Graduate student combines love of learning with opera singing

Maria Whitcomb can often be found in the nearest cafe reading Willa Cather’s “The Song of the Lark,” a novel that follows a girl as she breaks away from her tough, wild-west upbringing and becomes an opera singer.

Whitcomb, a graduate student in the Janklow Arts Leadership Program and a graduate of the Setnor School of Music, is an opera singer herself.

Whitcomb joined choir when she was six years old, and has been taking piano lessons since she was five, although she jokes that she is not as nearly as good as someone with that many years of lessons should be. When she was 12, she joined her middle school band.

“I loved music because it was where I could get away and it’s where I felt accepted,” Whitcomb said.

But it was singing that came the easiest to Whitcomb — where she felt most free. Throughout high school she dabbled in jazz and classical music, along with musical theater, but her choir instructor insisted she had to pick one genre to be her only focus. Her teacher said if she focused on more than one genre she could never become as good as she wanted to be.

Classical music was where Whitcomb was thriving, and she admired three older students that sung opera. Therefore, she decided to tilt her focus on opera music. She quickly fell in love with the sincerity of opera and the stories behind each musical piece.

“The stories are old and outdated and cliche, but they’re all so real,” Whitcomb said. “It teaches you a lot about humanity. Everyone is relatable if you look close enough.”

Since high school, Whitcomb has grown as a singer in all aspects. She realized that although focusing on vocals is important, it’s equally important for her to educate herself on the business and communications aspect of singing. That’s why as an undergrad, she became a music industry minor, and is now taking classes at both the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

With the increased focus on professional classes in her graduate years, Whitcomb was scared that singing would be put on the backburner. However, she still practices everyday and has auditions around the area lined up, although she is tight-lipped about what these auditions are for.

Whitcomb did admit that she is performing in a competition coming up that she knows she has to step up her game for. She sung at the contest last year in a lower age division, and scored second place in a close race.

In addition to her university commitments, Whitcomb also sings with Syracuse Opera. Whitcomb will be performing in “Rigoletto” in February, where she has a solo singing part for the first time. She was in the chorus for two productions put on by the Syracuse Opera last year, “My Fair Lady” and “La Boheme.”

“It’s only three lines but it’s three lines with a professional opera company and I’m 22, so I don’t feel so horrible about myself,” Whitcomb said, explaining that pressure to succeed can be overwhelming in modern day.

Heidi Synn, Whitcomb’s friend in the Setnor School of Music, also works with the Syracuse Opera. She said she feels the same societal pressure to compete against Whitcomb, but does not let it get in the way of their friendship. Instead, she sees Whitcomb as a mentor, one who gives the most practical advice for particular situations, and a person who would drop anything they’re doing if she needed assistance.

“It’s like a give and take situation. We give each other a talk of motivation or inspiration incorporating the aspects of what each of us have a strong point in singing,” Synn said. “Then we both take that as an encouragement to do the best we can in whatever challenge that comes our way.”

Surprisingly, competitions and professional performances are not Whitcomb’s biggest challenges. Besides having to perform solo in languages including French, German, Italian and Russian, Whitcomb had to perform two recitals last year, both about an hour long. For her capstone recital, Whitcomb knew she really wanted to push the limits and get creative.

Whitcomb decided to transform her favorite poet’s work, Emily Dickinson, into opera form. But it didn’t stop there. As opposed to just standing at the piano, Whitcomb decided to encompass Dickinson through costume, props, and a stage setting.

Russian literature professor Patricia Burak can testify to this out of the box, perspective-expanding thought process that Whitcomb exemplifies. Having had Whitcomb in her class twice, Burak remembers how Whitcomb would be able to not just read a story from the surface layer, but really dive in deep, and look at the complex Russian literature pieces from all different points of view.

Whitcomb said if you have more than one skill, you owe it to yourself to develop them all the way through. Musical performance consists of intellectual, physical and technical components, and to excel in music, you must excel in all of these areas.

“Talent can only get you so far. I think talent is essential and you do need it, but the degree to which you have talent doesn’t matter unless you’re willing to put in the work behind it,” she said.