Carissa Marsh
Staff Writer
For Henry Price, music is not just his job. It is his passion. As a professor of music at Pepperdine, as well as director of the university’s Flora Thorton Opera Program, Price has made a lasting impact on the music department and students.
Before coming to Malibu in 1993, Price was an opera singer with a number of opera companies and symphony orchestras.
At the height of his opera career, he joined the New York City Opera Company, “one of the more important venues for younger singers,” said Price. Price debuted with the company in 1975 and remained its leading tenor for many years.
While working with the New York City Opera, Price took more than 20 leading roles and performed in many televised performances at the Lincoln Center.
In 1978, Price won a Grammy for Best Opera Recording for “The Merry Widow.”
Price’s fame continued to grow, and Price said he became an international opera singer after touring Europe during the late 1970s and 1980s.
Although Price became a successful opera performer, he had not been formally introduced to classical music until college. While studying music at North Texas State University, Price said he met two people who inspired him to pursue a career in opera.
First was the American tenor, Eugene Conely. Price said Conely is the reason he decided to study music at NTSU, which boasted a large program with more than 1,500 students majoring in music.
Early on in his studies at NTSU, Price participated in the chorus for an opera production. He had not learned much music theory yet, but his experiences with chorus produced an interest in opera. Price said he liked the idea of acting out roles and using a full voice.
“I became fascinated by it,” he said.
While working on his master’s at NTSU, Price went to an opera workshop in West Virginia. It was there that Price met his second inspiration, Boris Goldovsky, who became Price’s mentor. Price said Goldovsky saw talent in him and knew that he had to push him to get his career going.
“He was a great person, a great influence,” Price said. “He encouraged me.”
Goldovsky encouraged Price to go to New York. Price said Goldovsky wanted so badly for him to move there that he hired Price’s wife, Martha, to be a secretary in his studio. At 23, Price said he made the move to New York with his wife on “two weeks notice.”
Once in New York, Price toured for three or four years before his debut with the New York City Opera Comany in 1975. He remained the company’s leading tenor for many years.
Price began touring Europe in the late 1970s, and he continued to perform internationally throughout the 80s.
After his successful run on the international opera scene, Price and his wife Martha were inspired to return to the United States to continue raising their son Henry Price IV, who was born in 1975. Price eventually returned to the New York City Opera in 1988, but later moved the family back to his hometown, Dallas.
It was also Price’s son Henry who introduced the family to Pepperdine when he became interested in attending Seaver College.
Little did Price know that he too would be going to Pepperdine, but in a different capacity.
A friend of Price contacted David Davenport, then the president of Pepperdine, and told Davenport about Price’s music career. In 1993, the school offered Price a position in the music department.
In the time that he has been a professor at Pepperdine, the music program has grown and changed drastically. Price was largely responsible for developing Pepperdine’s respectable opera program.
Before he came to Pepperdine, no full operas were performed. Price said it was a challenge to find funding in the beginning, but in 1999, Flora Thorton gave an endowment of $500,000. The next year she gave another $500,000, giving the opera program a total endowment of $1 million.
Price described the opera program as being small, but “a really high quality program for undergraduates.” He said he feels that because there are no graduate students to compete with, the opera program at Pepperdine is advantageous for both students and faculty.
“We give them attention,” Price said. “If they are gifted, they have a chance to perform leading roles.”
Junior music major La Shawna Ngadiuba has been a student of Price since her freshman year. She said she feels lucky to have him as her voice teacher.
“I love him,” she said. “I really do. I appreciate his dedication to my art, to my voice.”
Ngadiuba described Price as encouraging, nurturing, supportive and a mentor.
“He spurs me on to do my best,” Ngadiuba said. “He makes me want to do better.”
Milton Pullen, professor of music and director of choirs, has worked with Price for 10 years. Pullen said he believes Price has contributed to the music program with “his energy, his brilliant mind, his care for his students and his care for the music program in general.”
“His passion for opera has spread throughout the music program,” Pullen said. “It has rubbed off on the students.”
Price said he truly believes the music program at Seaver College is something special and that being a part of it is more rewarding than a singing career.
“I can introduce people to opera,” Price said. “Not just the singers, but the campus in general.”
Price said he desires for Pepperdine to have the best undergraduate liberal arts music program possible.
“Our goal is to try for excellence,” Price said. “I believe in a Christian university and that God is interested in excellence.
“We embrace the liberal arts philosophy,” Price added. “We are not just about music. We are about a broad education. A well-rounded person makes a well-rounded singer, or mathematician or scientist.”
01-13-2005
