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ARTS & CULTURE
KANSAN.COM | MONDAY. NOV. 30, 2015
Music in focus: Joyce Castle, former opera star
SAMANTHA SEXTON
@Sambiscuit
Until Joyce Castle came to the University, it didn't have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
Castle still calls the University her home, but now as a distinguished professor rather than a student.
"I was in high school and I loved to sing and I loved to act," Castle said. "KU was very close by, but I wasn't sure I wanted to come here until the school created the B.F.A. just for me. I was ecstatic."
Some may say that creating a whole new curriculum for one student would be a risky endeavor and may not be worth the effort, especially if that student chose to drop out or switch majors, as the majority do. However, after graduation, Castle proved that the school's belief in her was well placed.
"I travelled around the country and was doing small jobs here and there," Castle said. "Then in 1970, I joined the San Francisco Opera for younger people and it changed my life"
Raised by a pianist for a mother and taught to sing classically at three years old. Castle knew that singing and performing was her calling, but not until the San Francisco Opera did she realize her dream.
"It was wonderful," Castle said. "I was performing all over the country. I was slowly but surely making my way up to bigger and bolder roles and I was loving every moment of it."
After achieving success with the San Francisco Opera, Castle decided that America had heard enough of her talent and decided she should share her voice with the world.
"I didn't think I would be in demand worldwide for opera and concerts and shows," Castle said. "But everything was coming together. I was learning and performing in Paris, Prague, all over Europe. I was even the first woman to perform as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd."
When her overseas adventure came to a close, however, Castle said she realized that her alma mater was the first place to put faith in her and had given her that stepping stool to help her jump into life.
"I still perform and I've always loved performing," Castle said. "But I wanted to do something more, and then I remembered KU."
When -Castle came to the University around 12 years ago as a professor, she knew she had made the right decision, regardless of how daunting it had seemed.
"I had no idea what I had gotten myself into." Castle said. "I just thought, 'Oh goodness, how do I teach people how to sing?' But then I remembered that opera is challenging and that's why I love it; it pushes me to be the best that I can be and I've always loved to be challenged. I was worried I wouldn't be able to teach until I took it as a challenge."
She loves being a professor now, but Castle isn't the only one who was happy that she came back to be a part of the Jayhawk family.
"I came to KU' because of
Joyce," said Emily Bennett, a doctoral student in voice. "In this field, as in any performance or art fields, you go where the talent is, and I wouldn't have gone anywhere else."
"I love being a student to Joyce," Bennett said. "She actually, truly cares, not only about you as an artist, but for you as a person and where you're from and what you want to do. I can be so open with her."
Bennett has been a student of Castle for the last couple of years and said that working with the opera star has made her a better performer and an all-around better person.
Bennett said that this openness goes both ways, and that Castle uses her 40-plus years of professional experience to help each of her students.
"She doesn't even just help her students," Bennett said. "If she hears about some architecture student doing something and she has a contact, she'll do what she can to help them out. She's always calling up old friends, who we all regard as icons, to lend a hand teaching us or to give us an experience that she might not be able to."
In 2014, Castle was named a distinguished professor, which marks an instructor's ability to teach their students far above the standard.
"I'm so grateful to be a student here with Joyce," Bennett said. "She teaches each and every one of us to be well rounded, kind and generous, and to love our craft and love what we're doing."
- Edited by Jackson Vickery
Professor Joyce Castle sits at her piano where she prepares for "Strawberry Fields," her show next semester.
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