^B00:00:11 >> Sue Vita: Welcome, everyone. I'm Susan Vita, the Chief of the Music Division here at the Library of Congress. This is a great evening of celebration. First, we are announcing the donation of the Jessye Norman Papers to the Library of Congress. ^M00:00:30 [ Applause ] ^M00:00:39 The music division is thrilled to add them to our collections. And we are so grateful to Ms. Norman for entrusting them to us. Her papers will stand alongside one of the premiere collections of opera scores and libretti in the world, as well as the papers of many important opera singers. Ms. Norman's legacy of supreme musicianship, flawless technique, and selfless philanthropy will be available for study and will be a continuing source of inspiration for music scholars, aspiring students, and opera aficionados for years to come. Before you leave, please be sure to take a look at items from that collection, and also other items from our collection, which are displayed in the foyer of the auditorium. We also would like to thank Julieanna Richardson for her assistance in introducing us to Ms. Norman. Julieanna is the founder and executive director of The HistoryMakers, a national nonprofit educational institution committed to preserving, developing, and providing easy access to internationally recognized archival collections of thousands of African American video oral histories. Julieanna? Can you raise the lights for a second, so she canthank you. ^M00:02:08 [ Applause ] ^M00:02:15 But the second reason to celebrate is simply having the privilege of welcoming Jessye Norman to the library and to hear her in conversation with the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. Both women have achieved great heights in their careers, and have amazing stories to tell. We have been looking forward for a long time to this evening. And we couldn't be more excited to be in the audience tonight. And now let me introduce Dr. Carla Hayden and the incomparable Jessye Norman. ^M00:02:52 [ Applause ] ^M00:02:55 >> Jessye Norman: Thank you. Thank you very much. ^M00:03:02 [ Applause ] ^M00:03:05 Hello, hello. ^M00:03:09 [ Applause ] ^M00:03:14 Wonderful. Thank you. What a lovely reception. Thank you very much. ^M00:03:23 ^M00:03:27 >> Carla Hayden: Ms. Norman, this is truly an honor. >> Jessye Norman: Oh, you're very kind to say [inaudible]. >> Carla Hayden: Truly an honor. And to think that your collection will be housed at the Library of Congress. >> Jessye Norman: For me, it's completely surreal. >> Carla Hayden: I remember. And I have to also give deep appreciation to Ms. Julieanna Richardson. >> Jessye Norman: Yes. >> Carla Hayden: Her program is called HistoryMakers, but she's actually a history connector. >> Jessye Norman: Yes. >> Carla Hayden: And when she made sure that we could visit you in New York, and Sue Vita, who just gave that lovely introduction, head of our music department, I've never seen her so excited. >> Jessye Norman: Wonderful. >> Carla Hayden: She couldn't believe it. And then you so graciously started to show us some things. What, what, what made you think about this gift? Because it's truly a gift to the nation and the world. >> Jessye Norman: Well, that's very kind. When one is going along performing, we're not really thinking about what's going to happen with you your programs and your information and your papers. You're just doing the work. And then to have someone suggest that they would like to have your papers, you think, really? Written all over everything. And it wasn't always sort of the best remark I could make about something. And people want to read that? Is that all right? But I soon became very comfortable with the idea because I think it is important to know, for instance, that I probably had written in the back of a score, the reason it went well, let's hope the performance is as good, because we were good today, or at an instance where I might have written, gosh, I wish we had more rehearsal. I've probably written that more than anything else. >> Carla Hayden: And so to think that there will be generations to come that will possibly look at a video or something of a performance, but then be able to see those notes. >> Jessye Norman: Yes. >> Carla Hayden: And make that comparison, or to say, wow, this is what she's thinking. Now, as a librarian, you know, I had a chance to reread your book. >> Jessye Norman: Thank you. >> Carla Hayden: And if we haven't, and I can give recommendations for something, so this one you definitely have to read. >> Jessye Norman: Thank you. >> Carla Hayden: Stand up straight. >> Jessye Norman: Stand up straight. >> Carla Hayden: And sing. >> Jessye Norman: And sing. >> Carla Hayden: And you said your mother told you that. And I have to show the inside cover of this lovely, lovely book. And she would tell you that. >> Jessye Norman: My mother would tell me that, you know, at age sort of five or six when one has a tendency to slouch a little perhaps. And actually she was a teacher, so she wouldn't have been happy with my sort of having as a title something that was politically incorrect. Because what she actually said was stand up straight and sing out. >> Carla Hayden: So, she was quite an influence. >> Jessye Norman: Yes. >> Carla Hayden: And so with that kind of, that phrase for you, what did it mean? Because you talked about >> Jessye Norman: Well, it meant, of course, you know, to stand up straight and sort of make a joyful noise when I was a child. But, of course, later on in life, it became very clear that standing up straight and singing was not something that only singers do, that there is so