(Credit: © Clara Evens)

On Oct. 11, Rachel Fenlon made history with her debut album on Orchid Classics, becoming the first ever to sing and accompany herself in Schubert’s masterpiece “Winterreise” on recording.

Fenlon has self-accompanied herself at prestigious festivals and venues such as Fundación Juan March, the Oxford Lieder Festival, Festival de Lanaudière, Martha Argerich Festival Hamburg, Ottawa Chamberfest, National Arts Centre Canada, Settimane Musicali di Ascona, Vancouver Opera Festival, Festival International Povoa de Varzim, and Toronto Summer Music Festival, among others. She has also performed with such companies as the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Vancouver Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, and Oper Leipzig, among others. 

Fenlon spoke to OperaWire about her new album and the process of finding funds and recording “Winterreise.”

OperaWire: How do you feel after releasing this album?

Rachel Fenlon: I feel a deep sense of support and love from those around me, for a project that I’ve dreamt about creating my whole life. I feel I accomplished what I set out to achieve, I poured my whole self into this record. It’s still sinking in, that “Winterreise” is now out in the world! However, what’s surprising me the most is how shared this experience feels. I never expected it to feel like such a collective experience. Now I get why so many of my favourite musicians say that a record is no longer just yours, when it’s released, it also becomes the listeners, their experience of it, it belongs to them too. I’m definitely feeling that and it feels incredible.

OW: You play piano and sing on the record. How did this come about? What were the biggest challenges of doing it this way?

RF: Singing and playing is about 95 percent of my career, since I first began in 2016, which takes me on the road internationally, year round.

My path has been beautifully winding – pursuing singing and piano, in conservatory in high school and then in University at UBC in Vancouver, where I was finding myself going back and forth constantly between the instruments – singing leading roles in the operas, playing piano for singers, learning Beethoven piano sonatas when I wasn’t learning a Mozart soprano role. My career began in quite a traditional way – I was a young artist at Vancouver Opera, and singing roles on their main stage from age 24. and it wasn’t until I moved to Berlin and truly challenged myself in my identity, in who I am as a person and an artist, that I realized that I would never be quite whole unless I found a way to combine my singing and playing. It was after I moved to Berlin, which was a pivotal moment for me 10 years ago, that I began to question my artistic identity completely.

In 2016, I sang and played my first Schubert recital at an artist residency in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and I had the experience of feeling a deep sense of “home” on stage. I knew from that moment on, that I would put everything into singing and playing. At this point, I’ve played self-accompanied recitals at major festivals and recital halls, and I feel incredibly lucky to have gotten to this point.

The vision for this album was to be able to share what I do, to share my unique interpretation as a singer/pianist. The choice for “Winterreise” itself came in 2021, during the dark months of the pandemic, when I was living alone in a forest area outside of Berlin. I bought the score to “Winterreise” one day and began learning it. What I discovered was that I have never found, nor lost myself so much in a work as I did with “Winterreise.” To share my interpretation of this great work, and to add to the enormous canon of recordings, from the perspective of a singer sitting at the piano and accompanying myself, is the greatest gift I could ask for.

The biggest challenge has definitely been trying to figure out how to create and navigate a career where I am doing something no one else has done before. There is no real example of someone who’s paved a career this way. I have to say, though, that this has also been extremely liberating, because I get to be the one determining how to do things. What repertoire to sing and play. How to build and shape my own career. What kind of artist I want to be. It’s so empowering.

It was very challenging in the early years, because a lot of people tried to discourage me from doing something which was so against the grain. Some people in classical music can be really afraid of change, because they think they are safeguarding something sacred, instead of, in my opinion, participating in a living, ever-changing thing, which is evolving as we evolve. I feel really lucky that with core people who believed in me, and with a really deep passion for music and a strong sense of self, I’ve been able to create an artistic life which is so rich, and fulfilling. I also have an amazing team, and it was a huge moment for me to sign with my agent Isabella Pitman at IMG – she is someone who really supports the uniqueness of my vision and is very good at what she does.

OW: Why do you think accompanying yourself has become something very unique?

RF: Whilst accompanying myself and singing is totally unique in our day and age, outside of the pop/folk realm, it wasn’t always the case. Something which many people don’t realize is that Schubert himself sang and accompanied himself in the first 12 songs of “Winterreise” in the world premiere. Renaldo Hahn sang and played all his songs. Richard Tauber performed Schumann’s “Dichterliebe” singing and playing. So, for me it feels a bit like a forgotten art.

I draw so much inspiration from singer-songwriters, like Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone, Alicia Keys…I absolutely adore the singer songwriter genre, and a huge part of my passion is bringing the essence of this to classical song. I feel there is such an intimacy with singer-songwriters, and that kind of intimacy is at the heart of classical and contemporary song.

OW: Were you first a pianist or was it singing that was your first passion?

RF: My introduction to music was on the piano, at age three, with my grandad, who was a jazz pianist. At age six I began formal piano training, and went through all my degrees of piano performance. For years, I was sure I wanted to be a concert pianist. Singing lessons came much later, although I’m reminded constantly that I used to get my entire family together to perform musicals for friends and neighbours!

