Meet Alexandra Nowakowski | Opera Singer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alexandra Nowakowski and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alexandra, what’s the most difficult decision you’ve ever had to make?
Career or relationship. An opera career forces you to be constantly on the road for months at a time, often times receiving better and more lucrative opportunities on the other side of the planet rather than in your own backyard. In the past, I always chose career. These days, I’m trying to choose relationship(s) as much as I can.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m an opera singer by trade and have been full-time since 2018 when I left school (which took ten years by the way, the same as a doctor). It’s been the craziest, most rewarding, and most challenging journey of my life. It’s art, so sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason, and sometimes things get subjective, so good talent and hard work doesn’t always equal success in this field. Every year that I still have jobs and a career is nothing short of a miracle, and I always try to remember that.
My voice type – coloratura soprano – is one of the most competitive there is, so essentially, you have to be perfect. Except – you guessed it – perfection does not exist. So what’s a soprano to do? Work one thousand times harder than your colleagues, to start. Work every angle. Try every possible way to get in the door. Sing as well as you possibly can. I tried to do all that, and you know what they say, if you shoot for the moon, even if you fail you might land among the stars. That’s sort of what happened to me, since I work quite frequently as a cover (otherwise known as an understudy) at the biggest opera house in the world, The Metropolitan Opera. I’ve seen and met almost all my heroes, all the “stars” of opera, and I’m incredibly grateful to see how the big house works, even if I haven’t had the chance to make my own debut there. Maybe one day.
After you spend so long in the opera business, you do start to see some of its flaws. You also start to see that it’s very averse to change or innovation. That’s where I started taking things into my own hands. I started my TikTok @alex.nowa in an effort to get more “opera to the people” as it were. Make it fun, make it colloquial again. After all, nobody owns music. We’re all invited to the table. I firmly believe opera is for everyone, but I don’t see my industry trying to get that point across, and so more and more theaters have fewer and fewer people in their audience and coming to their shows.
Another project I started is called The Opera Kitchen, one I’m really passionate about. I team up with a private chef and they create a menu based on 3 operatic pieces that I’ll sing live for our guests. We have a maximum of 8-10 people per dinner, so it’s an intimate experience where I explain a bit about each piece and you get to hear opera up close. That’s how I fell in love with this art form originally, so I thought to myself, this is how people should be able to experience it too.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’ve been staying in DTLA while working for the LA Opera, and I have to say, I know it’s not one of the popular places among locals, but I think it has so much charm. The old buildings, the old theaters, the history. If I were showing them around LA, I’d take them to see an opera (duh) at the LA Opera, then we’d pop across the street to walk around Walt Disney Concert Hall, take some photos, then take Angel’s Flight down to Grand Central Market. Soo much yummy food to try there, but my favorite thing has been then turmeric latte at Go Get ‘Em Tiger, and cookies from Fat + Flour. Then I’d take them across the street to see the Bradbury Building, which I think is just so beautiful. A pop into The Last Bookstore would be a must after that. We’d have happy hour at Perch, or skip Perch and grab the best donuts in the world at Donut Friend, and then for dinner, sushi in Little Tokyo at Hama Sushi, or udon at Marugame Monzo. I can’t decide! The food in LA is just delicious.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are a lot of people to thank, because no one person is responsible for the success of any one opera singer. The career is too hard and multi-faceted. I would say, though, of all my experiences, my most important voice teacher was Cynthia Haymon, who taught me what good singing actually was, and the opera finishing school I went to, the Academy of Vocal Arts, which taught me what it actually meant to have a career as an opera singer as well as what it is to be an artist. Oh, and also, my mom, who always believed in me and was the reason I started voice lessons in the first place.

Website: https://www.alexandranowakowski.com

Instagram: instagram.com/alexandra_sings & instagram.com/its.alexnowa

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-nowakowski-4367ab296/

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@its.alexnowa?si=aNXBjv2nFcPiNmsT

Image Credits
Riccardo Riccio, Scott Suchman, Karpati&Zarewicz