much that goes on in the world outside of our own disciplines for which we have to take responsibility as citizens, and that we have to protest nonsense, evil. ^M00:07:09 [ Applause ] ^M00:07:16 The lack of humanness, the lack of tolerance. I have to say, I don't know [inaudible] might be here, but there were many times when I had to rearrange my class schedule because we had to go down and protest the Vietnam War. ^M00:07:34 [ Applause ] ^M00:07:38 And growing up in Augusta, Georgia, I was lucky not to grow up in Southern Alabama or Montgomery where things were hot as it seemed all of the time. But there was enough reminder of segregation and Jim Crow's laws in the City of Augusta to remind us on a daily basis that we were not considered full citizens. And even at a very young age, I questioned that. There was an opportunity when I was very young, must have been, what, four or five, and we were going up on the train, my family and I, to visit our relatives in Philadelphia. And we were going to take the train all the way, which I just adored, I just love riding on trains. And at the train station, and, of course, there was a section sort of colored and white. And it was not a very busy day, and so there was no one sitting on the white side. And so, of course, I got up from my chair and went to sit on the white side. And I said to my mother, the seats are the same. And so then to be absolutely certain that I knew what I was talking about, I went over to the water fountain that said colored and turned it on and said, mhmm, and then I went over to the other section to turn on that water. I said, now, what is this about? Because certainly if the chairs are the same and the water is the same and we are all going to get on the same train, perhaps not sort of sitting in the same section, what does this mean? And it was explained to me very carefully that segregation was legislated apartheid in this country, and that even as a very young child understood that it was wrong. And I still think it is wrong. I know that it is wrong. We all know that it is wrong. But that we would have had legislation that would have decided that separate but equal was a nice idea. Can you think of any more stupid or useless? So, the idea of protesting against what I saw and understood as being an injustice was something that I stood and was doing at eight or nine years old. So, by the time we needed to protest within the Civil Rights Movement and refused to go to a restaurant serving, or to anywhere where the jobs that were offered to African Americans were only menial jobs, that you didn't see a person in a grocery store that looked like me. They would be a person that was either opening and closing the door or giving you your shopping cart, or, you know, saying, have a good day because they're helping you put your groceries in the car. And so when we decided, I think I must have been about 10 at the time, that there was a big store. It's still, it still is in Augusta. It's called the Fat Man's Corner. And it's a great big store where they sell all kinds of stuff, you know, all kinds of groceries. You can buy Christmas decorations in April. And so it was in mostly a black community, a black neighborhood, and but still, even though there were all these shoppers that looked like me, they didn't have anybody that looked like me that was at the cash registers. Or also to help you to find whatever it was you were looking for in that store. And so I was pleased to be a part of the protest against this particular market. And we stopped, for instance, a bit later on, sort of taking the Augusta Chronicle because it's still right wing, and it was even more right wing, you can imagine, in the 60s. And so we took the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. And so there were things that were done in a very seemingly small way that taught me that it was important to say, no, this is right and this is wrong. So, by the time I got to Howard University and the Vietnam War and everything else seemed to be on fire, it was not difficult for me to say, well, I need to go and see if I can take that class later in the week because I have to go down, I have to hold a sign. And even after that when I was a few years older and working in Munich, Germany, I always say that there will be no film found of my holding a sign against the Vietnam War unless I run for office. Then they will be found somewhere. There I am in a foreign country, protesting the Vietnam War, and there you are. I've never seen one, but I know they must be somewhere waiting to be used. >> Carla Hayden: I think there are people that would like you to run. ^M00:12:41 [ Applause ] ^M00:12:47 Now, in your book, and you talk about your mother saying stand up straight and sing, you talk about the influence of other strong women, and your mom being a teacher and education, you are surrounded by strong women that were in your life. >> Jessye Norman: Well, there were lots of strong women on both sides of my family. And I just thought that's the way women behaved. I didn't know that my Aunt Louise on my father's side of the family, who spent a lot of time going back and forth to Ghana, and wearing wonderful sort of dress from Ghana, I thought that was just the normal way that life worked. And another aunt on the other side of the family became a preacher. And she had her own small congregation. And she somehow became a bishop in Atlanta, Georgia in this congregation, and she wrote books about, about life and understanding of faith and so on. I just thought that's what aunts did. I didn't understand that this was something from