Spotlight on Laura Choi Stuart, soprano

Allegro recently had the opportunity to chat with Laura Choi Stuart, soprano soloist for City Choir’s Bach Magnificat. (You can read her bio here.) As our audience will experience on November 19, Laura is a wonderfully sensitive interpreter of Bach, and many of our audience members have likely seen her perform with the Washington Bach Consort, a group she has sung with for over 15 years.

Naturally, we started with Bach! Laura says, “Bach writes about everything in the whole human experience. Every emotion is perfectly rendered, and it just feels so universal and very human. I love that. I think there’s never a wrong time to sing Bach.” She takes issue with the notion that Bach is too mathematical, or not a singers’ composer: “I definitely don't agree with the sort of idea, which I think is very widespread, that Bach is bad music for singing, that it's better for instruments and it's bad for singing. I think that Bach had such an amazing sense of humanity, and he also had such an amazing sense of text. There's so much musical onomatopoeia in the way that he writes. His music may be mathematical—it is perfect that way. But it also is, I think, very deeply emotional.”

Allegro asked for Laura’s take on the Magnificat in its original version, with the Christmas interpolations. She noted that without Movement A (the first interpolation, Vom Himmel hoch), the Magnificat has no chorale movement. Chorales are “such an essential part of the Bach experience,” Laura said. “I think if you are a listener or a singer, to do a whole piece of Bach and not get to do a chorale feels very incomplete.” She sees the Magnificat as festive and uplifting.  “Another reason I think the Magnificat is so enduring is that so much of the great choral Bach is really depressing. The Passions are beautiful and transcendent, but [the Magnificat] is so fun, and there are parts in it that are really almost silly. I always say the Quia fecit, the bass aria, is a straight-up Santa Claus aria. And there's so much fun music in this. It’s very special to do a St. John Passion, but you leave with your heart broken, whereas with Magnificat, you leave like—‘Merry Christmas!’”

In addition to being a sought-after soloist, Laura is also a dedicated teacher. She is Head of Vocal Studies at Washington National Cathedral, and also has a large private studio of adult students. She is passionate and generous about sharing her craft (as she puts it, “I want to sing with everybody!”) and has developed an amazing free resource with The Weekly Warmup—her YouTube channel, newsletter, and website—which offers a wealth of practical singing tips, hacks, and exercises for singers.

Laura is a tremendous advocate of singing for everyone. To the singers of the City Choir of Washington Laura says, “I can't think of anything more important in the world, honestly, than what amateur choral singers are doing. I know that sounds very overstated, but the fact is that people who are creating something beautiful for the love of it—that is just the highest achievement of what people can do. It's the best way you could spend your time. It's the best thing that you can do with your life. I can't imagine a better aim to apply yourself toward. So thank you, and congratulations on doing the best thing ever.”

Asked for the one piece of advice she would give to adult amateur singers, Laura says, “I would just say to take responsibility for how you sing. For every single singer, no matter what age, no matter what level of training, you are the only person who can make the sound come out of your body. You truly are 100% responsible for the sound that comes out of you. And it is absolutely within your power to change that if it's not what you want. Of course, there are certain limits, but we do have an immense capacity to elevate and alter our own singing. And the reason to do it is not because you should or because it's better for the choir, but because every time you take control of your own singing and give yourself more agency in the way that you sing, it becomes more enjoyable. And that's the absolute foundation on which I teach, which is just that learning to know your instrument better and use it with more facility expands your opportunity for fun. And that's why we are doing it. I think that everyone should sing the very best they can, because the better you sing, the more fun you can have. And so I would say have fun and keep up the good work.”

Allegro asked Laura about the performances on the horizon that she’s most excited about. The answer? More Bach! Washington audiences will be able to hear Laura sing the soprano solos in the St. Matthew Passion this March, when she performs with the Washington National Cathedral Choir and Baroque Orchestra (learn more here). “I've done the Matthew Passion many, many times—I’ve been in both choirs [the piece is written for double choir]. I've done it with modern groups and baroque groups. I was supposed to do the solos at the start of the pandemic, and that concert got canceled, and I had never gotten to do them. That was absolutely on my bucket list and I'm going to get to do it this spring.” She is also excited about a recital of Charles Ives songs in Boston this spring. “Ives was also a person who really thought a lot about how we live in the world and just what it means to be a person. What are we doing here? The music is very different, but in some ways that kind of sense of abiding faith, a really deep understanding of what is right and how to live, is very foundational in Ives's songs, just as it is in Bach.”

Don’t miss Laura’s soprano solos with the City Choir of Washington on November 19, and make sure to follow her YouTube channel for invaluable insights into vocal production—fascinating for singers and fans of singing alike.

The Weekly Warmup - Home | Selected Playlists below