- [Announcer] In partnership with the Curtis Institute of Music, WHYY presents the following program.

(dramatic orchestral music) - My name is Katie, Katie Trigg.

I'm a singer at the Curtis Institute of Music, and I am in my first year of Master of Music, Masters of Music?

Master of Music at Curtis Institute of Music.

♪ I happy am ♪ ♪ Joy is my name ♪ I think my favorite part about being a classical musician is just the sheer, like, beauty and emotion that it conveys.

You know, I think, I mean, I love all forms of music, and I can really vibe with, you know, pop music, industrial, Nine Inch Nails.

You know, like, I love all that sort of stuff, but I feel like classical music is just such an intimate kind of genre.

You know, it's, you're usually very close to whoever is performing.

And the sound is just so, I think it really strikes you, like, right into your heart, and I really love that.

I find it really touching, really moving.

I think that there's something for everyone in classical music.

You know, people who say that they don't like classical music, I think they just haven't heard the right piece yet.

♪ Pretty joy ♪ ♪ Sweet joy, but two days old ♪ ♪ Sweet joy ♪ ♪ I call thee ♪ I first got introduced to the idea of opera, specifically, when I was about 12.

I'd just changed singing teachers, because my first, my childhood singing teacher moved to Christchurch, which is a very long way away in New Zealand terms.

So I changed to this new teacher and she heard me sing a few times, and she suggested that there was this form of singing that I might one day be suited to.

So she said, "Hey, do you wanna just give it a little go?"

So I learned, you know, it was, my first sort of vaguely classical, operatic song, was "Caro Mio Ben," and I just loved it.

I thought it was so fun, I got to sing really loudly.

I felt very powerful, and it was just a form of expression that I hadn't known about before.

And so, practicing as a child, I was really odd, as a child, in terms of practicing, because I really loved what I did, but it was hard for me to, like, really sit down with it.

So I feel like my practicing was really, like, here and there, here and there, here and there.

I would just sort of sing around the house when I felt like it, but it was very hard for me to sit down and be like, "Okay, I'm gonna spend an hour doing this."

It was just sort of, like, all over the show.

I would get told off, because I'd just be humming through a song that I was learning in class, that sort of thing, and it would be considered maybe a little disruptive.

But yeah, so, practicing when I was a kid, it was really just, you know, whenever I was enthusiastic about it, which was, you know, every day.

But there was no set routine for that.

(gentle piano music) My parents, you know, they were great.

They would just drive me to everything, which was, you know, amazing, 'cause I just had my personal chauffeurs, you know, (laughs) at seven years old.

But yeah, you know, like, they were very supportive.

And so, on the day, well, some days I would just take the bus, you know, I was going to school in Te Awamutu, which is a town in New Zealand, and my singing teacher lived in Hamilton, which was about a 30-minute drive.

And my parents, you know, they weren't able to come and get me all the time, so I would catch the bus from Te Awamutu to Hamilton and go have my lesson there.

Apart from that, they would, you know, drive me to competitions, they would just, if I wanted to go sing, you know, 40 minutes away in a concert, they would always be there for me.

So that was, they're really, really supportive.

(gentle piano music) ♪ Snow can wait ♪ ♪ I forgot my mittens ♪ ♪ Wipe my nose ♪ ♪ Get my new boots on ♪ ♪ I get a little beating heart when I think of winter ♪ ♪ I put my hand in my father's glove ♪ Growing up as a singer, you know, it was really interesting, because there was no one in my immediate family who was a musician.

So I was considered a bit of an outlier there.

My parents were really supportive, you know, I started off because I saw this Barbie movie, and it had a busker in it, and I thought, hey, you know, I like making up songs on the playground, and just sort of singing to myself, so how about I sing to other people and get a little extra pocket money?

So I started basically nagging my mom, and going, "Hey, I wanna try this thing."

She made me prove that I wasn't gonna get stage fright or chicken out, and, you know, I had to learn 10 songs from what I'd been singing at school and assemblies and things.

And I had to put on a mini concert for my neighbors and my grandparents.

And so, I did that.

So she took me down to the supermarket and left me there for half an hour.

Don't tell on her.

And when she came back, I had, I think I'd made $30, which, I was seven, I should probably say.

I was seven years old, and I had $30, which I was really stoked to go and immediately spend on lollies at the dairy.

And so, my parents, they convinced me, they were saying, "Hey, how about you put it towards something, you know, that's ongoing, like, what about singing lessons?"

And so, I thought that sounded like a great idea.

So that's how I started my singing lessons.

And then it just continued from there.

(acoustic guitar plays) ♪ So we're back here again ♪ ♪ Tiptoeing around the edge of the end ♪ ♪ Wondering who will be last to admit ♪ ♪ That we're finally over ♪ I busked my way through primary school, I guess that's elementary school, and through high school, and so that's what it was like for me growing up as a singer, and my parents were always really supportive and emotionally just, like, very there for me, enthusiastic that I was doing something that I loved.

So yeah, it was very fun, and it was also kind of funny, because no one else in my family had any experience of how this works.

Getting to work with the musical director of the Metropolitan Opera House, getting to work with, you know, also the musical director of the Philadelphia Orchestra is, you know, so intimidating and exciting.

And I was just like, "I am going to just freeze, and there's no way I can do this," but at the same time, I was like, well, you know, someone thinks I can, obviously, so I guess I can.

(orchestra plays) You know, we did this concert with Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the Kimmel Center, and that opportunity, you know, knowing, hearing that I was gonna do that when I first sort of arrived at Curtis, was like, no way.