which I was learning a great deal about what it means to participate as a full citizen in this world, and to try to contribute something, and to try to understand other countries, to understand the motherland, to try to understand Africa, and to try to understand what it must have been like, if one can imagine it, to be walking free on your own property and someone puts a net over you and puts you in the bowel of a ship where you're there for months and you're brought to a country and sold as though you were a horse, not as much money as a horse. I have to acknowledge, practically on a daily basis, the things that my ancestors have gone through so that it would become possible for me, and certainly lots of other African Americans, lots of musicians who say yes, I will sing that, thank you very much, but I won't sing this. And that has come from a legacy of people who simply decided not to bow down, that life wasI can't even imagine the difficulty of life in such situations. But somehow survival was the important thing. It's very interesting. I will digress in a moment. It is very interesting to look at the hundreds and thousands of spirituals that were written by people who were learning a language for the first time, and being taught by people who were not educated, so they were not being taught the language properly. Imagine sort of going from several different tribes and there you are on the plantation in South Carolina where you can't really, you can't really speak together. So, you invent the drum because you've brought the drums with you. You find that you can communicate with people from different areas, in different plantations, and that they would respond, and then somehow they oversee a system, and, aha, that's the best way of communication, so let's take that away. But then the humming started. And that went from place to place as well. And then enough of the language was understood to help the spiritual to come to be. There isn't anywhere in this world where I've had the privilege of performing where people don't want toit doesn't matter [inaudible] the four last songs, a whole cycle of music by Brahms or whomever. Could you sing a spiritual piece? There was an instance where in Japan we had done the four last songs, and the leaders who had done the same program, I must be crazy. And two people came down to the front of the stage and said, could you sing a spiritual? And so I said, his daughter just died. I don't think it would be theatrical together could sing again. But I did win that argument. And I never won that argument. But the legacy of this music is something that gives me strength. My grandmother particularly hummed and sang practically all day long. And as I write in my book, you could just about tell her mood and how she was thinking about things as to what kind of spiritual she would sing. And it is remarkable that now in my own life, with so many other things to do than raise 13 children as my grandmother did, I find myself finding comfort in just humming a spiritual to myself. It is crazy. It is in my DNA. It is there. It is inside of me. It has helped to make me me. And I am so grateful. I cannot, I cannot begin to tell you. And it's important to know this. I wanted to say in the beginning. In a spiritual, there is no thought of revenge, there is no thought of I'm going to get you for doing this to me. There's only thought of [inaudible] room. I'm going to be there one day. When I get there, I'm going to put on my robe, I'm going to put on my shoes, and I'm going to shout it all over God's heaven. You will not find one single spiritual that has malice. Not a one. And there's a thousand of them. That's a strength. And I am strong from that on a daily basis. ^M00:19:39 [ Applause ] ^M00:19:49 >> Carla Hayden: And so, how did you begin your professional opera career? >> Jessye Norman: Well, the way that I began my professional opera career, if this had not happened to me and someone told me this story, I would have said, oh, stop. By now, I was a graduate student at the University of Michigan. And I received an invitation, as did lots of singers all over the country, to come to New York, because a very wealthy industrialist from Cincinnati called J. Ralph Corbett had a wife who had wanted to become a singer, and for various reasons, had not become a singer. And she decided that Ralph can have American singers traipse all over Europe to the various 50 opera houses looking for work that since she and Ralph could afford it, that they would bring 30, 30 general directors from opera houses all over Europe to, what, to New York for two weeks on their dime where they would have to sit on a daily basis and listen to American singers. They were wined and dined in the evening. But, during the day, that's what they had to do. And I received an invitation to go to perform in this. And as luck would have it, it was raining, and I was wearing my hair in a different way. And, of course, by the time I got there, I looked like a wet dog. And so I was trying to get myself organized and to be, to look like I knew my music, which I did. And, of course, we were just, it was like a kind of, I don't know, sort of a chain of singers. You have a certain time when you're meant to show up and sing, and then you sing and you've got to leave. I mean, there was nobody that stays, saying, would you like to sing now a song? No, no. It was 12:10, so that was time when you were supposed to sing. And the door opened, and there you went out onto a stage with a few people sitting in an audience, and the pianist, with whom you were working for the very first