Nickell’s Bag

In recent Decembers, the Montana-based String Orchestra of the Rockies has made a tradition of presenting concerts that dance around the music of the season without embracing it full-on. This year, as part of the orchestra’s 25 anniversary season, one thing’s for sure about the SOR’s December concert: You’ve never heard holiday music like this.

That’s because you’ve never heard a voice like Jason Abrams’. Don’t believe me? Just listen to this:

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In the classical music world, the hirsute 32-year-old New Yorker is known as a countertenor. It’s a little-known voice type with a strangely appropriate name; after all, when Abrams opens his mouth to sing, the sound that emanates forth will run counter to what most modern Americans have come to expect from a male classical singer’s mouth.

Abrams sings in a pitch range commonly associated with women’s voices –  in specific terms, somewhere between the F below middle C, to the F-sharp an octave and a fourth above middle C. It’s a range that most men can reach only by singing in what’s known as a falsetto voice; and in fact, Abrams said the methods he employs to produce his beautiful, unearthly tones basically boil down to a highly refined falsetto technique.

“It’s a reinforced, developed falsetto, so that I can sing opera in this range without microphones,” said Abrams, whose tenor speaking voice would never betray his unusual singing range. “It’s a technique that is different in terms of production from other voice types; it’s generally a lighter production and it’s harder to muffle the sound – at a certain point the voice will just crack — so it’s a style that lends better to smaller halls, baroque orchestras; you don’t see a countertenor paired up with a Wagnerian soprano.”

Where you do encounter countertenors most often, Abrams noted, is in pop music. Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Smokey Robinson, Coldplay’s Chris Martin: These are singers whose voices reach well into the countertenor range.

The big difference: Those singers don’t need to produce much sound, thanks to amplification.

“It does require a good bit of training to be able to sing in that range and produce enough sound that you don’t need a microphone to hear it,” said Abrams. “But those singers have been some of the most notable singers in history I think; so obviously there’s something unique about hearing a man sing in this range.”

Indeed there is:

In earlier times, during the heyday of Italian Baroque and Classical opera, many of the men singing in the countertenor range were so-called “castrati”  –  castrated before puberty, to preserve the undeveloped larynx. Castrati typically sang the female roles in choirs and operas of the time, as women were forbidden to take the stage.

Even though the practice was banned by the beginning of the 20^th century, Abrams said he is still often asked if he is a castrato.

“That’s probably the most awkward question,” he said. “I just try to handle it gracefully, say that I’m not physically altered, I explain how I learned to sing this way. My hope is that people will listen to my singing and focus on the music more than, wow, that’s a man making those sounds.”

At Sunday’s concert with the SOR, Abrams will sing four works by George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach, at the center of a concert of music described by SOR artistic director Fern Glass Boyd as “holiday-ish, without being the usual music you might expect at this time of year.”

“For our December concerts, we really try to find music that embodies the spirit of the season without just being the old standards you hear everywhere at this time of year,” noted Boyd.

That said, the orchestra will perform one of the most famous “old standards” of the string orchestra repertoire on the concert: Johann Pachelbel’s Canon and Gigue for Strings – better known simply as “Pachelbel’s Canon.”

“That’s obviously a piece that everybody knows and loves — except for musicians who have heard it and played it a million times,” laughed Boyd. “Seriously though, it’s such a nice holiday treat for the audience, something very well-known and Baroque in style.”

The concert program rounds out with selections by John Rutter and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

But Boyd said she’s most excited about the music that she and the orchestra’s other players will perform with Abrams.

“It’s such an unusual and beautiful voice type, and he is a truly remarkable and gifted young singer,” said Boyd, who hired Abrams on the spot after happening upon a concert that he sang last spring in New York City.

“I’ve been here (in Missoula) 31 years, and to my knowledge, we’ve never had a professional countertenor come and sing in town,” added Boyd. “So this is truly a unique opportunity that I hope people will come and experience with us.”

The String Orchestra of the Rockies will perform a concert along with guest countertenor Jason Abrams on Sunday, Dec. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the UM Music Recital Hall. Tickets are $10 student, $20 general, available in advance at Rockin Rudy’s, Morgenroth Music Center, Fact and Fiction, and online at sormt.org. Jason Abrams will conduct a voice masterclass from 3-5 p.m. today, Friday, Dec. 11, in the Music Building Room 218. The masterclass is free and open to the public.

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