By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Nick Kottman will be in uniform for the Toledo Opera’s forthcoming production of “South Pacific.”
It won’t be the uniform though he’s been wearing for the pat 10 years.
A trained classical singer, Kottman’s regular job is at the Toledo Correctional Center where he teaches inmates in the institution’s GED classes.
For Kottman, who has a bachelor’s degree in music education and a master’s in vocal performance from BGSU, though, his work at the maximum security prison is a mission as much as a job.
“It’s a different kind of mission that I see myself doing, but it’s rewarding,” Kottman said. “Hope is job one. One of the important aspects of education is giving these guys something to look forward to when they get out so they don’t reoffend, so that they don’t slip back into their old ways. My role in that is one I really cherish.”
Kottman will play Lt. Buzz Adams in “South Pacific” on stage Friday, Feb. 14, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 16, at 2 p.m. at the Valentine Theatre, 400 North Superior St., Toledo. Click for tickets.
The tenor figures he’s performed in more than a dozen shows with the opera since 2019 when he graduated from BGSU.
Kottman, 38, first arrived at BGSU in 2005 straight out of high school in Bellbrook, outside of Dayton.
In high school, he sang in the choir, played tuba in band, trombone in the jazz ensemble, and performed in school musicals For two summers he was a member of the Casper (Wyoming) Trooper, a competitive drum and bugle corps in which he played a “shoulder cannon.” He attributes his success as an opera singer to playing tuba. “That’s where my lung capacity comes from pushing a lot air through those tubes.”
At BGSU though “I got overly involved in social activities and I didn’t end up finishing college the first time around.”
He was working as a car salesman locally with limited success. He was married, with one child and another on the way. He took the advice of his wife’s uncle and applied and got a job as a correctional officer.
The job provided more than a paycheck. It also came with tuition assistance for education.
So in 2016, Kottman, decided to go back and get his bachelor’s degree in hopes of pursuing his original dream of teaching music.
It was then that the voice faculty encouraged him to get involved in opera. “I’d never thought of doing them until then.” He was cast in “Street Scene.”
While singing in high school chorus he was urged to tamp down his voice to blend with the other singers. In opera, though, even when singing in a chorus, the strong individual voice is encouraged. “I got to use my full voice and not get reprimanded, so it felt more natural.”
Kottman went on to performed in “Cosi fan tutte,” “Most Happy Fella,” and “Orpheus in the Underground” as well as winning the Conrad Art Song competition.
On graduating in 2019 with his teaching license in hand, he went out to seek a job. But when he saw what teaching paid he had second thoughts. The starting salaries were about half of what his starting salary at the prison had been four years before. He kept his prison job, but he continued to sing as a chorister with the Toledo Opera and has a paid position at First Presbyterian Church in Maumee. That position includes performing in recitals hosted by the church.
Kottman returned to BGSU and earned his master’s I vocal performance in 2021.
Toledo Opera always has given him small featured roles in shows.
His most prominent role was in last year’s production of “Ragtime” where he portrayed Mother’s Little Brother. In that role he gets to deliver a darkly comic line. Asked by the righteously aggrieved Coalhouse Walker what he has to offer his gang of aspiring terrorism, Kottman’s character, the scion of a fireworks manufacturing family, responds: “I know how to blow things up.”
In “South Pacific,” set during World War II, Kottman plays Lt. Buzz Adams, a pilot who flies two characters including Emile, played by his former BGSU teacher Keith Phares, on a recognizance mission to an island occupied by the Japanese. Kottman gets a short monologue explaining the mission.
He also has a solo in one of the shows many signature tunes “Ain’t Nothin’ Like a Dame.”
Music and teaching do intersect. Along with the GED courses at the Toledo facility, Kottman also works with an online program to help inmates throughout the state, who are just a few courses shy getting their diplomas. He helps students taking the self-guided music appreciation class. When they hit a snag, they reach out to him for help. When Kottman first looked at the course, he was stunned by the amount of material covered. It amounted to all the content from his first and second year courses at BGSU. Despite that some students have completed it.
He also teaches students taking virtual reality classes in the trades, another way to give students hope when they are released.
“The biggest aspect of the job with the students I have is a lot of them grew up being told they couldn’t do it,” he said. “They were too dumb. They’d never learn it. So that’s their mindset. Most of my teaching is based around breaking that mindset. Telling them ‘It’s not out of your reach. You can do this.’ I act kind of like a cheerleader. I show them the skills to use to break down more complex theories or problems in math or whatever we’re working on.”
And he’s investing further in his future in the correctional system by working toward his educational administrator license in education.
“At one point I would have gone overseas and sang in operas, but life has other plans,” Kottman said. “Music has always been more of my stress relief. Having my musical outlets on top of my money making job has been helpful.”
