(Original image of YounHee Choi, Laci Olberding and Jake Heggie by There Stands the Glass.)
Most masterclasses in classical music offer valuable insights into the form I’d been unable to glean from recordings and performances. I didn’t learn a single thing about music at Jake Heggie’s free masterclass at Grant Recital Hall on Wednesday, April 9. Yet the famed composer taught me and about thirty students a lot about life. Rather than focusing on conventional subjects such as vocal timbre, Heggie tutored four groupings of UMKC Conservatory students as if he were a life coach. While he’s a prodigious namedropper- he referenced his associations with Julie Andrews, Joyce DiDonato, Patti LuPone, Leontyne Price and Stephen Sondheim- Heggie diligently focused on drawing out the repressed personalities of the students. The counseling seemed to be precisely what the apprentices needed. I know I was a slightly better person at the conclusion of the two-hour session.