– Good afternoon, Mikhail. Please tell us about where you lived and what you did before coming to Austin
I was born and raised in St. Petersburg, where I first graduated from a music school with a degree in choral conducting, and then from a conservatory with a degree in vocal singing. After being a student and graduating from the conservatory, I worked as a singer and deputy director of Alexander Nevsky Lavra’s choir, as a soloist of various choral groups in St. Petersburg, and as a soloist in the St. Petersburg Opera Theater. In 2007, I moved to Cologne, Germany where I completed my master’s degree in opera singing at the Academy of Music and Dance in Cologne, and then worked as a soloist in various regional theaters and choral groups in Germany.
In 2013, I moved to Texas, USA where I now live and work as an opera and concert singer, conductor, pianist, and teacher.
– How did you end up in Austin?
Upon arrival in the US, I first settled down in Houston, where I got a job as music director at The Woodlands Christian Church. In 2016, I decided to apply for a doctorate in opera singing at the University of Texas at Austin, where I received my doctorate in 2019. I chose the University of Texas because the world famous bass opera singer Nikita Storozhev teaches there, and it is a great joy to have him as my professor and guide. So for the last five years I have been practically living in two cities – both Houston and Austin, I have a lot of work and performances in both places. Naturally, I spend a lot of time at the wheel, so I know almost every tree and almost every police officer on Hwy 290, but traveling is part of the musician profession and I have gotten used to it.
Because of the pandemic, in the last year the number of performances has of course decreased, but I hope that the concert life will gradually return to normal.
– How is your relationship with your homeland?
I have only a few relatives left in Russia, almost all of my family lives in America. I keep in touch with my Russian musician friends and classmates, we discuss recent music news and share our teaching experiences with one another. A couple of years ago, I started working on several joint concert and educational programs with my friends in Russia, but Covid ruined all those plans. Hopefully, we will have the opportunity to return to these projects in the future.
– What cultural characteristics and habits from your pre-American life do you still uphold?
I cannot say that my cultural habits have changed at all. From my pre-American life – I still love soccer and not so much American football and baseball 🙂
– What initiatives would you like to participate in the life of the community?
I have been participating in the musical projects of the Russian Speakers’ Society of Austin since 2017. And when last year Lyudmila Voskova invited me to lead this organization – I agreed with pleasure. What Lyudmila has been doing for the past 15 years – introducing the residents of our city to Russian culture and music – deserves great respect and applause. I think it is very important, especially in such a multinational and multicultural city like Austin. It is exactly what I would like to do, and I think I have both the knowledge and experience to continue this initiative. Austin is not called the capital of live music for nothing – so let some of this music be music written by great Russian composers.
As I mentioned, the pandemic has dealt a big blow to performing arts and concerts. Virtual online concerts, which have become popular over the past year, of course, will never be able to replace and convey the aura of a real performance. That is why we are three times as happy that we have finally managed to organize a “live” concert. After such a long break, on April 24th, our viewers were able to enjoy the brilliant vocal and instrumental music of Russian composers in the excellent acoustics of the University Catholic Center.
The concert program was very interesting. It was called “The Great Russian Americans” and was composed of works by composers who were born in Russia (more precisely, in the Russian Empire) and who emigrated to the United States at different times in their lives. These include both world-famous masters Sergei Rachmaninov and Igor Stravinsky, and less popular but undeservedly forgotten Alexander Grechaninov and Lazar Weiner. Some composers, such as the brilliant Irving Berlin (whose songs make up more than half of The Great American Songbook), are not associated with Russia at all by most. Few people know that Berlin’s real name was actually Israel Moiseevich Beilin, and that he was born in Tobolsk.
In addition to our team, the concert’s performers included Honored Artist of Russia pianist Tatyana Storozheva, famous opera and pop singer Chris Holloway, two students of the vocal department of the University of Texas Sabrina Ellis and Veronica Lopez and the wonderful violinist Konstantin Pavlov. The video recording of the concert will be available until the end of May on our Facebook page.
Contact information:
Mikhail Smigelski
President of Russian Speakers Society of Austin
Email: smigels.m@gmail.com
Cell: (832) 495-8573