time, you had never even met, and so I gave them my music and talked about the [inaudible] and so on, and sort of sang my music and sang my songs. It just happened that one of the songs that I loved most of all was an aria from Elisabeth Antoinhouser of Vaglia. And it's not the one that everybody knows. [ Inaudible ] Not that one. ^M00:22:28 [ Laughter and Applause ] ^M00:22:33 But the one that we singers know is actually more difficult because it calls for complete breath control. It is in the third act of the opera. And it's only accompanied in the orchestra by the brass. So, anybody who sort of sings this role knows that that's really the difficult aria. And because I was so naive, I haven't sang that since I was 21 years old, I sang that, and, of course, went, after I finished my singing, my time was up, so I went back into the little dressing room. I was going to bring my things to go back out into the rain. And at that point, a very tall gentleman came in, sort of speaking sort of wonderful English with a German accent, and he said, I liked very much what you were doing. And so I said, thank you. And so he introduced himself, and he introduced himself as Ignatz Waghalter, the Director of the Berlin Opera House in West Berlin, the largest opera house in Germany at the time. And he said, I'm just looking through my Filofax. Does anyone remember what a Filofax is? And he was looking through his Filofax and he said, first of all, he said, do you know the rest of that opera? And I said, well, no, but I can learn it in two weeks. He said, I don't think you're quite that fast. And so he was coming through, he said, I have a date in December, this was a date, and he said, I have a date in December that I'd like you to come and sing the whole role on my stage. ^M00:24:13 ^M00:24:17 At the time, the only opera that I knew all the way through was Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. >> Carla Hayden: Wow. >> Jessye Norman: And I wasn't being invited to sing that. And so I went back to my little hotel before going back to Michigan, thinking, what just happened? And before I sort of, you know, took the railway bus to go over to the, this was LaGuardia to go back to Michigan, I called my professor from Michigan, and I said, I think I have been invited to sing in the opera house in Berlin in December of this year. He said, what do you mean sing? ^M00:25:02 [ Laughter ] ^M00:25:06 And so then I told her the story, and she was as unprejudiced as anyone would be. And I got back to Michigan, and I said, what am I supposed to do now? I've got to learn this opera. Didn't speak German very well at all at the time. And because the Corbetts were unbelievable, they said, okay, we will give you a coach to work with once you've sort of gotten familiar, become familiar with the whole opera, and we will send you to learn conversational German at Duke University for five months. It's incredible. But that's what happened. And so I worked with this wonderful man who just happened to be from Berlin. And so we worked on conversational German. I did not know whether or not I would get to Berlin and find people that could speak English. I was going to sing a German role in the German opera house with other Germans. I thought it would be good to be able to speak with them. And so by the time December rolled around, I was very comfortable in my role. And I have to say for the singers out there, this didn't know at the time that when you're learning an opera role, you have to learn everybody else's part at the same time. So, I had been very busy. But at least I was comfortable in the fact that I was ready to do this for the first time on a professional opera stage. And I knew so little about being prepared once I was there and had the rehearsals and so on, I didn't have the good sense to ask for a rehearsal on the actual stage. All of the rehearsal was done on the prop stage, on the rehearsal stage. And you won't believe this. The incline was about 35 degrees. So, Elizabeth starts up here and she comes down here, so very happy to see [inaudible] and I practiced that and I was fine. I was, you know, okay with it. At 24 by then, you're not so terribly worried about things. And I was very, very lucky that the person for whom the production had been created about five years before, her name was Elizabeth Ruma [phonetic] and she was a fantastic singer and was a mentor to me for many years. And she was singing one evening [foreign phrase]. And I was having a rehearsal and she came and she said, I want to speak with you in German. And she said, now, no one is going to tell you this, but when you're standing at the top of the stage, no one can see where your eyes are. Your head has to be up, but look at your feet so there's not an instance where you're worried about whether or not your feet are going to trip over what you're wearing. Now, she didn't have to be bothered to tell me that, but she did. And I've been very lucky to have singers of just a bit of a generation ahead of me who have just sort of taken me under their wings and said, now, do this and don't do that. And I was very lucky to do that. I sang themy character comes in [inaudible] in the second act with that beautiful aria that everybody knows. And after the second act, I was in my dressing room getting ready to turn into my noncostume because they hadn't gone well with [inaudible] and so I was, I was going back to the, you know, place where I belonged in the church. And Zay [phonetic] Feldner [phonetic] came into my dressing room after the second act and said, this is going very well. I'd like to offer you