Christin Wismann thought long and hard before she stepped foot on a New York-bound plane four years ago.

The 26-year-old Camarillo native had grown up in the warm California sunshine and had just graduated from Pepperdine University— the bluff-top campus that sits smack dab in the middle of Malibu and all that is sunny Southern California.

More than just giving up the perennial 72-degree weather, Wismann was forgoing full-ride scholarships for a master’s degree in music at USC and UCLA. She was also moving 3,000 miles from her close-knit family.

What awaited her in the Big Apple, however, was an opportunity that just couldn’t be missed.

Wismann had been accepted to The Julliard School’s prestigious master’s of music program—a big first step in her goal of becoming a professional opera singer.

“I’m a California girl, and I knew it was going to be difficult to make that choice,” she said. “I had to decide whether to stay on the west coast or move to the east coast. I ultimately decided to go, and everything in my life has changed.”

The aspiring singer said living in New York is a doubleedged sword.

On one hand, the city is one of the world’s opera epicenters. It attracts recruiters from the world’s leading opera houses, as well as top talent and instructors.

“If you’re based in New York, it really makes life as a singer much easier,” Wismann said.

On the other hand, the city’s fast-paced and high-priced lifestyle has made it nearly impossible for young people to live out their dreams of Gotham Bohemia.

“You can get by just fine, but you just have to change the way you think about space when it comes to your apartment,” Wismann said with a laugh. “It’s totally fine. As a singer starting out, you’ve got to start somewhere. Right?”

Having graduated from Julliard in 2009 with a number of prestigious awards in tow, Wismann now has her sites set on making a career in the extremely competitive world of opera singing.

“Opera is a very tough field to be highly successful in. Competition is absolutely tremendous, but she has all of the necessary talent to be competitive in that field, and the desire to be competitive,” said retired Camarillo High School music teacher Bruce Colell, who counts Wismann as one of his most standout students during his 32-year career. “Right now she is in the minor leagues, but she has majorleague potential.”

The soprano is supporting herself with a part-time job at a gym and as a nanny, but has a performance scheduled this summer in Switzerland and will then take part in a fellowship program in Aspen, Colo.

But before she heads to Europe, Wismann will return home to sing in the Ventura County Concert Band’s “Strike Up the Band” performance on April 18 in Ventura.

Colell, the concert’s director, convinced Wismann to make the special hometown appearance while at a celebration dinner with her family just hours after she’d sung her final Julliard performance last year.

“Dr. Colell had so much to do with my development as a singer,” Wismann said. “Without him, I don’t think I’d be where I am today. I would come and perform with him anytime.”

Wismann will sing three pieces—Joann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus,” Giacomo Puccini’s “Quando Men Vo” and the jazz standard “Speak Low.”

All three have been arranged by Colell.

The third song, he said, is a nod to Wismann’s high school years as a singer with the school’s all-girl jazz group.

The group, started in the early 1990s by Colell, had earned a reputation for winning numerous high school jazz competitions in California and New York.

When Colell was asked to audition Wismann for the jazz group, the longtime music teacher said he didn’t know if he even wanted to listen to the young singer, who was still in eighth grader.

“I didn’t think I even wanted to let her try out, but I did,” Colell said. “I was so impressed with not how wonderful her voice was, but how accurate her intonation was. She’s the only freshman that I ever let in that group.”

From Christin’s days singing in high school to her time on stage at Pepperdine and Julliard, Gaye and Bill Wismann have kept good on a promise to support their daughter—and their other three children—in their musical aspirations.

So when the acceptance letter came from Julliard, they made the commitment—both financially and emotionally—to help Wismann find her way in the Big Apple.

“When she gets her mind set on something, she rises to the top,” Bill Wismann said of his daughter’s dedication to opera, an endeavor that requires she learn to sing in six different languages and without the help of voice-enhancing sound equipment.

Wismann’s parents said they’ll be glad to have their daughter home later this month.

“Camarillo and Ventura County are really my roots,” Wismann said. “That never leaves a person. Even in New York, the California shines through.”

What type of advice does the up-and-coming opera star offer to those thinking of pursuing a singing career in New York?

“I would just say, ‘Don’t be intimated by big changes or challenges,’” she said. “But this career is not easy. Don’t get into it if you think that it’s something that’s going to be handed to you. It’s hard work. You can’t take your talents for granted; you have to go after it with a lot of vigor and determination.”

The Ventura County Concert Band Performance will be at Ventura High School on April 18 at 3 p.m.

By Daniel Wolowicz
Camarillo Acorn