INTERSECTIONS

I was very fortunate to grow up in a home that was filled with music. Growing up in Redondo Beach, California, part of my daily routine included practice time at the piano, as I had displayed some musical talent since the age of four. The piano became an integral part of my music activities throughout my school years. Given that my parents met in a church choir, though, I often think that it was fate that drew me to choral music.

An Unplanned Intersection:

My first rudimentary exposure to choral music came from hearing our parish church choir. Although I had no basis on which to judge the quality of the choir, hearing them surprisingly opened a new door to music-making beyond my love for the piano. I did not realize it at the time, but a seed was planted when I was about twelve that would eventually blossom into a career. The director of the parish choir invited a local conductor to give a series of workshops for the choir. I watched and listened to those sessions as my mom and dad sang. I have never forgotten the magical energy that this conductor instilled in their singing. I was captivated. I remember him teaching them Flor Peeters’ Mass of St. Joseph. As the singers tackled the tricky rhythms in the Gloria, he quickly showed them how to clarify every syncopated move by a “squaring off of each change.” He also heightened the beauty of Owen da Silva’s Mass of Our Lady, a work they already knew. Utilizing imagery, he quickly had the sopranos shimmering, not wobbling. The altos were amazed by the richness he introduced to their sound by having them emulate the demonstrations by the tenors and basses singing the alto line in their falsetto. He scolded the tenors for over-singing and scooping on their high notes. “Tenors!” he barked, “This is not opera! Not ‘Celeste Aida’!” Finally, he simply asked the basses, “Why do you sound so angry?” This dynamic young conductor was Paul Salamunovich.

An Educational Intersection: Life-Changing

These were words and descriptions I would hear many times years later when my path again crossed that of Salamunovich. When I began music studies at Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles, Paul was the choral director for the soprano-alto choir at the Mount and the tenor-bass choir at neighboring Loyola University, later to become the co-ed Loyola Marymount. Although I was a piano performance major, singing in the choruses had a profound impact. Paul imbued our rehearsals with a contagious desire for perfection. As we worked our way through new repertoire, he often directed us to stop on a given chord. Although we thought it was beautiful, Paul would not praise but have us continue to hold, silently inviting our ears to sensitize what we were offering to the collective sound. Unconsciously, each singer began to subtly modify their tone, thus enabling the blend to “lock in.” “There it is!” he would happily exclaim. Paul taught through imagery, analogy, real-life experiences, and emotions, but always with an aural vision in his mind. He knew the sonority he wanted and how to get it from the singers. We began to understand what he wanted. We were experiencing sheer beauty!

I always felt like I lived in the best of all possible worlds. I not only got to sing under Paul’s direction, but I also became his rehearsal accompanist at both the Mount and Loyola. From the vantage point of the piano bench, I felt like a sponge soaking in every method that he was using. I was learning to listen, analyze, and solve problems—to think like a conductor. I was witnessing not only the work of a magnificent conductor but more memorably grasping the wisdom of a master teacher.

These lessons proved to be the foundations on which I grew throughout my conducting career. I applied them while developing my own style as I moved through several teaching and conducting positions. Ultimately, I found my niche when in 1992, following Paul’s appointment as Music Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, I was selected to be the new Director of Choral Activities at Loyola Marymount University. Little had I dreamed those many years before as I accompanied the LMU choruses that I would one day assume this leadership role.

Career Intersections: A Confluence

Singing under the direction of Paul Salamunovich was a gift to be treasured. Our early intersections grew into a continuous path of music-making and powerful mentorship for almost fifty years. Rather than identifying any one life-changing event, I prefer to consider a certain composer and his small body of choral works as the highlight of my lifelong collaboration with Paul. That composer is Maurice Duruflé, in whose choral works Gregorian chant provides the melodic source and rhythmic structure. It is no surprise that Paul, a renowned expert on the chants that inspired these works, was drawn to perform them, particularly the Requiem. I sang this masterpiece under his baton on many occasions. Absorbing the exquisite nuances of chant as well as the simple splendor of these chant-inspired phrases fed a depth of inspiration that exhilarated my work with the singers at LMU.

During a concert with the LMU Choruses in 2015 at l’Église Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, the Paris church where Maurice Duruflé had worked, a member of the audience commented to me after hearing our performance of two of the Duruflé motets: “Finally an American choir who knows how to do Duruflé!” I so wanted to tell him that I had learned this from an American conductor who had prepared a group of choirs on the Requiem for a Los Angeles concert conducted by Duruflé himself, with his wife at the organ. Paul and Duruflé established a deep mutual admiration through this collaboration.

On that same tour in Paris, I had the privilege to meet a former student of Madame Duruflé, noted organist Frédéric Blanc. As we discovered our mutual love for the music of Duruflé, he noted his knowledge of Paul’s work. Blanc extended an invitation for the LMU Choruses to return to Paris to perform the Duruflé Requiem. Four years later in June 2019, I conducted the Requiem on my final concert with members of the Loyola Marymount University Choruses at l’Église Notre-Dame-d’Auteuil in Paris. The organist was Frédéric Blanc. It was truly a magical and emotional evening. In many ways, it was a remarkable confluence of a distinguished conductor, an eminent composer, and two new friends.

Paul’s teaching made an incredible impact through his all-consuming passion for the beauty of tone, his insistence on the integrity of the text, and his shaping of the inevitable phrase. His keen ear and his expressive soul were a marvel as listeners and singers alike continued to be amazed at the magic he created when he stepped onto the podium.  He put it very simply: “I merely observe what’s on the page and they all think I’m a genius.”

Paul probably taught students as much about the true meaning of commitment and self-respect as he did about musical beauty. He was a truly caring man who gave selflessly of himself to so many. The elegance of his music has been and will continue to be a beacon of the ultimate artistry. The dedication of his work ethic made a life-long impression and still inspires the pursuit of excellence and beauty.

Biography

Mary Breden, Professor Emerita of Music in the College of Communication and Fine Arts at Loyola Marymount University, served as Director of Choral Activities from 1992 to 2019.  

Under Breden’s leadership, the LMU Choruses appeared in a variety of venues throughout the United States. The ensembles also toured with Michael Crawford and appeared with him on his PBS special The Music of the Night. Internationally, Breden toured with the Choruses throughout Italy, Germany, Austria, France, and England.

In 2019, Mount St. Mary’s University recognized Breden with the Outstanding Alumni Award for Professional Achievement in the choral community of Los Angeles. The California Choral Directors Association named her the 2021 recipient of the Howard Swan Lifetime Achievement Award.