a threeyear contract to sing in my opera house. ^M00:29:07 [ Applause ] ^M00:29:11 And so he has the contract there. Now, one can hardly read legalese in English. ^M00:29:18 [ Laughter ] ^M00:29:20 Now, I had studied conversational German, and I knew how to conjugate verbs and so on, but this was beyond me. So, I said to him at the time, thank you very, very much, but I haven't sung the third act. He said, I heard you in rehearsal, you're okay. I mean, this actually happened. And so I, I said something to him, mumbled something like, well, I'll take this to the consulate tomorrow, the American Consulate, so we can go through it so I'll know what it is I'm doing. My father had said to me long ago not to sign anything I couldn't read. And so that was the beginning of my personal operatic life. >> Carla Hayden: Phenomenal. >> Jessye Norman: It's nonsense, but it happened. >> Carla Hayden: Phenomenal. Phenomenal. And you've said that you never sing in a language that you don't speak well. >> Jessye Norman: No, I don't sing the language that I haven't studied as a long. The only language in which I sing which I don't actually speak, but that read, is Hungarian. I wanted so much to do a recorded with Pierre Boulez of Bluebeard, a Bartok. And I knew that I would be working with other Hungarians. And so I was working to learning the part in Hungarian, because I had done it in, yes, I had done it at the Met in English. And I had a teacher in Europe, in London, and I had a teacher in New York, and they both knew where I was in sort of my, my preparation for Hungarian. So, I studied with a person on the other side of the Atlantic when I was there. And then I studied with a person in America when I was there. And I was very lucky that I found a driver. Can you imagine? I found a driver in Europe who was Hungarian. I bored him to tears. Sort of saying, is this right? [ Speaking foreign language ] He said, well, that's [speaking foreign language]. It means Bluebeard. That's going to come up a lot in your singing, so let's work on that. But I was very, I was very lucky in that. So, I can read Hungarian, but I can't actually speak it. I can't hold a conversation in Hungarian. But it would no more occur to me to go onstage and sing a cycle of music in French and not know what I'm saying. I don't understand. It was someone who told me a few years ago that the National Association of Teachers of Singing are interviewing here, have come across the notion that singers are so busy at school and conservatory, that we have so much to do, that studying languages was no longer necessary, that we could be coached as to how it goes, how it sounds, and that that will go right. I hope today, today that someone was kidding me, because language is our way of communication. We're not flautists. ^M00:32:38 [ Laughter ] ^M00:32:45 So, in order to get our music across, we have language, we have words. And if we don't know what the words mean, how can you have the fun of changing the meaning from time to time, which you might want to do? Something as simple as the word, the words for, I use this a lot because it's very easy to understand. [ Foreign phrase ] I love you. Now, if you don't know which part of that is the nominative and which one is the verb, and which one is the modifier, how can you change? How can you not say [foreign phrase]? That's a completely different meaning to say [foreign phrase]. If you don't know where you are in the sentence, how can you have fun with it? How could you not enjoy it? You are going to hopefully sing these songs more than once. Please don't tell me that you're happy to come out on stage and sing the same way all the time, because that's the way you've learned it from your coach, and that when you say the word [foreign phrase] from eternal love, you don't really know what [foreign phrase] means. How could you do that? Someone sitting in that audience has German as a mother tongue. And they want to feel that you know what you're singing. And it doesn't really matter. I really do feel this very strongly. It doesn't matter if the audience does not speak French, does not speak Italian, does not speak German. If you are doing the words properly, if you understand what it is you're singing, if you're giving the proper meaning to the word, they will understand what is going on. I promise you they will. And if we put aside the understanding and the necessity of understanding language, then I think we've missed the boat. It is even more important when I think about it than a pianist who learns to understand where is the core of the body, the scapula of a down, my arms are free, everything is happening from the wrist to my fingers, I don't need my shoulders up and down, this is not participating. If you know how to do this, you can't play the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 3. You just can't. It's too hard. You'd be tired before you would have the second movement. So, those things are very necessary from a physical point of view, playing an instrument, because that helps you to convey this incredible, it's one of my favorite concertos, the second, I promise, to help you convey the music so that your arms are not flapping all over the place, sort of distracting from what you're doing. That is very important. What could be more important for a singer to stand in front of the audience and say, I have a story to tell? I know this story. I'm going to help you to understand the story, even though this isn't your language. We have to work harder. >> Carla Hayden: As your career progressed and you had those wonderful first experiences, were