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" I would have to say that my very first encounter with the arts was when my mother bought me my first record player when I was six years old as well as a Karen Carpenter record. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

Years

Old

Arts

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" Opera - above and beyond anything else - is about the music, and it should be about the music. "

" I am so proud to call myself Canadian! Thank you, Canada, for welcoming me with open arms! "

Sondra Radvanovsky

Proud

Myself

" I think Chicagoans have a great set of values. You know what I mean? Kindness. Morals. Ethics. People in Chicago do the right thing. If somebody falls on the street, someone will actually stop and help them up. That doesn't happen in certain other cities. "

" For sure, one moment really defined the path that I was to take in the future, and that was when I won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in New York in April of 1995. I had just turned 25 two days before the finals concert, and when I won, I had no idea how my life would change because of it. "

" It's the worst feeling, coming back after a performance when you are on a real high, and you go back alone to an apartment or a hotel room. People think we sit in hotels and eat bon bons. But the lifestyle can be very stressful. "

" You went to your first Broadway play or musical at some point, right? Come to opera. "

" Artists shouldn't deal with business stuff; that's not what we're trained in, and most of us aren't good at it. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

Business

Deal

" Trying to look glamorous while singing is not easy. "

" People have this idea that opera singers are overweight and sit at home eating bonbons. But I consider myself an athlete. "

" I think the power of opera has been shifted from the music to the director, because this is a very visual age that we live in. "

" HD is not forgiving. Once you see your face for the first time in a movie cinema, you run straight to the gym. "

" What if you didn't have education for sports? People with a natural inclination for sports, athletes without any kind of education, without any kind of training, they would just be couch athletes instead of the world class Olympians that we have. "

" We live in a very disposable society, and people want everything right away, but unfortunately, vocal technique doesn't come overnight. "

" I walk around the house in my pajamas all day if I want to. "

" For me, bel canto is medicine for the voice. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

Medicine

Voice

" I love the tragic side. I don't do 'happy' onstage. I like the dark, the disturbed. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

Side

Love

" Opera tells stories that all ages can relate to: love, death, revenge, etc. "

" I don't like confrontation; I just like to sing. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

Just

Sing

" Singing bel canto is like walking on a tightrope - especially with a larger voice like mine. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

Walking

Voice

" I guess my first professional experience was when my church choir director told my mother that I had a gift with my voice and said that I should think about auditioning, at 11 years old, for the chorus of our regional opera company. "

" I don't like happy stuff. I'm not funny. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

Funny

Stuff

" After I turn 50, I would like to sing Verdi's 'Attila.' "

" I always think of my father when I sing arias about loss and love and longing. It gave me that definite deep sorrow that one can only get from life experience, you know? "

Sondra Radvanovsky

Father

Love

" Even when I'm not onstage singing, there's always music going on in my head. It's a curse and a blessing in a way - it's sitting in bed at night, trying to go to sleep, while the music keeps playing in your head - especially when you're trying to learn something new and you're trying to memorize it and get everything. "

" When you do a 'messa di voce,' that means you start soft, you crescendo into loud - and then you go back to soft again. Some people call it circus tricks, but in bel canto, it's really written into the music. "

" I perform in opera houses in the centres of big cities. We live in 20 acres of forest. You need that space to recover and renew. "

" When I was signing up for the University of Southern California's music program, I flipped a coin to decide my major. If it came up heads, it would be flute - tails would be voice. "

Sondra Radvanovsky

Music

University

" And if I don't sing, I don't get paid. "

" Temperament and tightness often go together. But if you're tight, you can't sing. So I have to have that tension in my body but not in my voice. "

" If I can transport audiences for the three or four hours they're at the opera, to make them forget all of their worries, the bills they have to pay and all that, then I've done my job. That, for me, is very gratifying. "