Voice Instructor Nada Radakovich joins host Paige Tufford, to share her journey from professional opera singer to educator at Lansing Community College. Nada discusses why strong vocal and acting skills go hand in hand, and how she helps students grow as confident performers.

Resources and Links:

Website: LCC Registration

Website: LCC Performing Arts Events

Website: LCC Music Faculty

Nada's Bio:

Nada Radakovich, soprano, has enjoyed a successful singing career in both the United States and Europe. She made her Lincoln Center debut in 1987 and has never looked back! She has performed as soloist under the baton of conductors Leonard Bernstein (New York Philharmonic), Kurt Masur (Leipzig Gewandhausorchester), Aldo Ceccato and Gary Bertini (Detroit Symphony Orchestra), Paul Nadler and Greg Buchalter (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Richard Kapp (Philharmonia Virtuosi, NYC): Robert Shaw, Margaret Hillis, Lyndon Woodside, Robert Larsen, Ude Nissen, to name a few of her favorites. The soprano has performed over 40 different roles in the lyric-coloratura repertory. Violetta from La Traviata and Constanze from The Abduction from the Seraglio are two roles she loved to sing. Radio and television broadcasts include Natalia Petrovna, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, The Telephone, Abduction from the Seraglio, Louise, and Traummania. Representation in the United States included Dispecker Agency and Judith Liegner Agency. In Europe her exclusive representative was Agentur Ocklenburg (Hamburg). Ms. Radakovich was first place winner of the International Mozart Society Competition; first place winner in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition (both state and regional); and first place winner of the Brooklyn Renaissance Opera Competition. Distinguished baritone Robert Merrill presented her in New York for her first Traviata. She studied voice with Metropolitan Opera star Judith Blegen for many years. In Europe, Ms. Radakovich studied extensively with renowned soprano Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

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Website: LCC Performing Arts

Welcome to Exit Stage Left: LCC Performing Arts. Your all access pass to creativity, talent and stories shaping the stage at Lansing Community College and beyond. Places, everyone. Energy up. Okay? Let's make some magic. And now, here's your host, LCC Performing Arts Coordinator and Theatre Faculty, Paige Tufford.

Hello everybody. Welcome to Exit Stage Left. Today I have with me esteemed music faculty, Nada Radakovich. Hello, Nada.

Hi, Paige.

You teach quite a few classes in our music program and you've been with LCC for how long now?

Four. Four years.

Four years, wow. Seems longer. In a good way. In a good way.

It's been. These four years have gone by really fast and they've been wonderful. LCC is a great place.

Well, tell us a little bit about yourself. I know you have a very interesting background that you and expertise that you bring to your courses here.

So can you tell us a little bit about your background?

Sure. I spent most of my professional life as an opera singer and it was a great ride.

Due to a health incident, I had to wrap things up with my performing career and oddly enough, at the same time my father was getting older and needed someone there to kind of help out with this and that. So I came back to Michigan from New York and I'm very blessed that I had that time with my dad.

And then at this point I was in my early 60s and I was talking to a friend of mine, a very esteemed, actually radio broadcaster from Chicago, and I was saying, know, do you think that it would be too late for me to look into maybe teaching at a college somewhere? And he went, oh, nada. And I was just. That made me so mad that I just was like, you know what, I'm going to show you.

And then I just sent my stuff out to every school that had any kind of an opening and very wonderfully, LCC contacted me and asked me if I would come for an interview. And I spent a thrilling, I think it was an almost a three hour interview with some administration and faculty.

And shortly after that, then I started in January, like four weeks after the interview and have been here ever since. And it's just been terrific.

Well, that's wonderful. So did you spend most of your professional opera career primarily in New York or a lot of it?

I lived in New York City for 25 years and the last 10 years of those was split between Europe and New York because I was singing professionally in Europe and still had gigs in New York. So I was flying back and forth and yeah, living the dream, I guess.

As they Say that is super exciting. So. But mostly opera or all opera, opera,.

Musical theater, oratorio, operetta, you know, whatever project seemed that would embrace my skill set. And so I once did a straight play, let's see, it was called the Lunch Hour. What's his. Neil.

Neil Simon.

Yeah, Neil Simon. And I remember what a humbling experience that was. The poor director, he kept saying, would you come out from behind the couch?

And was like, I'm sorry, but for, for me that was doing a play without music. And so for me, a vocalist, that was so scary. And it was, as I said, a very humbling experience.

There is so much to be learned from acting just as an art form itself.

And that taught me, that was a great experience really because it taught me that you've just got to develop your acting chops to be on the same level as your singing chops and then you can be the best, most well rounded performer that you can offer.

