_{Artist of the Week} 17 Qs for Renee Fajardo

Favourite place?  
My apartment! When I moved in almost three years ago, it was the first time I could furnish a space, so I’ve been very thoughtful about my choices. I think it’s beautiful, I feel like it’s mine, and I get to have my family stay with me whenever they travel to BC. Also, I am low-key proud that I thrift most of what’s in it, and it looks pretty good.

What’s your favourite opera house?
I’m partial to the Royal Opera and Ballet in Covent Garden, because that’s where I first saw really grand productions. It felt magical to go there, and they had affordable student tickets.

If you weren’t a singer, you’d be..?
Rich. Just kidding. I would probably be a speech pathologist or something similar in the medical profession. Not that I ever really wanted to be in medicine, but it would be a sensible thing to do, and I think it would be something that I would find meaningful.

What’s your guilty pleasure?
Writing fanfiction for a novel series called His Dark Materials. My twin sister and I have been writing an entire universe for this book series for nearly five years now. Will it ever see the light of internet day? Probably not, but it’s my favorite creative but no-stakes thing to do.

Do you sing in the shower?
Not so much anymore. This may sound like bragging, but I have the joy of working in a theatre as part of my full-time job, and I’m fortunate enough to live very close to it. So whenever I want to sing just for fun, I just use whatever space is available (the studios, the mainstage) and sing as much as I want.

What nickname do your friends call you and why?
No one really calls me by my nicknames here, but back home in the Philippines, I’m called Michie, Chie, Chinggay, Michang… Which are nicknames for my second name: Michaela. I go by Renee here in Canada, but I only really started using Renee when I moved abroad because I thought it sounded more like an opera singer name (Renee Fleming), and also, anyone reading my legal documents would always just stop at Renee.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?
Go where the love is. I forget who said it, but I remember also hearing from the same person that “love” in this context doesn’t mean being coddled and told you’re great all the time. It’s as much about finding a community that will be gentle and tender with you when you need it as it is holding close the same community when they hold you accountable and call you towards integrity. I’ve been fortunate enough, I think, to have such a community in both my professional and personal life, and it helps me maintain a balance between peace and motivation in my work.

What is one thing that you cannot live without?
My sisters. They’re the best, and as long as I have them, life is excellent.

Do you approach singing and/or upcoming projects differently today than you did at the beginning of your career?
When I was starting, I equated my “worth” and identity with whichever singing project/opportunity I was “successfully” pursuing, and it kept me afraid of anything that I thought could be remotely considered failure. I’m a little older now, and I step away from singing and work often enough that I’m learning to see music as a way to build connection and community again. I’m able to be more curious, and I can roll with uncertainty and not-knowing more effectively. I feel less attached to it, and ironically, it’s become more fun.

The music industry is tough, and filled with rejection. How do you cope? Does it get easier?
Some days are easier than others. Aside from singing, I work in theatre education, sustaining programs for youth, and I also work as a theatre producer. I’d like to think that I have some talent in these two capacities too, and that helps remind me that there are good ways to be in the arts, beyond the next audition or the next job I don’t book. 

On good days, I’m able to truly appreciate working on things that I find meaningful, which also provides me with some financial stability, even if that work isn’t singing.

On bad days, the feeling of insecurity, of “failing” as an artist (because I don’t do it full-time), can be consuming, and on day like that, I try to remember that all of us in this industry are probably just doing the best that we can. I think it’s Brene Brown that said at the end of the day, even when things don’t get done, we are worthy of love and kindness. This is going to sound cheesy but I’ll add to that and say that most days, even when things don’t get done, we are capable of love and compassion, and maybe that’s enough to go on with.

Where did you go to school?
In Manila, I attended St. Scholastica’s College, a small Catholic institution. I did a full music degree there before going to London to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and then doing my masters at the University of Toronto.

Which album did you listen to last?
As I’m answering these questions, I’m listening to bedroom walls: le salon by an artist named November Ultra and Mélusine by Cécile McLorin Salvant.

When did you know you wanted to be an opera singer?
I don’t think I ever really decided that I wanted to be an opera singer. I wonder how many singers actually do? I‘ve always loved singing, but I think I was really lucky to have found wonderful and supportive singing teachers when I started. They happened to be opera singers, so I naturally gravitated towards opera myself. I had the best time of my life, being in the studio of my first classical voice teachers in the Philippines, which I guess was enough to make me curious about building a life in opera and singing. It’s been good for the most part. 🙂

What is one very popular thing that you have no interest in?
I may get some hate for this, but… Taylor Swift. I think she’s done spectacularly as a celebrity, singer and entrepreneur, but I just can’t get into her music now. There’s so much fandom lore to catch up on. Her early stuff was the soundtrack of my highschool days though (let’s go Teardrops on my Guitar), so maybe never say die?

What was the first opera you ever saw?
L’Elisir d’Amore. I was maybe 16 or 17. I was cast in the chorus in a small production back home, so I guess I didn’t really see it so much as experience it. It was really fun, I remember a good chunk of Dulcamara’s parts were sung in tagalog, which was really cool. 

What’s something most people don’t know about opera life?
That it can look very different from artist to artist. There’s no set path to being an opera singer, and I guess we’re all just trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t as we go along.

What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken for a production?
Producing Liham, my song cycle project, is the most significant creative risk I’ve taken..  From commissioning the cycle to performing and producing its digital presentation, it was the first time I had worked on anything independently, much less a project that involved multiple media. Between securing funding, relocating to a new province (I moved from Toronto to Vancouver), and gathering a creative team that was well-aligned, it took a few years for me and my collaborators to complete it. In the end, I think we succeeded in creating a work that provides a poignant window into the many stories and experiences within the Filipino diaspora here in Canada.