Carmen Balthrop: My Tribute

In May of 2010 on the island of New Providence, Bahamas,  Eldridge McPhee, director of the Bel Canto Singers, handed me a score of John Carter’s "Cantata" for voice and piano. He indicated that this was the piece that our guest artist, Carmen Balthrop, would be performing for Bel Canto’s Spring Concert that year. Terror gripped me immediately after seeing the musical and technical demands. I’d never seen a score like this much less played. At the time, I was finishing up a Diploma at the local college and had designs on being a career high school teacher. Piano playing was simply an accessory to that. I called him and told him there is no way I could do this and that he better call someone. Eldridge retorted that as Bel Canto’s Accompanist, that I was going to play this piece and that he wasn’t going to hire anyone else. Sigh….

A few weeks later, the Thursday before the weekend concerts, I had to pick up Carmen and her husband Patrick from their homestay for our first rehearsal. This would also be the first time I met them. You see, Eldridge had neglected to tell me that she was a world class opera star and professor. And here I was picking them up in my run down 1998 Dodge Caravan. She didn’t say much the whole car ride though Patrick was friendly. Already the dread was creeping in….

We arrived at the venue and I went to the piano. I started to play the introduction to the first movement. For the next 10 minutes Carmen went into super-saiyan professor mode and told me how each harmony should be played and why. She didn’t sing a note for about 15 minutes while I dutifully and nervously tried to oblige her every wish.  Needless to say, that first rehearsal didn’t go too well.  During the car ride back, she even asked me if we needed to omit some of the more difficult movements so that she’d be more comfortable. I quietly told her I’d be better by the evening’s choir rehearsal.  And by that evening, I was.

The performance we gave that weekend far exceeded my expectations (and I think hers too:). The applause we received still rings in my ears 11 years later. That smile and kiss pictured was elation, relief and amazement all in one. At the after-concert social, she took me aside and asked me "Why on earth was I on this island?" She firmly urged me to get off this island, keep studying and not to waste my talent. Carmen was such a boss literally - even though I’d just met her like 3 days ago. The next month she and Patrick took me into their home and I visited both the University of Maryland and Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins, where Camille was studying at the time. As divine providence would have it, those would be the two schools I would attend to complete my Masters and Doctoral Studies.

9 years after our first meeting, I successfully passed my doctoral defense at UMD. Carmen was on my dissertation committee. She was the one who took me back into the room where the committee deliberated. And then she spun around and said the word “Doctor!!” It was one of the happiest days of my life!

Carmen Balthrop single-handedly changed the trajectory of my life - this black boy from an island 21 miles long and 7 miles wide with no prodigious promise (see I had failed Grade 1 ABRSM, which literally no one does).  Simply, I am because she was. She saw me beyond where I saw myself. There are so many other stories I can share over the time that I spent in close proximity to her during my years in Maryland. Difficult challenging days on so many fronts. Her encouragement, counsel and correction has always led me on the right path.

Today I start a 9-day tour of recitals and masterclasses with one of my good friends and colleagues Josh Ganger. It is humbling for me to think back to when I could barely play the opening harmonies of John Carter’s work that I’m now in this position to instruct and direct other young aspiring pianists.  And it is all because of this great lady, whom we will celebrate today. 

I will miss you dearly Carmen and still can’t believe you’re gone.  But I will honor you and your investment and belief in me with every artistic experience, every practice session and every social interaction I will have this week and beyond. And I will always tell the stories of your impact on my life. Enjoy your just reward Carmen. I’ll see you again. Completed September 17, 2021