00:02
Julie Reumert
I chose The Beach at Rågeleje by P.C. Skovgaard. Creative people get drawn to the ocean for some reason. And walking on the beach clears my head and it brings back memories of my childhood.

00:15
Julie Reumert
And the Golden Age, I find to be very interesting. And this is from that era, that time in history, where Denmark was bankrupt. And there was all this pressure, that modern breakthrough that's about to happen. Like Hans Christian Andersen was writing stuff and Lumbye was writing music, and Niels W Gade was composing, Søren Kierkegaard would walk around the streets of Copenhagen.

00:36
Julie Reumert
And Rågeleje, what was that like? Was that where artists would go to seek inspiration? And the colors, and the birds, and that particular smell that Danish beaches have. That feeling of a summer day that kind of never ends. When you're a child, the summers seem like they're never ending; as an adult, they're ending so fast.

01:03
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
My name is Tina Jøhnk Christensen, and I'm the host of Danish Originals, a podcast series created in partnership with the American Friends of the National Gallery of Denmark and the National Gallery of Denmark. Our goal is to celebrate Danish creatives who have made a significant mark in the US.

01:21
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Today our guest is Julie Reumert, a Danish opera singer. Welcome, Julie.

01:26
Julie Reumert
Thank you so much.

01:29
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
You're very welcome. You were six years old when you heard a soprano sing in Copenhagen, and you decided right there and then that this was your passion and it was gonna be your profession to be an opera singer. What was it about this experience that started your adventure and eventually led you to where you are today, an opera singer in New York City?

01:50
Julie Reumert
I think it's a combination of a lot of things. The singer that I saw was a Danish soprano. Her name is Susanne Elmark. She's still singing and she's an incredible singer. And I'm very happy to have met her a few times in my life.

02:03
Julie Reumert
It was a snowy day, one of those that quiets all of Copenhagen. My dad took me to see the Christmas Oratorio by Bach at the dome of Copenhagen, I think we call it, Vor Frue Kirke, which hosts the Copenhagen Boys Choir, which my dad was a part of when he was young.

02:19
Julie Reumert
He had told me how it was when he was a little boy to sing these big oratorios with a symphony orchestra and a big choir and soloists in front that were going to fill up this whole church with sound and music. And he explained to me the acoustics — you sing something and then it stays in the room. So I was already very intrigued to figure out this whole scenario.

02:37
Julie Reumert
And then that snowstorm. I think in the city, when it's really snowy and everything quiets down, it's probably my favorite thing. So, walking through the streets of Copenhagen being so quiet and then coming into this church, I was just completely blown away.

02:55
Julie Reumert
We were sitting in the fourth or fifth row in the pews. The symphony orchestra enters the stage and they're all very quiet. This boys choir shows up, and they're only five, six, seven years older than I am at that point. So they're in third, fourth grade. They stand still in their Navy seaman uniforms. There's a male choir behind them. And then the soloist shows up and she's wearing this long white dress, kind of like a snow queen.

03:21
Julie Reumert
And then the music starts. If you've ever heard the beginning of the Christmas Oratorio by Bach, there's pauke playing, trumpet, like it's just [sound effects]. I just sat there with my mouth open and it has these big [sound effects] drums. And then the strings come in. And it's so majestic and so stoic and beautiful.

03:42
Julie Reumert
And then she opened up her mouth and sang. I guess this is how little girls felt when they saw Elsa sing "Let It Go." It's probably the equivalent to that. This moment of how can this woman make the sound? Susanna Elmark is a very fit athletic woman. And she was standing there. I was like, this woman, how does she make all that sound? Where is it coming from?

04:05
Julie Reumert
It was filling up the whole room. And I was just like, how is this possible? That was just such a groundbreaking moment for me where I was like, she can make that sound. I love to sing. Does that mean I can make that sound when I'm an adult?

04:19
Julie Reumert
We walked out into Copenhagen's snowy streets. And we were living close to the H.C. Østed Park, that's very close to the church. And on our way back, I just said, I'm going to do that. And my dad said, okay, yesterday you wanted to be something else. And tomorrow, maybe you want to be an astronaut. And I was like, no, no, no, you don't understand. This is what I'm gonna do. I'm going to be — what was it again?

04:44
Julie Reumert
He's like, a soprano. I'm like, that's it, I'm gonna be a soprano. That's just how it's gonna be. And at that point, I was in a church choir and I loved to sing. And my dad plays jazz, and he's in jazz piano and did a lot of Bossa Nova, and it was very different. But he said, okay, then you have to go to the school and we're going to have to practice and you're going to have to find a song you want to sing to the audition, 'coz there's an audition.

05:10
Julie Reumert
And I was like, okay. I was so ready for it. I was always a performer. Bless my parents, but every time they had guests over, I had some sort of performance. I would be selling tickets, handing out things and being like, I know you're having dinner with my parents tonight, but there will also be a show after dinner.

