A Visit with High-Flying Opera Soprano Amy Owens

World class by any measure.

I was introduced to Amy Owens by means of a mutual friend, the photographer Gary Firstenberg. When I checked out a few of her YouTube videos I was astonished by her range. Her high notes are capable of poking holes in ceilings. I was also impressed by the joy she exuded as she sang. Though any professional singer is a performer per se, Owens comes across as the genuine article.

This is my first interview with an opera singer and I learned a lot. Amy Owens is also a voice teacher, cross-genre performer and lifelong learner. Here are a couple quotes from the critics.

“high-flying vocals…. technically clean and focused” --Opera News

"... a wonderfully unique coloratura soprano who never stops creating. I love her positive energy and cheerful personality." --360 of Opera

While preparing for this interview I listened to/watched several of her videos. You will want to fetch a few on the link at the end of this blog post and give a listen. Then follow her on Instagram and become a fan. 

EN: You're an opera singer so you have lived a nomadic life, moving to where the jobs were. Where ARE opera jobs found today? 

Amy Owens: In Northern America, being an opera singer means being a freelance artist and working gig-to-gig. Many singers have a home base from which they travel frequently. Most opera gigs are about a month long; concerts and recitals are usually a week or less. So depending on a singer’s schedule, they may opt to be completely nomadic! I currently have a home base in New Orleans, but there were many years where I was subletting my New York City apartment most of the time, and then I went completely nomadic for a few years. 

In Europe, the model is different and opera singers can find more stable work in one city. This is made possible by government funding and a public that engages with the art form more regularly. 

EN: You're an opera singer, but you do pop. Can you tell us how you got into that? 

Amy O: Being an opera singer requires very specific training, but most professional singers come from backgrounds that involved musical theater, pop, folk, gospel, etc. It can sometimes be difficult for an opera singer to go back to a pop sound after training for years, but it is really fun to do! It’s almost a palette-cleanser to just sing for the joy of it. I personally love being part of the creative process, composing and crafting music the way singer-songwriters do. In opera we don’t get to do much of that because the singing itself is so demanding. 

I started experimenting with pop as an exploration in collaboration and style. I treat singing and collaboration as a laboratory, a place and process to explore, express, and create new things. Whether the experiments result in something that can accurately be called “pop” is up to listener discretion! A more accurate term might be “alternative.” :) 

EN: You said you enjoy collaborating with people with different musical backgrounds. "Fusion music challenges me. I've tried many different things," you said when we talked. "In New Orleans I feel that same collaborative feeling with the jazz musicians. Being a creator, composing, writing lyrics... a totally different approach to music. It was like a new world." 

Amy O: Confronting unfamiliar genres and collaborators requires me to get out of my comfort zone, which is the place of greatest learning. Magical things always happen when I’m working with someone who has a different musical background or experience than I have. Not only is the resulting music unique, but the collaboration also helps me to be more empathetic and understanding of humanity, which in turn brings more authenticity to the music itself. 

I am a lover of process, and collaborating in an improvisatory way is an extremely different process than preparing classical music. My love of practice is what brought me to classical music in the first place: it is an endless adventure in refining the voice and discovering more of what a composer intended, and rehearsing with other musicians is an amazing experience of listening and trust. Listening and trust are required in jazz music as well, except the rehearsal (if it happens at all) is different, and performances are expected to spin out in unexpected ways. For a classical musician who is used to rehearsing something a lot before performing, improvising in a jazz band can be unnerving! But it’s also incredibly fun. I sang at jazz fest in 2019 with the Glen David Andrews band, and honestly, I went up on the stage without knowing the songs at all. I figured out pretty quickly how to sing the required backup vocal lines, and I was occasionally directed to improvise solo lines. There were thousands of listeners, so my only option was to go all in and just sing!

EN: Which path has the most potential for a long career? 

Amy O: No career looks the same, but a sustainable one will undoubtedly require pivoting. Singing operatically is extremely athletic, so aging has an affect on the voice. It doesn’t mean you have to stop singing, it just means that engagement with music might be different. Operatic careers tend to be more sustainable than pop careers (not including the biggest stars). But if there’s anything that COVID taught us, it’s that the arts industry is fragile. Almost everyone I know has diversified their skill set in order to survive.

EN: What do the music critics say about your opera singing?

