Five Questions with soprano Christine Brewer

Christine Brewer will perform Strauss’ “Four Last Songs” with the ESO on Oct. 7 and 8, 2023.

We recently asked soprano Christine Brewer to tell us a little more about her career and what she will be singing in her performance with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra in our 74th season opening concerts on Oct. 7 and 8, 2023. Here is our conversation.

Please tell us a little bit about your start in opera…

I started out as a violinist, and I always sang.  In fact, everyone on my mom's side of the family sang and played instruments.  My mom sang in a gospel/jazz trio, so I grew up listening to them and sometimes singing with them.  I sang all through high school in chorus, the Madrigal singers and in musicals. 

I studied Music Education at McKendree University in Lebanon, Ill., and taught K-12 music for one year. All the while, I was singing as a paid section leader in the St. Louis Symphony Chorus and had a job as a soprano soloist at The Church of St. Michael and St. George in Clayton, Missouri.  I also sang a couple of summers with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and then did some understudy work with them as my voice continued to grow. 

It was after I won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and the Tucker Auditions that managers became interested and once I had management, I started singing in opera houses and symphony halls around the world. 

I truly never thought this is what I would be doing!  I thought that I might play violin in an orchestra and teach vocal music, but I took another path.

What opera house or theater was your favorite to have performed at?

It is hard to say what my favorites have been - The Royal Opera at Covent Garden in London is certainly high on the list, and I have fond memories of San Francisco Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago.  One of my favorite concert halls is the Wigmore Hall in London and the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall in Melbourne, Australia.  Both of these concert halls have amazing acoustics and are beautiful!  The Murdoch Hall has walls lined with panels of Hoop Pine timber which enhance the sense of intimacy of the singers and instrumentalists on stage.  

While you have performed around the world, you have continued to reside in southern Illinois, what is it about the area that is special for you?

Initially, I chose to stay in southern Illinois in the town of Lebanon, which is about 20 minutes from downtown St. Louis, because my husband was a junior high school history teacher and my parents lived not too far from us, so they all were able to help care for our daughter when I was out of town. St. Louis is pretty central in this country, and not too far from Chicago for when I had international flights.  I grew up in a town of 500, and now live in a town of 4,000, so you could say that I really love small towns!  I love the sense of community in a small college town, and when I'm away for a longer period of time, I can rent an apartment in other cities.

Music education is important to you. Can you tell us about the Opera-tunities program and how you saw it influence the students in the program?

About 15 or 16 years ago, I started a program called Opera-tunities in Marissa, Illinois, where I had taught school right after I got out of college.  The 6th grade teacher, Nancy Wagner asked me if I could help her out with a geography project with her class: she had put up a map of the world and titled it "Where in the world is Ms. Brewer?"  She would mark the map and the kids would study those places where I travelled. 

The program grew over its 10-year existence. I would invite St. Louis Symphony folks to come with me to visit with the kids and play for them.  The first class who did this came up with the name and it just stuck.  Marc Thayer came several times and played the violin for the students and talked about the orchestra, and we started taking the kids to closed rehearsals when I was singing with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.  It was a big deal for these kids, many of whom had never been to St. Louis.  They loved watching David Robertson conduct the orchestra and had lots of questions and comments for me afterwards.  We continued the program until David's tenure was up at SLSO and Nancy retired from teaching at Marissa. 

I ran into one of the former students a few months ago when he turned up on my doorstep.  He said, "Hello, my name is Tristan. I was in Mrs. Wagner's class about 10 years ago and I'll never forget what an inspiration it was to get to go to Powell Hall and hear the SLSO perform with you!"  

What do you want people to know about your upcoming performance with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra?

I'm very excited to come to Elgin to sing Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs, which are some of my favorite pieces to sing!  I first heard these songs when I was a college student and Heather Harper sang them with the SLSO and Leonard Slatkin was conducting.  I went right out and bought a score and took it to my next voice lesson. 

My voice professor at McKendree, Glenn Freiner, kindly (and very wisely) told me that he agreed that these were some of the most glorious songs ever written and that I should study the poetry and sing them in about 20 years!  He was so right!  They are valedictory songs about Spring and September, and falling calmly to sleep and sunset – very much about how we are affected by the sights and sounds of nature.   

I've sung them all over the world, from St. Louis to Rio to London to Sydney, Rome, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur to Madrid.  I've kept track of the places I've sung them, and the conductors with whom I've worked, and the Opera-tunities kids calculated some stats - 5 continents, 13 countries and 42 conductors so far!