MUSIC
Q&A with Tenor Brian Giebler
Grammy nominee opens up about career, latest work
BY DAVID SHENGOLD
Young tenor Brian Giebler,
active in concert,
opera and musicals, has
lived in New York City
with his husband of 8 years, attorney
Jordan Peterson, since 2013.
Recently, he has made recordings
spanning four centuries of music.
In “A Lad’s Love,” which is a spirited
CD collaboration with pianist
Steven McGhee of English songs
written by gay composers and poets
— mainly but not exclusively
from the early 20th century —
Giebler has suddenly been propelled
to greater recognition. The
CD is nominated for a Best Classical
Solo Vocal Album Grammy and
he was named Musical America
magazine’s January “Artist of the
Month.”
Gay City News conducted an
email exchange with the Syracuseborn
singer. Here, slightly edited,
is the exchange:
David Shengold: First, a
Grammy Nomination — and now
“Musical America Artist of the
Month.” How are you feeling,
Brian?
Brian Giebler: Besides being in
shock, I actually feel re-inspired
and reinvigorated! With the absolute
shut down of the performance
fi eld due to the ongoing pandemic,
it’s been hard to fi nd motivation to
practice or to look ahead. These
nods have validated my work and
beliefs as an artist. So it’s made me
work even harder than before – to
practice, research, and create new
projects for future concerts and recordings.
Shengold: Did you have any
idea, when working on “A Lad’s
Love,” that it would have such
resonance?
Giebler: All I have ever wanted
to do is connect with my audience
in a sincere, honest way. I treasure
the personal connection of live performances,
and I knew that would
be missing for CD listeners. So I
wanted to fi nd repertoire for my
fi rst solo album that felt intimate
and personal. I worked diligently
with my pianist, the fabulous Steven
Brian Giebler has been nominated for a Best Classicial Solo Vocal Album Grammy.
McGhee, to nail just the right
repertoire. We were fortunate to
“test out” the program in front of
live audiences on a small recital
tour prior to the studio sessions.
That gave us the perfect ability to
see what repertoire resonated with
the listener and what didn’t.
But I honestly never dreamed
the album would — or could —
reach as many as it has in the way
that it has. It’s an honor to share
the deeply personal, almost hidden
stories of love, longing, and struggle
of the gay men who wrote these
poems and music a century ago.
I’m proud to have been a vessel for
their art.
Shengold: What gave you the
idea for “A Lad’s Love” and what
was the process of assembling it,
fi nding collaborators, and securing
a contract?
Giebler: I had been through recording
projects before as part of
ensemble casts and choruses, so
I knew the general gist of the process.
But contract law, making
masters, mechanical licensing,
advertising, all of this was new!
Developing the program, I was fortunate
to have a great collaborator
in Steve. I knew I wanted to record
Ivor Gurney’s “Ludlow and Teme,”
J. DEMETRIE PHOTOGRAPHY
which Steve and I performed on my
2012 Master’s Degree recital. It felt
apropos as a gay man to give voice
to the creators’ beautiful work,
especially given the lack of freedoms
they endured and the sad
obscurity to which most of these
pieces were ultimately consigned.
But getting a concert grand Steinway,
a performance hall, the best
engineers and producers, a publicist,
a lawyer, and a record label to
commit? I didn’t know how to do
any of it. Hence, I’m really proud of
the amount of work I put into fi guring
out how to get this music out
there from step one to this Grammy
nomination!
Shengold: Is there any risk at
this point for a young tenor to
be as out as you are in professional
life?
Giebler: Probably. But if I’m not
owning who I am as a person, how
can I portray honesty and sincerity
onstage? Fortunately, I haven’t
experienced any moments in my
career where I wasn’t hired or was
treated differently for being an out
and proud gay man. I’ve even been
hired several times to portray a
straight man onstage — including
the original straight man, the
biblical Adam, in Julian Wachner’s
“REV. 23” in January 2020, with
appropriate costume. I’m lucky my
sexuality has never hindered my
acting abilities or my singing career!
Shengold: How did your time
in England help shape “A Lad’s
Love”?
Giebler: I enrolled for a semester
at the Royal Academy of Music in
London. I don’t know what spurred
my love for England — maybe I
was a Brit in a former life? — but I
was dying to live in London! It was
phenomenal to be able to realize
that dream at the ripe age of 21.
Ian Partridge was my song class
lecturer. I was young, uninformed,
and didn’t truly grasp my good fortune
at ending up in Partridge’s
class, but it was the turning point
in my appreciation of and love for
English song. At the Royal Academy
I learned about Benjamin
Britten and his wonderful music;
I spent the next few years digging
into more English songs — Purcell,
Gurney, Ireland, Warlock and
Quilter — many of which appear
on my album.
Shengold: Did you fi nd other
related British material you may
use in a different project? Could
you envision a concert program
or CD dedicated thematically
to same-sex cathected songs by
American poets and composers?
Giebler: There was so much
more British material I could have
used. I have a pitch out to an ensemble
about a disc centering
around a longer work by a British
composer of the same time period
not featured on this one. Fingers
crossed. I would love to work on
an American album of same-sex
thematic songs. In that case, it
would be even more interesting to
work with gay living composers,
like Nico Muhly, Gregory Spears,
Jennifer Higdon and Ricky Ian
Gordon. More operas have started
to center around homosexual relationships
(“Oscar,” “Brokeback
Mountain,” “As One,” “Fellow Travelers”),
which is really encouraging.
➤ GIEBLER, continued on p.29
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