A Stage for Success

Fall 2024 
Interview by Lynn Gosnell

A little over a year ago, Rice’s Shepherd School of Music welcomed Joshua Winograde, one of the nation’s leading arts administrators, as director of opera studies and professor of opera. Since then, he’s been busy — staging productions, auditioning students and collaborating with staff and faculty. We caught up with Winograde during his stint with the Bard SummerScape and Music Festival for a wide-ranging conversation about his new gig.

What were your formative experiences of opera?
The earliest and most influential experience was being given Kathleen Battle’s Schubert album [“Schubert: Lieder”] with James Levine at the piano. I had never heard a voice like that; I had never heard music made that way. I was 15. The single gift of that album was the tip in the direction that began what ended up as a career in opera. 

When I was a high school senior, I won a classical voice competition called Spotlight, which is hosted by The Music Center in Los Angeles. One of the prizes was a full scholarship to a summer at the Aspen Music Festival and School. That summer really introduced me to what a life in opera could be. 

Tell us about your unconventional path to the Juilliard School.
I had planned to go to UCLA, but the summer in Aspen made me realize I wanted to take opera more seriously. So, after my sophomore year, I moved to New York and started over as a freshman at Juilliard, earning undergraduate and master’s degrees there.

After more than 15 years in creative leadership positions at the LA Opera — casting professional artists and creating and directing programming for young artists — what led you back to a college environment?
I’ve always told students that they should “enable every opportunity” that even pokes its head in the room to see if they’re interested. When the Rice opportunity came about, I thought, I’m going to take the advice I give my students. As conversations went on, I was more and more deeply seduced by everything that Rice offered, artistically. And what they were looking for seemed really to align with my experiences. Also, Houston is a city I’ve long loved — since I was a member of the [Sarah and Ernest Butler] Houston Grand Opera Studio in my 20s. Returning to Houston with a family allows me to look at the city through different eyes.

We have an opera house that is the envy of the entire academic world. The students step foot on that stage and sing for each other on their second day of school every year.

The opera studies program enrolls just 40 vocalists per year. In addition to facilities, teaching and a talented student community, what do young performers need to be their best?  
Opera students entering early professional opportunities just after graduation need first and foremost solid vocal techniques. A great mentor of mine, Richard Bado [director of artistic planning and chorus director] from HGO, once told me that all the skills that a singer uses are only ever effective when they ride on the back of an excellent vocal technique. The Shepherd School clearly aligns with the vision of producing students with solid technique — in all disciplines.       

They also need high level exposure to directors, conductors and coaches who have their finger on the pulse of the professional opera scene. That’s a priority for me — to make sure that they’re constantly working with those professionals who know what it’s like out there in the real world.      

And these things need to happen in a professional facility. We have an opera house that is the envy of the entire academic world. The students step foot on that stage and sing for each other on their second day of school every year. And there are opportunities to be on that stage throughout the year. When students study vocal technique or language or musicality, those things happen in small rooms. There is something magical that happens when those skills are applied in a space that is conducive for professional opera performance. Whatever students end up doing within opera, the time they spent on that stage will inform that endeavor forever.    

You’re interested in bringing sports psychology lessons into performance training. What are some benefits?
I’ve learned that there are techniques that athletes use that are really applicable to performing artists. These involve weeding through all the noise and envisioning things going the way you want them to and enacting it. I studied this at Juilliard, and it was so transformative to think about performing the way an athlete might think about competing.

As a relatively new faculty member, what’s stood out about Rice and the Shepherd School? 
The generosity of the faculty with the students and with each other and the interest in different perspectives that we all bring to the table. Everybody I’ve worked with is open-minded and interested and curious. I think that Rice’s culture is the kind of bedrock that allows all of the different schools, including the Shepherd School, to thrive and collaborate in this environment. I feel so unbelievably supported in my vision for what an opera degree might comprise. 

You’ve held many roles in the opera world — performer, teacher and administrator. What is the throughline that connects these?
Yes, there really is a thread that connects them all. I find enormous inspiration in working with and providing opportunities for artists who desperately want to do this — who are not complete without expressing art in this way. And when I think of what those of us who love this art form can do to make sure that it exists, I think of making sure that there are future generations of excellent talent always in the pipeline.

When you do get a day off, how do you spend your free time? 
We are loving how living close to Rice allows us to spend so much time on foot and on bike, but on the days when that’s difficult due to the heat, there’s the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Children’s Museum Houston and rock-climbing walls — there’s so much for the family to do in town. We’re also homebodies and there’s nothing we love more than going to HEB Central Market and coming home and just cooking for friends. 

Experience opera at the Shepherd School firsthand with Handel’s “Alcina,” Nov. 1 and 3, 2024, in the Brockman Hall for Opera. Rice alumni and current faculty, staff and students receive ticket discounts. See music.rice.edu.