And I really, and I tell my students, I tell all of them actually to try to get into one of your acting classes because they need, they need to develop that skill.

Yeah, yeah. I've had some of your students in productions, they love you.

They just love you.

Well, they love you too. And they're fantastic to work with, so. But you don't only work at lcc. You have some other gigs in Michigan that you have been doing for a while.

Can you tell us about that?

Yeah, sure. Let's see. I'd say my biggest time commitment right now is working as core choral master for the Flint Symphony Chorus.

We are an arm of the Flint Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Enrique De Mek is our fearless leader and he's wonderful. He's a great conductor, great musician.

And we do three concerts a year with the Symphony Orchestra and we do the Holiday Pops which is a ABC12 television holiday concert. And then we do a standalone choral masterworks concert. And then at the year's end we join with the orchestra.

This year we did the Daphnis and Chloe of Ravel. So amazing. That music is so great. And Maestro Demeck did a great job with the orchestra. So anyway, that's.

We have about a 60 voice choir in Flint and they're all volunteers and.

Wow.

Yeah, they're great, great folks.

I teach voice at the Flint Institute of Music and Mott Community College and I, oh, about 10 years ago now, I was very honored to be asked to assume the responsibilities of the Grand Blank Messiah. And so when the person who had been in charge of it before told me she just could not carry one more score of a Messiah around in her car.

If I would please take this over. I agreed to do it and then I sort of put together a little team and we started applying for grant monies. And now we are a 501C3.

Wow.

And yeah, it's wonderful. And we.

The first Sunday before Thanksgiving every year, we do with members, players of the Flint Symphony Orchestra and from five different counties, we do a Messiah production. And it's always sold out and it's always a thrill. It's just.

Where is that presented at? I mean, where is that performed at?

In Grand Blanc Right now we've had a stationary location, which is St. Christopher's Episcopal Church. That's on Holly Road and Saginaw roads in Grand Blanc, close to Oakland County. It's just magnificent that music is so great.

And the spirit of all of the singers volunteering their time to come and do that also is just magnificent. So sadly this year we lost our conductor and our music director for that and just going to carry on.

We've raised funds this year to do another Messiah and we'll be carrying on in Jeff Walker's honor.

That's wonderful. So you teach a variety of classes here at lcc?

Yes. Right, yes.

Concert choir, one on one voice instruction. Is that what it's called?

I think they call them private lessons.

Okay, private lessons. And then you've also taught jazz and vocal pop ensemble.

Yes.

And that's offered. Offered intermittently, I guess, yeah.

When there are enough students interested in it, they can offer the class. But when there are not enough, then they say, well, we'll think about it for next year.

And I'm always like, come on you guys, come out and get your Glee on and let's do this.

Well, I saw the concert choir performance because you perform every semester at the end of the semester for the public. And last spring I got to hear the concert choir. It was a small group, but they sounded fantastic.

Oh, thanks.

They were amazing. It was probably one of the better ones I've seen in quite a few years. So that's coming up and people can register for that.

There's also a community ed option for that too, correct?

Yes, yes. And we've had. Every year I've been with the choir, we've had several community participants and it's been wonderful.

The singers in choir work really hard and we have a blast. And Iskander Zakiroff, Dr. Dr. Z, I.

Think we call him. Right.

I always think he's like a radio broadcaster because of that. And today we're going to be with Dr. Z. Hello. But he brings so much his musicianship and he's just brilliant. He brings so much to our ensemble.

And the kids just work and work and work.

And you know, as you know, with every production you do there, those first few weeks of rehearsal, everybody's kind of just trying to get a feel of the energy in the room and you know, who does this and who, who does that and then they find a way of working together.

And I love it when I have a student or a choir member who comes in and when rehearsal gets done, they'll say, you know, I wasn't going to come to class today. And I'm like, well, I'm glad you did. They'll say, so am I, because I feel so much better now. And you know this.

Yes.

Once your mind is engaged in rehearsal, you can just put everything else on a shelf and you get to be in the essence of you and the art that you're doing and then you can relax and just be in that wonderful ethos and it's great.

Well, you know, that creative environment where you're allowing yourself that freedom to, to create and collaborate and interact with other people, it really does affect how you feel. And music especially.

Yeah. I mean it kicks off those endorphins. It does.

And it makes you feel happy and great. And so. Yeah, I know. I tell my students that too. I said, don't you feel. Aren't you glad you came to class? Yes. I loved class today.

I was like, okay, come tomorrow so people can register for concert choir. Yeah. Do you remember when that meets in the fall?

In the fall it's going to keep its normal time, 5, 10 till 6:30. But we are in the spring hoping to shift over to a noon hour choir rehearsal on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Okay.

And hopefully this will also then allow some faculty who haven't been able to.

