Song Bo is a famous tenor singer in mainland China, who has worked in the United States for many years as an opera singer, and after returning to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music (referred to as "Shangyin"), he has been teaching in the vocal opera department for more than 20 years, and is highly respected and loved by students. He won the "Elizabeth Award" at the Rosa Ponsell International Vocal Competition in the United States and the first place in the Metropolitan Opera International Vocal Competition in new England. In recent years, he has won many awards such as the second prize of the National Teaching Achievement Award of the Ministry of Education.
Once, he was the starlight that returned; now, he has bred more starlight with music.
A new star is rising
Born in 1959 in the northeastern coastal city of Dalian, Song Bo has loved to emulate and learn to sing while listening to the radio and songs on the radio since middle school. By chance, he followed a local vocal teacher for a few lessons. After graduating from high school, Song Bo went to the countryside to join the team. In his spare time, he would continue to practice singing in orchards, under the mountains, and by the river, and sometimes sing revolutionary songs for the intellectuals. At the end of 1977, Song Bo participated in the national college entrance examination, he applied for the Shenyang Conservatory of Music Dalian Examination District, only the number of applicants was more than 1,000 people, after three rounds of examinations, Song Bo was lucky to become one of the three people admitted to the Dalian Examination District.
During the 4 years of university, Song Bo studied with Professor Ding Guiwen, then director of the Bel Canto Teaching and Research Department, Ding Guiwen is a famous tenor singer in China, and one of the pioneers in singing Chinese works with bel canto singing, and the folk songs he sings in different regions and styles of China are very deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Just like a piece of jade meets a good jade master, under the careful guidance of Ding Guiwen, Song Bo quickly showed his musical talent. He found the high position of the voice through humming practice, mastered the "closing" technique of the tenor changing area, and mastered the pronunciation and biting skills of singing Chinese works, which laid a solid foundation for his singing career. "Mr. Ding is a veteran soldier in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and he is also a model for teaching and educating people and being a role model for others, and his influence on me is very great." Song Bo said.
In 1981, Song Bo stayed on to teach after graduating from university. In the first half of 1986, Professor Li Xinchang of the Central Conservatory of Music came to Shenyang Conservatory of Music to give a lecture, and after listening to Song Bo's singing, he liked it very much, so he invited him to the Central Conservatory of Music to participate in further study. The following year, Song Bo was admitted to the Teaching Assistant Training Class of the Central Conservatory of Music and formally studied under Li Xinchang. "Mr. Li was one of the first singers and educators to study in Italy after the reform and opening up, and he brought new ideas after returning to China, which benefited me a lot. During those two years, I learned a new concept of Italian bel canto singing and made great progress in foreign languages, especially Italian. During my studies, I participated in many important performances, including the domestic selection competition of the International Vocal Competition organized by the Ministry of Culture at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and won the first place. ”
In 1988, Professor Zhou Xiaoyan of Shangyin was invited to give a lecture at Shenyang Conservatory of Music. After that, Song Bo went to Shanghai with Zhou Xiaoyan to study. "Mr. Zhou has helped me a lot in terms of sound quality, language accuracy, musical style and stage performance." In the same year, Song Bo was selected by the Ministry of Culture to go to New York to participate in the Rosa Ponsell International Vocal Competition, where he won the sixth place and won the "Elizabeth Award".
This competition allowed Song Bo to see a broader space for the development of vocal art, and also strengthened his determination to study abroad.
Chinese voice on the world opera stage
With a love for vocal art, in 1990, Song Bo was admitted to the Opera Department of the Boston University School of the Arts in the United States, where he studied under the dean of the school and soprano Felice Kerton. Professor Kerton has extensive experience in opera singing and stage performance, and for some tenor singers who do not have good breath support and lack of "cover up (off)" in the high notes, she will carry out strict breath training in the classroom. "She asked me to touch her abdomen to feel the feeling of her lower abdomen expanding outwards when inhaling and contracting inwards when singing, in order to find support points for sound and make the sound more full, especially in the vocal changing and high-pitched areas." In the three years of studying abroad, Song Bo systematically studied opera performance, line reading and opera re-singing.
Today, Song Bo still remembers the difficult years when he studied in the United States. In his shared apartment in Boston, he used furniture that he had picked up. "It sounds incredible now, but it's really what it was like to study abroad in the late 1980s and early 1990s." Because the tables and chairs he picked up did not match, Song Bo could only maintain an uncomfortable posture every day to study. In September 1990, Song Bo was arranged to perform the first opera role in his life after entering school, Ferrando in Mozart's opera "Woman's Heart", and he spent a month studying music and practicing singing, but because of the difficult conditions, he fell into the lumbar and cervical spine problems.