you able to say no? I think you were. >> Jessye Norman: Yes, I was able to say no as a youngster there in Berlin, because, you see, there were 80 operas in the years' repertoire in Berlin, there was a different opera practically, in some instances, every night. I went every night. I wanted to hear singers. I wanted to understand what was going on in this profession of mine. But at the same time, I noticed that there were singers that weren't that much older than I. Perhaps they were 30, a little bit over 30. But because they were singing a different opera with different requirements, too often during the course of the week, their voices sounded much older. And I was very concerned about that. And I was naive and improper enough to ask some of the singers, what do you sing in the course of a week? And you can't sing [foreign phrase] in the same week, people, you simply cannot, and survive it. And so I took from that that it was possible to wear out a young voice. And when I was, I guess, about 25, 26, by now at the opera house, and was offered, can you imagine, at age 26, to be offered a new production with some really famous conductors, some even more famous stage director, to sing [foreign phrase]? I had heard [foreign phrase] in that opera, and I knew what it took. And this was an experienced singer, another one of my mentors. And it didn't take a lot of courage, perhaps it was naivety, but I said to this wonderful man who invited me to his opera house, I don't think I should sing that. Let me sort of draw up and maybe you know sort of five or six, seven or eight years from now, that would be something that I sing. But please let me sing the handle opera that I want to do. Let me go on singing Donna Elvira and the Countess in [inaudible]. And because I wanted to be on the same stage with Birgit Nilsson I sang the second [foreign phrase] because we were behind it when it begins the opera with the noise. And we were kind of behind the scrim. But Birgit Nilsson is just over there. And in a moment, she's going to sing a duet with Siegfried, and they're going to end on a high C sharp. To be on stage and to hear that sound that close, I can still remember it. I think my ears are still ringing from it. But that was my experience in Berlin. ^M00:39:41 And it came more often than was comfortable for me to say no, sir, please, I really don't think I should sing that. I would just like to be a little older with a bit more experience, because I really don't, I don't want to wear it out. And I don't know how else to help myself. I didn't have a coach, a vocal coach or anything like that, sensibly, insensibly, or stupidly, in Berlin. And so there was no one to say, this is a good idea, that's a bad idea. I had to make those decisions myself. And there came a point in Berlin where I, again, with wonderful naivety, went into, I thought about it over the weekend, I visited some friends of mine that were teaching at the university in Heidelberg, and I told them what my plan was. And they said, you're completely crazy. And so on that Monday morning after having been with them over the weekend, I made an appointment with [inaudible] assistant and I said I need to speak to her professor. And she said, is there something wrong? I said, I don't think so. And so I went into him with my speech, that I would like to leave the opera house, I'd like for time to help my voice to mature, and then I would like to come back in some years. And in my mind, I thought he would say, oh, what a wise girl. And instead of that, he said, I'm trying to translate it into English, are you sure this is what you want to do? And I said, yes, please, would you allow me to do that? And he said, I don't think I have any choice, I think you've made up your mind. And from one day to the next, I was no longer employed at the opera house in Berlin. I had, thank goodness, a little work to do in London, so that's where I went next. >> Carla Hayden: So, what advice would you give young people now, singers, who, in this media culture, they have to think about stardom? >> Jessye Norman: Yes, absolutely. >> Carla Hayden: Opposed to musicianship. You made that choice. You could have gone on right then. >> Jessye Norman: Well, I find it very difficult. I knew that we, as singers, were getting into trouble about, let's say, when was that, about 2010, about sort of nine years ago, I was doing some master classes at a very wellknown wonderful school of music in the Midwest, and there were a lot of singers and we were just having a seminar at the time. We were not having a master class. And one sort of lovely woman stood up, and she sort of pushed her hair back, and she said, I want to sing, but I don't want it to interfere with my life. ^M00:42:44 [ Laughter ] ^M00:42:53 And as I recovered from that, I said, I think I need a further explanation as to what you mean. Well, I want to be able to live in the suburbs and I want to have a few children. But I'd like to sing as well. I said, well, then, I'm sure your church choir would be very happy to have you. ^M00:43:15 [ Laughter ] ^M00:43:19 But still better was another person, also female, who stood up to say, now, I want to, I want to really do this. I want to, I want to do what you are doing. I said, well, very good. And so she said, I want to be really wellknown. In fact, I want to be famous. How do I do this? And so I asked her her name, and she was called Mary Elizabeth. I said, Mary Elizabeth, I can work with you on [inaudible] from Mozart's opera, the [foreign phrase] operas. I can work with you on perhaps phrasing on some of the Schubert songs that you