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By MARK ARNEST - THE GAZETTE - June 04, 2006
If Martile Rowland’s life were an opera, the fortissimos would blow up every eardrum in the house.
Here’s a diva whose career has been as dramatic as the soprano roles she performed at the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall. She’s become much more than a star in Colorado Springs, where she has transformed the musical landscape by attracting singers from all over the country and bringing opera to thousands of students. It came as no surprise to her colleagues and students when she was recently named 2006 Classical Singer-Teacher of the Year by Classical Singer magazine.
“No one could be more deserving, anywhere on the planet,” said Denverbased mezzo-soprano Marcia Ragonetti, who led the effort to bring Rowland to the magazine’s attention.
“I’m still saying, ‘Are you sure?’” said Rowland, interviewed before traveling to Philadelphia for the May 20 awards ceremony.
Until her retirement last year, Rowland had an international career as a dramatic coloratura soprano. Eight years ago, she founded Opera Theatre of the Rockies, a showcase for young opera singers and the region’s only opera company. And she teaches voice more than 40 hours a week.
“As an artist, she’s unique,” said Christopher Wilkins, Rowland’s longtime friend and colleague and the former conductor of the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra, the defunct precursor to the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. “It’s hard to name another musician who’s a world-class singer with experience on the world’s greatest stages, who knows the entire score, who’s an unbelievable pianist — almost a concert pianist, who could be a conductor, and to top it off, who’s a fabulous teacher.”
Or, as soprano Judeth Shay Burns, Rowland’s student, put it, “She’s just the most talented, brilliant person I’ve ever met.”
A BORN MUSICIAN
Born Martile Bucklew, Rowland began playing piano at age 3. As a 14-year-old living in southern Louisiana, her first voice teacher approached her parents, telling them their daughter needed to study voice.
“She taught me the respect you have to have for music,” Rowland said, “and that respect means you’re disciplined and prepared.”
As with many opera singers, her first love was composer Giacomo Puccini. Rowland attended the Juilliard School in New York City, where she formed a relationship with her teacher, Beverley Johnson, that lasted until Johnson’s death a quarter-century later.
“I was scared of her for 10 of those 25 years,” said Rowland. “She was brutally honest in a constructive way. If she gave you a compliment, it was well-deserved.”
Another major influence was James Rowland, who until his retirement was clinical supervisor at Pikes Peak Mental Health Center’s northeast office.
They met when she was pursuing her career in New York, where he was a therapist, and he later moved several times to be near her while she attempted to establish herself in America and Germany.
Still, she was reluctant to marry him, because of the effect it might have on her career.
“James asked me to marry him four or five times,” she said. “One day, driving along the Hudson River, I said, ‘OK, let’s do it, but let’s do it quick before I change my mind.’”
Johnson opposed the marriage as an impediment to a singing career. But as she got to know James Rowland, Johnson changed her mind.
“Years later, she told me, ‘He’s the exception,’” said Martile Rowland.
The two are nearing their 30th wedding anniversary.
When James Rowland accepted a job in Colorado Springs in 1980, Martile Rowland put aside thoughts of a major career in opera.
“I felt like it was my turn to prove how much I was committed to this relationship,” she said.
For a few years, Rowland had a low profile in town, mostly teaching. But Artistic Director Donald Jenkins asked her to play Violetta in the Colorado Opera Festival’s 1988 production of “La Traviata,” and she realized how much she had missed being on the stage.
“Before my first retirement, I was so engrossed with working that I was less engrossed in the work,” she said. Rowland began studying with a new lightness, and in 1991 she made dramatic debuts at Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan — the first on a few hours’ notice, the second on a few minutes.’ For more than a decade, she performed all over the world. But when she retired without fanfare last year, she said the decision wasn’t difficult. Her husband’s declining health was one reason. The music was another.
“The older you get, the harder you have to work at music,” she said. “I wasn’t able to put the effort into it. I felt like I was cheating on a test.”
Rowland’s philosophy of embracing change made the decision easier. “You can’t keep things the way they are,” she said. “That doesn’t work.”
OPERA THEATRE OF THE ROCKIES
Even though she’s not performing, Rowland keeps busy with Opera Theatre of the Rockies and teaching.
“I have two speeds,” she said, “turbo and slug. I can only be a slug for about three days.”
“Turbo” is the side most people see.
“There’s a fierce animal in there,” said Wilkins. “She’s determined to get what she wants — but it’s tempered with a sense of humor.”
Rowland said her determination can make her impatient. “That’s partially my own personal thing, and partly a singer thing,” she said. “Singers are notoriously impatient.”