That's a great idea.

Hang back, you know, hang on. Later they get done with classes at 3 and they're like, okay, I'm out of here.

But you know, if we do it earlier in the day, we're hoping that will accommodate more.

Great. So this fall at 5, 10 to 6 or 30, 6:30, and that's on Monday, Wednesday or Tuesday, Thursday, Tuesday, Thursday, Tuesday, Thursday. Okay.

So if you're interested, please get on the LCC website, look up classes to take. Also take note that there's a community ed option for that. So you don't have to be a music major to take the class.

You can just sign up for personal interest.

Yes.

Yeah. Wonderful. So I want to ask you about. I know you. You perform primarily opera. Do you have, like, any other genres of music?

Like, what do you listen to when you're cleaning the house?

Do you listen. In fact. In fact, my poor dogs, this morning. So I put in a second TV in my house like a week ago. I'm so excited about it. It's on the back porch.

And then I can really crank it up because YouTube, man. YouTube rocks. So I can crank it up when I'm working in the garden and, you know.

Nice.

Yeah. So this morning, my poor dogs, they just looked at me like, mom. It was, let me see, two hours of Bach organ music.

Eleven instruments, eight players, one video. And, you know, I had it on full blast. And they were like, why. Why do you do this to us?

What do you like?

Popular music? Any popular music.

Or maybe, you know, jazz or blues or.

I love jazz. I have always loved jazz. And jazz musicians are the most. Wow.

Well versed, brilliant, amazing players because they, you know, they look at a chart and then they do the rest of it in their head. And it's. It's quite a. An impressive skill set to have.

And Professor Gewirtz is just a walking living legend, you know, in my experience, and he does a great job with his students and he teaches them how to do. Do this.

It's.

It's quite something. There are several others on the faculty here who teach jazz and do a terrific job. I love jazz. I love big band.

Me too. I love big band so much.

And then sometimes I like. I mean, thank you for asking. People just assume because I sang opera that there's no other interest.

Right.

I love. What is that genre called? Do you remember. Oh, brother. We're all. Yeah.

That it's like a.

As I went down to the river to pray.

Okay. Yes. I don't know what the genre of that is called.

Oh, sort of like bluegrassy.

Bluegrass gospel type kind of.

Yeah, that's kind of interesting to me. Apple Appalachia.

Yes. Yeah.

Folk songs that way. I love that genre. But there's so much in big band area era that's magnificent.

Yes. I mean, I do like the big band, but I also like.

If you're watching those movies from the 40s and 50s where they're featuring, I mean, the voices of the, you know, those torch songs, you know. Yes.

That those women sing, you know, Endorsed Day. I remember, you know, I was a kid in the 60s and so I remembered Doris Day's TV show.

Oh, me Too.

And. Okay. And then gradually, her movies with Rock Hudson and Tony Randall, they started coming on the television. And then some serious movies.

What was it? Hitchcock's with Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day. And then. I can't believe she started out as a band singer.

Really?

Yeah. And she's from Columbus, Ohio.

Okay.

And. And, you know, a pet rescue person most of her life, but she started as a singer, and that's so cool to me.

That is cool. She was. Had a beautiful voice and was funny and a good actress, too.

Yeah. And went through, I think, three different fortunes of her own.

Yes.

So young performers, take a business class.

Right.

Know how to manage your money.

Yeah, yeah. Big time.

So going back to opera, you have to learn songs in different languages. Now, are you fluent in the languages that you learn the songs in, or do you just know the song translation?

Good question. So when you major in voice at a university, you have to. You have to take French, German, and Italian. You have to. There's no way around it.

Just like coming to school here, you have to take music theory.

Right.

And ear training, you have to. Which you also have to do at university. And there is a minimum requirement for those classes.

And then if you really plan to do it as a profession, you continue on.

You take three years, four years, and then once you're out in the field and doing and performing, you, you know, you start remembering your Italian, you remember your French, and most performers are very gracious and they'll help you. And are you trying to say, oh, yeah, that was it. Once I was in an opera production of La Traviata. For those of you who don't know, it's a.

The lady of the Camellias, the story and the composer is Verdi, and there were four different languages in this production. Oh, my goodness. I know, it was hilarious.

A few of us were singing in Italian, some people were singing in Bulgarian, some people were singing in German, and some people were singing in French. It was a scream. And I thought, you know, I heard of that when I was in school.

I never imagined I would be in a production where that actually went on.

Is it written that way?

No. Oh, just. They just decided to.

Well, you know, like, somebody dropped out, so somebody had to be pulled in at the last minute and, you know, somebody else was covering. And so you had all of these people who knew their parts in these different languages.

How does an audience navigate that?

