We recently connected with Alexis Seminario and have shared our conversation below.

Alexis , appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I have been performing since I was twelve, but I didn’t start singing opera until I was about 17 (which believe it or not made me feel quite behind some of my peers who had been studying opera since they were children.) When I entered my undergrad I had no idea how to learn music in any efficient way, which is extremely important to our jobs as singers. Not knowing how to properly learn music made me feel deeply insecure and frightened every time I had to sing a new piece for peers or teachers. This insecurity made growth a lot harder for me at first. Instead of asking the questions I needed to ask in order to learn and grow, I went further and further into my shell of shame, not wanting people I looked up to or respected to see my softness. I realize now I could have sped up my process of becoming a working smarter, not harder singer if I had asked the teachers and mentors around me for help sooner, but I think a beautiful thing that came out of this experience for me was how much my community of loves showed up for me and guided me through my growing pains. Now, when I see my score is in cut time, I think of my friend Nicoletta. 9/8 makes me think of Jessica. Anything I sing in German makes me think of Melanie. This part is my favorite part of this job – the connections we discover and foster in the process of making art.

Alexis , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born, and lived for a short while, in Las Vegas. Although, my entire family is from New York and so we moved back there just before I started first grade. I don’t necessarily come from a big family of musicians, but my father is a singer, so I grew up with music being a big part of my life very early on. I started performing in musicals when I turned twelve, but before then I was an incredibly shy, quiet and anxious little girl. My mother had me in dance classes at three years old, which I don’t remember taking issue with, but as soon as I was socially aware the thought of performing terrified me. In fact, when I was very young I was a girl scout and I remember our troop leader suggesting we do the school talent show. I remember crying thinking about having to be in front of an audience. Despite my fear, I did the talent show and I remember having such an incredibly fun time. Everything changed for me after that. I recall, shortly after my talent show debut, seeing Beauty and the Beast on Broadway and being at the edge of my seat the whole time. I wanted so badly to be up there with them performing. I’ve come a long way since then, yet I do feel that shy and anxious little girl surely still lives inside me and the beautiful thing about my entry into singing is that I feel so deeply that theater allowed that shy girl to explore herself; express herself and discover what made her feel empowered and now a major goal of mine as a singer is to make other young performers like I was find that same empowerment and agency over themselves.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I first started singing opera I had no idea how to read or learn music. I did a lot of musical theater until I made the switch to opera and anytime I learned a new song I would learn it by ear. This isn’t the proper way to learn classical music and it became increasingly clear to me that if I was going to really take being an opera singer seriously, I was going to need this important tool to do so. My first few years of undergrad were incredibly difficult because of my lack of knowledge, I was not getting very good grades in my music theory or ear training classes. I had always struggled with math in school and turns out there is more math in opera singing than you’d think. Rhythm actually has a lot to do with numbers and math. You have to be able to count in order to produce an accurate rhythm. Rhythm was a real challenge for me being that I was never really a girl who was all that good at math and this made me feel incredibly insecure. Slowly, but surely, as I kept learning and growing I got better and better at it. Practicing by preparing my arias in the proper way, but for a while I wasn’t able to have my go at a role. As I said earlier I always felt a little shy, always sort of doubting my talent and capabilities since I felt I did not know as much as my peers. All this being said, in the summer of 2019 I remember something had switched in me and I wanted to challenge myself to learn a role that I knew would be incredibly difficult for me. By the end of the summer I had learned the entire role just for fun and earned my own performance of it. That experience always reminds me that I have the power inside me to face my fears and rise up to a challenge.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Contemporary opera is a deep passion of mine. I have found that there is nothing I love more than telling stories that relate to our current world so I’d say a major goal of mine is to involve myself in as many projects as I can that make telling modern stories a priority. I feel particularly passionate about connection and so a goal of mine every time I perform is to make people feel more connected, more willing to be vulnerable and more tolerant and inclusive of things they may not feel familiar with. If I can inspire a more empowered, a more loving world through my art making, I feel like I have done my job.

Contact Info:

• Website: alexisseminario.com
• Instagram: alexis_r_soprano
• Facebook: Alexis Rose Seminario
• Youtube: @alexisseminario1842

Image Credits
Lola Scott Micah Gleason Michael Halbig Raftermen for The Atlanta Opera