The Transparency of Opera Singer Breanna Sinclairé

Our Voices on The Yard

In anticipation of season 2, Denise sits down with transgender opera singer Breanna Sinclair. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, and a graduate of CalArts, Breanna received her Masters from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and was the first transwoman of the opera program, under the pedagogy of Ms. Ruby Pleasure. Operatic performances include Carmen, La Calisto, The Old Maid and The Thief, The Magic Flute, L’enfant et les sortilèges, Platée, and West Side Story, as well as Meredith Monk’s Songs of Ascension at REDCAT, and Zachary Sharrin’s Time Bodies at MOCA.

Outside of opera, Sinclairé has enjoyed a variety of performance opportunities with LGBT and other nonprofit organizations throughout the nation — most recently the Gay Men’s Choruses of Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. She made her debut at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Gay Men’s Chorus. Other performances include Americans for the Arts, Washington, D.C. and Toronto Pride Festivals, SF Trans March, Fresh Meat Trans and Queer Arts Festivals, Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, LinkedIn’s LGBTQ Employee Resource Group speaker series panel discussion (alongside civil rights leader Cecilia Chung), Janet Mock’s Redefining Realness book tour, and the Transgender Law Center’s SPARK! anniversary celebration.

Breanna also made her debut as a guest artist for the Gay Men’s Chorus of DC in Durufle’s Requiem performing “Pie Jesu” at Church of the Epiphany. She was among Out magazine’s 2015 “OUT100” list of LGBT heroes. She was the first transwoman to perform the National Anthem at a professional sporting event for the Oakland A’s, SF Giants, and San Francisco Deltas. She made her debut with SF Symphony on December 31, 2018 as the first trans singer to perform with the orchestra.

What You Will Hear

• How Denise and Breanna met
• Breanna’s journey to finding her voice
• How opera found Breanna
• Developing her upper register
• Breanna’s accomplishments and challenges in the opera world
• Learning roles and staying ready
• Being homeless and the help of a perfect stranger
• Perseverance and upcoming performances
• Breanna’s hopes for her legacy
• Advice for young transgender people
• How Breanna researches a character

Quotes

“My performance is a message.”

“I find that having a tribe is so essential. People that hold you accountable. Not just accountability, but they remind you of who you are because sometimes we forget.”

“When you are authentic, it come, it shows through your art.”

“Living in your truth is the most beautiful and also exciting thing because when you're living in your truth you are giving room for yourself to evolve.”

“When you, confine yourself to what other people think of you or what people view you as, it puts you in a place of insecurity, and it kind of closes the room for you to grow.”