If there were ever a time to be impatient, it was during the May 5 dress rehearsal of Opera Theatre of the Rockies’ “Puccini Spectacular.” The company’s first venture into the Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts had the potential to affect the company’s future. The Pikes Peak Center has vastly superior acoustics to Colorado College’s Armstrong Hall, site of previous Opera Theatre of the Rockies productions, but it’s also more than twice as large. This created problems of coordination and projection for the singers.
Rowland’s criticism at the rehearsal was blunt but constructive — in the tradition of teacher Beverley Johnson.
“Whatever you do behind the scrim is visible,” she told the chorus. “Don’t pick your nose or scratch your butt.”
There was even a hint of exasperation in the famously melodic voice as the cast ran through the curtain call again. “Quickly, quickly,” she said. “It’s got to be faster.”
But her parting words were praise for everyone’s hard work.
“I am surrounded by gorgeous, beautiful singers,” she said.
And she exuded the confidence of an artist who’s been in this situation dozens of times, and knows how to get through it.
The concert was a success, both artistically and, with a total audience of well over 3,000, in attendance.
“We were testing the waters about performing in the Pikes Peak Center,” she said afterward. “That was a very successful start. Now I have to rethink next season.”
Attendees included 900 high school students at the dress rehearsal who were there as part of the Opera Theatre of the Rockies Goes to School program.
The program has exposed more than 15,000 students to opera in the past five years. Rowland herself visits the classrooms. “They call me the opera broad,” she said.
“We’re trying to create an operafriendly environment,” she said. “The first couple of years, teachers had to drag students to the opera. Now they’re saying, ‘Do we get to go to the opera again this year?’”
Opera Theatre of the Rockies won’t produce another opera until next season, but it will be involved in the eighth Vocal Arts Symposium, a collaboration with Colorado College that takes place July 16 to Aug. 6. There will be numerous performances at Colorado College’s Packard Hall.
IN THE STUDIO
For many students, studying with Rowland is a life-transforming experience.
“She has amazing ears,” said Burns, who began studying with Rowland 20 years ago while a student at Cheyenne Mountain High School. “She also has the gift of imagination. She saw what I could be, not what I was.”
Rowland typically spends eight or nine hours at a time in her studio. Breaks are rare.
“Teaching is the thing that feeds me,” she said. “I’m intrigued and impressed and honored to work with students.”
Part of Rowland’s teaching philosophy comes from her therapist husband. “James taught me that you have to make sure the person is ready for what you have to say,” she said.
“You can trust your voice with her — and you can trust your soul with her,” said Burns. “You start holding yourself to a higher standard.”
Burns said the most frustrating thing about studying with Rowland is her sheer intelligence: “It’s so crystal clear to her,” said Burns. “You’re chasing behind her going, ‘Why, why, why?’”
Rowland said she just tries to pass on the wisdom, knowledge and work ethic imparted by her teachers.
“I say to young singers, ‘You think it’s about jobs, but it’s about doing the work of becoming an artist,’” she said. “‘Do that and the jobs will come.’”
“I can’t imagine my life without her,” said Burns. “And remember, my story is just one. She’s done this for countless people.”
PROFILE MARTILE ROWLAND
Occupation: Musician, opera producer, voice teacher Age: Will admit to being over 55.
- “My teacher, Beverly Johnson, said ‘Try never to be defined by someone else’s opinion of you, or by a number.’” Favorite roles to sing: The title roles in Bellini’s “Norma,” Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” and Puccini’s “Turandot.”
- “Norma was my favorite. I did that role often, and it was a role I’d dreamed about doing. And I’d sing Verdi’s ‘Requiem’ for nothing.” Least favorite piece to sing: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.
- “I love the piece. I just don’t like to sing it. It’s one of those good-dress parts: You have to wear a good dress so maybe people will remember you.” Greatest musical experiences: Singing at Carnegie Hall, at the Metropolitan Opera and in Mexico City. Rowland made her Carnegie Hall debut in January 1991 on six hours’ notice. Her Met debut that April was even more dramatic: She went onstage on about 15 minutes’ notice, after the featured soprano was unable to return for Act 2.
- “The first time at Carnegie Hall was kind of unbelievable. The first time I was at the Met was weird. I was in shock, with somebody coming and getting you out of the lobby and dragging you into the bowels of the opera house.
“And singing ‘Norma’ in Mexico City at El Palacio de Bellas Artes — being in the same dressing room Maria Callas used when she sang Norma and feeling completely inadequate — what a thrill!” Regret: “I never got to sing ‘Tosca.’” Favorite nonmusical activities: “Unfortunately, I’m pretty boring. I spend nearly every day eating, sleeping, drinking and working music. But I love to go way up in the mountains, though it doesn’t happen very often. And I love going to movies. That’s one of my secret getaways.”
