Oberlin Portrait: Malia Bendi Merad

An Oberlin education, a recent Presser Foundation Award, and a rapidly accelerating career as a singer attest to Malia Bendi Merad's earnest work ethic; the Oberlin Conservatory senior believes in no other secret to musical success.

Earnestness aside, however, Bendi Merad's good-natured resourcefulness is evident in her Presser Foundation project. Her winning proposal centers on an exploration of Baroque French secular cantatas as miniature single character operas.

Each year the Presser Foundation allots $7,500 to Oberlin for student projects. Faculty members sponsor interested students, who then submit project proposals to a committee that selects the most dynamic project for funding. Bendi Merad's grant money will cover travel to France, coachings, and performance costs.

"I feel I'm making headway in opera study, but I wanted to work on the recital format. I also wanted a project that would be very focused on performance," she said.

Born in Algeria to a piano-playing French mother and a jazz-loving Algerian father, Bendi Merad's path to Oberlin first brought her through France, Venezuela, and - impressively - seven years of pharmaceutical training. Music was a constant presence throughout the journey.

"I met my husband (pianist Americ Dupré la Tour, '02) at a music festival in Europe. We'd both had scientific educations but preferred to spend summers performing." After the two married, the French government stationed Americ as an army geologist in Caracas, Venezuela, where the couple continued their musical collaboration. Oberlin Professor of Pianoforte Monique Duphil attended one of their concerts and suggested that both musicians come to Ohio to receive Conservatory training.

Even after the move to the United States, Bendi Merad felt uncertain about her musical future; she couldn't enroll as a full-time voice student until a full year after her arrival.

In the interval, she studied with Professor of Singing Lorraine Manz, her current teacher, and soaked up the Oberlin environment. Since her acceptance in 1999, her career has taken a dizzying pace.

In February 2002, Bendi Merad sang the role of Marphise in Royer's Le Pouvoir de l'Amour, a production that attracted national attention to Oberlin's Historical Performance and Opera Theater departments. Heidi Waleson of The Wall Street Journal reviewed the ballet-héroique and enthused, "Ms. Merad, a Conservatory junior, with a perfectly placed, expressive soprano and excellent French diction, proved a singer to watch."

This past summer, Bendi Merad joined fellow Conservatory student Liora Grodnikaite as an apprentice artist with Opera Theater of St. Louis, and sang as the Second Spirit in Mozart's Magic Flute. On January 19, 2003, Bendi Merad and Dupré la Tour will present a recital, including lieder by Webern and Caplet, as part of the Cleveland Museum of Art's Musart Matinée Concert Series.

A Conversation with Malia Bendi Merad:

What inspired you to be a musician?
I don't think you become inspired in one day. The thought and the opportunities grow on you. It's such a long process.

What keeps you inspired on discouraging days?
I remind myself of all the opportunities I have in being here. Oberlin is a supportive, creative environment, and access to the library and the practice rooms and the concert halls is a big gift. When I came here I felt musically as though I'd been on the moon for years, and I'd just walked into a Super Kmart. There's so much to do and so many good choices to make here.

What is the most memorable performance you have seen and why?
I saw Verdi's Don Carlo last summer at the Salzburg Festival with Olga Borodina, Neil Shicoff, and Thomas Hampson. The plot of that opera affects me so. You have an older monarch who faces his serious mistakes after 60 years.

If you could perform with any musician, living or dead, who would it be? What would you perform?
Anton Webern and we'd collaborate on his lieder. I feel especially drawn to and connected to his music. There's always Mozart, but he's even deader than Webern! Neil Shicoff is an amazing tenor. I'd mop the floor for him.

If you could master another instrument, what would it be?
The violin. I'd love to be a violinist because there's so much wonderful, virtuosic writing for it. Singing is very emotionally exposed, and with violin, you can hide behind your instrument a little more. If I could be another voice type, I'd be a bass. I'd sing Philippe's aria from Don Carlo or the death of the Commendatore in Don Giovanni.

If you could not be a musician, what other profession would you choose? What profession would you definitely NOT choose?
I think I'd be a research doctor. I love the process of diagnosis. I wouldn't want to be an executioner but barring that, I think there's something good to be found in almost any job.

What do you listen to for inspiration? In your free time?
I've always loved jazz. When I lived in Paris, I would go to jazz clubs with my father. Our family listened to a lot of Mahalia Jackson, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald. I also love flamenco singing. All kinds of vocal music inspire me...including pop.

What do you like to read?
I like to read historical novels and biographies, but I don't have much time to read.

What are the three words that best describe you?
Tenacious, frank, and passionate.