During his studies, Song Bo experienced such painful and happy memories more than once. "On Chinese New Year's Eve night in 1992, after attending a show, I was rear-ended by a drunk driver on my way home. I was sitting in the back seat of the car, and the violent concussion of the body again injured my cervical spine and caused a concussion so that I could not speak at the time. This frightens me because two weeks later the Metropolitan Opera International Vocal Competition New England Regional Trials will begin. Thankfully, I regained my voice before the game. The competition was held at the New England Conservatory Concert Hall in Boston, where Song Bo first sang the aria of the poet Rudolph in the opera "Artist's Career", "Cold Little Hands", and then the judges selected Rudolf's aria "How Quiet the Old Nights" from Verdi's opera "Louisa Miller" for him to complete the singing. In the end, Song Bo won the first place, earning honors for Boston University and giving him a certain influence in the local vocal music industry.
During his time in Boston, Song Bo was admitted to the Santa Fe Opera House Trainee Artist Training Class for two consecutive years, which is an influential intern artist training class in the United States, and Song Bo was the first non-American citizen admitted here and the first person admitted to the Boston University School of Arts. "Training classes are a combination of work and training, and in the training class, I have the opportunity to perform with the world's top conductors, stage directors, art directors, singers. There are also opportunities to take classes with vocal teachers, directors, and conductors. The two summers of training course experience had a major impact on my later singing career, and gave me an insight into the working process and professionalism of the professional opera house. After the training class, Song Bo won the "General Manager Award".
During his training course, Song Bo met his later mentor, the world-renowned vocal educator Marina Maras, who was then a professor at Juilliard College, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Curtis School of Music. At her suggestion, Song Bo decided to enroll in juilliard. In 1993, Song Bo was admitted to the graduate class of the Juilliard School and studied with Maras.
In this world-famous "music kingdom", Song Bo continues to harvest and grow. "The juilliard school curriculum is very perfect, not only professional courses, but also closely related to the vocal music major, such as voice classes, art tutoring classes, and performance classes. Language classes include Italian, French, German, and English pronunciation classes, which not only teach you how to pronounce and write the International Phonetic Alphabet, but also teach you how to use them better in your work. The professors here are all world-class, teaching both at the Conservatory and as art directors at the Opera House. ”
In 1996, Song Bo, a graduate student at Julia College, gave a solo concert at the prestigious Lincoln Center in the United States. At Carnegie Hall, he played a major role in Verdi's Requiem. In the years that followed, Song Bo began his opera career in the United States, leaving behind the Chinese singer's beautiful singing voice in more than 50 cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. Years of overseas life experience has given Song Bo a deeper understanding of Western history, religion, architecture, music, etc., through the rich experience and life experience accumulated in overseas study, life and stage performance over the years, Song Bo has continuously expanded his horizons and accumulated artistic heritage.
Let the flower of opera bloom in China
"Just like a kite that flies high, even if it flies high and far, the other end of the line is still tied to the homeland where you were born and raised, which is the nostalgia that flows in the blood." Song Bo said.
On July 1, 1997, Song Bo participated in the large-scale literary and art evening held in Los Angeles to celebrate Hong Kong's return to the motherland, "Cheers for China". His performance of "Song of the Yangtze River" with Huang Ying, a soprano singer living in the United States at the time, pushed the evening to a climax and won the applause of more than 14,000 overseas students and overseas Chinese. This performance made Song Bo feel the call of the motherland, and also aroused the strong nostalgia in his heart. In 2001, Song Bo returned to his homeland to teach at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he looked forward to the blossoming of the opera flower in China.
In the years before and after Song Bo's return to China, concerts and operas are gradually entering the public eye, Zhang Yimou's version of the opera "Turandot" came out, the large-scale landscape opera "Aida" was performed in China, and the three tenor concerts of Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras were held in Beijing... More and more Chinese began to pay attention to opera and had expectations for opera.
"We should invite more opera artists of different levels to China, let Chinese audiences contact opera performances, and let people know more about the opera will have a good effect." I'm going to keep singing, and I hope I'll keep singing. After returning to China, Song Bo never interrupted his opera performances. At the 5th Beijing International Music Festival in 2002, Song Bo sang composer Ye Xiaogang's "Symphony of the Great Wall" and "The Light of Tibet". The Great Wall Symphony is a magnificent masterpiece for symphony orchestras and tenors, sopranos, pianos, and horse-headed organs, with pianist Xu Zhong as the solo piano. The Light of Tibet was written for symphonies and horns and tenors. "Both works are within the framework of Mr. Ye's musical ideas, and I have repeatedly studied the scores and practiced singing, especially Chinese the clarity of the words. The show ended up working well. ”
In 2004, Song Bo held a solo concert of "Returning Starlight" in Shanghai, which was also a report on his study abroad achievements, and he still remembers the excitement at that time. In July of the same year, Song Bo was invited to Hanover, Germany, to hold a solo concert of "Singing from the Yangtze River". "Singing from the Yangtze River" is the name that Song Bo specially gave for the performance, and he also specially selected a group of songs with Chinese characteristics: "Song of the Yangtze River", "The Great River Goes East", "A Lovely Rose", and so on. On the day of the concert, Song Bo won the applause of the German audience with irrefutable strength, and when performing the singing section of "You Are All My Heart", Song Bo's standard German pronunciation aroused the praise of the locals, who also mistakenly thought that he was proficient in German. Song Bo went to Germany with two of his students, who he hoped to give them the opportunity to practice and exercise, and also hoped to make more Chinese voices appear on the world stage.