Well, those who speak French were just like, yay, I got that line. Most opera theaters, though, now they have. What are they, supertitles or. Sirtitles oh, right.

Subtitles.

Yeah. So that helps a lot. Wow.

What's your favorite language to sing opera in?

Italian.

Italian, yeah. Okay.

No brainer there. And the reason is the vowels. There are just pure vowels in Italian.

When you're singing in English or Russian or Norwegian or German, you have all of these diphthongy, messy things that really, you know, it affects your sound, and you can't make the line soar. You. You have to be thinking, how am I going to make this word understood? So, you know, that's. It's a lot more work.

Okay. Yeah.

So Italian, la bella lingua. And it is the beautiful language.

It is a beautiful language. Do you. Was that your favorite, like, piece that you've ever performed? La Travietta?

Yeah. Violeta is one of my favorite roles. She does it all. It's a great role.

How fun. Do you consider that, like, your best performance?

I jokingly tell my students, well, it's not a joke. It's actually the truth.

But when I can tell that they haven't been practicing a lot and, you know, and I'll then put them through their paces even more and say, you know, you've really got to keep working on your voice. And then I realized they're thinking, you know, why should I do this? And I'll say, you know, I paid for my house by singing Queen of the Night.

And they're like, what? I'm like, yep. I had so many engagements as Queen of the Night that I was able to buy the house I live in.

Wow. Is Queen of the Night an opera or is.

It's from the Magic Flute. The role of the Queen of the Night.

Okay, okay. I'm not.

That's okay.

Very versed in opera, but that's okay.

You know, we know more opera than we think we do.

Yeah.

And it's really funny to me and to the word opera. It comes from operation and the juncture of theater, of play, and then music, the orchestra, and then visual arts all coming together.

That is how the whole concept of opera even came to be. And that's why it was known as an operation that became too long of a word, and so it got truncated into opera.

Wow. So did opera start in Italy? Where did it originate?

Well, it's kind of like the way theater did with a character, a public opinion character, and they were actually liturgical dramas, and then. Then song from that would be introduced, and usually the public opinion character step forward.

Yeah.

We introduced them then with vocalization, and then little incidental music started to be introduced into these Liturgical dramas. And then, you know, way back then, when we didn't have all of the things electronically that distract us now.

Right.

We don't. Just don't know if we're coming or going anymore. I. I swear. No, because everyone's just like.

But back then, you know, an audience, they would plan for this and they were excited and they would come to see what does Orpheus have to tell us?

Yes.

Or, you know, what's. What's the character Moses going to deliver? Who's going to sing that part? You know?

Right.

It has a wonderful history, and I'm so thrilled that it's still alive and kicking today.

Me, too. Now, you got started in education in your 60s, you said. Right. Teaching. So can anyone start? Like, if I wanted to be a singer, you know, I'm in my 60s.

If I wanted to be a singer, should I just stay singing in the shower, or should I. Can I take a class and learn anything, or is my voice too far gone?

That's such a. I'm amused by this question because someone from your faculty, your language faculty, posed this question to me last summer. They wanted to take voice lessons and just had no idea where their voice was.

They wanted to sing in a choir, and they came in regularly and prepared very well for lessons. And I think when the semester was done, they were like, I can sing. Like, yes, you can sing.

You know, I think to best answer your question, in your 60s, in your 20s, in your 70s, in your 30s, wherever you are, if your ear is developed that you can differentiate pitch, you can sing. If you cannot tell where you are, I'd say maybe look into oil painting or sculpting or acting or maybe acting. I have had actors who cannot sing.

I have done musicals. I had a Henry Higgins and who's talking it?

Yeah, yeah, we do that, too.

Yeah. I mean. And that's okay. Is it Richard Harris?

Yeah.

Yeah. He wasn't.

He wasn't a singer, and he talked most of that.

Yeah. And he was great.

He was great. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Nada. For being here. Is there anything else you want to leave us with?

I guess I. Yeah. Stay in music, Stay in theater. Keep performing. Do your best all the time. That's all any of us are actually doing.

And that includes your teachers and professors and directors. They're doing the best they can. We're just human beings on any given day and show up, show up.

And music makes you feel good.

It does.

Well, thank you so much. Nada. I appreciate you being here.

It was great fun to be with you, Paige.

Thanks.

That's a wrap for this episode of Exit Stage Left: LCC Performing Arts. We're so glad you could join us. And we hope you've enjoyed the show. To see what's taking center stage next at Lansing Community College, visit lcc.edu/showinfo. Exit Stage Left is a part of the LCC Connect Podcast Network. You can listen to this episode and others at lccconnect.com. Until next time, keep the lights bright, the cues tight, take your bow, and exit stage left.