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Published on December 1, 2007

Thomas Meglioranza, a half-Thai, half-American singer, has a warm and distinctive baritone voice. He has established himself as a new force in the American musical scene with an eclectic repertoire that stretches from Monteverdi to Babbitt, from Schubert to Gershwin. He was a winner at the 2005 Walter W Naumburg Competition and the 2002 Concert Artists Guild Competition. From his home in New York, Meglioranza talks about his passion for music.

How did you come to like singing - I mean the classical style of singing?

 The first time I tried to sing classically was as a freshman in college. I had no idea about vocal technique, so I just listened to some recordings of opera singers and tried to imitate what I heard. When people told me I had a good voice, at first I didn't think much about it because to me I wasn't really singing - I was just doing an impression of a singer.

My choir director gave me some recordings of German Lieder. I instantly fell in love with it. Up until this point, singing was like a fun toy for me. But when I heard composers like Schubert and Brahms and Hugo Wolf expressing every possible human emotion and experience, I felt I couldn't just play around with singing anymore. I needed to devote my life to it.

How about your parents? Did you grow up in a musical family?

My parents aren't musicians, although my mother has a pretty voice when she sings along with the radio. I'm pretty sure my father is tone deaf, but he has a nice deep speaking voice, so perhaps I inherited my father's voice and my mother's ears!

In the privacy of my room, I loved to sing along with recordings of the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel or Sting. But I never sang in front of my family. They were very shocked when I came home from college one day and told them that I wanted to become a Lieder singer.

They are now extremely supportive and very proud of me.

You're a luk krung (of mixed parentage). Tell us more about your mum and the Thai side of the family. Are you proud of your Thai heritage?

My mum came to the US in the 1960s and was a physician in New York City until she retired a few years ago. She took me to Thailand as a child every other year to visit my grandparents as well as my aunts and uncles and cousins.

I am very proud to be Thai. I wish I spoke Thai better. Of childhood visits to Thailand, I mainly remember the long plane ride, the scary food [I would only eat scrambled eggs and rice], and the jingjoks [lizards] on the walls. But as I got older I grew to appreciate the beauty of Thailand and my family's culture, and realised that I felt very comfortable and "at home" around Thai people.

How did you develop your baritone style? What school did you go to and who were your most influential teachers?

I finished my undergraduate degree at Grinnell College in Iowa. I practised and studied like a madman there - probably much more so than if I had been at a conservatory. I spent two summers studying at the UC Santa Barbara Summer Vocal Institute with Elizabeth Mannion, who was [American opera singer] Jessye Norman's teacher. Then I went to the Eastman School of Music for my master's degree, where I studied with Carol Webber. After Eastman, I moved to NYC and studied with Beverley Johnson, who was then in her 90s and was a teacher of Renata Tebaldi and Renée Fleming. Last year I began studying with Fred Carama.

How is your singing career going?

From 2002 to 2005, I won several international singing competitions that gave my career a big boost. In 2005 I gave more than 30 performances, and in 2006 I performed at least 45 times, which is actually almost too much. Last year I began working with Columbia Artists Management, Inc, and one of our goals is to add more opera to my life. My new CD, "Schubert Songs" is my "official debut solo recital recording" [to use PR-speak], but I've already sung on several CDs.

Can you tell us a little bit about the CD...

Pianist Reiko Uchida and I have been doing a lot of recitals over the past several years, and on almost every programme we include a group of Schubert songs. This CD represents a few of our favourites from the many dozens of his songs we have performed.

Have you been on tour internationally? How about a performance in Bangkok?

I've performed in Prague, Austria, Panama, Puerto Rico, Japan, and have a concert in Australia this season, as well as a big debut recital in London in June 2008.

I'd like to sing more in Thailand, and have been excited to hear that the classical community there seems to be thriving. The last time I sang there was in 1999.

What's your ultimate goal in your singing career?

What motivates me is my own curiosity and love for the music, my desire to always become a better musician, to use my voice with ever-more freedom and efficiency, to more deeply understand the meaning of what I'm singing, and of course, to communicate with listeners.

Do you do anything else apart from singing?

I spend several hours each day cooking. I go running almost every day in Central Park. I like crosswords, Scrabble and word games in general.

Thanong Khanthong

 The Nation