We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Béatrice Beer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Béatrice below.

Hi Béatrice , thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Great question, thanks for asking!! Typically, I’m not a risk-taking type person, if I can, I like to stick to my comfort zone!! lol But somehow, life seems to have pushed me more often than not in the other direction!! Professionally for instance, I was entrusted by the great International Dramatic Baritone Robert McFarland, who heads the Atlantic Coast Opera Festival (it’s an awesome opera company) with major roles which I had never performed before. I did roles such as Mimì (from Puccini’s La Bohème) Leonore (Beethoven’s Fidelio), Desdemona (Verdi’s Otello) Leonora (Verdi’s Forza del Destino) etc.!!! It was a bit daunting at first, but my love and passion for the incredible music and these absolutely fantastic roles were such that I knew I could do it, I had to do it!! Plus of course, the fantastic technique taught by Robert helped prepare me so that I could sail through those tricky roles, and even be ready to sing it all over again at the end of the performance!!! I also do roles from lesser-known operas, I’m sort of quick at learning new music and at memorizing… And of course, I do the fantastic roles from my father Joseph Beer’s beyond awesome operas – his youth operas are now coming back to the international operatic arena, next, hopefully soon, come his “maturity” operas which are the ones I’d heard him work on, wow, they’re just sublime!!! 

And I’m about to do my first production as Amelia in Verdi’s Masked Ball this summer (I did it in concert a few years ago, but never in staged performances with orchestra) which I’m so thrilled about, it’s such a gorgeous role, sort of demanding with a few high Cs, I love it, can’t wait!!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

So I am originally from Nice, France, I’m the daughter of Holocaust survivors, my dear Mother Hanna Beer née Königsberg was originally from Munich, and my father, Joseph Beer was born in L’wów (then Poland, now Lviv, Ukraine) his birthday is May 7… same as two of his great inspirations, Brahms and Tchaikovsky!!

He trained at the Juilliard of the day, the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. He was already a famous composer when he was in his early twenties, on the brink of an international career. Then his works were banned by the nazis, his beloved family and key colleagues (such as Fritz Löhner-Beda, also Lehar’s librettist) were murdered during the Holocaust, so he never regained his career post-war… He continued till the end composing daily at his piano – which is now in my living-room a gorgeous Érard concert grand piano said to have belonged to Ravel…

My father was the one who discovered my vocal talent when I was 15 and had me take private voice lessons, but he insisted I finish my literary studies first (I was sort of the A student in school winning prizes etc. for creative writing) prior to starting a singing career. 

However, after earning my literature degree (summa cum laude ) I just had to go sing (as my Mother liked to say, “you can’t prevent a deer from leaping!” lol) and earned a degree in vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music. Then I was admitted to the Juilliard School and went on to study privately with one of the teachers there. 

I started out with the lyric mezzo repertoire, as none of the “big teachers” could figure out my voice – it’s a bit complex, like my soul lol – until I found the fantastic Robert McFarland!! He heard me at a Young Artist Program, and he said “you’re not a lyric Mezzo, you’re a lyric Soprano!!” He helped me transition into that repertoire, which is actually much better suited for me, vocally and also emotionally!! Some critics have said things like, “born to sing the role” – that’s very kind, but I do feel so intimately connected to the great heroines I portray, so much of it resonates with me, and of course the music is entrancing … I’m like “in the zone” when I perform, it’s SUCH a high!!!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I think that when you’re the child of Holocaust survivors, resilience is part of your DNA!! lol Both my parents survived against all odds, my Mother and her family managed to save their lives, having fled Germany at the onset of Nazism in 1933 and basically hiding while migrating throughout Europe until 1945. And my Father survived somehow hiding mostly in Paris and then in Nice, France, which was free of Nazi-regime for a while. He was starving (photos show him having lost some 40 pounds) and was still composing throughout the war, often as a “ghost-writer,” but without a piano, hearing all the instruments of the orchestra in his head.

I feel I accomplished my own journey of resilience a couple of weeks ago when I went to Dresden, Germany, to attend the grand German premiere of my father’s huge youth success Polnische Hochzeit – like 86 years after the Zurich Opera House premiere!! Then I went on to his natal Poland, also my maternal grandfather’s and his family’s homeland. It was the very first time in my life. My father never went back after the Holocaust, and it took me a while to muster the courage to rekindle my roots. It felt both empowering and rejuvenating. I felt the blessings of my ancestors carrying me forward, inspiring me to keep going no matter what, to keep going with my “blissful dream” (quoting a line from one of my father’s incredible arias for tenor) of singing and of ensuring international recognition for my father’s music, which it totally deserves.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

As a performer, and in life in general, being friendly, smiling and helpful to everyone is what I love to do!! I try to cultivate kindness, optimism and have an “attitude of gratitude” and of service. I want to give to the grand Art of Opera, to the grand Art of Singing which is my huge passion!! I practice every day to keep getting better and better and to reach the highest levels of vocal/performing achievements. But it’s also like a need, something that I have to do, it’s like an instant boost, singing just makes me so happy!!

Ever since I was a toddler, I loved to sing, there are pictures of my sister and I, when I was around two and a half, we would ride around the playground on her little red tricycle, I was standing behind her gripping her shoulders and merrily singing all the songs I knew – and I knew a lot of them hahaha – my mother said I knew dozens of songs by heart before I could even read!! But basically, to go back to this “attitude of service,” I love this aria I performed in concert with orchestra mid-May (along with several other arias, from Beethoven to Joseph Beer!! ) l’“Umile Ancella” – “the humble servant of the Divine Creator” – it says it perfectly!!

I listen to each and every person who comes to thank me or congratulate me after a performance, and I feel true appreciation. The audience is the other part of the equation, it’s like a give and take. I give it my all when I’m on stage, and I also “sense” the people in the audience and what their feelings are, it’s like a symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship!! 

I really love the saying, “follow your bliss, and the Universe will open doors where there were only walls”… Or, as Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, said, “if you don’t believe in dreams, you’re not being realistic.”  

Thanks so much for this opportunity, totally enjoyed!!! 

Contact Info:

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Image Credits
Christian Steiner
Joel Perlish Photography