One of the first things you notice when chatting with Everett McCorvey is his infectious laugh, which comes easy and often. McCorvey, a PhD. who serves as professor of voice and endowed chair in Opera Studies at the University of Kentucky, is known for infusing both his conversation and his life’s work with joy and enthusiasm. This award-winning dynamo performs, produces, records, conducts and teaches music all over the world but says one of his favorite travels is returning to Lexington and UK’s Schmidt Vocal Arts Center, home to one of the country’s top programs for young singers. For nearly 30 years, McCorvey has worked with students on vocal techniques and developing career goals.
McCorvey’s own singing voice attracted attention from an early age. When he was just 8 years old, a church member in his hometown – Montgomery, Alabama – invited him to perform at church teas, which led to stints in both the children’s choir and later the adult choir as he grew up. He credits his local high school band, with which he started playing trumpet as a third-grader, with helping instill a lifelong passion for musicianship.
In those early days of playing in the band and singing for his congregation, he did not imagine he would one day meet some of his musical idols while performing and conducting on world stages he could only dream about at the time. His professional experiences have been extraordinary – this year, he has already conducted a concert in Prague with the North Czech Philharmonic performing Dvorak (an experience he describes as surreal) and has two upcoming dates in Vienna conducting Beethoven. He travels to New York regularly for work and has performed on stages in England, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Japan and France, to name a few.
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McCorvey worked with University of Kentucky vocal performance junior Marquita Richardson in January as part of his vocal performance studio. Photo by Bill Straus
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McCorvey worked with University of Kentucky vocal performance junior Marquita Richardson in January as part of his vocal performance studio. Photo by Bill Straus
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McCorvey worked with University of Kentucky vocal performance junior Marquita Richardson in January as part of his vocal performance studio. Photo by Bill Straus
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McCorvey (back center) and fellow UK School of Music faculty member Tedrin Lindsay (to his right), with the group of students participating in McCorvey’s vocal performance studio this year. These students come to the UK specifically to train with McCorvey and remain close under his wing throughout their time at the university. Photo by Bill Straus
An illustrious career has given McCorvey the kind of life that inspires grateful reflection and a desire to pay it forward.
“I’ve learned so much about life through music,” he said, citing principles of discipline and the importance of practice, patience and persistence as high on the list of lessons that being a professional musician has taught him. Mentorship has also long been an important aspect to McCorvey – he says he’s had many great mentors in his life, starting with his father, who he says never met a stranger and was “a beacon of kindness to all who knew him during the civil rights movement.”
McCorvey takes his own role as a mentor very seriously. Each year he works closely with a group of vocal students – students who came to the university specifically to study with him and who remain under this wing throughout their academic career – as part of his vocal performance studio. Each student receives an hour-long individual vocal lesson from McCorvey once a week, and they also meet weekly as a group to workshop performance pieces.
“The thing that gives me the greatest pleasure is working with those young minds and young voices,” McCorvey said. In addition to training them on vocal performance basics, he takes pride in guiding his students through other elements of the profession – things like being a good colleague, showing up on time, being prepared and being flexible.
“There is so much more to the profession than just singing – singing is about 5% of what it takes to be a professional singer,” he said. “The business is oversaturated, so if all that you have is a great voice, that’s not enough.”
This month, Lexington will have a couple opportunities to experience another arm of McCorvey’s professional career when the American Spiritual Ensemble performs on two Lexington stages. Founded by McCorvey in 1991, the group features professional singers from all over the globe and is dedicated to keeping the art of American Negro spirituals – what he calls the “mother music” – alive.
“Spirituals were formative for me as a young musician and singer, but as I got into the profession, I found that gospel was sort of taking over,” said McCorvey. Gospel is a more popular (and later) form of music that combines elements of blues, he explained, whereas spirituals are folk songs originally created and sung by slaves.
“There are no composers of spirituals – they just sort of grew out of the cotton fields and the plantation fields in the South,” he said. “There are about 6,000 spiritual melodies, and what I’ve done [for the American Spiritual Ensemble] is taken those and had them arranged into choral compositions.”
While some of the group’s performances – such as its Feb. 15 collaboration with the Kentucky Jazz Repertory Orchestra highlighting sacred music composed by Duke Ellington – do incorporate a degree of popular music, the heart of the historic spiritual music is central to all that they do. (A Feb. 17 performance at the First Presbyterian Church will focus on a more traditional black spiritual music.)
“The message of the music is still there and still very powerful – the melodies are powerful, and the story that they tell is powerful,” he said. “I wanted to make sure this music didn’t die or be just sort of clumped in the category of gospel music, which has its own place.”
While a departure from the operatic arias that resonate in the halls of the Schmidt Center on any given week, the ensemble’s work fits right in line with McCorvey’s passion for connecting with audiences through the power of song.
“I have been so fortunate to be part of projects where musicians and performers come together to make something special,” McCorvey said. “Barriers fall away. During my recent work in Prague, we were able to communicate a little bit in English, German and Italian. We came together as musicians with a mission to create a tremendous concert. It was an amazing experience.”
