DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Cecile Cooper newspaper clippings, 1966-1987 | 1972-06-16 ""Simon Estes: Higher, And Higher"" Page 2

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Cecile Cooper newspaper clippings, 1966-1987

1972-06-16 ""Simon Estes: Higher, And Higher"" Page 2

and recital repertory an increasing number of new and challenging roles and songs. "People talk to you ad ask questions, on planes and trains," he said, "but when they see that you're concentrating, they leave you alone. And it's possible to accomplish a great deal this way."

In Germany, there was one person who understood his  method very well. "Frau Herta Klust, an older lady, was a coach at the Deutsche Opera for years and an accompanist for singers like Fischer-Dieskau. She was very patient and understanding, and I learned much from her. One night she was playing for my concert at Amerika Haus in Berlin, when all the lights went out, right in the middle of a Schubert song. Somehow I knew she'd go one and she did, without a slip, and we finished together, beautifully, just as the lights came on again."

To gain more experience away from the main stem, Estes joined the Lubeck Opera, but two major opportunities came to seek him out -- in 1965 he was a prize winner in the Munich Competition for singers, which encouraged him to go further afield the next year to enter the first vocal contest within the Tchaikovsky International Music Competition in Moscow. 

It is now history that Estes emerged the silver-medal winner in Moscow, that he returned to the United States for civic receptions in New York and Des Moines, was tendered a White House reception by President Johnson, sang with the Boston Symphony under Erich Leinsdorf in a special televised Tanglewood concert, and with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. Interview, pictures, TV guest shots...

A hard act to follow: Estes has not gone the way of some contest winners -- the slowly unwinding route to obscurity. The acclaim was fine, but it was not considered the ultimate end.

This summer, Estes is off to New Zealand, first stop for performances of Berlioz's "Damnation of Faust" with the Australian Broadcasting Orchestra, a return engagement resulting from a single recital in Perth last February. He'll go on to Australia for concerts and broadscasts with the orchestra and solo recitals until the end of July, when he'll be back in the U.S. for performances of Scott Joplin's "Treemonisha" at the Wolf Trap Festival, outside Washington, D.C., Aug 8-14. 

(Estes has appeared several times in Iowa concerts.)

DMR 6/16/72

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and recital repertory an increasing number of new and challenging roles and songs. "People talk to you ad ask questions, on planes and trains," he said, "but when they see that you're concentrating, they leave you alone. And it's possible to accomplish a great deal this way." In Germany, there was one person who understood his method very well. "Frau Herta Klust, an older lady, was a coach at the Deutsche Opera for years and an accompanist for singers like Fischer-Dieskau. She was very patient and understanding, and I learned much from her. One night she was playing for my concert at Amerika Haus in Berlin, when all the lights went out, right in the middle of a Schubert song. Somehow I knew she'd go one and she did, without a slip, and we finished together, beautifully, just as the lights came on again." To gain more experience away from the main stem, Estes joined the Lubeck Opera, but two major opportunities came to seek him out -- in 1965 he was a prize winner in the Munich Competition for singers, which encouraged him to go further afield the next year to enter the first vocal contest within the Tchaikovsky International Music Competition in Moscow. It is now history that Estes emerged the silver-medal winner in Moscow, that he returned to the United States for civic receptions in New York and Des Moines, was tendered a White House reception by President Johnson, sang with the Boston Symphony under Erich Leinsdorf in a special televised Tanglewood concert, and with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. Interview, pictures, TV guest shots... A hard act to follow: Estes has not gone the way of some contest winners -- the slowly unwinding route to obscurity. The acclaim was fine, but it was not considered the ultimate end. This summer, Estes is off to New Zealand, first stop for performances of Berlioz's "Damnation of Faust" with the Australian Broadcasting Orchestra, a return engagement resulting from a single recital in Perth last February. He'll go on to Australia for concerts and broadscasts with the orchestra and solo recitals until the end of July, when he'll be back in the U.S. for performances of Scott Joplin's "Treemonisha" at the Wolf Trap Festival, outside Washington, D.C., Aug 8-14. (Estes has appeared several times in Iowa concerts.) DMR 6/16/72