[ Alumni ]

The Audition of a Lifetime

In February, Jim Kryshak '06, a talented young operatic tenor, got a chance to measure himself in a competition against the country's best singers on one of the world's great stages.

It is considered to be one of the premier opera stages in the world, a venue for the world’s great voices. With approximately 3,800 seats, New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House is among the largest in the world. Known more simply as "The Met," this is the home for some of the world's most talented voices. Elmhurst College alumnus Jim Kryshak ’06, took his place among that elite group on February 15, 2009 when the high lyric tenor took the Met stage for the audition of a lifetime.
 
The Met and its iconic series of five distinctive arches were awaiting Kryshak at Lincoln Center on NYC’s Upper West Side. And Kryshak, in his three-piece suit with his five practiced arias, was ready for his unbelievable opportunity.

The Met's National Council Auditions are perhaps the opera world's most storied. From 45 districts, singers compete to advance to 15 regionals, from which they advance to semifinals in New York. At the end of the process, a handful become national finalists and five are named Grand Winners after public performances with the Met's full orchestra. There is prize money, but the real reward is the prestige and the honor of singing on one of opera's greatest stages.

“This was the competition so it’s very, very exciting. It was the proudest moment of my professional life,” said Kryshak. “From the audience the building looked enormous. But, the moment I stepped on stage, the room came in and hugged me, making me feel so welcome. There is nothing better than singing in a hall that was built for singers.”

Kryshak is a second-year UW–Madison graduate student with plans to graduate this spring with a master’s of music in opera performance. The Baldwinsville, New York, native holds the Wisconsin Distinguished Voice Excellence Graduate Fellowship at UW–Madison—a scholarship that covers his tuition, fees, and living expenses. In January, he was one of two singers chosen from the Upper Midwest to advance to the semifinals of the Met’s National Council Auditions. Along with the prize money, Kryshak won a trip to New York and the chance to sing on the famous stage before industry professionals hungry for young talent.

Kryshak’s talent and amazing voice are nothing new. In fact, as a child he started voice lessons at the age of five. 

“I was in kindergarten when I started voice lessons,” he remembers. “I have always been told that I could sing. This year I learned how to use my voice and make it work for me. We are best friends now, so I think I’m on the right track to getting somewhere. I decided long, long ago that I would be a singer; I am now giving it everything. I eat, sleep and breathe singing!”

He’s come a long way since age five but Kryshak isn’t exaggerating when he says he lives to sing. When his alarm sounds in the morning, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville awakens the 25-year old. He then spends his days in the practice room, calling his life “normal and happy” and “really no different than an accountant’s, I just sing...I do my job and go home to prepare for the next day.”

During his days at Elmhurst, Kryshak studied music and German, harboring plans to become a music teacher. He spent his junior year abroad in Austria, where he studied at the Institute for European Studies. It was there that his career plans changed from music teacher to performer. 

But the time at EC truly prepared the active Kryshak for his days after graduation. Being involved in various organizations allowed him to gain experience in different venues, Kryshak explains.

“Classes were great, filling us up with knowledge. But it was the experience of getting out and doing things that really helped me. Elmhurst enabled students to do such things and that is one of the reasons I chose it.”

Kryshak advises current Elmhurst students to take advantage of what the College and community offers to define yourself.

“Get out there and experience your life while you can, before you get stuck in a job that won’t allow it,” Kryshak urges. “Take time to travel, study abroad, and soak up the personal experience of everyone around you. College is to explore, not to sit in your dorm room playing video games. Enjoy it.”

While Kyrshak didn't make the finals of the competition, he was still awarded prize money—and the chance to sing at the Met.

"No complaints here!" Kyrshak said, "I am going to continue auditioning to keep my freelance career going. This summer I will be singing with Des Moines Metro Opera in Indianola, Iowa as the cover [understudy] to Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville.

And that five-year-old kid with the vocal gift who grew up to be Jim Kryshak, on stage at the Met, what does he want to be when he grows up?

"An opera singer! Singing all over the world!"

• To read more Alumni News, click here.