might be singing at this point. There are things musically with which I think I've had enough experience at this point to be able to assist you. But I'm not into marketing or press and publicity. So, you need to talk to someone else about that part. And may I please say, Mary Elizabeth, if you are serious about your profession, then this is the way to go, this really is not it. Because if you're thinking that I am going to do something that's going to make me famous, once you're famous, what are you going to do after that? And I knew at the time that this, what are those shows called, sort of The Voice, and what was the first thing that it was called? >> American Idol. >> Jessye Norman: You've Got Talent or something like that. And I realized that the influence of these television programs was making us all crazy, thinking that all we need to do is sing one song and do it really well and be sure to be dressed for it, that someone would hear us, and suddenly we would have a recording contract. That isn't the way life works most of the time. And so I would want my younger colleagues, and I now refer to them as young singers or something, my younger colleagues to understand that if you are willing to put in the work, that this famous thing, this success thing might just show itself. Preparation and opportunity, this is not original from me. Preparation and opportunity equal success. Nothing else does. ^M00:46:11 [ Laughter ] ^M00:46:17 I do tend to go on a bit. I'm sorry, Dr. Hayden. >> Carla Hayden: No, I ^M00:46:22 [ Applause ] ^M00:46:26 This is so enjoyable. I know all of you are enjoying it. But I'm justthank you for this opportunity. And that's, what was the impetus for your Jessye Norman School of the Arts, because you get a chance to work with young people. >> Jessye Norman: Yes. Well, my mother always said that if you can get the attention of what we used to call juniors, kids become between the ages of about 11 and 15, where they're no longer lap children, and they certainly don't want you to hug them in public, but they need those hugs, they just don't know it. And hormones are breaking out everywhere. We don't know what it means. We don't know what to do with these things. And all of this is happening within your body, which is growing in a way that you never expected, not quite so quickly. And she always said, if you can get their attention at that part of their lives, then they're probably going to be all right. So, the impetus for the school, I was in contact with a lot of people in Augusta, Georgia who run a foundation called The Rachel Longstreet Foundation. Rachel Longstreet is the youngest person from the Civil War who is buried in Augusta, Georgia. That was the name of thethat is the name of the foundation. And so they've always been there to help children. And so they contacted me because they wanted to talk about doing something in the arts for children. And because I always dream bigger than I'm sort of allowed, I said, well, then we need a school. We need a school for the arts, tuitionfree, where children, because we are allowing the arts to fall out of public school education, people, that we need to have a place where people who cannot afford to pay for a piano lesson, or cannot afford to pay for any other kind of instrumental lesson, or even have the opportunities to sing in a choir, that we need to have a school that encompasses all of the arts. We are now in our 15th academic season. ^M00:48:51 [ Applause ] ^M00:48:59 The children come to us for three and a half hours after school, their regular school, every day. We make sure that they're doing well academically. They have to audition and show some talent for some part of the arts, whether it's graphic art or dance or playing the piano or singing or whatever. And so we have photography, we have potterymaking, we have drama, we have scenemaking, we have music, of course, and just anything else that you can imagine that a person of the arts. We have a wonderful dance group and a wonderful group of faculty there. And what we have, aside from the auditions, is that we have contracts with the parents and the guardians so that whatever the students are studying with us, they should also study at home. So, this year, we have 100, I think we have 137 children during the week, and many more on the weekends. And then we have three summer sessions. And it just happens that we started out in the Sunday school rooms of the St. John Church on Green Street in Augusta. One of our board members, Patricia Knox, has a son who's involved in real estate. And she came to me one day, she said, I'm going to talk to Peter about doing something for the school. I said, well, that's wonderful. And a while after that, she came back to me to say, I've done it. He's going to give you the building across the street for your school. >> Carla Hayden: Nice. Wow. ^M00:50:42 [ Applause ] ^M00:50:46 So, now we have a building with our name on it and everything. It's like a school. It's incredible. >> Carla Hayden: And as young people, and I know the young people in the audience, they wanted to hear you talk about your life and your career, what advice would you give them about being able to give back to the community? Jessye Norman: Oh, I think it's extremely important. I love those children collectively and individually, because, first of all, they're so happy to be able to expand themselves in this way. They are so wonderfully supportive of one another. And, of course, their parents are overjoyed that they have this opportunity. I was in Toronto in February, and the foundation that was sponsoring the