Singer unbound by disability

Singer Laurie Rubin’s career path has had a few twists and turns, but nothing too unusual other than the high praise she’s received from critics worldwide.

"Rubin seems to have an especially acute intuition about the power and subtleties of sound, and she was a compelling force at the center of the music," wrote a critic.

"Few professional singers nowadays … present such a hugely challenging programme, requiring the singer to be fluent in different languages and idioms, involving a wide gamut of emotions," said a critic from London, who also praised her "radiant voice" and called her "an artist of first calibre."

Rubin, who will perform in the Ohana Arts music festival that starts Sunday, has been able to achieve much despite being blind since birth. She was born with Leber’s congenital amaurosis, a condition that blocked the development of her retinas, the part of the eye that processes light and enables distinct images to be seen.

Rubin can sense light and lighter colors but nothing more. She "intuits" objects and colors using a variety of metaphorical allusions.

"When somebody says ‘blue,’ I think of blue, and the funny thing is I think of it in musical terms," she said. "Blue to me is like the mixolydian mode (a musical scale often associated with Jewish klezmer music)," she said. "B-flat is like chocolate."

Most people, just by the nature of daily life, become creatures of habit. Activities like housecleaning or driving to work, even work itself — for journalists, there’s a lot of talking on the phone and typing — become so routine that one honestly thinks, "I could do that blindfolded."

As an artist trying to extend her boundaries, Rubin isn’t allowed that luxury. Although her mezzo-soprano voice is her main instrument, she does not limit herself to standing onstage and singing. She has performed in several operas, where acting is crucial. This has led to its own challenges.

"I had a director once that said, ‘Could you mince across the stage?" she said. "I said, ‘Yes, I’ve heard the term mince, but what does that look like?’ … And so he actually had to break it down, from the tiniest movement of my feet.

"Or when they say, ‘Have a graceful gesture with your hand.’ People take it for granted that there’s the tiniest little curve of the wrist, and that if the fingers are too tense, it looks weird, and if they look too loose it looks like there’s no energy, that the fingers have to be splayed out in such a way. If you see, then you don’t even think about those subtleties, (but) every little mechanical thing has to be explained to me."

That is in addition to learning the music, which she learns by listening to recordings and getting a coach to provide details. "I’ll often work with a coach to make sure all rhythms are accurate, because sometimes things get switched up in recordings," Rubin said.

RUBIN STUDIED piano as a youngster in Los Angeles, turning to voice after her teacher noticed Rubin loved to sing as she played. She started singing pop music as a teen, then got interested in classical music because "I thought ‘Phantom of the Opera’ was an opera."

Music studies at the well-regarded Oberlin Conservatory and Yale School of Music and the life of the itinerant professional performer followed.

She lived in New York for six years, co-founding and co-directing a music ensemble, performing at the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the White House, among other venues. She teamed up with Jennifer Taira, a clarinetist who grew up in Mililani, whom she met at Yale, for many of these performances.

The two recently moved to Oahu, where they and Taira’s sister Cari, a drama teacher at Hongwanji Mission School, have established Ohana Arts, which stages concerts in private homes and small venues, and runs a summer performance program for children.

This weekend, Ohana Arts launches its Fall Festival of Music, which will feature performances, lectures and master classes at venues islandwide. Rubin is featured in two festival events, including a performance of Poulenc’s "La Voix Humaine" ("The Human Voice"), a one-woman opera featuring a woman talking on the phone with a former lover.

"Hawaii is a great place, and there’s so many great musicians and people who are interested in it," she said.

"There’s also a great resource of people that don’t realize they might be into music. That’s the true joy of leaving a conservatory and starting life … to go somewhere else and see what we can establish there."