François Clemmons
Seven Days
By Megan James [05.08.13]
By Megan James [05.08.13]
In the 1970s, when François Clemmons was playing Sportin’ Life in the Cleveland Symphony production of Porgy and Bess
— the role that earned him a Grammy in 1973 — he asked musical director
Lorin Maazel if he could ditch his tuxedo and wear a shimmering,
multicolored silk smoking jacket instead.
Clemmons, now wrapping up his tenure as a Middlebury College artist
in residence, recalls that he had the jacket made from four yards of
silk he bought in Italy. “It cost a little fortune,” he says. “But the
guy [selling it] told me, ‘You’ll never see this fabric on anyone
else.’”
Maazel was hesitant; tuxedos and tails were tradition. But Clemmons
persisted. “I have it in the dressing room,” he told Maazel. “You’d love
it if you saw it.”
Right before the show that night, Clemmons says, there was a knock on
his door: It was Maazel. “I took my tux jacket off and put on the
smoking jacket, and he looked and he said, ‘Turn around.’ And I did. And
he said, ‘Don’t ever wear a tuxedo again. Let’s go.’”
After the show that night, Maazel said, “Something happens to you
when you’re dressed like that,” Clemmons recalls. “When you have the
tails and tux, you’re just another guy. But when you do this, it’s a whole different experience.”
It would be difficult for anyone who’s seen Clemmons sing in Vermont
to imagine the tenor as “just another guy.” He’s known around Middlebury
— where he’s taught, directed choirs and performed for the last 16
years — as much for his radiant, flowing outfits as for his soaring
voice.
Clemmons, 68, is retiring at the end of the academic year, but first
he’ll perform an evening of spirituals one more time, this Friday, at
Middlebury College. “The concert is like a personal analysis, a personal
journey, a personal survey,” he says. “The word that keeps coming up is
‘personal.’”
Clemmons stops short of calling it a farewell concert. After all,
he’s not going anywhere. He’ll continue to live in Middlebury, and he’ll
keep singing when it feels right, whether at the Unitarian Universalist
Society, at U.S. naturalization ceremonies or at Middlebury College
basketball games. “I’m gonna go to the game anyway,” says the devoted
sports fan. “If you’re gonna be there, you might as well get up and be
useful.”
Last week, Clemmons directed his last concert with his Martin Luther King Spiritual Choir,
a group of about 50 students and community members, many of whom had
never read music or sung in a choir before. Clemmons encourages the
singers to improvise. “Don’t worry! Come out and sing, because nobody’s
going to hear you,” he likes to say. “And I’ll be wearing my outfit, so
they’re not even gonna see you.”
Since Clemmons has been at Middlebury, teaching has become as
important to him as performing. “I am so deeply moved and touched by
their curiosity and dedication,” he says of the students. “I love it
when they shine, to see them doing what they do and doing it well.”
At the college, his official title is Alexander Twilight Artist in
Residence, but Clemmons prefers “Diva in Residence.” In addition to
teaching his wildly popular J-term class on the American Negro spiritual
— which attracts everyone from music majors to jocks — he has become
the unlikely face of St. Patrick’s Day.
Every March, Clemmons decks himself out in green and gives a concert
of Irish music, which he says he fell in love with after discovering
“Danny Boy” as a young man. He felt a kinship between those songs and
the spirituals he grew up with — both musical cries for freedom.
Clemmons came to the college from New York City in 1997. Before and
during his star turn as Officer Clemmons on “Mister Rogers’
Neighborhood” — he appeared on the show between 1968 and 1993 — he was a
singer with the Metropolitan Opera Studio starting in the late ’60s. He
performed his favorite role, Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess, more than 200 times.
Later, Clemmons founded and traveled the world with the Harlem
Spiritual Ensemble, performing the traditional tunes he had heard his
mother sing as he was growing up in Youngstown, Ohio.
A visit to his Middlebury home reveals much about Clemmons. On his
coffee table, turquoise and amber jewelry spills out of hand-painted
boxes. He isn’t fully dressed without at least five pounds of these
stones draped around his neck, on his fingers and wrists and, on special
occasions, dangling from one ear.
On his bookshelves Clemmons stores histories of the American Negro
spiritual and biographies of opera legends such as Leontyne Price and
Luciano Pavarotti. On his walls are portraits of his heroes: Martin
Luther King Jr., Barack Obama, Fred Rogers. On the leather couch, an
embroidered pillow proclaims, “The Queen Doesn’t Cook,” which is
misleading; Clemmons cooks often and well.
He’s known in the neighborhood for the outrageous quantity of
colorful Christmas lights he wraps around his house at the beginning of
winter and leaves up at least through the end of March. In any given
email, Clemmons uses more exclamation points than letters of the
alphabet. He gives everyone he loves a nickname, and sings adoring
ditties to his dog, Princess, the Tibetan terrier he loves like a child.
“I’m 68 and I don’t have a partner,” says Clemmons. “But I’ve
discovered a certain kind of contentment here.” He admits he never
imagined he would end up in Vermont, let alone feel such a sense of
belonging here. “This is a place where I can serve,” he says. And to
serve, he adds, “is so plain, so uncomplicated, so fundamental.”
Clemmons says he would love to keep teaching, but he just can’t keep
up the pace anymore. “It’s better that I retire now, while I still have
gas in my tank,” he says. He’s hoping to find more time to travel,
especially to Nepal and India, and finally to make it down to Florida
for the Yankees’ spring training — he’s a huge fan.
So, we’re dying to know: What’s he wearing for the concert this Friday? “Well, that’s still a work in progress,” Clemmons says, throwing his
head back in laughter. “I usually leave it to the last minute. There’s
gonna be a fun part and something new, that much I can say.”
François Clemmons performs Friday, May 10, at 8 p.m. in the
Concert Hall of the Mahaney Center for the Arts at Middlebury College.
Free. Info, 443-6433.
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