OPERA STAR GOES BACK TO HIS ROOTS
Howard heads to second SF Soul Fest from ‘La Bohème’
For opera singer Soloman Howard, getting a chance to get back to his gospel-singing roots is a rare and special occasion.
He will be doing just that today at the Santa Fe Soul Festival in the St. Francis Auditorium.
Howard, who just finished up a
two-month run as Colline in “La Bohème” with the Santa Fe Opera, is a renowned basso profundo or deep bass.
Hailing from Washington, D.C., he got his start singing gospel songs as a youngster.
“One of the biggest reasons I’m doing this is I grew up in gospel music,” he said. “That was my start, growing up in the church. Spiritual gospel. That was sacred music, Baptist and Pentecostal churches. So it has a special place in my heart. Most of the time, I sing classical music, so it’s refreshing and rejuvenating.”
Howard has performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan
Opera and the Washington National Opera, among many others.
And this year, he was named the winner of the Marian Anderson Vocal Award, recognizing excellence in performance by a young American singer “who has achieved initial professional success in the area of opera, oratorio or recital repertory, and who exhibits promise for a significant career,” according to the award description.
But Howard is a man of many talents and also is a percussionist, in which capacity he has played with local groups. So this was another way to reach out to the Santa Fe community, he said.
“It ingratiates me more into the Santa Fe community,” Howard said. “I love Santa Fe. I spent the past two summers here. Whenever I’m here, I want to get out into the community. I played percussion, sitting in with a lot of bands, getting to know them. But gospel music was the only style of music I did not really get a chance to do. When the opportunity presented itself, I jumped at it. It’s another community to connect with in Santa Fe.”
Soul Festival founder and organizer Madeline Wright saw it as quite the coup to get such a noted performer as Howard to
be a part of the event. She was motivated to reach out after reading an article about him.
“He talked about how much he loved Sante Fe,” she said. “So I contacted his agent and asked him to help us out.”
Although the festival could not offer anywhere near his
normal rate, Wright said his participation will help the event — now in its second year — gain traction locally and nationally.
“We’ve made a quantum leap,” she said. “We’ve already sold twice as many tickets online. Lots of people know of Soloman Howard. I had somebody from Hot Springs, Arkansas, call in May asking me to save them a seat. It’s really great. People are excited about hearing him as part of our concert.”
It helped that he was already in Santa Fe, so the Soul Fest didn’t have to cover any travel or hotel expenses.
Howard is scheduled to sing three solos — he declined to say what those selections would be — sandwiched between performances from the God’s House Choir out of Albuquerque, which sang at last year’s inaugural fest.
“Last year, the choir sang for an hour straight,” Wright said. “We wanted to orchestrate our concert to be about 90 minutes and Soloman will be the break for the choir, and then they can come back and finish off with energy.”
Wright, a retired psychology professor who started the African Dance Society while teaching at Houston Community College and moved from Houston about 10 years ago, thought adding African American culture to Santa Fe’s already eclectic arts scene was a natural fit.
“The community response has just been tremendous. It’s been overwhelming,” she said. “As a result of the success of the concert last year, we can do community service. We had a Black History Month dance contest and we offered cash prizes.”
Soul Fest also drew the attention of the New Mexico Tourism Department, which suggested it be moved to a larger venue and a new date to fall in line with Santa Fe Music Week.
“After our first year’s experience, now we can describe our gospel concert as a benefit concert for our community activities,” Wright said.