Amy O: Critics! We love them and we despise them, but they can be important. The themes that emerge from most of my reviews are that my voice is very clear and lyrical, and that I have great comedic flair. 

EN: You said you also teach a lot. What do you enjoy most about teaching singing?

With photographer Gary Firstenberg.

Amy O: I love teaching! The human voice is a very personal instrument and is closely related to a person’s confidence. I try to empower my students to choose for themselves the advice they will take to heart and what they will discard, treating every lesson and practice session as a grand experiment. Every bit of feedback you receive from your own mind and from your teachers is simply a data point. In this way, we separate the progress of the voice from the worth of the singer. Every singer has great worth, period, no matter what they get hired to do or what the critics say.

Seeing a student make breakthroughs with their technique brings me incredible joy. I am usually skipping after a day of teaching! Learning to sing is learning how to apply tools to figure out a problem instead of giving up. As a teacher, I give tools and I help create a process so that no matter whether I am there to guide or not, my students don’t feel stuck. I tell them: “You are your own best teacher,” and I mean it. This problem-solving empowerment not only changes voices, it changes whole lives. I can’t think of anything more fulfilling.

EN: Your range is incredible. How much do you practice each day to stay tuned? 

Amy O: I practice almost every day. If I have a lot of music to learn, it can be hours and hours a day, although not all of that is singing full out. A lot of practice is silent study. But I can stay in top shape if I’m practicing at least one hour every day consistently. 

EN: You compared being an opera singer to being an Olympian?  In what ways do the two activities compare?

Amy O: Opera is the olympic sport of singing because it is the most athletic. Any variables in health, weather, pollution, and emotion can affect singing in a profound way. If you are singing in a less demanding style, you can maybe get away with being a little dehydrated, but if you are trying to sing an opera, you better be drinking that water! You can’t expect to take a few days off and be in good vocal shape. You simply have to be thinking about it all the time, every day. I’m extremely grateful for the body/health awareness that singing has given me. 

EN: You obviously enjoy singing. When did you first begin?

Amy O: I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t singing. I grew up in a family and church with a strong musical tradition, and my first public performance was in church at age 5. Growing up, I never planned on having a career in music, but midway through college it began to make more sense. I feel pretty lucky to do this is a career!

EN: How did you become interested in opera?  

Amy O: I always loved classical music, and I studied classical piano for a very long time. Opera singing isn’t something one does until they are essentially “grown up,” because of the maturity and athleticism it requires. But I think that my voice naturally lent itself to a classical style, and by the time I was 17 or 18 it was clear that studying classical and operatic repertoire was a good fit for me. Opera is challenging and requires the study of multiple languages, which added interest to my love of practice as a pianist. Basically, opera was challenging, so I loved it. I applied for a degree in Vocal Performance almost on a whim, because my high school voice teacher suggested it, and then I had many mentors and teachers who showed me the path of opera and encouraged me to pursue it. I would never have done this without their guidance.

EN: Why does music have such power to move people?

Amy O: Music is an expression that moves beyond words. It is vibration, it is energy, it is movement. Humanity longs to connect, and music gives us a medium to do so. For an artist, it is a way to self-express. In live performance, it is communication with an audience, an exchange of energy and appreciation. Music is the thing that is greater than the self, and since it is often also beautiful, it can meet people wherever they are at without judgment. There’s no way I could ever describe in words why music has power to move us… I should just play you some music instead and you’ll know what I mean. ;)

EN: You made an album of Leonard Bernstein music. What was it called and how did you come to take an interest in his work? What qualities made Bernstein significant? 

Amy O: Bernstein was brilliant for so many reasons, but I especially love his curious, experimental approach to composition. He composed in so many styles! My album tries to capture just a little bit of his breadth. Some composers didn’t take him seriously in his day, but he was way ahead of his time and his music is also timeless. I hope I can be as curious and experimental as he was.

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You can find Amy and her music on her website: amyowenssoprano.com 

Follow Amy on Instagram: amy_owens_music 

Videos and Reviews: amyowenssoprano.com/media

Check out Centauri, a variation of Dueling Banjos, except it is a vocalist and violinist. 

Wait, maybe you should start here, with Discreet. Wow!

 

Turning Negatives into Positives, the photography of Gary Firstenberg