Voice teacher Rhona Klinghofer puts life into music and music into our lives.
There was a snowstorm in New York City. Inside the hotel it was amateur night, and the bandleader asked the audience if anyone could sing. A little girl stepped forward.
“I was very young, about nine years old,” recalls Rhona Klinghofer, “and I went to the band and I said, I can sing. And they said, really? And I sang some show tune.” Afterwards, the bandleader had a word or two for the family: “Send her to Julliard at a young age. And my mother said, I sent the application in a week ago.”
Klinghofer says she had no idea her mother had done this.
From student to teacher
Rhona Klinghofer is a Professor of Music at El Camino College in Torrance, and also teaches privately at her home in Redondo Beach. But let’s not get so far ahead of ourselves.
“I started with the Julliard preparatory division, and I was a scholarship student,” she says, also pointing out that she studied with mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel. At 17 she was enrolled in the college, and both of her degrees – a Bachelor’s and a Master’s of Music – are from Julliard.
She sang Bach cantatas to Mozart’s “Exsultate Jubilate” and much more in Alice Tully Hall with the Philharmonia Virtuosi Orchestra of New York. With the Michigan Opera Theater she premiered “Singers,” by Charles Strouse, who also wrote “Annie” and other Broadway shows, as well as “Karla,” composed by Leonard Lehrmann and based on a story by Bernard Malamud. At the New York Shakespeare Festival she shared the stage with Keith Carradine.
Eventually she landed in California and spent ten seasons with Opera Pacific, the Orange County opera company that folded in 2008, prior to its new season. She also performed in many of their outreach programs.
“I was already starting to teach,” Klinghofer says, “because that was really one of my outlets for opera. I knew everyone and I could say, ‘Could I sing this or that?’” Furthermore, Henri Venanzi, the pianist who accompanied her when she gave recitals, and who was a fixture at Opera Pacific as well, moved out of state. Occasionally he does return, though, and the two have had engagements at Marsee Auditorium and other venues.
These days, Klinghofer does most of her teaching in her own studio. She’d previously lived in Hermosa Beach, but new neighbors apparently didn’t enjoy the constant serenading and she was asked to find new digs. I’m not sure if Paris or Vienna was an option, but North Redondo was and that’s how one coastal town lost a singer and another gained one.
Arias for the asking
Rhona Klinghofer currently puts together events that showcase her talented students, and she organizes them from the ground up. Last weekend she hosted an opera gala at Il Toscano restaurant in Torrance, and this Sunday she has another opera gala slated to take place in Inglewood.
With regards to preparation, “We work privately and then we have a big rehearsal,” she says. “Everyone likes each other; they have so much fun, and it sounds great.”
Sunday’s performance has ten singers, and I guess if I name one or two, I might as well list them all, right? Lauren Smith Woods, Ermin Cruz III, Amy Rodgers, Alexander Perkins III, Angaleen Molina, Robert Murillo Lopez, Anne Monique Pace, Stephen Clarke Doherty, Julia McDermott and Clara Veda Becka.
For the moment, there’s usually just piano accompaniment, and most recently it’s been Manuel Arellano.
“Eventually, if we keep doing this,” Klinghofer says, “I always like to add an instrument or two just to get a little more sound.”
These concerts began coming together about four years ago, when Klinghofer decided not to sing as much.
“You know what, everybody?” she told her students. “Why don’t you sing?”
Most of the recitals or galas take place locally, a lot of them at El Camino College.
As to how far and how deep the repertoire extends –
“What we’re doing now are the operatic favorites,” she replies; “art songs, musical theater. That seems to be what we’re happy with. From Mozart all the way to Puccini to …” – she pauses – “not even Britten. Nothing terribly complicated, just beautiful recital music people can relate to, that they want to hear sung well.”
What about Sunday’s opera gala?
“We’re going to start with ‘The Merry Widow,’” Klinghofer says. “With this particular program, we’re going to concentrate on the Italian, from Mozart to Puccini to the French repertoire – Massenet, Debussy, Fauré – and then we’ll go to some musical theater selections, ‘Sweeney Todd,’ ‘The Most Happy Fella’ and selections from ‘Les Miz’ – 35th anniversary. We’ll end with that.”
And we’ll end with that, too.
Rhona Klinghofer’s Opera Gala takes place at 3 p.m. on Sunday in the First Presbyterian Church, 100 Hillcrest Blvd., Inglewood. Suggested donation, $25. Reception following. 310-677-5133.
