- Contributed
Willard White, Grammy award winning singer.
Michael Reckord, Contributor
YOU END an interview with Jamaica's internationally known bass-baritone opera star, Willard White, as impressed with his philosophy as with his talent.
The world knows that talent.
A recent Sunday Gleaner editorial summed up his work thus:
"Willard White, a man of modest background, hailing from Kingston, was educated at Excelsior High School under the tutelage of the late W. A. Powell, one of Jamaica's great educators and mentors, who brought out the best in his students. Willard went on to study at the Jamaica School of Music and later was admitted to the renowned Julliard School in New York, where only the finest are accepted. It was not long before he was appearing with the New York City Opera and then it was on to the United Kingdom where he continued to excel, singing a range of challenging roles with premier opera companies and gaining the acclaim of even the most demanding critics."
"In time, he made it to the stage of some of the world's most famous opera houses, including La Scala in Milan, noted for its impatience with anything which is less than brilliant.
Willard White won their acclaim and respect."
The Internet informs the searcher that White was born October 10, 1946, debuted with the New York City opera in 1974 as Colline in La Boheme, first sang opera in London two years later, that for many his outstanding role in as Mephistopheles in Gounod's The Damnation of Faust, that he has more than 50 roles to his credit and that he is a Grammy award-winner.
ANOTHER HONOUR
Within the next three months he will receive yet another honour, a knighthood. It will be bestowed on him by the Queen at Buckingham Palace, London, England.
As White spoke to The Gleaner by phone from Germany, where he is appearing as Mephisto in Berlioz' Faust in a music festival started two years ago by Sir Gerrard Mortimer, his deep voice rumbled with laughter.
"Rubbish! Rubbish! Go away!" he said he had told his agent when she telephoned him in New York with news of the imminent knighthood. When his agent insisted that it was true, he asked "why?"
She replied, White reported: "Well, they obviously think it is due."
Explaining his decision to accept the knighthood, White said "I have received lots of benefits and negative and positive experiences through the British Empire and I cannot help but being influenced by it. I still live in a British system, in England. There are certain things I want to influence and, dare I say change, and I think it could be very good to be part of the system and still speak my mind."
"I also thought it was an honour. I have colleagues who have got honours and I feel pleased for them, never thinking I would be getting one myself. I never worked for it. I never said, 'I'd love to get one of these things'."
"It wasn't part of my dream, but I think it's a beautiful way of approaching it not to be longing for it and being able to choose whether I would accept it or not."
White admitted that there could be "negative aspects" to accepting titles, if one should let them go to one's head, but, he added, "I don't think I'm better than anyone else, nor is anyone better than me."
The singer spoke of his discovery of his extraordinary voice while attending XLCR and of the encouragement he got from classmates and teachers there, as well as teachers at the School of Music, which he began attending while at school.
CLASSICAL MUSIC
He enjoyed singing both classical and popular music, but at the School of Music he decided to concentrate on classical music, reasoning that it would serve him longer. At the same time, he was thinking of a career in business and intended to go to university to study economics.
"I wanted to be a 'real man'," he said, "with a necktie, and with a name plate on my desk."
For a while, he worked at a desk (at Grace Kennedy Ltd.), but he found his real joy for the day came after work, at rehearsals, for some show in which he would be singing. He was a founding member of the Jamaica Folk Singers, he said, and he sang with the (then) Jamaica Amateur Operatic Society (now the Jamaica Musical Theatre Company). He performed in a Little Theatre Movement pantomime, Anancy and Pandora.
With the help of music lover and educator Ross Murray, White got a stipend of $330 every three months from the Ministry of Finance at the same time his father gave him a one-way ticket to New York to audition at the Julliard School.
The audition resulted in White's getting, in 1968, the second largest scholarship to the School that year, a scholarship which was exactly $300 less than he needed for his school fees. Happily, the money from the Ministry covered it, but this meant that for the next three months White had to live on the $30.00 remaining and the odd sums he managed to get from various other sources.
Laughing, White explained how he did it: "I was very slim in those days."
RACE-RELATED CHALLENGES
Financial challenges were not the only ones he faced, White said. There were also race-related ones, but, he said, "I set my eyes not on the question of colour but on just being as good a singer as I could be. I believed that if I sang well and somebody didn't employ me, they'd look stupid."
His sacrifices, hard work and focus paid off and by the time he graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree, he didn't need the degree to get a singing job. In fact, he didn't attend the graduation ceremony to collect his certificate, for he was busy working.
Turning to the matter of recordings, White said that his favourite roles came in Porgy and Bess, Faust and Elijah, adding that on his return to London he is scheduled to make a recording, which will include the Jamaican folk songs 'Liza', 'Solas Market' and 'Jamaica Farewell'. Also on the album will be Smile (a song written he said by Charlie Chaplin, which, he said, when he first heard it made him realise the transformative power of music), the spiritual 'Deep River' and the popular 'My Way'.
ON THE MOVE
He has several other engagements in London over the next few months, he said, including a continuing series in tribute to the famous American singer Paul Robeson (which he would like to take to Jamaica), a Wagner concert at Albert Hall, a recital at Covent Garden and one in St. Paul's Cathedral. Also, before mid-December, he will be singing again in Germany and later in San Francisco.
ENERGY FROM SINGING
"It's quite a lot of singing," he said, but when asked about taking a holiday, he admitted only to taking the "occasional" one. On a daily basis , he said, he takes a "mental break", going into himself to meditate and do deep breathing.
Mainly, he said, he gets energised by singing.
