’s faculty, the school did not have an ensemble that explored and performed Indian music. Since then, more than 700 students from 49 countries have played in the ensemble and created profound connections between their different respective cultures through the language of music.
“There is a unique power when musicians from different cultural and musical backgrounds make art together with vulnerability and openness in a space that celebrates their similarities and differences,” says Philip. She’s not kidding.
The 10 tracks on Shuruaat feature a whopping 98 musicians from all over the world, including special guests, Grammy-winning tabla master Zakir Hussain and Bollywood superstar Shreya Ghoshal. This Friday at the Wortham Center, the 11-member version of the ensemble promises a program of lushly orchestrated, groove-centric originals and arrangements of modern and classic Indian music. “The music that gets created in this space comes across viscerally,” says Philip, “and allows a song in a foreign language to feel completely relatable because of the human connection.”
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