By Joe Pinchot
SHARON — There are not many careers where a 57-year-old could be considered young, but classical music singing can be one of them.
Susan Toth Shafer has sung around the world in operas, in solo concerts and with symphonies and smaller ensembles for 30 years, with the likes of Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. Yet, her best days may still lie ahead.
“My voice teacher keeps saying to me, ‘Susan, you haven’t reached your peak, yet.’ That amazes me,” said Ms. Shafer, who will open the Lenten series of concerts Tuesday at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Sharon.
The human voice is an amazing instrument, and can change over time. Ms. Shafer is a contralto, the lowest of women’s voices, and low voices tend to stay strong longer. She still is considered a “young singer.”
“I’m planning on singing forever,” she said. “It’s the only way I’m going to make up for lost time.”
Ms. Shafer was discovered by Robert Page, who has directed the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, at 25, an advanced age for serious classical music study.
Switching careers from elementary education, Ms. Shafer had the backing of her husband, Richard, and son, Chuck, a college senior.
“I’ve been really, really lucky,” she said. “When you have a family that is very supportive ... It takes a whole family to be able to do this.”
Although Ms. Shafer has been at it a long time and worked with some of the top talent in classical music, it’s a tough career path to tread, she said. She still has to audition for parts, competition can be fierce, and commitments can take her away from her family for a month or more.
“Our industry has been impacted the same way every industry has been,” she said, referring to the national economic downturn.
Opera companies have struggled, cutting back programs, and some have folded.
And yet, Ms. Shafer has managed to keep busy concentrating on gigs within driving distance of her home in New Wilmington. Despite the area’s reputation as a cultural backwater, Ms. Shafer said the local arts are alive and well, and it often does not cost much, if anything, to partake in them.
The Greenville and Youngstown symphonies — her husband is a Youngstown board member — are fabulous orchestras, and there are always opportunities, such as the St. John’s series, just around the corner, she said.
She also praised those involved in the visual arts, singling out the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Trumbull Art Gallery in Warren, Ohio, and Westminster College art professor Kathy Koop’s retrospective now showing in the college’s Patterson Hall.
“You don’t have to go to New York,” she said. “There are so many things right here.”
For Tuesday’s concert, Ms. Shafer and Paula Kubik, who will accompany her on organ, have selected five pieces from four oratories, Antonin Dvorak’s “Stabat Mater,” J.S. Bach’s Cantata 106 and Mass in B minor, and G.F. Handel’s “Israel in Egypt.”
While the pieces deal with judgment day, sitting at the right hand of the Father and the Lamb of God, the Handel piece is more upbeat and offers a bit of a break.
“When you’re singing a Lenten recital, you don’t want it all so contemplative and slow,” she said.
Ms. Shafer said she had never performed with Ms. Kubik or at St. John’s before, but is looking forward to both.
Ms. Kubik has a “stellar” reputation as a performer and director, she said.
“When she called and asked me to do this, I was really delighted,” Ms. Shafer said.
“That church is just so beautiful,” she said of St. John’s. “It’s a perfect setting for this type of thing. It’s small enough, but large enough, and has a great organ.”
A short service will be held at noon, followed by the concert at about 12:10 p.m., Ms. Kubik said. After the concert, lunch will be available, and attendees should be able to get back to work a little after 1 p.m.
Other concerts in the series: Harper Kirk, the harp player formerly known as Kirk Kupensky, March 2; violinists Jonathan and Mary Moser, March 9; Youngstown Fine Arts Brass, March 16; and Thiel College Chamber Singers, directed by Dr. Michael Bray, March 23.
