DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Cecile Cooper newspaper clippings, 1966-1987

Transcribe
Translate

Cecile Cooper newspaper clippings, 1966-1987

""Simon Estes"" Page 4

SIMON ESTES continued.....Page 4

voice had settled down to a rich baritone, he auditioned for the University Choir and was told he "just wasn't good enough." He did, however, manage to become the first black member of the University's Old Gold Singers, a group of 24 which toured all over Iowa and Illinois, providing choral interludes for football games. Soon he was singled out as a soloist and came to the attention of Charles Kellis, who taught voice at the University.

Prophecying that Estes would one day have a great career in opera, Kellis taught him privately for 4 or 5 hours each day without accepting a cent of pay and, in 1963, arranged for him to receive a full scholarship at Juilliard, at the same time setting up a series of campus and church concerts in Iowa City by which $267 was raised to send Simon to New York. At Juilliard Estes became a pupil of Sergius Kagan and a member of the Juilliard Opera Theatre under Christopher West. He washed dishes in the school cafeteria, sang at weddings and funerals and worked the 5:00 A.M. shift on a building demolition crew to pay for his room at the Sloane YMCA and his food.

When he had been at Juilliard a year, Estes received a letter from a fellow-student who had gone to sing in Germany. It told of the special opportunities for young American singers in the numerous opera houses of that country, where there really was a chance to break in and sing leading roles without having an international reputation. Simon was dying to get over to this land of operatic promise. He applied for and won a grant for the purpose from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation. The New York Community Trust Fund gave him some additional money and the NAACP took up a collection in its office which netted him $200. All of this put together was enough to take him to Berlin, where an audition was set up for him with the Intendant of the Deutsche Oper.

He was immediately offered the part of Ramfis in "Aida", provided he could learn it in 13 days and go on without an orchestra rehearsal. He could and did with such notable success that he was subsequently engaged for leading roles in Berlin in "Don Carlo," "Salome" and Schoenberg's "Moses and Aaron" and invited to join the company for 4 guest performances in Rome. Subsequently he became a resident member of the opera company in Lubeck and finally joined the Hamburg Opera, which brought

(MORE, PLEASE)

Saving...

SIMON ESTES continued.....Page 4 voice had settled down to a rich baritone, he auditioned for the University Choir and was told he "just wasn't good enough." He did, however, manage to become the first black member of the University's Old Gold Singers, a group of 24 which toured all over Iowa and Illinois, providing choral interludes for football games. Soon he was singled out as a soloist and came to the attention of Charles Kellis, who taught voice at the University. Prophecying that Estes would one day have a great career in opera, Kellis taught him privately for 4 or 5 hours each day without accepting a cent of pay and, in 1963, arranged for him to receive a full scholarship at Juilliard, at the same time setting up a series of campus and church concerts in Iowa City by which $267 was raised to send Simon to New York. At Juilliard Estes became a pupil of Sergius Kagan and a member of the Juilliard Opera Theatre under Christopher West. He washed dishes in the school cafeteria, sang at weddings and funerals and worked the 5:00 A.M. shift on a building demolition crew to pay for his room at the Sloane YMCA and his food. When he had been at Juilliard a year, Estes received a letter from a fellow-student who had gone to sing in Germany. It told of the special opportunities for young American singers in the numerous opera houses of that country, where there really was a chance to break in and sing leading roles without having an international reputation. Simon was dying to get over to this land of operatic promise. He applied for and won a grant for the purpose from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation. The New York Community Trust Fund gave him some additional money and the NAACP took up a collection in its office which netted him $200. All of this put together was enough to take him to Berlin, where an audition was set up for him with the Intendant of the Deutsche Oper. He was immediately offered the part of Ramfis in "Aida", provided he could learn it in 13 days and go on without an orchestra rehearsal. He could and did with such notable success that he was subsequently engaged for leading roles in Berlin in "Don Carlo," "Salome" and Schoenberg's "Moses and Aaron" and invited to join the company for 4 guest performances in Rome. Subsequently he became a resident member of the opera company in Lubeck and finally joined the Hamburg Opera, which brought (MORE, PLEASE)