Sylvia McNair Returns To Honeywell With Great American Songbook
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
“I sang opera for 20 years. When I finally locked in that 20 years, I decided I finally needed a change. I stepped out of opera and into the music I’ve always loved but had no time for with what I was doing. Now it’s mostly music from the Great American Songbook and musical theater,” she said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon from Bloomington.
McNair returns to the Ford Theatre at the Honeywell Center, Wabash, at 7:30 p.m. May 20. Tickets are $25, $35 or $45 and can be purchased at the box office or online at www.honeywellcenter.org
The Great American Songbook includes music from about the 1920s to the 1970s, by artists like George Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim and Peru, Ind., native Cole Porter. Since she’ll be coming to Northern Indiana next week, McNair said she will be singing some Porter songs.
“When people talk about singing the Great American Songbook, we’re referring to popular songs of the 1920s to 1970s. It stops around the 1960s,” she explained. “Great American Songbook is a broad term and we’re allowed to redefine it as we go along. It’s flexible.”
Before she embarked on a 20-year opera career, McNair said she started singing the Songbook music “way back when I was a student at Indiana University.” She had a teacher who specialized in that music and McNair always loved the material.
In the late 1990s, people were celebrating the 100th birthdays of people like Gershwin and Richard Rodgers and that brought up opportunities for McNair to sing their songs in many big places.
“I wasn’t a newcomer to the music but it solidified my love for it,” she said. Around 2002 she began singing it at full speed.
McNair admitted the audience for classical music is slightly different from an audience for American Songbook concerts, but said smart people know good music whenever they hear it and appreciate it.
She’s releasing a new album this summer with the same title as her May 20 show – “Subject To Change.”
“The reason I chose it is because as the subject of my own life, I can tell you life is subject to change. Some changes I’ve chosen, some I have not,” she said.
The show is a mini-autobiography of her life.
“I do try and tell a story of things I’ve gone through and did,” she said.
The second song on the CD is “The More I See You.” McNair said when she’s performing she tries to see the people in the audience and look into the whites of their eyes.
“Singing is a joy in my life. The more I do it, the more I want to do it,” she said.
McNair’s songs are all covers. She does not write original music.
“I do not do original material. There’s nothing I could write or compose that could hold a candle to” Porter, Gershwin, Rodgers and other Great American Songbook artists, she said. “I don’t compose original music at all. God has given me many gifts, but that was not one of them.”
In 2006, after living in New York and Asia and traveling the world performing, she returned to I.U. to teach. Most of her students are undergraduates, but she said she intentionally chose to teach undergraduate courses. Her courses include English diction for singers, performance workshops and some private voice lessons. She teaches Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and then goes away to do concerts on weekends.
“I’m touring all throughout the year,” she said.
For those who make it out to the Honeywell Center next Friday, McNair said it will be all live and nothing is pre-recorded. She performs with her pianist and bass player. She’ll do “a lot of talking to the audiences” between songs.
“Doing classical, I didn’t really have this opportunity. In this genre, I spend a lot of time talking about my life. I actually do a medley called ‘Sylvia’s Medley’ about why I walked away from opera and do songs from the Great American Songbook,” she said.[[In-content Ad]]
“I sang opera for 20 years. When I finally locked in that 20 years, I decided I finally needed a change. I stepped out of opera and into the music I’ve always loved but had no time for with what I was doing. Now it’s mostly music from the Great American Songbook and musical theater,” she said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon from Bloomington.
McNair returns to the Ford Theatre at the Honeywell Center, Wabash, at 7:30 p.m. May 20. Tickets are $25, $35 or $45 and can be purchased at the box office or online at www.honeywellcenter.org
The Great American Songbook includes music from about the 1920s to the 1970s, by artists like George Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim and Peru, Ind., native Cole Porter. Since she’ll be coming to Northern Indiana next week, McNair said she will be singing some Porter songs.
“When people talk about singing the Great American Songbook, we’re referring to popular songs of the 1920s to 1970s. It stops around the 1960s,” she explained. “Great American Songbook is a broad term and we’re allowed to redefine it as we go along. It’s flexible.”
Before she embarked on a 20-year opera career, McNair said she started singing the Songbook music “way back when I was a student at Indiana University.” She had a teacher who specialized in that music and McNair always loved the material.
In the late 1990s, people were celebrating the 100th birthdays of people like Gershwin and Richard Rodgers and that brought up opportunities for McNair to sing their songs in many big places.
“I wasn’t a newcomer to the music but it solidified my love for it,” she said. Around 2002 she began singing it at full speed.
McNair admitted the audience for classical music is slightly different from an audience for American Songbook concerts, but said smart people know good music whenever they hear it and appreciate it.
She’s releasing a new album this summer with the same title as her May 20 show – “Subject To Change.”
“The reason I chose it is because as the subject of my own life, I can tell you life is subject to change. Some changes I’ve chosen, some I have not,” she said.
The show is a mini-autobiography of her life.
“I do try and tell a story of things I’ve gone through and did,” she said.
The second song on the CD is “The More I See You.” McNair said when she’s performing she tries to see the people in the audience and look into the whites of their eyes.
“Singing is a joy in my life. The more I do it, the more I want to do it,” she said.
McNair’s songs are all covers. She does not write original music.
“I do not do original material. There’s nothing I could write or compose that could hold a candle to” Porter, Gershwin, Rodgers and other Great American Songbook artists, she said. “I don’t compose original music at all. God has given me many gifts, but that was not one of them.”
In 2006, after living in New York and Asia and traveling the world performing, she returned to I.U. to teach. Most of her students are undergraduates, but she said she intentionally chose to teach undergraduate courses. Her courses include English diction for singers, performance workshops and some private voice lessons. She teaches Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and then goes away to do concerts on weekends.
“I’m touring all throughout the year,” she said.
For those who make it out to the Honeywell Center next Friday, McNair said it will be all live and nothing is pre-recorded. She performs with her pianist and bass player. She’ll do “a lot of talking to the audiences” between songs.
“Doing classical, I didn’t really have this opportunity. In this genre, I spend a lot of time talking about my life. I actually do a medley called ‘Sylvia’s Medley’ about why I walked away from opera and do songs from the Great American Songbook,” she said.[[In-content Ad]]
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