Opera singer Alicia Berneche’s teaching opportunities expanded
Becoming a performer was never a goal for Alicia
Berneche when she was growing up in Kokomo, Indiana. Then, when she was 12, Berneche auditioned for a drama club production of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” because her friend was auditioning for it.
To her amazement, Berneche got the lead.
“I was in the youth orchestra and I had done that since I was five years old but theater was not a part of my life,” admitted the Evanston resident. “From that moment on it was like, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’ Every play audition I saw, I did.”
By the time she was in high school, Berneche was getting leads at the town’s amateur theater.
During her senior year of high school, as Berneche was applying for college theater programs, one of her friends suggested she take singing lessons with the friend’s father because she thought it would make Berneche more marketable as an actor.
“Within a month of taking lessons, I changed all of my applications to classical voice,” she said. “It was a big aha moment. My voice opened and it was clear that this was where I should really be focusing.” Berneche had always loved classical music because she had played it from the age of five on the violin in that youth orchestra.
She earned an undergraduate degree at DePauw University in Indiana and then a graduate degree from Peabody Conservatory in Maryland. “Right out of Peabody, I went into the Orlando Opera resident artist program,” she related. “I didn’t get to finish that because in the middle of that I went to the Lyric Opera Center.”
Since then, Berneche has performed on concert stages around the world. She cites as her favorite performances anytime she gets to play Susanna in “Le nozze di Figaro.” “Mozart is a master dramatist,” she explained. “Everything you need to know about how to play that role is in the music.” She has performed that role at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, as well as in Texas, North Carolina, and many other locations.
Her many other performances have included playing Daisy Buchanan in “The Great Gatsby” at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, as well as appearing at the Goodman Theatre, The Barbican, and BAM in the world premiere of “Galileo Galilei” by Philip Glass and Mary Zimmerman.
Berneche has been teaching voice at Glenbrook North High School for eight years. Last year she had 22 students there. “It’s a wonderful challenge to cater to all these different voices and give them what they need,” she declared.
She also works with voice students at her private studio and teaches students at Northwestern.
Currently, Berneche is teaching online and, because of her expertise in this medium, has actually increased the number of students with whom she is working.
Despite her busy performing and teaching schedule, Berneche has begun writing operas. Her “Thank You. NEXT?” with composer Tim Rebers premiered at Milwaukee Opera Theatre in 2016. The opera is set in the hallway outside an audition room for an opera festival.
A series of one-acts called “Science Friction” which she and Rebers created that was
scheduled to run at Milwaukee Opera Theatre was postponed because of the pandemic. “They got one little performance in before everything shut down,” Berneche reported.
A series of concerts Berneche had scheduled were also postponed because of the pandemic. She did a streaming Richard Rodgers retrospective concert with Music Theatre Works in October. They per
formed that show outdoors at the North Shore Centre for the Performing Arts in Skokie. In addition, Berneche performed a virtual concert with CHAI Ensemble, a group with which she frequently performs., which was broadcast on New Music Chicago on Dec. 9 and which will be on the CHAI website at chai collaborative.org/artist-roster
“We’re trying to adapt,”
Berneche declared. “It’s really been devastating for performers.
“If we don’t get help for theater and the arts soon, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t think people realize how much they contribute to the economy.”