You know?

That was mind blowing to me.

(orchestral music swells) (Katie sings soprano melody in foreign language) (strings play romantic melody) (Katie sings soprano melody in foreign language) (orchestra swells) (Katie sings soprano melody in foreign language) (oboe plays melancholy solo) (Katie sings soprano melody in foreign language) (cellos play brooding melody) (ominous cello melody) (eerie violin chords play) (Katie sings soprano melody in foreign language) (winds and horns swell) (Katie sings soprano melody in foreign language) (strings pluck in unison) (Katie sings soprano melody in foreign language) (strings plucking) (gentle music) (Katie sings soprano melody in foreign language) (Katie's vocals intensify) (orchestra swells) (violins and winds trill playfully) (Katie sings soprano melody in foreign language) (orchestra swells) (Katie sings soprano melody in foreign language) (orchestra swells dramatically) (timpani rolls) (Katie sings soprano melody in foreign language) (Katie sings with passion) (somber horn melody) (strings swell ominously) (Katie sings soprano melody in foreign language) (orchestra crescendos dramatically) (Katie sings soprano melody in foreign language) (ascending horn melody plays) (Katie sings soprano melody in foreign language) (somber woodwind melody plays) (gentle brass chords play) (Katie sings in foreign language) (cellos swell with longing) (timpani rolls gently) (audience applauds) (audience cheers and applauds) (lively piano melody plays) (playful piano chords play) (choir sings in foreign language) Being kinda new to the States, I haven't done as many auditions as I think a lot of my colleagues have, because when I got here in August, it was just, like, this whoosh of, oh, summer programs, and there's all these auditions for that.

(chuckles) And I didn't really know that that was gonna hit me so soon.

So I was, you know, it was very much just this sort of flurry of activity of, okay, I've gotta apply for this and apply for that, and then submit these videos, and make sure I fulfill all the requirements, and then see if I get an audition.

And so I did a few auditions back in the fall, and they went great, I'm gonna be at Wolf Trap Opera this summer, which is really exciting.

I will be in the chorus for two of their productions.

They're putting on "Faust," as well as "Semele," and I will also be covering the sort of duo role of Juno and Ino.

That's a little plot twist kinda situation there.

But yeah, so I'm very excited about that.

- [Actor 1] What time is it?

- [Actor 2] Your country's wasted.

- Yeah, when it comes to other auditions, I think that's something that I'm really learning, to see where those opportunities come up, and make sure that I'm prepared for them.

I think this year has very much been a case of learning about what there is, and learning about what the eligibility is, and, like, what the criteria is for applying, and what kind of repertoire it needs.

And this is really my year of building that, so that I'm really ready to go when next year comes around.

Yeah, this is my first production at Curtis.

I mean, we've done a couple of recitals and stuff, but first, like, stage, first hair and makeup with Curtis, all this sort of thing.

It's very exciting.

You know what?

- You know what would go off, like, let's be, - I'm gonna come in with like a little cat wing and be like, "That's not natural.

(Katie laughs) I'll smudge it out, it'll be fine.

This is just me making do.

I love it!

Why do you kind of look like you should be in that anime?

"Attack on Titan?"

(actor laughs) I, look, I haven't really seen it, but I just feel like I've seen photos from it, and it's giving me, like, vague vibes of that.

Three-year goal is to be singing at Las Gala.

(Katie giggles) Yeah, I dunno.

I think I would love to be, you know, debuting a few roles with an opera house, (audience applauds) and I really want to one day just have a successful freelance career.

I think that would be amazing.

(piano plays robust melody) (piano plays gentle melody) (Katie sings in foreign language) (piano plays lively melody) (piano plays gently) (Katie sings in Italian) (piano plays gently) (Katie sings in Italian) (piano plays robust melody) (Katie sings in Italian) (Katie sings playful ascending swells) (Katie holds final note triumphantly) (piano plays final fanfare) (crowd applauds) (piano plays gently) (Katie sings in foreign language) (Katie sings in stops and starts) (Katie sings passionately in foreign language) (piano plays lively melody) (piano plays softly) Curtis, for me, really represents just a huge step forward from where I've come from, you know, I think New Zealand is a really great environment for nurturing young singers, and I think that we have a lot of amazing singers coming out of there, but up till recently that's kind of, you know, there always has to be a jumping point.

And I think, for me, Curtis is that jumping point where I've left the country, you know, I'm in this whole new environment and I'm getting to work with just the most phenomenal people, you know, this is, I'm working with coaches from the Met Opera, and people who just have so much expertise in this thing that I'm really passionate about.

So, for me, it's just this next big step towards just becoming as much as I can be.

I think that's just always what I'm looking for, is how far can I go?

How much more can I learn and improve, and bring this art form to people wherever I can?

I would tell my younger self that I think that there is so much more possible for me than I could ever have imagined, you know, when I first started this.

Oh gosh.

Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm just having another little moment.

It's very overwhelming, I think, to think about where I am now, and, like, the amazing opportunities, the amazing people that I've met, that I've had the chance to work with, that I don't know if I would've believed that when I was a kid.

You know, I still struggle, I think, with that self-doubt, you know, from time to time.

I think everyone does.

And so, you know, to be able to say, to go back and say, "Hey, like, you're gonna do incredible things.

Like, I know."

That would be amazing.

Yeah, it's really cool, just, like, where I am right now makes me so happy.

(orchestra plays)