For Severna Park opera singer Natalie Lewis, 2023 was a break-out year

Dec. 29—By Rebecca Ritzel — rritzel@baltsun.com

PUBLISHED:December 29, 2023 at 1:57 p.m.| UPDATED:December 29, 2023 at 9:32 p.m.

In the classical music world, there's a long tradition of celebrating New Year's Eve with performances of Viennese waltzes, choruses of "Auld Lang Syne" and sips of sparkling Champagne.

Berlin-based mezzo soprano Natalie Lewis had many reasons to toast 2023. A rising opera star who considers Severna Park home, Lewis' year-end highlights include winning the Houston Grand Opera's 2023 Concert of Arias, graduating with a master's degree from the Juilliard School, winning the 2023 Laffont Metropolitan Opera Competition, joining the San Francisco Opera's summer program for young singers, signing with the prestigious arts management firm IMG Artists and moving to Germany to launch her international opera career.

"It's crazy. Sometimes I'm not quite sure what happened as well, I will say," Lewis said, speaking from her apartment in Germany. "It did feel like a whirlwind."

Lewis finds her vortex of 2023 success particularly staggering because it's been less than two years since she fully embraced opera as a career. Up until that point, teachers often believed in Lewis' talent more than she believed in herself.

"I wasn't really embracing the career path people were laying out for me," she said.

That path began at Severna Park Middle School, when the oldest daughter of Natalie Felicia and Tracy Lewis, a logistics manager for the U.S. Coast Guard, started signing up for every chance to get onstage that she could.

"That's where I discovered performing," Lewis said. "I did my first musical then, and I was in choir for the first time, and a more formal classical choir. I did band. I did as much music-related things as possible. And I just fell in love with it," she said.

Severna Park High School has long been known for its strong music and drama programs. The annual Rock 'N Roll Revival draws several thousand people and helped launch Class of 2023 graduate Parijita Bastola to be a finalist on the NBC show "The Voice" last year.

But before entering her junior year, the Coast Guard transferred Lewis' father to the Boston area. By that point, Lewis knew she'd need more than a public-school education to compete for parts in college. She was able to enroll in private voice lessons and was surprised when her teacher pushed her toward opera rather than showtunes. At the University of Massachusetts, Amherst — a school Lewis described as her cheapest option — she shifted her focus to classical performance.

While Lewis' parents had grown to appreciate musicals, opera was a whole new unfamiliar world; they both fell asleep the first time they attended a UMass student opera. ("I can't even lie to you," she said.) By her senior year, Lewis was becoming more confident as a singer, but not ready for a professional career.

"I told myself, the only way you'll go to grad school is if you can go for free," Lewis recalled.

The stars aligned. Juilliard and Yale offered her full rides. Although "a homebody" by nature, she moved to Manhattan. By that time, her father had retired from the Coast Guard and moved back to Severna Park to work for a military contractor. That's a major reason why Lewis considers Anne Arundel County home.

"The first year was hard," she said of her time in Manhattan, "But by the second year of my master's, I was like, 'It's time.'"

As an almost obligatory move, Lewis submitted an audition tape to the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, the unofficial championships for opera singers from ages 20 to 30. Past winners from the 70-year-old competition are a who's who of international opera stars, including Susan Graham, Ryan Speedo Green and 2023 Kennedy Center Honors recipient Renée Fleming.

"It's not really something that people do the first time and get to the end and win," Lewis said. "It ended up being a great experience. I got lucky."

On that point, the young mezzo may be underestimating herself. In the words of Merola Opera Program executive director Jean Kellogg, "a brilliant artist in every respect."

Lewis advanced through the district, regional and national semifinals and finally, performed in the Grand Finals Concert held on April 23, where a panel of judges picked six award winners from the more than 1,200 singers who entered the 2023 competition.

At age 24, Lewis was one of the youngest finalists, and singing on the Metropolitan Opera stage for the first time. "It was horrifying," Lewis said. "Afterwards it was great, but before it was horrifying."

In the New York audience to hear her sing a Handel aria during both semifinals and finals: Lewis' mom, who "was wide awake," her daughter pointed out.

Winning the Laffont Competition came with a $20,000 prize and enormous opportunities. Lewis had already committed to spend the summer singing in the Merola program, which is affiliated with the San Francisco Opera. After winning at the Met, she was offered a year-long, extendable contract from Bayern Staatsoper in Munich and Deutsche Oper Berlin, subsidized by the Opera Foundation, a New York nonprofit that supports young singers. She's singing far more than she would in the U.S., with opportunities to try roles from varied eras and styles of opera. In February, Lewis made her debut in a new production of Tchaikovsky's "Queen of Spades." In March, she'll revisit a trio of roles in Puccini's "Il Tricchio," three one-act operas. Wagner's "Parsifal" is also on her schedule.

"I really take it step by step," she said. "I take it role by role."

Europe has a long history of welcoming Black performing artists who faced discrimination overseas. Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge, triple threat Josephine Baker and ballerina Raven Wilkinson. Contralto Marian Anderson made her London debut at Wigmore Hall in 1933, but famously resorted to singing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of the American Revolution blocked her 1939 concert at Constitution Hall.

"I'm not a part of that tradition," Lewis said, of her transition to Europe, "But I am a product of their courage and spirit."

Now the scenario has almost reversed. The rise of far-right racism in Europe, usually aimed at immigrants and refugees, has created palpable tension even in progressive cities.

"I've never felt more uncomfortable than since I moved to Berlin. I've had more racist interactions than I ever did in the U.S.," Lewis said. And no matter where she sings, there is pressure to prove her successes stem from talent rather than a push for greater racial representation.

"I feel like I have to be extraordinary to even get attention," Lewis said. "It is exhausting when you're working to be the best you can be, but feeling like you have to be even better, like 110% or 120%."

Signing with IMG Artists, however, should provide a boost of encouragement. The agency roster includes Fleming, mezzo soprano Denyce Graves, violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Gabriela Montero. Assuming her German contract is renewed for a second year, Lewis anticipates transitioning to a freelance singing career in 2025.

Her first appearance back in the U.S. is scheduled for August, when she'll perform in Mozart's "The Magic Flute" at the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming.

If there was a landmark disappointment for Lewis in 2023, it's that her debut Annapolis recital was canceled. That early June concert at the William Paca House should have been a hometown celebration, instead, it coincided with a massive power outage.

"We were very disappointed," said Karen Brown, executive director of Historic Annapolis." I hear she has an amazing voice."