Blake Morgan – Blue Lake Alumni Spotlight
What is your artistic specialty and how are you practicing it now?
I record, teach, and tour internationally with the British vocal octet, VOCES8, for whom I also write and arrange music. In my time away from the group, I have a solo folk music project called “Esto” where I keep up my instrumental chops, tracking and performing original tunes. Prior to VOCES8, I toured with full-time men’s ensembles Chanticleer and Cantus, and was a member of Austin-based Conspirare when the group won its 2015 GRAMMY for best choral performance.
What is your educational/training background?
I grew near Detroit listening to my father play drums in different Motown bands (he previously had a stint with Tina Turner) so I was behind the kit with him, learning at an early age. I took up piano lessons and also began playing several instruments in the band and orchestra throughout grade school. However, I picked up guitar in 9th grade with dreams of being the next Bon Jovi, started a rock band, and also got more seriously into jazz.
I entered Western Michigan University as a jazz studies major, but enjoyed singing in “Gold Company” (the vocal jazz ensemble) so much that I decided to join the classical choir as well… then the opera chorus. I eventually decided to add both a music education degree and a classical voice degree.
When did you attend Blue Lake?
I attended Blue Lake a few times! My first visit as a camper was in 2007, playing drum kit in the jazz band.
In 2008 I wanted to try out Blue Lake’s International program but was a little late applying for the jazz group — I was told there were a few tenor spots available in the International choir, so I sent in a recording of me singing really high with my rock band. Somehow I made the cut! It was the first choir with which I ever made music, and I absolutely drank-up the kool-aid; guess I’m still drinking it!
I also returned to the summer camp to play jazz guitar later that summer (2008), served as an intensive week counsellor a few times, and reprised my role as a tenor in the International choir during the summer of 2012, this time as a staff member. Lots of great memories!
What was special about Blue Lake and do you have any particular experiences or memories that you would like to share?
BLFAC, particularly the International program, was the defining experience that made me want to pursue music as a career. I wasn’t ready for such a whirlwind of a summer, and any expectation I could have dreamed-up for my first experience abroad was absolutely shattered, in a profoundly positive way. Getting that first taste of travelling to a new world — soaking up so much exciting culture, making friends on the other side of the ocean, transcending language barriers with the power of song — it set me off on an inspiring chase to make a career out of moments like that. Blue Lake’s International program brought some of my most cherished memories, many of my best friends (still to this day), and a serious helping of indescribable magic, from which I still draw inspiration, even now.