6 Questions with Blythe Gaissert
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Beaumont, TX which is about 80 miles East of Houston and close to the Louisiana border.
What made you realize that music was your path?
I don’t remember a time when music wasn’t part of my life. My mother swears I sang back to her as a baby. I used to sing along with my records of Xanadu, The Sound of Music, and Barbara Streisand. Then as I grew up, I always knew I wanted to be a singer, but thought it would be more pop or musical theater until I wanted to get the lead in a musical at my summer camp. I started voice lessons with my first teacher Betty Shine, and she introduced me to art song. Thru the years I have continued to perform different styles of music, but have found a great marriage of them all in Contemporary Classical Music.
Who are your biggest musical influences?
Omg there are so many! I love Mahler, John Adams, Poulenc, Glen Hansard, Bjork....many more!
Has there been one particular moment in your musical career that you're most proud of?
I actually have had several moments in relation to the opera As One by Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed. The people that I have met that have told me that either my performance made them feel represented, or has changed their perception of trans people and created a feeling of empathy for them are what I am most proud of.
What made you want to perform on the Room to Breathe series?
I just felt a hole in my life when the COVID virus shut our industry down. I also feel like this is a great time to use our work to be able to bring attention to all of the marginalized groups both within our industry and in the world in general.
What’s the next thing for you?
Before COVID , I had 2 world premieres by Laura Kaminsky (one with a libretto by Kimberly Reed Called “Hometown to the World” at Santa Fe Opera and the other by Andrea Fellows Fineberg called “Finding Wright”) on my schedule for this season, as well as performances with the progressive rock band the Knells and other concerts. As of now everything has been rescheduled.
The next projects I have are the recording of Kamala Sankaram’s opera Looking at You, which we premiered at HERE arts center last fall, and my solo debut album titled “HOME” which is a collection of 8 brand new chamber works by 8 composers; Kamala Sankaram, Rene Orth, Laura Kaminsky, David T. Little, Mikael Karlsson, John Glover, Ricky Ian Gordon and Martin Hennessy. Then hopefully everything will move forward with the second world premiere in April at Dayton Opera of “Finding Wright”!