Douglas Frank Chorale: Interview

The Douglas Frank Chorale

Interview with Douglas Frank

Oberlin College interviewed Douglas Frank about the Douglas Frank Chorale and published a profile, "Redefining Choral Music," in the Oberlin Alumni Magazine.

What year did you definitely decide to do this?

Well, I've wanted to do this for a long time. The short answer is that the Douglas Frank Chorale started as a nonprofit, public-benefit organization in January 2000 after years of careful planning and preparation. The longer answer is I've been doing this, to varying degrees, all my life.

Douglas Frank
"...all my life."

I grew up in the business. Both of my parents were actors in radio's Golden Age. My mother (Trudy Warner) was pictured on the front page of the New York Times at age 22 as NBC's "sensational new ingénue." She played Della Street on "Perry Mason," Margot Lane on "The Shadow" (web site) plus many more leading roles before I was born. My mother was a radio star.

My father (Carl Frank) played roles on Broadway, was featured in films like "The Lady from Shanghai," on television shows like "The Honeymooners," and on dozens of popular radio shows. He was the voice of superhero "Buck Rogers," announced "The March of Time" and was featured on the most famous radio play of all—the 1938 Halloween-eve prank broadcast of "The War of the Worlds" by the Mercury Theatre on the Air, directed by Orson Welles. That show sent America into a panic, and it changed the rules of broadcasting forever.

As the first music video ever played on MTV noted, however, "Video killed the radio stars," and I experienced it firsthand.

My parents moved from a big Park Avenue apartment in New York with a staff of three—can you believe it!?—to a divorce and a one-bedroom apartment where I grew up with my mother. What I learned as a child was how fragile even the most successful performing arts career can be.

During this period, my mother helped me with my own 10-year professional career as a child actor and singer. I was this cute kid who enjoyed performing and could sing, and it helped pay for my education. But in session after session, I saw that it was the producers who called the shots, and not the artists. So throughout high school and college I knew that, until I could take on the role of both artist and producer, a professional performing career just wasn't for me.

Growing up in my situation also gave me a phobia over money and the financial uncertainties of the business. I learned early on that the performing arts can be anything but glamorous or reliable. There's an ugly, dog-eat-dog side to it all.

It was never any wonder to me why so many artists with the greatest integrity and most sensitive hearts wind up in academia, where it's more about passion. About communicating one's love of art to those—students—who tend to approach the arts with great enthusiasm and idealism, and not with cynicism. The phrase, "If you can't do, teach," is just way off the mark.

Thanks to my great teacher and friend, Harold Aks, I fell in love with vocal ensemble music when I was in the eighth grade and attending the Dalton School in New York. I overheard the Madrigal group rehearsing carols for the Christmas Pageant. A bunch of high-school singers, and Harold Aks was able to instill a discipline and ignite a burning passion in their hearts that made them sound glorious!

Why did you give up your previous career—unhappy, bored, needed a change?

I haven't given up my previous career because it's rewarding and fun in different ways. I recently hired a contemporary dance choreographer for a DVD about migraine headache. Not your typical industrial, it's innovative in depicting the feeling of terrible pain and relief through gesture and movement and music. It's been distributed to hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. And this fine artist was pleased with the compensation, too. It was a lot more than nonprofit or even for-profit producers are in a position, or choose, to offer.

I went into marketing after Oberlin because although it's not glamorous, either, it's basically reliable. My experience also helps with the business aspects of the Chorale. Plus, my phobia, or insider's knowledge, made me more cautious and more prudent than kids who grew up in other worlds. I wanted to make certain to prepare myself for the future, to have the ability to "ride out" the hard times that seem inevitable in the life of a performing artist.

Who makes up the group—any other Obies? How many members are there?

There are a lot of exceptional performers in New York, of course. But I didn't want to staff the group solely from the professional circuit. Many of these artists, understandably, can become hardened and somewhat cynical when they don't find what they thought they'd find when they went into the performing arts.

I advertised for talent and held auditions. No one in the business remembered me after 20 years. So our original group had many young singers with beautiful voices and big hearts that had not been hardened. There are now 12 who make up the core of our ensemble. They are all tremendously talented and generous artists—the best and rarest kind.

I'm delighted that word has spread through the New York professional circuit that working with the Douglas Frank Chorale is a great gig. I tell people, though, that you don't just work with the Chorale, you've gotta believe in it, and what it stands for.

Douglas Frank
"...believe in it..."

We treat artists the way I believe professionals should be treated. We pay top dollar, on time, and it allows me to feel justified in demanding absolutely the highest artistic standards. The whole thing is set up so that even experienced professionals are regularly reminded why they got into the arts from the start—to perform from the heart. That's what it's all about. With the Chorale, the art always comes first.

When was your CD "The A Cappella Singer" released?

In September 2000. I was surprised that no one had recorded this well-known collection front to back. The book has been around since 1936, and just about everyone who has ever sung in a madrigal group has held it in their hands. It's in the Oberlin Conservatory Library and in just about every music library.

It contains great works and—I can say this as a marketing guy—it has "brand equity," meaning that people know it. The recording has proven to be hit, it keeps selling and selling, particularly in European markets, and it's a powerful and easily understood response to presenters' questions about, "What have you done?"

When did you receive the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award for Best Classical Album?

We first learned that we had been nominated for Best Classical Album and Best Classical Song ("Matona, mia cara") in February 2001. The other nominees were very established; some of the most respected vocal ensembles in the world: Anonymous 4, Chanticleer, the Tallis Scholars. That we were nominated with those outstanding groups was quite something to me.

When we learned in April that we had won, it was even more amazing! I called the Contemporary A Cappella Society. I didn't know anyone there. I felt so honored and wanted to "thank the Academy," as it were. When I called, I received some more wonderful news.

Deke Sharon, the founder and president of CASA at the time, asked me if I wanted to know why we won. Of course I did! He went on to explain that, "You guys just sang with tremendous heart." I got choked up, really, I must say. We had communicated to others what I had always set out to do.

For me, it was a justification of the many sacrifices—for all the time, effort and money—it took to put this together. And we had succeeded in sending out to the arts world not only a strong musical product, but an important larger message as well.

Could you say a few words about your time at Oberlin, how it fostered your love of music, etc?

I had two ExCo (Experimental College) groups at Oberlin. I called one the Oberlin Madrigal Singers. A group by that name didn't exist at the time. But I understand that a group by that name is still going strong today, and that is tremendously gratifying to me.

My wonderful conducting teacher at Oberlin, Daniel Moe, approved a private reading in my senior year for a vocal ensemble. It was incredible to be able to draw on the tremendous talent of Oberlin students and to have them receive College credits for doing it. I worked with fantastic and dedicated young people, many of whom went on to do outstanding things after Oberlin—Karen Florini, Judy Kuhn, William Weinert—to name just a few.

Close to graduation day, Professor Moe told me that he felt that I "have the horses" to be a conductor. I told him at the time, "Well, it may take me 20 years, but one day I hope I'll make you proud."

Oberlin is a unique place. It has a special feeling to it. I'm trying to bring some of that feeling to others with the Douglas Frank Chorale. Amazingly, people here in New York City, and people around the world, seem to be paying attention. When you really believe in what you do, when you let great art truly speak for itself, you can touch anyone's heart.

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