Voice teacher Marlena Malas’s home was one of warmth, hard work, and beautiful singing. Fresh-faced music conservatory students, and some of the Metropolitan Opera’s greatest stars alike, were welcomed into the Upper West Side apartment for their lessons.
The first port of call was the cozy, book-lined living room, filled with the sounds of the preceding student’s singing. At Malas’s summoning, it was time to enter the studio. The lesson would begin, punctuated by the housekeeper’s occasional delivery of a sandwich to the corner of the piano (Malas was not one to pause for a lunch break), an urgent phone call from Luciano Pavarotti, or an exuberant “bravo!” from Spiro Malas, operatic bass and Marlena’s late husband, who would cry out from an adjoining room at the sound of a particularly fine high note or melisma. Particularly cherished students would remain for a home-cooked meal, or even be invited to stay the night before an early morning flight out of the city. Singers came from far and wide, seeking both vocal, and personal, guidance.
Born in New York City in 1936, Malas studied as a mezzo-soprano at the Juilliard School’s pre-college division from 1951 to 1953, and went on to graduate with a degree in voice from the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in 1960. A performance career followed, during which she appeared with opera companies in New York City, Santa Fe, Boston, Miami, Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee, at the Marlboro, Casals, and Ravinia festivals, and in performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.
In 1979, Malas began teaching at the Chautauqua Institution’s opera conservatory, where she was eventually named director. In 1982, she took up a teaching post at the Manhattan School of Music. By the end of the 1980s, she had also joined the faculties of the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School. She remained at all of these institutions for decades, and had continued teaching at the Manhattan School of Music until this year, when she passed away on December 4, 2023 at age 87.
Malas also maintained a private voice studio and worked as a consultant and teacher at opera companies around the world, including the Canadian Opera Company, the English National Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program. Her students have gone on to award-winning careers, appearing on major opera and concert stages across the globe. Among them are some of classical music’s biggest names, including Susan Graham, Neil Schicoff, and Tatiana Troyanos.
Lucas Meachem (Photo from Lucas Meachem’s website)
A Malas lesson was unique in that the first half was dedicated solely to vocal warmups: a lengthy series of stretches, breath exercises, and scales to ensure the vocal mechanisms were all operating correctly. Grammy Award-winning baritone Lucas Meachem recalls thinking to himself during his first lesson, “This is too much warming up!” Now, fifteen years on, he is fully converted. He jokingly refers to himself as “the king of warming up,” having published a guidebook of vocal exercises, and garnered a social media following based on his tips for vocal health.
Malas’s approach showed Meachem the importance of a methodical approach to singing, and helped him to unlock his high G (a crucial ‘money note’ for a baritone). Before becoming her student, Meachem had believed his natural talent would carry him through his career. “Once I got to Marlena, I realized it was time to step it up and be more professional,” he says with a smile. Under her guidance, his career has flourished. Just this season, he sings at Los Angeles Opera, Staatsoper Hamburg, the Metropolitan Opera, and Teatro Real Madrid.
Malas’s unrelenting dedication to her students was a defining feature of her teaching. Not only did she avoid lunch breaks – she rarely took a single day off, teaching seven days a week, at all hours of the day. She frequently offered to personally lead her students through their vocal warmups before important competitions, auditions, and performances. Meachem recalls Malas warming him up before his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, a high-pressure milestone in the career of any opera singer.
Karen Slack as Aida in performance with Austin Lyric Opera (Photo by Eric Schlegel, from Karen Slack’s website)
It was this kind of generosity that made Malas such a beloved teacher. American soprano Karen Slack was twenty years old when she enrolled at the Curtis Institute, and began studying with Malas. Slack was brand new to the world of singing, and was grieving the loss of her mother, who had recently died of cancer. Malas was a mother of two and had battled cancer herself. Slack believes it was for these reasons that they shared such a special relationship. Malas was more than her singing teacher, she became a maternal figure for her. “She took to me not only because of my voice, but also because she knew what I needed,” says Slack.
When Canadian soprano Lyne Fortin showed up at Malas’s studio in the 1980s, she too was in her early twenties and in need of a devoted teacher’s care. She had developed nodules on her vocal cords and was worried that she would never sing again. She made the pilgrimage from Laval to New York City for a lesson, fearful of the big city’s dangers, and with a limited knowledge of English. By the end of that first lesson, she knew Malas would be her teacher for life. Fortin continued those trips to New York, and has gone on to enjoy a career in opera houses across North America. “With Marlena, I never lost my voice again,” she says.
Lyne Fortin (Photo from Lyne Fortin’s website)
Malas’s students describe her transformative effect on their singing in remarkably similar language. Fortin recalls many instances throughout her career when she would be experimenting with her vocal technique in a performance, and a vision of Malas would magically appear onstage to guide her. “I could see her about three feet in front of me and I was singing to her,” Fortin says. For Slack, Malas’s teachings appear as “footprints” all around her, steering her as she performs and mentors her own students. Meachem simply says, “She gave me my blueprint. She’s my architect.”
A great singing teacher’s impact goes far beyond producing great singing. The global outpouring of love for Marlena Malas in the short time since her death is a testament to this. In the words of mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, “It is no exaggeration, none at all, to say that I have had not only the career, but the life that I’ve had, because of her.”
