Artist Profile: Vladimir Chernov
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Vladimir Chernov for seven years now. I met him when I was a freshman at UCLA, studying voice, and he was a guest Professor. I hardly knew what to make of him, the first few times we met, with his shock of silver, jaw-length hair, and his impeccable three-piece suits. There is an intensity and a grandeur with which he does things that can be unnerving, and as a Texas girl I had certainly never met anyone like him. The minute he meets you, he’ll look deep into your eyes and marvel at how wonderful or beautiful or talented he has determined you to be. It is the rare person indeed who doesn’t immediately like Vladimir. The UCLA voice students are drawn to him like magnets; we could never get enough of him. Hours would be spent regaling each other with affectionate Vladimir stories. Like the one I constantly tell of our first meeting. He told me I had a “face like Ancient Roman. Strong, straight nose, and tiny lips”. You just don’t forget something like that.
So my affection for the Maestro was instantaneous, and has grown throughout my years as his student. Besides a considerable amount of panache, Vladimir also has a deep and nuanced understanding of Old-World vocal technique. An art form that has been passed down from masters for centuries, Vladimir is a gate-keeper of that mysterious world, unlocking secrets of the voice for those who are deemed worthy. It may read like a bad sci-fi novel, but all you have to do is see him perform to understand that this is a man who understands something significant about art and humanity, and how they are linked together.
Mark Carlson asked me to sit down with Professor Chernov to discuss his upcoming collaboration with Roger Bourland, composer and UCLA Music Department Chair, on his opera-in-progress. Bourland has written a preview of this in Duarte’s Love Songs, three arias for lyric baritone and piano trio to be performed on the upcoming Pacific Serenades concerts on March 12, 13, and 15. The arias are sung by the character Julian Duarte, a young man who hopes to be the lawyer, agent, and eventually lover of Angela Peralta, a famous 19th century Mexican opera star (and main character of the opera). The libretto of the opera was written by beloved UCLA Musicology Professor Mitchell Morris.
After one of my lessons recently, Vladimir was kind enough to sit with me and discuss both the project as well as a few thoughts on being a performer and teacher.
Tracy Cox: “Maestro, tell me about this music. What has been your experience with the piece so far?
Vladimir Chernov: “The piece is at once very funny and very sensual. It’s coming along… I hope that in our collaboration, we will create something significant and beautiful. His music for me is very fresh, very unusual–as I told you before, the text is very sensual. It has very sharp feelings–it’s very macho, very childish, very sweet–all at the same time. I’m very enthusiastic about the music.”
TC: “In the end this will be a fully formed operatic piece, but in its first form for Pacific Serenades it will be performed in a chamber music setting. How do you think about performing chamber music as opposed to singing on the operatic stage—do you approach it differently?
VC: “It allows you to be very intimate, so the public can be very focused on the music and the expression. Here we have a very significant, complicated piano accompaniment. I believe that I should not consider this as chamber music–it is operatic. But in this intimate setting I will give myself pleasure to do whatever I feel emotionally, with Roger’s permission, and Mitchell Morris’ permission of course.”
TC: “I’ve had the opportunity to see you in performance many times, as both a lead on the stage of the Dorothy Chandler as well as a recitalist. Part of what makes you so great, if I may say so, is your powerful stage presence, no matter the role or setting. This presence seems to be created out of an intense focus that you bring to the music and the text. Is this presence something you learned, or something that you have always understood about stagecraft?”
VC: “Oh well, thank you very much for the compliment, you are too kind to me… It’s everything… talent is like a piece of stone, a diamond. You find a good diamond, but you need to polish it to make it brilliant. Singers have to do the same thing. Today, whatever I’m doing that is good and not so good, that comes from a huge pedagological approach–I’ve been learning from whoever I could, always. With age, of course, I have learned that to think about my performance is my responsibility–to know the part so well that I can see myself from the sky and ask, who am I in this? I become the person whom I’m introducing with these words. There is a cooperation between my personality and this person–and you never know where they are united. My idea is from the first moment of the piano introduction, to become this person–this is my method. My knowledge is enriched the more I am singing. Barber of Seville, I sing 200 times, but every time I want to do something different. Why? Because I am unstable? No, because I am working with different singers, different conductor, different public–my feeling, my age, my experience is different today, even different from yesterday. Working with this piece, I feel this character already by first reading–whatever i can do–I’m just, just pretending–because I’m an artist. And it’s never profound enough, never ever profound enough. But I have the privilege, at my age, to allow myself to not be so self-critical, because otherwise the artistry would be suffocating.”
TC: “As your career has shifted, and you’re teaching more and more, have you seen any difference in yourself as a performer?”
VC: “Pedagogy helps me incredibly. It does make me vocally more tired than anything else, so I have to be careful. But with teaching, I’m getting more creative I believe. It’s a great feeling. So I don’t want to sing too much, I am very deeply focused on teaching, and I don’t want to get distracted by singing…but then when some opportunity comes, I can’t resist, and I say no no, it’s too early to retire. As a singer, I love it. I feel that I still have something to tell people. That’s our challenge–all my life, all your life–to get the public excited, to hear interest from them. This is our goal.”
Tracy Cox is an American soprano who received her B.A. and M.M. from UCLA. She is currently a Domingo-Thornton Young Artist with LA Opera.