trip, the Glenn Gould Foundation, they were offering the recognition at that time, they actually paid for 12 of my students to come to Toronto. I mean, these kids had never had task force. And there they were with task force and everything. And I was so pleased to have them. They were going to study four days with students the same age as they in Toronto, which is a wonderful experience for them. And I was very pleased that our students were really very good. ^M00:52:08 [ Laughter ] ^M00:52:10 And I would like to say to anybody that wants to give back to the community that helped to make you, to do something, it doesn't mean you have to create a school, but you can perhaps give a few hours a week as a volunteer at the elementary school, at the preschool. They need volunteers in every kind of school. And if you've got a few hours a week where you can go in and help out with one of the teachers or whatever they need doing, that's, that would be a wonderful way of giving back. That wouldn't mean that you'd have to go out and raise money, which I do a daily basis. And it is, I feel, important. And I grew up with this. I mean, my sister Elaine is here. She knows that our parents were involved in what was going on in Augusta, Georgia all the time. I mean, my mother was at a polling station whenever there was something to do. I mean, she registered people to vote in 1965. I was a student. I came home from Howard University, and we went with her every day to the church to sit at one of those tables and to sort of write on the threebyfive cards the names and addresses of people who had registered to vote. And at one point, I think Elaine said to her, this was one of her years, do you have to go to the polling station this year? Aren't you tired of it? She said, absolutely not. And so there you were. I learned this very early, and I would like us to understand. It doesn't have to be a big thing. I tell my children, and I call them my children, that you don't have to do some major every day. But maybe there's a woman who lives upstairs in your building and she's not in her first bloom and she's carrying her groceries that are just a little heavy, just say, Ms. Reynolds, can I take these up the stairs for you? Or something that we could do, which always startles, I love doing this, being in an office building in New York City where everybody is looking at the numbers and nobody is talking to anyone. I love getting on there and saying, good morning. And without fail, someone says, she must be from out of town. ^M00:54:31 [ Laughter ] ^M00:54:35 So, be from out of town and say hello to a stranger. It would brighten your day, and certainly brighten that person's day. >> Carla Hayden: Ms. Norman, you have brightened our day. >> Jessye Norman: Oh, you are very kind, thank you. Thank you. ^M00:54:53 [ Applause ] ^M00:54:58 Thank you so much. ^M00:55:00 [ Applause ] ^M00:55:03 Thank you for letting me go on a bit. I've enjoyed it. >> Carla Hayden: Well, your gift that you are still giving, you give with the school, and now your gift of your collection for generations to come, sharing your life and your career to so many people, we can't thank you enough. >> Jessye Norman: This is so humbling. I cannot begin to explain the honor that I feel and the joy and the gratefulness, or thankfulness, that is within me to think that my scratched up papers and various things will land in this library. I discovered the Library of Congress when I was in [inaudible] at Howard University. I had to take two buses to get here, but I came. The reading room was wonderful. And imagine, as I say all the time, at age 18, I guess I was a sophomore by then, that you would come to a library to read and do the research library, and you would be invited to sit at a table, and someone would come and ask you what books you wanted. I thought the Dewey Decimal System and I had become great friends at the Library of Congress. But that isn't the way it worked. And so every time that I could, and was always preparing for examinations, I'd take those two buses and come and sit there all day in peace and quiet, not with my roommate, and prepare for one of the exams I love the most. I had a fantastic teacher. Doris McKenty was a teacher of lit, music literature. Doris McKenty, I'll just talk very, very shortly about her. Doris McKenty had the kind of mind where she would be in the middle of a sentence and she would say, for instance, the romantic area, the classical era is said to begin about civil 1750. And somebody would rap on the door, needing to see her, to have her attention, and she'd come back in the room and say, and we'd call it the end about 1827. ^M00:57:13 [ Laughter ] ^M00:57:16 How could you not want to prepare for that class? She was fabulous. >> Carla Hayden: And as you, and we've talked about the fact that through very generous gift, the Wellbornes have really sponsored and will sponsor paid internships for Howard University stewards, students, to work on your archives. >> Jessye Norman: This is wonderful. ^M00:57:42 [ Applause ] ^M00:57:56 >> Carla Hayden: And we'll try to get transportation. >> Jessye Norman: Oh, the buses work fine. It's probably a lot more expensive than 75 cents. >> Carla Hayden: Ms. Norman, we can't thank you enough. And I hope that you know that even though I've been sitting here and enjoying it, and I know that everyone here has enjoyed in sharing and letting us get to know you. >> Jessye Norman: Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Carla Hayden: Thank you so much. ^M00:58:22 [ Applause ] ^M00:58:23 >> Jessye Norman: Thank you. ^M00:58:26 [ Applause ]