As a youth, I was in children’s choir, and then choirs in high school, and at 17 I had my first voice lessons, which were like a crash course in singing. I took six weeks of singing lessons so that I could get through a university opera audition, for which I was miraculously accepted! It was really in university, at the opera program at UBC, where I feel in love with opera, and in love with singing.

OW: How did this album come about? How did you raise the money to do the record?

RF: Such a key question, thanks for asking that! So, the model for many record labels these days is such that the artist has to financially back a huge chunk of the recording and post production costs. Once I had decided I would record “Winterreise” and had secured the sound engineer and producer I wanted to work with–Carl Talbot, a Canadian legend–I got working on fundraising. I raised most of the funds for the album through a Kickstarter campaign, which was a huge gamble, because you only get funded on Kickstarter if you meet your fundraising goal. I had the fortune of having an exceptionally generous patron of the arts say he would match whatever the total of my campaign amount was so that I would meet my goal. In the end, I raised a total of $16,000 for the album. I have to say, I am pretty proud of that!

OW: What was the collaboration with Orchid Classics like and what has distribution been like?

RF: Orchid Classics is a dream team. They are artist driven, which means they are there to support the vision of their artists once they have signed you. Matthew Trusler, who founded the label, has so much insight into the industry and we had so many helpful conversations about things like distribution, playlists, Dolby Atmos. Alex Patel is their head of marketing and he has also been such a massive support–he’s helped me with everything from graphics on my socials, to scoring us huge coverage on the radio. “Winterreise” was chosen as BBC Radio 3’s “On Record” Disc, as well as CBC’s “Concert on Demand” Record of the Week. These were huge wins for a new artist on the scene like myself. “Winterreise” was also selected as an album of the week on IDAGIO, and is featured on lots of different playlists on Apple, Tidal and Idagio, which is key to reaching wider audiences.

I can’t say enough amazing things about the team. We have also had physical CD’s produced, and I had a sold out album launch last week in Berlin at the Kuhlhaus, where I sold and signed my first CD’s…what an amazing moment!

OW: What are the challenges of making an album in the modern age and what are some of the facilities now?

RF: First of all, the financial investment is completely on your shoulders, and that’s an immense responsibility. It’s an investment which can absolutely (definitely) put you on the map, and benefit your career in huge ways, but it is also a huge ask for many people, who don’t necessarily have the tools, the knowledge and the confidence needed to fundraise these up front costs. I don’t think you can expect to make profit from the album itself, through sales, you have to look at it from a different perspective–the benefits to you and your career for example, once you see it that way then it really feels worth the investment. There are also SO many logistics–deciding on your label, knowing how you visually want to represent yourself, figuring out your press team (I have an amazing press agent, Karen). I would say building and finding the right team is another big challenge, because an album needs momentum to get to live its full potential. I feel extremely lucky for all the people involved in this project, from my incredible producer Carl, to the photographer Clara Evens who shot all my album shots, to my dear friend Alexander Neef who wrote my programme notes, to my agent Izzy, the team at Orchid, and last but not least, my family.

OW: Talking about Schubert, which are some of your favorite pieces in this cycle?

RF: You know, the best part about this work is that you fall in love with it over and over again. And I notice new things every time I perform it–some days I am crazy about the really pretty songs like “Der Lindenbaum,” and “Fruhlingstraum.” Other days I feel strongly drawn to the more unassuming pieces like No. 12 “Einsamkeit” in b minor–a piece which guides us into a different realm in the context of the whole cycle. But if I had to choose, I would say the very last two pieces: “Die Nebensonnen,” and “Der Leiermann.”

OW: What are the challenges of this song cycle?

RF: For me, the challenge is in pacing. “Winterreise” is 70 minutes without a break, and I perform it completely from memory, as both the singer and pianist. It’s a total marathon! I’ve performed “Winterreise” as self-accompanied singer/pianist 16 times now in recital, and the thing I’ve learned most, is that you have to trust your body and go with the energy you are feeling the moment you get on stage. What I mean by this is that if I get on stage and feel the opening song “Gute Nacht” a little slower than usual, I need to trust that it’s okay.

Balance is always a tricky one, because when the piano part is huge and boisterous, the vocal line over top is legato and spinning and needs to feel really delicate. I often have to remind myself to be my own best accompanist!!!

OW: Are you planning another album of anything soon and would you like to tour this cycle the way you recorded it?

RF: Yes! Another album is already in the works, which will be a new song cycle written for me by the phenomenal Canadian composer Matthias McIntire. The cycle is for me to sing, play, and perform live electronics, and we’re already in post-production. It’s such a personal project for me, because the poetry is my own, and the song cycle is an expression towards the climate crisis–our love for nature and our fear of climate change.

I will be touring “Winterreise” all season–I started the season on the road, and have been touring Canada and Europe. Next week I will be in Helsinki and following that I will go to Brazil and London for recitals, all before Christmas! I have a second North American tour in 2025, as well as some really exciting Europe dates, including my recital debut at the Konzerthaus Berlin. It’s definitely a “pinch me” season!!!