INTERVIEW: Dvořák’s Biblical Songs find new interpreter in Elyse Anne Kakacek
Photo: Elyse Anne Kakacek’s new album is called Formless, an exploration of Dvořák’s Biblical Songs. Photo courtesy of Fay Fox / Provided by artist’s press site.
Elyse Anne Kakacek has breathed new life into Dvořák’s celebrated Biblical Songs on her new album, Formless, working alongside organist/pianist Dr. Ryan Jackson. The release, which is now available on all streaming platforms, is the soprano’s second album, after Untethered.
“Dr. Ryan Jackson was my music director,” Kakacek said in a recent phone interview. “I sang in his professional choir at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. It’s a wonderful chorus full of soloists in New York that enjoy singing ensemble music as well, and in this chorus we do a rotating schedule in the summer where we have solo church service on Sundays. So I would come in maybe once or twice in the summer and sing the service on my own during the summer months, and on my first time on the schedule, Ryan sent me three of the Biblical Songs because they went along with the sermon for the day.”
Kakacek had never heard Dvořák’s Biblical Songs before, and she was so taken by the intricacy of the compositions. When she performed for the congregation with Jackson, she could tell it was a special musical moment.
“He and I both agreed that we needed to have that moment grow into something larger, so without a real plan in place, we sort of decided to schedule a recording session,” she said. “I had a friend who was starting a small label at the time who was really excited about the idea of this project, too, who was willing to record us for free, and we had the space in Fifth Ave Pres, the chapel, which has just beautiful acoustics.”
The team set out in January of 2019, and they spent upward of eight hours laying down the tracks and recording these beautiful songs. It took some time to release the material because Kakacek’s recording engineer was working on another project: her first album, Untethered.
“And we all had this sense that it was OK for these recordings to be on the shelf,” the soprano remembers. “No one really knew why. It’s just not time right now. It felt right to move on for a second, and then once quarantine hit in March, and I started having to really sit with the reality of not being able to perform and not being able to offer music as healing in a more active way in this really hard time, I remembered them.”
Now, amidst a surging global pandemic, Kakacek realizes that Dvořák’s Biblical Songs are more prescient than ever. The compositions are deeply tied to loss, grief, hope and faith. She also sees Formless as a unique way for her to connect with her fans during this time when connections in the arts are hard to come by.
Kakacek sees herself more as a performing artist than a recording one. She recently performed in the new opera Exposure, and she lends her musical skills and leadership skills to the nonprofit Frisson Films Inc., which is dedicated to the filmed expression of classical music. She also recently performed with Modus Opera and Orchestra, Baroquelyn and Bronx Opera.
Recording Formless and Untethered gave her a new appreciation for finding that perfect sound.
“It was an adjustment at first,” she admitted. “I’m a performing artist, and live theater has been in my blood since before I can remember. But there’s something really, really special about having the space to play with the knowledge that this is going to be something that is permanent in a sense. This is going to be something that can be replicated and will be the same each time the listener hears it. What do I really want to say, and how can I get really specific about the realm in which I am playing emotionally?”
She appreciated the chance to fine-tune some of her interpretations of Dvořák’s work, and of course redos are not possible during a live performance. Over those eight hours of recording, she strove to find the emotion behind the Biblical Songs.
“I wonder if we slowed it down for a second what we would get, or, now maybe we need to go in the opposite direction and speed it up,” Kakacek said. “And then it’s a very different and fun process in the post-production of sorting through all of that and really clarifying what serves the intentionality, what serves the emotion that I’m trying to offer or give catharsis to.”
She added: “You go back to that first initial introduction to the sheet music when it’s new to you, and it’s a series of clues and a puzzle that you have to figure out in the final step. When you’re on stage singing an aria, it’s very rare that you’re thinking about the markings on the page in the same way that you were when you first looked at it. In a recording, you kind of are because it needs to be grounded in the legacy of what the composer intended within the color of your interpretation.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Elyse Anne Kakacek’s new album is Formless. Click here for more information.
