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Movement inspires musical career
Kopperud’s career has included dancing, skydiving while playing clarinet
By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Staff Writer
A few years after earning a master's degree in music from the Juilliard School in the late 1970s, Jean Kopperud—a freelance clarinetist from South Dakota playing with small orchestras in New York City—quit a job making ends meet as a waitress in Lincoln Center to take on the role that launched her career.
In addition to performing,
clarinetist Jean Kopperud teaches a course that helps performers and
public speakers ease stage anxiety.
PHOTO: NANCY J. PARISI
Kopperud, an associate professor in the Department of Music, College of Arts and Sciences, was sought out to perform "Harlekin" by Karlheinz Stockhausen. The 45-minute solo piece for dancing clarinetist is so strenuous she got the role not only based on her reputation as a virtuosic musician—she went straight from earning a bachelor's degree from SUNY Purchase to studying in Paris under the world-famous music instructor Nadia Boulanger—but as a marathon runner.
"Signing that contract changed my life," says Kopperud, who began teaching this fall at UB. "I got a huge amount of attention, which led to other things in that realm. I've done everything from dancing while I play to theater roles to jumping out of airplanes with a clarinet."
Six months of preparation went into "Harlekin," she adds. "I stopped waiting tables and basically went into high-end athletic training. I ran 45 minutes a day and lifted weights three times a week and was in dance class several hours a day."
She also took classes in acting and mime, as well as spent countless hours learning the difficult piece and its acrobatic choreography, which ensured the music and her movements remained in perfect synch. She spent about eight to 10 hours a day practicing or in physical training, she says.
"I think I got to know myself better by doing that piece than anything I've ever done," adds Kopperud. "I discovered a different person."
The hard work and dedication were worth it. The opening performance in Toronto—she performed both the Canadian and American premieres of the piece—garnered "unbelievable reviews" and widespread recognition, including photos in magazines and a feature in Elle magazine.
The success of "Harlekin," she continues, brought about a collaboration on a two-hour, one-woman show with Tom O'Horgan, the director best known for his original 1970s Broadway productions of "Hair" and "Jesus Christ Superstar."
"We started making it out of nothing," recalls Kopperud, who hasn't forgotten her first brainstorming session with the "great" and "crazy" director at a restaurant in New York City.
"Cloud Walking," which featured footage of Kopperud skydiving, as well as original clarinet pieces, dances, elaborate costumes and crowd-pleasing humor, enjoyed a three-year run starting in 1988 all across the United States and the Great Barrier Reef region of Australia.
After years on tour, however, Kopperud decided she couldn't "live like a gypsy anymore," and in 1991 started teaching in the Music Advancement Program at Juilliard, which offers training to underrepresented minority students from New York City schools.
She later joined Juilliard's evening division, where she developed and taught a unique course called "On the Edge," which teaches performers of all stripes—including actors, musicians and singers, and public speakers such as lawyers and business professionals—methods to ease stage anxiety and "give 100 percent of their best."
"There's not so much of this kind of work in the music world," says Kopperud. "Music teachers in general focus on technical ability...so what I think happens a lot of times is [performance] skills are left out. Students are left to figure it out on their own. I think lots of people have slipped through the cracks because they didn't have nerves of steel."
In addition to private clarinet lessons, Kopperud teaches "On the Edge" at UB. The course incorporates the best methods she has gleaned from numerous acting and dance classes, as well personal tips from a life spent before an audience.
"The class has been one of the most wonderful teaching experiences I've ever had," she says, pointing out that the methods she teaches in class can impact all aspects of life. "I've seen some pretty amazing things happen to students when they start doing really healthy, focused work."
Although teaching has been an important aspect of her career, Kopperud emphasizes her main interest over time has remained playing new music. She plays regularly with five ensembles—including a longtime position in the New York New Music Ensemble—only one of which performs the work of "dead composers."
"Classical music versus new music sort of depends on what appeals to a person," she explains, comparing the genres to literary tastes. Jane Austen and George Eliot are wonderful, she explains, but she prefers lesser-known contemporary writers. "It's nice to re-read an old book," she says, "but I wouldn't want to do that exclusively...I play a huge amount of new music every year. A lot of it I will never see again, but some pieces stand the test of time."
UB's prestigious record in contemporary music dating back more than 40 years was a major reason she was attracted to the university, Kopperud notes, pointing out that the Department of Music boasts a respected composition program and an influential 20th-century composer, Morton Feldman, as a former faculty member. "This school has a very prestigious new music record," she says. "I felt like it was a fit."
An avid horseback rider, Kopperud settled on a farm in Clarence in June. "My horses are at home," she says. "My dogs are at home. It's quite beautiful." Although she still commutes on weekends to New York City to teach and perform in ensembles, she notes she relocated from the Upper West Side to a farm years ago.
"Horses and riding and taking care of a farm have been a wonderful addition to what's a pretty busy life," she says.