BY SYLVIE WOODS
While I lay in bed scrolling through Instagram and eating crumbs out of my bellybutton yesterday*, Yvette Keong popped up in a red gown atop a grand piano.
She was in Washington Square Park, mid-song, surrounded by a throng of dizzied listeners. And, yes, on a grand piano.
That’s quite ballsy, but to say that this is the most exciting venture of hers hasn’t an echo of truth. Between accumulating awards of excellence at the Manhattan School of Music, modelling for New York fashion brand Abagail Spenser, taking notes at the Metropolitan Opera, and performing across Europe, gifted careerist and Sydney-raised soprano Yvette has truly banished the everyday.
Yvette, are vocal warm-ups equally ridiculous in New York as they are over here in Australia?
Yes, ridiculous vocal warm-ups seem to be a universal (and beloved) phenomenon. There is not one day that goes by that I do not hear an enthusiastic vocalist doing lip trills or making various noises in the stairwells at my school.
What has come to pass from studying in New York that you’d never have imagined?
An understanding of how much I have to give to the world.
Through moving to New York alone, something I’ve come to realise is that to take part in a career in music, one really has to believe in their own creative and wholesome self. To have a belief in what you uniquely have to communicate in your singing; in your own abilities, your story, your own voice. You can so easily get lost in the expectations and vastness of this field, in comparing your own trajectory with those of others. But in coming back to the honest core of why I sing, I’ve come to reflect upon who I am and where I stand among this all.
What are you most grateful for when you wake up in New York each day?
To be able to be a part of such an alive, vivacious, non-stop, and diverse city. You can be sitting on the subway, and to your right is a billionaire from Wall Street, and to your left is a local wayfarer. I have met people who have had some of the greatest impact upon my life through the most bizarre coincidences and interactions in this city.
Where else has your singing taken you? Is there a city, town, or even country that was particularly incredible to perform in?
I was lucky enough to study at an intensive bel canto singing program in Italy last summer, and did many concert tours to some gorgeous small Italian towns and cities.
One of the places I sang at was Talamello in Rimini, on this cliff that overlooked the most stunningly expansive landscape. Singing there for such a contented and sweet audience in the hot Italian summer evening air was something I will never forget.
What are your professional plans for the future?
This summer, I will be performing as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at Prague Summer Nights in July, and reprising the role at Berlin Opera Academy in August. I will then be returning to New York to finish the last year of my undergraduate degree!
It is extremely humbling to be an Australian singer with a foundation from such a beautiful country, and to be able to bring parts of where I come from to these different cities with their own artistic histories.
Yvette is one of the most exciting songstresses in the world. Keep up with her here on Instagram @yvettekeong. She performed on the piano as part of Opera Under the Arch at WSP.
*Jokes about the bellybutton. Maybe.
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