T-burg alumni collab with TCFA for virtual concert

On Feb. 27, Geoffrey Peterson’s virtual concert “Songs of Separation” premiered on the Trumansburg Conservatory of Fine Arts’ (TCFA) website. The 30-minute performance bridges old music with new and includes the works of some familiar poets, all sung in classical and opera styles.

The final product was months in the making and the brainchild of Peterson, a native T-burger currently living in Houston, Texas. Peterson is a lyric baritone and member of the Houston Grand Opera Chorus. He’s also a teaching artist, working within the community to build social and emotional learning through music.

“My whole mission as a classical singer is to build representation and to create a platform for more people of color to be welcomed into this industry,” Peterson said. “Houston has a huge African American community, and I know we can absolutely reach those communities — don’t let anybody tell you that those people don’t want to come to the opera.”

During the pandemic, Peterson traveled back and forth between Texas and Trumansburg. Last summer, while waiting for his next gig to begin in Houston, he decided to plan a project for his hometown. “Songs of Separation” consists of five love poems by different authors, including one by Langston Hughs, set to original music by African American composer William Grant Still.

“I absolutely fell in love with it,” Peterson said of the recording he found on YouTube. “I was trying to find something that comes from the Black perspective, and I wondered how I could take this eight-minute concert and blow it up.”

The entire performance includes 11 songs, with just a few seconds in between each one. Peterson is accompanied by pianist Richard Montgomery, and the video and audio were recorded in the Conservatory building.

It begins with older spirituals, moving into the five poems, and finishes with contemporary music. Peterson said it’s a journey through the history of Black music in America and a performance he has been envisioning for a long time.

“It’s about not only showing the diversity in classical music but the diversity within African American music,” Peterson said. “We are more than just a traumatic experience. We are more than just slave songs. We write about love, hope, fear, anger. I think it’s really important to show that there’s more to us than what’s usually presented in film and music.”

Chris Ploss, sound engineer for the project, said the performance had a big effect on him.

“I’ve been exposed to opera, but it had been a while since I’d heard it live,” Ploss said. “Man, his performance, I was nearly moved to tears in the room. And later editing it, I was moved to tears. It was so beautiful and powerful. When people experience the concert, they’ll gain new appreciation for it even if opera isn’t their thing. He was singing with his heart and soul.”

Ploss, also a T-burg grad just a few years older than Peterson, owns and operates Sunwood Recording, a full-service recording studio in Trumansburg. He set up two microphones for the performance while Mark Costa of TCFA recorded the video.

“For classical music recording, the idea is to capture it as best you can and then not tweak it later,” Ploss said. “You want it to be really pure. I let Geoff do all the work. What you see and hear is what happened in the room.”

Ploss is a multi-instrumentalist and very active in the local music scene and has been recording music for the past decade out of apartments and on location. In 2018, his parents installed solar panels to an old chicken coop barn, and the once dusty, dirty building got a cleanup and some structural reinforcements. Ploss said after that, the studio was born.

“When I first walked up there after they did the work, that was kind of the ‘a-ha’ moment for me,” Ploss said of his eventual recording space. “The lightbulb went off for me that this could become something.”

They added insulation to the walls and glass to the windows, kicked the birds out of the rafters and hooked up electricity. The building is now a warm, sun-drenched space and has heard the sounds of local musicians including Richie Stearns, Neal Massa, Laila Belle, Lora Pendleton and many more.

“Ithaca’s a really vibrant music town. There’s a lot of really talented musicians, a lot of bands, venues and shows, a lot of creative people,” Ploss said. “There is a demand. There is a need for recording services. I also have clients who travel from Buffalo and NYC, so there are people from all over who come to this area to record.”

Since he’s a musician himself, Ploss said he has a unique perspective on what people might be looking for in a recording session.

“Some music engineers aren’t musicians,” Ploss said. “They know a lot about the science and math of sound waves but might not necessarily know, ‘What if you tried a B-natural instead of a B-flat in this part?’ I can really dive into the musical side of it as well as the technical side.”

Ploss said that at the beginning of the pandemic, business slowed down a lot. But from last summer until now, the studio has been busier than ever.

“As the pandemic wore on, I think people found themselves with more time at home and had a lot of creative energy that they wanted to channel,” Ploss said. “It gave a lot of people, who normally have a lot more work to do, time to spend on their art.”

Both Ploss and Peterson said it was a pleasure to work with someone they knew from their youth and commented on how important music is right now.

“Music is so powerful, and the fact that people can’t go out to concerts right now, this is the next best thing,” Ploss said.
View the concert at tburgconservatory.org and learn more about Sunwood Recording at sunwoodrecording.com.