Nurture starlight with music
Walking on Shanghai Fenyang Road, you can often hear melodious piano sounds and beautiful songs wafting from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and the music has infected Fenyang Road with a romantic artistic atmosphere, which is also known as the "Road of Music". Here, Song Bo began his path of nurturing starlight.
Song Bo believes that only by accumulating rich experience in the performance process can he truly pass on useful knowledge to students. Today, Song Bo has been engaged in teaching work for more than 20 years since he returned to the Department of Vocal Opera, and has cultivated a group of vocal talents with solid professional foundation and excellent thinking. In addition to completing his teaching work, Song Bo has also served as a judge in many important vocal competitions at home and abroad, including the "China International Vocal Competition (Ningbo)" and the "Golden Bell Award for Chinese Music" vocal competitions, the national opera, dance drama, and musical theater exhibitions, and has served as a judge of this national vocal competition for nine consecutive years since the "Seventh National Vocal Competition" (Wenhua Award), and twice served as the deputy leader of the bel canto group. At the same time, he also serves as an expert in the evaluation of undergraduate teaching level of the Ministry of Education.
Dong Fang, a vocal teacher in the Department of Shangyin Musical Theatre and a mezzo-soprano singer, was one of Song Bo's disciples. Dong Fang was one of the first students Song Bo taught after returning to China, teaching from undergraduate to graduate. "When she entered school, Dong Fang had many deficiencies in her voice, and I helped her gradually improve the unity of her voice, with a beautiful high-pitched area and a plump, rounded middle and low voice area." Later, Dong Fang was evaluated by the German Hannover Times as a "very promising mezzo-soprano singer". Since then, she has won the second place in the 17th Marmande International Vocal Competition in France and the silver medal in the 6th China Golden Bell Award Vocal Competition, and performed Chinese and foreign operas such as "A River of Spring Water", "Tang Xianzu", "Taiis", "Here the Dawn Is Quiet", "Painting Skin", "Aida", "Don Juan", "La Traviata", "Seven Days" and other Chinese and foreign operas in the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Shanghai Grand Theatre, Shanghai Conservatory of Music and other units.
Whether it is Song Bo's students or those who have listened to Song Bo's lectures or lectures, they all commented that Song Bo's classroom atmosphere was relaxed and warm. "Teacher Song always uses humorous and funny language, wonderful demonstrations and in-depth explanations to teach vocal music." In Song Bo's view, teaching is also an "art", using the simplest and clearest language and relaxed communication to explain scholarship, which is the cultivation that a teacher should achieve, which is the so-called "avenue to simplicity". "The important thing about vocal music teaching is to tailor each student's vocal conditions, receptivity and problems to their own problems, and tailor a personalized training plan. For the more abstract use of sound, breath, language, musical performance and other issues in vocal singing, these technical problems are visualized through appropriate metaphors, inspirations and demonstrations, which are easy for students to accept. At the same time, we must be good at mobilizing and cultivating students' singing emotions and singing psychology. I never skimp on praise for my students in my teaching process, nor do I mercilessly point out their mistakes. But don't be excessive when criticizing, use the words appropriately, and don't hurt the students' self-esteem. Song Bo said. Adhering to this concept of educating people, Song Bo constantly enriches and improves the theory and model of professional music and art education in China.
In terms of Vocal Education in China, Song Bo believes that there are similarities in the training goals of professional vocal music in China and the United States, and that China's vocal education has made great progress with the joint efforts of several generations of vocal musicians, whether it is the construction of teachers, discipline development, and talent training, which are close to the world's advanced level, but there are still deficiencies in curriculum setting, and there is a lack of high-level language, music, and stage performance art guidance.
"Our predecessors, Zhou Xiaoyan and Guo Shuzhen, taught many outstanding talents, who not only taught vocal skills, but also worked as language teachers, art directors and stage performers. To make a greater leap forward in Chinese vocal art, it is necessary to strengthen the teaching reform in this regard, introduce talents in this field, and improve the curriculum. The doctoral training in the discipline of shangyin vocal music has only begun in recent years and is still in the exploratory stage. As a doctor of performing arts, on the one hand, the research and practice of skills should reach the highest level in China, on the other hand, theoretical research should have both academic height and artistic height, wide aesthetic vision, high artistic level, and strong academicity. Song Bo said.
Teaching is Song Bo's greatest experience after serving as a doctoral supervisor. "Becoming a phD supervisor is actually an opportunity for me to continue my studies and constantly improve myself in the teaching process of training doctors." It's a job, and it's a responsibility. If I want to be worthy of this responsibility, I must put forward higher requirements for myself, take the older generation of Shangyin people as an example, inherit the excellent teaching style of Shangyin, inherit the rigorous academic research style of Shangyin, show the advantages of the traditional performing arts of Shangyin, and cultivate more outstanding vocal performance talents for the country. Song Bo said. (The author Yu Zizheng is a professor at the School of Music of Ningbo University.) Images of this article courtesy of the interviewee)
Source: Shenzhou Scholar, No. 4, 2022
Author: Yu Zizheng