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University of Kentucky Opera Theatre presents the annual music event “It’s a Grand Night for Singing!”, a popular music revue showcasing more than 100 student and community singers each summer. Photos furnished
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University of Kentucky Opera Theatre presents the annual music event “It’s a Grand Night for Singing!”, a popular music revue showcasing more than 100 student and community singers each summer. Photos furnished
Everett McCorvey took some time recently to answer a handful of questions for writer Celeste Lewis.
Tell me a little about your upbringing in Montgomery, Alabama. I grew up in the 1960s during the civil rights movement. My parents lived about two blocks from where Martin Luther King Jr. lived during his time in Montgomery, and we were only a few blocks away from the state capitol, where many different demonstrations took place. I had very supportive parents and a supportive church and community – if I did something wrong at school my mother knew about it before I arrived home that afternoon! The community was protective, strict and very caring. I am still friends with many of my elementary school classmates.
Is there an experience you consider your professional launch? During my graduate school years at Alabama, I went to the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. It was there that I made connections that helped to launch my career. A friend from the Aspen program made me aware of auditions in New York for a production of “Porgy and Bess” at Radio City Music Hall in New York. I went to New York, auditioned and was offered a part! The show made a trial run in Chicago for three months then officially opened at Radio City Hall as an Equity Broadway Show in 1982. We toured the show throughout the world for the next two years. We won a Tony for the Radio City Music Hall production, and over 600 performances later, I still am in love with the music. It is also the place where I met my wife, Alicia Helm McCorvey. We were involved in the 1984 Debut Production at the MET.
Do you have a favorite piece of music? Robert Nicolos [Ph.D.], my music history teacher, gave me a love for the opera composer Giuseppi Verdi that I still have to this day. When the university choir and orchestra teamed up to present the Verdi “Requiem,” I decided at that moment that I wanted to be in the profession where I could engage with people who wrote and performed life-changing music like the Verdi “Requiem.” If you don’t know this music, you should go out and buy a copy. It is still my favorite piece of music.
What do you think is the biggest challenge for young people hoping to pursue a vocal career? The biggest challenge is that the business is oversaturated. People who choose to go into the performing arts have to have a fierce commitment and passion to pursuing this art. The other challenge is the support for the arts. It’s very hard for the arts to survive in some communities. Imagine New York without Broadway or the Metropolitan Opera or museums or the New York Philharmonic! These iconic arts organizations are what make traveling to New York so exciting. When corporate leaders are looking for cities in which to relocate, they want to know there is a ballet company for their daughter or son, or a youth orchestra. They want to know if the city has great theatre, a symphony orchestra, an art museum, parks and cultural festivals. Is there diversity; is there something to do after 5 p.m.? When a city can answer yes to a healthy arts presence, it can attract businesses and tourists.
What would you like to see in the field of vocal performance in the future? I would like to see an environment that supports singers and all artists so that performers can live and work in the communities they decide to call home. I cannot tell you how many times I receive requests for singers to perform at an event because “it will be a great experience for them – no pay, just experience!” Artists need to be paid for their work. They have spent countless hours working on their craft, and they should be paid for their performances. I would like to see an environment where it is understood that all artists should be paid.
What is your performance warm-up like? I use a lot of creative visualization when I am preparing for performances. For weeks before a performance, I will actually visualize myself in the space performing the upcoming work: I visualize the audience; I visualize the way I’m feeling; I visualize the results [always successful, of course]. This really helps me because when I actually walk out on the stage, through my visualization work, I have already been there.
Do you get nervous or have stage fright issues? Nerves and excitement create the same jittery feelings in the body. The difference is that we get to decide if it is nerves or excitement. I always choose excitement. Also, I’m never nervous when I have prepared well. Preparation and mental direction are the key.
When was the last time you were starstruck? I once ran into Luciano Pavarotti in the airport in Rome. On the plane, he invited me up to first class to sit with him. We talked shop about technique and vocal performance for four or five hours. He put me in touch with his vocal instructor in New York, Marlena Malas. I have sent her students, and she has visited our program at UK to teach a master class. It was a pretty memorable encounter.
Do you cook? What’s your specialty? I grill! Ribs are my favorite, but the doctor tells me I have to cut back, but what can I do? It’s my favorite meal!
What are some of your most memorable experiences performing? There are so many that come to mind! My professional Broadway debut of “Porgy and Bess” at Radio City Music Hall, my Metropolitan Opera debut [also in “Porgy and Bess”], my movie debut in a small role in the movie “The Long Walk Home,” featuring Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek, are a few highlights. Traveling around the world with my friend Pearse Lyons performing in country after country with our students and my colleague Tedrin Blair Lindsay was certainly memorable. Probably my most memorable experience was stepping away from the mic at Rupp Arena and leading the Big Blue Nation in the singing of our National Anthem. It’s a moment that I will never forget.
What is one of your favorite ways to spend a day? I love to watch movies. When I’m traveling, I will download Netflix movies and watch them on the flights. I hardly ever sleep on the plane, so I enjoy losing myself in a good movie. My other passion, which I also don’t get to do often enough is fishing – I love to fish.
What is something most people would be surprised to know about you? I’m painfully shy!
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McCorvey led a private rehearsal for the annual holiday program Alltech Celebration of Song in 2019. Photo furnished
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Guests for the holiday rehearsal included United Nations Security Council members. Photo furnished