“CLA France was an enriching experience that I will treasure for the rest of my life, whose values I hope to find and experience again throughout my career.”
Fernando Silva Gorbea & 2025 CLA France Artists
Many a morning, I would wake up to go for a run and start my day, only to see a beautiful orange sun rise upon the mountains and wheat-covered fields of the French countryside. The dewed gold that surrounded the farm was soon to be permeated with beautiful music and singing. As I took a deep breath in sheer wonderment, I immediately thought of all the amazing things I was about to learn that day, and how thankful I was for this to be my very first time in Europe.
Sunrise in the Périgord Region
This is what it was like for me during my time in CLA France. Coming into this program, I had a good idea of what I wanted to take away from it. I needed to become more comfortable with the French language, find more precise ways to sing French vowels, and, in the process, be able to develop a more tailored French aria for my audition package. The result exceeded my expectations. For in the initial attempt to complete a certain “checklist” of what I wanted to achieve during the program, I was reminded during my time in France that there is so much more to be found as an artist with CLA. Raphaël Treiner, Hélène Blanic, Gaspard Brécourt, and Glenn Morton, like the four cardinal points on a map, were excellent guides for all of us trying to find our way in this ever more difficult career.
A local market during a group excursion
Raphaël’s kind and eager methods of teaching us French language and diction were a very refreshing way to start our day. The dynamic with him, as with everyone else, was one of connection and understanding. More than teaching us the knowledge, he would share it. We would show each other examples of great French singers and discuss their diction, while becoming increasingly aware of their love for text, which in turn inspired us to take our singing to greater heights.
Hélène took great care to make sure I felt the music and the text of a piece together as one. And at a time when I feel the pressure to simply “get things done” quickly and efficiently, Hélène gave me a welcome reminder that singing is an innately human art form.
Her emphasis on “the slow work, ” as she called it (reviewing the text, relating to the words, and developing a personal relationship through the process of learning a piece) allowed me to focus on the passion and humanity of singing through a much more honest approach. Remembering to ground myself in the artful humanity of singing is all well and good, but there are notes and rhythms on the page that put the “form” in “art form.”
Loella Grahn and Fernando Silva Gorbea
Gaspard was excellent at keeping me honest on that same front. Moreover, as a conductor, he was adamant on showing me different ways to interpret a piece based on its context in the opera, and how the intricacies between the language and the music can be consciously brought out in performances.
Too often, I feel pressure as an artist to function like clockwork. Working to understand myself and my voice can feel very overwhelming. During my time in CLA France, Glenn Morton helped me find tools to be able to clear a path towards better understanding myself. Glenn taught me volumes on how to work with the French language and how it naturally resonates in my voice, while also taking the time to understand my own wild verbalizations as I worked to apply his teachings. Even if we could not find the answer to something immediately, he would listen and work with me to find the answer that worked for me. As with the rest of the CLA team, the knowledge was not simply taught but truly shared.
A flower shop at one of the local markets
The overall dynamic in CLA France was very “horizontal,” in that there was never a hierarchical relationship between coaches and students, much less among the students themselves. We shared food, experiences, thoughts, ideas…all given freely amongst ourselves as artists, as equals. Among those experiences, as well as being my first time in Europe, CLA France couldn’t have been a better fit for me this past summer. The image of the beautiful art-loving country that I grew up hearing about was very accurate, but not in the way I had expected. The true beauty came from sharing all of it with other like-minded individuals who wanted nothing more than to connect, learn, and grow as bountiful as the beautiful produce in the markets that we had the privilege of visiting during our days off. Or to develop relationships as stable and strong as one of the thousands of castles in the region.
Fernando Silva Gorbea performing in the Périgord Region
CLA France was a beautiful experience where we were provided a space to make mistakes, to learn, to share dreams and struggles, and to be vulnerable…It was an enriching experience that I will treasure for the rest of my life, whose values I hope to find and experience again throughout my career.