During his stay in Germany after participating in the Music in the Alps Festival in Austria, Henrietta Hartl of the Main-Echo interviewed Jeffrey Charles Palmer and Nina Pearson about their performance in St Michael’s Church and their artistic backgrounds. To read the interview in the original German, click here.
Nina Pearson and Jeffrey Charles Palmer in St Michael’s Church, Lohr am Main, photographed by Henrietta Hartl
The international concert singer Jeffrey Palmer is in Europe to sing at a classical music festival in Bad Gastein and Salzburg, Austria. But in Brooklyn, he has a friend whom he met singing in the same choir: Nina Pearson. She comes from Lohr, and moved to New York with her American husband ten years ago, visiting her parents in Wombach every summer.
And because for an American Wombach is practically around the corner from Salzburg, Palmer came after his performances in Austria to visit Lohr. Pearson has been an avid singer since the days when she sang in the choir at the Lohrer Gymnasium. She is also a dedicated Christian and suggested to priest Sven Johannsen that Palmer and she could sing the Ave Maria at the High Mass of the Assumption. Johannsen gratefully accepted this and added a few more pieces to the vocal program.
The performance was very well received, and Mrs Pearson and Mr Palmer came again the next day to St Michael's Church for a conversation. The interview was in English, as Palmer does not speak German, and the countertenor spoke in detail about his somewhat unusual career.
The now 31-year-old started singing in choirs at his home in Virginia in the southeastern United States at the age of seven. At the age of nine, he performed as a soloist for the first time, and singing became his vocation. His parents were not musicians themselves, he says, but they love music and theatre and have always supported him in his artistic ambitions. Palmer took singing, dancing and acting lessons and later studied music at Bath Spa University in England.
"Like many boy sopranos, I was so scared of my voice changing and that I might not be able to sing after," he recalls. But a dramatic voice change never came, as his voice just slowly deepened. From his teachers, he learned the special techniques that a countertenor needs to remain singing high. Meanwhile, Palmer has had many appearances in America, Asia and Europe.
In contrast to other classical vocal registers, the repertoire of original compositions for countertenors is somewhat limited, says Palmer. He sees advantages in that, because one is so much freer to do things for oneself. He sings some of the music written for other voice types as they are, and for others he also gets special arrangements.
He has contacts with contemporary composers who have written for him. He has also worked together with the composer Huang Ruo from Beijing, whom he met at an event in New York. With pianist Riko Higuma, Palmer recently released an album, Beauty, with pieces from several time periods and continents.
In addition to music, Palmer also works as a public relations manager for a New York health network. He often participates in their fundraising benefits, and his company is supportive of his musical career, including his recent concerts in Europe.
As for musical styles outside of classical music, Palmer is open. He also likes to sing folk and jazz and says with a smile, "If a famous rock band wants me, I will not say no." As a devout Christian, church music always matters - whether in the church choir in his community in Brooklyn or as a soloist in the fair city of Lohr parish church.