Singer Spotlight: Secrets of Singing Handel’s Messiah with Baritone Andrew Garland
If you’ve been to a CBE production, you’ve almost certainly heard the rich, penetrating baritone voice of Andrew Garland. He’s a seasoned veteran with an enviable list of credentials.
You’ll see cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, and Atlanta on his resume, including venues like Carnegie Hall, Ravinia, and the Kennedy Center. His accolades are steeped in adjectives like “vocal opulence” and “cosmic energy and suavity”. Look at his bio and you’ll find his name beside figures like Kevin Putz, Gabriella Frank, and Marilyn Horne, and he’s staked his claim as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of contemporary American song.
But the most important noun for music lovers is in the final line of his resume: his home.
Colorado.
When he’s not on the road meeting the strenuous demands of a touring musician’s schedule, Andrew is Associate Professor of Voice at CU Boulder and a beloved local treasure on CBE’s stage.
We caught Andrew in between rehearsals to talk about his life, career, and insights on his upcoming role as bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah.
Tell us where you’re calling from.
I’m in Miami for the Florida Grand Opera’s final rehearsals of Kevin Putz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night. It’s about the Christmas Truce of 1914, the real-life ceasefire during the First World War. Soldiers on both sides put down their arms, shared meals, and became friends for a brief moment in the chaos.
I’m playing Lieutenant Gordon, a Scottish platoon commander, and there are plenty of jokes going around about casting a redhead with relatives from Aberdeen. I even have a few Gordons in the family tree!
Are any of those relatives musical?
I’m the first professional musician in the family I’m aware of. My grandmother played violin and had a very eloquent way of talking and thinking about music that’s stayed with me.
She used to say, “A good song feels like you’ve heard it before.”
Now that’s deep, even for professionals. I sing a lot of contemporary music, and I can attest that it’s a very rare and difficult thing for an artist to capture.
You sing old and new music—is it challenging to switch?
I made the decision to focus on the music of living American composers around 2005, but I’ve always been involved in the Baroque scene. When I was teaching at Brown, I regularly sang with Boston Baroque, and there’s a lot of musical and technical similarities with both styles.
For instance, having a flexible instrument that can still project and improvisational experience are modern and Baroque ideals.
I guarantee every soloist for the Messiah this December is going to be singing contemporary music either before or after the holidays.
You’ve sung Handel’s Messiah many times. Give us your insider info!
Each movement for the bass soloist requires very different skills. The first solo I sing is “Thus Saith the Lord”, and you need coloratura—the ability to sing quickly and clearly. But the next aria, The People Walked in Darkness, utilizes long lines over great range. So it challenges your technique and musicianship in a completely different way.
Then, for Why do the Nations, you need even more coloratura, which can easily throw singers for a loop. And finally, over two hours in, I singThe Trumpet Shall Sound. It’s nearly nine minutes long and requires lots of little notes near the top of your range, which is the hardest thing to do.
There’s also a great moment in Trumpet where we sing the word “immortality”, and the idea is to sing it all in one breath so it feels like it goes on forever. Most audience members don’t listen for it, but you can be sure there’s always at least one person out there who knows so the pressure’s on—especially at altitude!
Almost all performances of Handel’s Messiah are cut. What’s it like doing the entire work?
First of all, you’d better be damn good if you’re doing the entire Messiah. Very few groups do it well, and even fewer can sustain that level of performance for three hours.
I haven’t sung with every Baroque orchestra in the country, but when I have a group like CBE in my backyard, I don’t need to! I’d easily put the Colorado Bach Ensemble on the level of Boston Baroque, and it’s a very similar level of skill, artistry, and care. It’s a treat to be able to sit back and listen to the level of detail you hear close up.
On top of that, we have an Artistic Director who knows the score front to back, so even though Messiah is three hours, your feet never touch the ground.
What’s your favorite part about working with CBE?
I’m very grateful to have had such a long relationship with this ensemble. I actually knew James when we were in college together at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and I sang on his final DMA recital. Those events are famously dry, but James was already using an engaging structure that’s similar to the Cantata Insight Series. The faculty thought it was brilliant.
Once I graduated, I headed out east to teach at Brown and perform. When I got the job at CU Boulder, it was a total coincidence that James was here too. I’ve been with CBE for about 14 seasons, and it just keeps getting better. James has an incredibly effective way of rehearsing, and in fact, I’ll tell you a secret:
This orchestra rehearses more efficiently than any other group because James figured out that the piece is essentially modular. The chorus and soloists never sing at the same time, so the first time they hear each other is in the concert. To this day, I’ve never seen another conductor do it, and I’m constantly trying to convince people this is the way!
Always a pleasure, Andrew. Final thought?
How about some CBE trivia? I sang at James and Heejung’s wedding!
Follow Andrew Garland by visiting his website, Facebook, and Instagram pages. And don’t miss hearing him sing Handel’s Messiah with CBE!