2018-19 Guide To Yellow Springs

14 the Guide to YelLow Springs y 2018 - 1 9 Y e l l ow S p r i n g s N ews By Audrey hackett Acclaimed tenor Martin Bakari still calls Yellow Springs home, though he’s lived in New York and Boston for more than a decade. The 2005 Yellow Springs High School graduate remains rooted here through family and friends in the area, including his mother, father and sister, Maria, Iddi and Zyna, and the memory of his older brother, Umoja Iddi. Those roots are especially important because Bakari spends about nine months of every year rehearsing and performing on the road. “When I come back to Yellow Springs, it always feels like home,” he said in an interview last year. Bakari, 31, is an opera singer, a rising star in a competitive and demanding artistic field. He favors the term “theater artist” to capture the range of what a singer does to physically and emotively embody an operatic role. “Opera is theatrical, it tells a story,” he said. A graduate of Juilliard, Bakari, a singer Opera News calls a “golden tenor,” has performed in over 100 different operas, musicals, oratorios and concerts. Before beginning rehearsals for the lead role, Tamino, in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” at Opéra Louisiane in Baton Rouge in 2017, Bakari stopped home for an evening of conversation and celebration at the Little Art Theatre. Bakari was in town as part of the Little Art’s “Homecoming” • Submitted photo by Tim Knox Tenor Martin Bakari, who grew up in Yellow Springs and performed in many YS Kids Playhouse productions, is finding success as a professional opera singer based in New York City. Recently featured in the Seattle Opera presentation of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess,” he also starred in “Charlie Parker’s Yardbird” in Atlanta, a new opera about jazz musician Charlie Parker. And in the summer of 2018, he appeared in Cincinnati Opera’s production of Verdi’s “La Traviata.” series, which welcomes back successful Yellow Springers. During the event Bakari also sang selections from his new album, which was released by Naxos Records and is under Grammy consideration. Bakari grew up in a family that sang and played piano together, and he developed his own musical passions at a young age. Still in elementary school, he saw a group of young jazz musicians, Serious Young Musicians, led by Daytonian Tumust Alli- son, perform at Antioch College. “I thought, I want to do that,” he recalled. “That” meant play the trumpet, and he did, playing both trumpet and clarinet in school band. Former Yellow Springs band director Michael Ruddell was a dedicated mentor and key influence, according to Bakari. Also crucial to his early artistic develop - ment was participating in Yellow Springs Kids Playhouse, or YSKP. That came about quite casually, with founder John Fleming encouraging Bakari’s mother to bring him to audition. Six-year-old Bakari was cast in YSKP’s first-ever show, “Dick Tracy: the Musical,” in 1995, and performed with YSKP for the next six years. “If there wasn’t a kids theater in town, theater likely wouldn’t have gained my interest,” Bakari said. At 15, Bakari saw his first opera, Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” at Dayton Opera. Playing in the title role was Lester Lynch, an African- American baritone from Ohio. The experi- ence was riveting. “I thought, ‘people like me do this,’” Bakari recalled, adding that he has since with increasing seriousness, the clarinet. He deepened his musical skills at Friends Music Camp and other camps. As a high school junior, he began thinking about playing clarinet in college. Then his piano teacher Karen Gorden, a renowned conductor and musical director, made a quiet suggestion. “I would consider going for voice,” she told him. She had seen him in high school musicals and believed he had serious talent, according to Bakari. The suggestion took him by surprise. “It wasn’t something I knew I wanted,” he said, adding that Yellow Springs did not then have a school choir. Local resident Bev Logan introduced him to Rebecca Helm at Antioch College, who had training in opera and voice. Though Helm stayed in Yellow Springs for just a year, her influence was decisive. “She was an angel dropped down to teach me how to sing,” Bakari said. He got into several college voice pro- grams, choosing Boston University, where he graduated in 2009 with a bachelor’s in music education, followed by a master’s in vocal performance at Juilliard in 2013. As a singer, Bakari is particularly drawn to new music. Contrary to popular percep- tions of opera as static and antiquated, the art form is thriving, he said. New operas are written all the time, with fresh stories and innovative music. “So many operas are telling new stories about people who haven’t traditionally been written about,” he said. That opens doors for him and other singers of color. “I feel grateful composers today are writing operas for people who look like me,” Bakari, who is of Tanzanian and Filipino heritage, said. At the same time, music directors are casting singers of color in classical roles — witness Bakari’s appearance as the prince in “The Magic Flute.” Last year, he sang in “The Long Walk,” a new opera about a U.S. soldier returning from Iraq. Even more personally meaning- ful is his starring role in “Charlie Parker’s Yardbird” in October 2018. “To perform as Charlie, in a role written for tenor — it’s a dream come true,” he said. Being an artist, even at a high level, is not about being “the best” technically and aesthetically, but about something deeper and more valuable, Bakari reflected. “We’re communicating our humanity. As artists, we need to be in touch with that.” 1 y The ' golden tenor ' of Yellow Springs y sung with Lynch. Yet it was not — quite — a “eureka” moment. Bakari’s future still seemed wide open in high school. He loved sports, per- formed in high school musicals and played, Positive Perspectives, Inc. Counseling Centers Cheryl B. Levine, Psy.D. • Kathleen Galarza, Ph.D. Mike LeMaster, LPCC • Valerie Seibert, LPCC-S Ken Drude, Ph.D. • John Beer, LISW 390-3800 642 E.Dayton-Yellow Springs Rd.,Fairborn The Lotus Center, 4949 Urbana Rd., Springfield