Watching her work with these young singers, I realize how broad and deep is her pool of reference. Dropping the names of theoreticians and pedagogues from several centuries, she scatters nuggets of technical information from Praetorius, Quantz, Tosi and others. Early music folks know these names, and have read their old treatises, but few of us have managed to absorb and profit from their wisdom as Julianne has done. Her library skills are keen, and she remains a legend at Stanford University for her ready identification of obscure 17th-century keyboard works on her doctoral exam. Many of the singers at the Amherst workshop are accomplished and experienced, but quite a few surprise me by their lack of preparation and absence of point of view.
Singers are so afraid to be original.
For whatever reason, there is a fear of standing out. I didn't always know what was going on, but on the other hand, I was never distracted by what I might have wished I was doing. Like Haydn, when he was stuck way out at Esterhaz , I felt pretty isolated, and was more or less forced to become original. We decide that, in contrast, today's young voice students have an excess of influences and interesting sources of imitation. We are now shrieking with laughter.