Strathmore's Roundtable Biography for
Alexandra O. Hughes
 | Alexandra O. Hughes |
| Biography | Alexandra Hughes’ longtime belief in Leonard Bernstein’s quote “Stillness is our most intense mode of action” has brought her to where she is today. It has also brought her to the beginnings of her first autobiographical novel entitled “There’s a Fly in My Kir”, based on true stories which she experienced while renovating two apartments in Paris. But these events were a sideline to a long and successful career as an Opera Singer. It was the events prior which led her to this career and the changes now happening in the recent “Stillness” which motivated the origins of her book. “I believe that in looking back at the many achievements I feel I have had, it was all about the big R…that being RISK. The ability to take risks.” How did that come about to someone who grew up in a small town in the backwoods of an upper middle class region of Connecticut? The oldest of four children and the sole daughter of parents still married after 60 years was a good start. Their closest neighbor was the composer Richard Rodgers, who observed the talented Alexandra and suggested to her parents that she’d benefit from piano lessons. About 20 years later the result of that suggestion and perception came to fruition, but not without the experiences leading up to it which involved the “risk factor.” At age 12, Alexandra, much to her dislike, was enrolled in a local sailing school for the summer. “I detested it and was petrified by the competition and the fact I might capsize and drown…or fail!” Six years later she was on the front page of the NY Times Sports section, having won the biggest sailing event in her field hosted on the East Coast’s Larchmont Race Week. She went on to win over 40 events in her red “Lightning” over the next few years. “I don’t know what happened but it changed my life to overcome the fears I initially had and then turn it around into a challenge and a passion for winning.” Later on, at the height of her career as an Opera singer, she wrote about it for a sailing magazine: “And now twenty five years later, it never fails, the night before an important performance, I always have a dream about soloing in my old Lightning Pussy Galore and trying to win the race, gauge the tides, the wind and analyzing the best tactics to win that race. The confidence, combined with the freedom of self which is gained in such a sport as sailing was invaluable when it came to my performing in front of thousands of people.” Alexandra opted for a very liberal college, Bennington, where, not yet ready to take on a musical career, she majored in Fine Arts. During this time another risk taking opportunity arose, that being asked to participate as one of the first women in Dartmouth’s Winter Outward Bound Survival course. Out of the ten women chosen (along with 4O young men from Dartmouth , Williams and Yale) she was the only woman left after three months of grueling below 0 temperatures. “No one died, but there was a lot of frostbite and I just followed the instructions: Lots of carbohydrates and keep moving. When I got back into 32 degrees it felt like 80 degrees and I was wearing a tee-shirt.” Alexandra was then asked to become an instructor for this new Outward Bound school. Walking down the streets of New York one day , after graduating from Bennington as a painter, and working as a cleaning girl to make some money, Alexandra ran into her first choir director from the small church she sang in from age 12. He convinced her that she was wasting her time and should apply to all the best conservatories as a classical singer where he believed her true talent lay. Another risk: No voice lessons, never heard an Opera, never liked Opera, but out of respect and curiosity applied to and was accepted by Juilliard, graduating with a Masters degree and with the discovery of an innate love for the German repertoire. Alexandra went on to star in a career which excluded all else but discipline. From several apprenticeships with the highly selective Santa Fe Opera and Aspen Festival to her first touring in the Midwest. Alexandra discovered Omaha, Paris Texas and Detroit, Michigan. She went on to Germany to live there for ten years while also traveling back to the states for contracts with the Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Fe Opera Houses among others. Learning German and singing in the larger theatres of Europe such as Geneva, Basel, Marseilles, Paris and finally returning to the states permanently to sing with the New York City Opera and continue with her eventual calling card “Wagner”. “When I first heard an opera at the age of 24 at the Met in New York it was ‘Tristan and Isolde’ and I thought this is it and if I can sing this I will be where I want to be in life!” That finally happened with many Wagnerian roles ranging from theatres in Hawaii to San Francisco to Finland to Seattle to Concerts at Carnegie Hall. But life brings changes and now married for almost three years with two full time stepchildren “Something I never gave myself time for” is another crossroad. “I think of myself like an athlete like Agassi in that it will eventually end. I don’t want to advertise watches or be miserable in hotels. I did what I wanted to do. I still sing every day. I miss the attention of an audience but life is meant to be changing with chance and openness to that.” Her upcoming novel addresses all this and more. “I mostly want to tell the stories of what led me to where I am now in Paris and in New York.” Alexandra and her husband’s picture was published in the NY Times for their wedding which took place in Central Park Boathouse. |
| Industry | Entertainment |
| Title | Opera Singer; Artistic Liaison to the Nuage France Foundation (www.nuage-france.org) |
| Expertise | Mezzo soprano |
| Current Organization | Self employed |
| Major Product | Opera, recital and orchestral engagements, crossover popular events, recordings |
| Area of Distribution | International |
| University/Degree | B.F.A., Bennington College, 1973; B.M.F.A., The Julliard School of Music, 1978; M.A., The Julliard School of Music, 1979 |
| Born | January 30, 1957, New York, New York |
| Honors & Awards | Acclaimed by critics worldwide for her performances in "Tristan und Isolde" (Brangaene), Honolulu Star Bulletin, Opera, Opera News; "Das Rheingold" (Fricka), Seattle Post Intelligencer, Seattle Times, Opera, London Observer; "Werther" (Charlotte), Opernwelt, Das Orchester, Sudkurier; "Hansel und Gretal" (Hansel), Opera, Seattle Post Intelligencer; "Der Rosenkavalier" (Octavian), Opera, Montreal Gazette, The Suburban; "Ariadne auf Naxos" (Komponist), Badische Zeitung, Basler Zeitung, Sudkurier, Sudwest Presse; "Carmen" (Carmen), Opernwelt, Seattle Gay News; "Samson and Dalila" (Dalila), Fyns Stiffende Odense; "The Turn of the Screw" (Mrs. Grose), The New York Times, The Philadelphia Enquirer, Opera News, New York Magazine; Performing venues worldwide include Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera Co., New York City Opera Co., Canadian Opera Co., Montreal Opera, Live from Town Hall with Garrison Keillor, Cabrillo Festival, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Orleans Opera, Opera Omaha, Detroit Opera, Pierpont Morgan Library, Hyde Collection, Brooklyn Bargemusic Series, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Grand Theatre Geneva, Opera de Marseille, Giverny, Basle Opera Switzerland, American Choral Society Soloist in Paris, Finnish National Opera, Odense Symphony Orchestra as well as the Aspen Music Festival and Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra |
| Published Works | Recordings: Finnish National Opera, Richard Wagner, "Die Walküre, Act II, Scene II"; "You Must Remember This... From Gershwin to Lerner and Lowe"; "Alexandra Hughes, Monteverdi Excerpts"; "Alexandra Hughes, American Music in the time of Thomas Eakins"; "Alexandra Hughes, Italian Arias & Duets" |
| Affiliations | Council of Fellows at Pierpont Morgan Library; Academy of American Poets; Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Library of America; Moveon.org |
| Hobbies & Sports | Physical fitness, the outdoors, sailing, painting; fluent in English, French and German |
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