{"id":9209,"date":"2021-01-23T09:59:17","date_gmt":"2021-01-23T17:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/test\/?p=9209"},"modified":"2021-01-23T10:01:20","modified_gmt":"2021-01-23T18:01:20","slug":"blogposthopebriggs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/blogposthopebriggs\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Hope Briggs, operatic soprano"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How does a musical-theater teen and aspiring Contemporary Christian singer find her way to the grand opera stage? In our January 30 online conversation<\/a>, soprano Hope Briggs will talk about her musical education, her musical mentors, and how she became an acclaimed interpreter of Verdi roles. As an overture, Hope chatted with us from her home in San Bruno, California, about \u201chow opera found me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hope Briggs<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What was your introduction to music? Did you listen to opera when you were growing up?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I grew up in a musical household in San Francisco and later on the San Francisco Peninsula, but my interest in opera came later. My mother, my father, my sister, and my brother all sang, and we often sang together\u2014my mother would play the piano. I was so shy as a child that I would stand in the closet and sing from there!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My father was a minister, and I sang in the church choir, and occasionally I sang a solo. My mother involved me in various children\u2019s groups: tap, ballet, theater. As for opera, my mother had a few classical albums, and I enjoyed listening to Leontyne Price\u2019s Christmas album, but I wasm\u2019t very interested in her operatic work. I was more interested in Broadway musicals. And I liked Contemporary Christian music, which suits my voice better than gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some reason, I was asked to join my high school\u2019s jazz band, even though I didn\u2019t know a lot about jazz. We went to the Reno International Jazz Festival and did quite well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you know from an early age that you\u2019d make a career of music?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Skyline College [in San Bruno, California], which I attended after high school, I didn\u2019t focus on music, although I did take a vocal workshop, which is where I developed a real love for jazz. My teacher saw something in me and told me I could get a full scholarship to USC if I studied opera. I said, \u201cNo, thank you.\u201d I didn\u2019t want to do that. I had a sense that it would be hard to make a living in music. So I was thinking about pursuing law or writing or maybe psychology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, out of the blue, a high school friend dropped by my house unannounced and said, \u201cI want to talk to you. You\u2019re not doing what you do best, which is singing.\u201d It was out of character for her\u2014she wasn\u2019t an especially bold person. She just cared enough to come over and tell me that. It got me thinking. I began looking into schools with good music programs. Cal State Fullerton, which had an excellent jazz band, was on my list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I called the music chair, Jane Paul Hummel<\/a>, and told her I was thinking about applying. She said, \u201cAre you good?\u201d That was a surprise! I said, \u201cYeah, I\u2019m good!\u201d She invited me down for an audition. What\u2019s amazing to me is that she picked me up at the airport and hosted me\u2014I stayed at her house. She had me sit in on a vocal workshop. She had a student take me out to dinner. She took me under her wing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She sounds like the perfect mentor.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She started from square one with me. I\u2019d never had a formal music lesson at that point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was your audition like?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For my audition, I sang \u201cCry Me a River\u201d and a Contemporary Christian song, \u201cWe Shall Behold Him.\u201d They asked me if I knew any opera. The only thing I knew was the \u201cHabanera\u201d from Carmen<\/em>, so I sang that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They offered me a full scholarship, and Jane offered to teach me. By my third year I was entering competitions and doing apprenticeship programs. And I was singing opera\u2014I didn\u2019t have a choice, studying with her. I fell in love with it. Although I did sing a few times with the jazz band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We did a little research and found a review<\/a> in the Los Angeles Times of a Cole Porter revue at Cal State Fullerton. The reviewer singled you out for praise: \u201cOf the better singers, Hope Briggs stands out with a voice that is strong and mellowed and put to good use on the torchy \u2018Hothouse Rose.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I still love musical theater! Last April, I watched the Stephen Sondheim 90th<\/sup>-birthday concert<\/a>\u2014I love Sondheim\u2019s lyrics\u2014and since then I\u2019ve been watching a lot of musicals on YouTube and looking again at my musical theater pieces. In many ways the pandemic has removed the barriers between classical and popular music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there any operatic roles you haven\u2019t yet sung but would like to?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d like to sing Elvira in Ernani.<\/em> One of the things I like about Verdi is its agility, which suits my voice. I have a dark-colored voice, and people don\u2019t expect it to move as fast as it does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d also like to get into some Handel. When I was working with Sheri Greenawald, and she told me, \u201cYou have to do Handel\u2014your voice loves it!\u201d [Read about our July 2020 conversation with singer and mentor Sheri Greenawald<\/a>.<\/em>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are some things you\u2019ve been doing since performances and touring were put on pause?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been rediscovering my love of writing\u2014poetry, short stories, personal essays. I\u2019ve also had the opportunity to do some online singing. Nicole Heaston, who sang Countess Almaviva in San Francisco Opera\u2019s Figaro<\/em> in 2019, put together a collaboration of 65 African American opera singers<\/a> singing the Negro National Anthem, \u201cLift Every Voice and Sing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I also started my own YouTube channel, \u201cBringing Hope 2U<\/a>.\u201d I felt the need to bring hope and peace and encouragement to people during this difficult time. I\u2019m giving myself permission to be me, to not be put in a corner. I\u2019m saying, This is Hope, and Hope loves music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How does a musical-theater teen and aspiring Contemporary Christian singer find her way to the grand opera stage? In our January 30 online conversation, soprano Hope Briggs will talk about her musical education, her musical mentors, and how she became an acclaimed interpreter of Verdi roles. As an overture, Hope chatted with us from her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mentors","category-voice"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMeet Hope Briggs, operatic soprano - Amateur Music Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hope Briggs talks about her musical education, her musical mentors, and how she became an acclaimed interpreter of Verdi roles.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/amateurmusic.org\/info\/blogposthopebriggs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet Hope Briggs, operatic soprano - 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