Musical Collaborations

Music Bridges Cultural Divide between Michigan State, Shenyang University

The School of Music delegation to China visits Tiananmen Square during their fall 2005 exchange trip. The eight students and three faculty members pictured here are (back row, left to right) Melanie Helton, Matthew Tuell, Lindsay Kesselman, Richard Fracker, Corey Rivera, James Forger, Christopher Austreng, and Robert Parks, and (front row) Cheryl Kaski, Colleen Papa, and Brittne Tyl.

What started as a joke between friends turned into a successful collaboration between two countries and two educational institutions. Haijing Fu and Richard Fracker have been colleagues and friends since 1997. During a rehearsal at the New York Metropolitan Opera House in 2004, the two men were chatting about their respective jobs and casually mentioned how much fun it would be to get their students together for some sort of collaboration.

Days later, they simultaneously went to each other with the same idea: a formal partnership between their two culturally different educational institutions. Fracker, a tenor and assistant professor of voice at MSU’s School of Music, and Fu, an internationally renowned baritone and a faculty member at Shenyang Conservatory of Music in China, decided to create a program where selected talented students could meet, interact, rehearse, and perform together in a professional setting.

In the fall of 2005, eight students from each school were chosen through an audition process. The eight from MSU ranged from freshmen to seniors, with majors in music education and performance.

	MSU students absorbed a bit of Chinese culture while visiting one of the emperor’s palaces in Beijing.

One objective of the program was to provide a professional environment where students could experience the life of a performer on the road. According to Fracker, students rarely get an opportunity to work under these conditions before they actually enter the field professionally, so an opportunity like this would be invaluable. “A benefit for the students was their ability to mimic the professional lifestyle, flying, rehearsing, and performing in a short time period,” he said.

Other MSU faculty members involved in the exchange were School of Music Director James Forger, Assistant Professor of Voice Molly Fillmore (mezzo-soprano), Associate Professor of Voice Melanie Helton (soprano), and Assistant Professor of Piano Marie-France Lefebvre. All faculty members held master classes in their host country and the students participated in workshops.

Colleagues and counterparts Richard Fracker and Haijing Fu in China, fall 2005.

The exchange began at MSU, when Haijing Fu traveled to East Lansing along with the students from Shenyang in early October. The Chinese students, most of whom stayed in the homes of music faculty members, spent their time in rehearsals, master classes, and social activities, including a barbeque at Fracker’s home and the Michigan State/University of Michigan football game.

The collaboration included multiple concerts at MSU and at Shenyang Conservatory. The first concert in the U.S. featured the faculty from both countries performing arias, duets, and the Rigoletto quartet, and featured both Western and Chinese music. The second concert was a joint performance including all 16 students, at which they presented both traditional American and Chinese operatic literature. The performances were then repeated for the Shenyang audience the following week.

Nearly 10 days after they arrived, the group from China returned home to Shenyang, accompanied by the MSU contingent of eight students and five faculty members. In between rehearsals and performances, the group was treated with trips to Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall.

	During the fall 2006 semester, voice students from Southwestern University School of Music in Chongqing joined MSU students in East Lansing to showcase their talent.

Both the Chinese and the American musicians overcame formidable cultural and language barriers during their respective visits. For instance, the Shenyang University performers, who typically sing individual recitals with little or no interaction with other performers or the audience, were initially a bit uncomfortable interacting and emoting in their MSU appearances, but quickly adjusted, according to Director Forger. And although none of the MSU students had any previous knowledge or experience with the Chinese language, they managed enough of it to sing after only a few rehearsals. And the Chinese audience was suitably impressed, said Forger. “The halls were filled to capacity both times and the applause was deafening.”

Fracker also believes that the collaboration was a great success. “The personal cultural growth was immeasurable,” he said, adding, “Lifelong incredible friendships have been made; there were many tears at departure.”

James Forger, director of the School of Music, and Deborah Moriarty, professor of piano and chair of the keyboard area, are pictured with (center) Jonathan K.S. Choi, president of the Sun Wah Group, and Janice Choi, director of Opera Hong Kong, prior to the opening ceremonies of the MSU China Office.

The partnership was made possible by the hard work of many individuals, including students, faculty, and administration, as well as major funding by Jackson National Life and their Asian affiliate, Prudential Asia.

A second collaboration between the MSU School of Music and Chinese university students occurred in fall 2006 when 13 students and faculty members again traveled to China and returned with a contingent of Chinese students and their teachers. This year the collaboration was between MSU and Southwestern University School of Music in Chongqing, China.

Opening of MSU’s China Office

	Voice students Yang Ling, from Southwestern University, and Lauren Auge, from MSU, perform the flower duet from Puccini’s Madam Butterfly during opening ceremonies in October.

Also, in fall 2006, MSU Provost Kim A. Wilcox visited China for the official opening ceremony of MSU’s China Office, which is located in the Chaoyang District of Beijing and shares the office building with Sun Wah Foun dation.

Approximately 100 people, includ ing School of Music faculty and stu dents who provided a musical interlude, attended the ceremony in Beijing on Oct. 10.