05:27
Julie Reumert
If they had kids, I would involve these kids in all kinds of shows and performances. And so I think it was already there. I just didn't know where to channel it. And I think had I grown up in the United States, I would probably have been in musical theater, no doubt. But it wasn't as big in Denmark at the time.

05:44
Julie Reumert
So I think for me, it just became classical music, and singing. And then I went to St. Anne, Skt. Annæ, which is a music school. And that's where I think my dad wanted me to maybe go from the beginning. But I guess this experience just made it even more clear that this was the place for me. They don't start until third grade. So I had to wait until I was nine years old. And I remember having that, okay, it's next summer and I can audition. And I walked in there and I was like, hi guys, this is it.

06:15
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
I will return to your childhood and education a little later, but for now we will stay in New York City, that is where you are right now. I would like to know what your day has looked like until this moment. Have you been singing today?

06:31
Julie Reumert
Yeah, I have. So right now, I'm actually preparing a world premiere of a photographic oratorio that's been commissioned by the Perelman Performing Arts Center. Just opened in New York, it's a beautiful new space right next to Freedom Tower, so there's a lot of meaning to this particular performing center.

06:49
Julie Reumert
Luna Pearl Woolf, an amazing Grammy-winning composer, did this oratorio. It's based on a guy called Jamie Livingston. I don't know if you heard about this story. In 1979, he started taking a Polaroid picture of himself every single day until the age of 41, where he tragically died of brain cancer. After his death, all of these pictures became what we would call live today, they went viral, and it became a global sensation.

07:18
Julie Reumert
So it's quite an interesting story. And obviously, a lot of images, a lot of Polaroid photos. And the way the Perelman, or they call it PAC, is built is that they can actually put a lot of these photographs on the walls and there's a lot of interactive things happening. I don't want to spoil anything, but this is premiering in only two and a half weeks. So that was a very long answer, but that's what I've been practicing today.

07:34
Julie Reumert
And we will be sitting in the audience, actually, and it will be a very interesting performance because it is an operatic oratorio, I can say, very modern. So you will be sitting next to someone and suddenly they will stand up and sing something, which I think is a very interesting experience because they don't know that we will be in the audience. Of course, as a singer, it also creates certain logistical issues. Where's the light? Where's the conductor? Where's the orchestra? The other singers? And where's everybody?

08:14
Julie Reumert
There's going to be three performances. The first one is already sold out, but there's still a few tickets left for some of the other performances. I'm super excited and it's always so interesting to do something that's never been done before.

08:26
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
I used to live next door to a singer. Her name was Maxine Nightingale and she used to practice and I loved listening to it. So I was wondering, would you give us just a few seconds of you practicing, just for the listeners to hear what that's like?

08:44
Julie Reumert
Yeah, I'm happy that you like it because I think my neighbors, it's a love-hate relationship. I think around the holidays, they love it because we'll be practicing Christmas stuff and things like that, but there are certain things I think my neighbors are tired of hearing over and over and over and over again. That's also why I have a studio.

09:00
Julie Reumert
A lot of the time, what singers will do is that they'll practice scales. They'll practice their warmup routines, and then they will move on to whatever music they're practicing. So a normal day for me — you will actually see that I'm sitting right next to my piano here — would be that I just like, [singing], for example, and then get my breath going and then, [singing], something like that, sing all of my warmup stuff and routines. And then after that, I go into the music.

09:31
Julie Reumert
This music is very modern and I'll tell you this. We have this kind of quartet where the bass is going "buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz." The tenor is going "email, email." And I go, "comment, comment, comment, comment." So I think my neighbors have heard "comment, comment" a lot today. And they've been wondering, what the hell is this woman commenting on?

09:52
Julie Reumert
But they don't know that it's part of a quartet where there is someone else singing, and I think that's the part of Jamie's life where a lot of things happened that's very interesting. So I think my neighbors today have heard a lot of modern stuff with me going, "comment, comment," and "run, run, run, run, run, run." They're like, why is she rolling her R's like that? This is intense." Yeah, that's a little snippet.

10:16
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Thank you very much for that. Talk about arriving in New York. How did you feel when you landed at JFK with your suitcases? And what were the most important things that you brought in your suitcase?

10:31
Julie Reumert
Oh, I would say, pictures of my family, was the most important thing. I had to pay for overweight with SAS because I had a lot of stuff with me. I had notebooks and some music. I also brought a little amethyst, a little crystal that my middle sister always loved to steal because it was very sparkly. I had a few necklaces and a few books that I just wanted. I had the biography of Renée Fleming, one of my other favorite singers. So like a true dreamer, I showed up with my biography.

11:01
Julie Reumert
When I landed, I was so excited, and so terrified and so nervous. I used the two suitcases to barricade my hotel door because I was sure that that first night sleeping alone, something was going to happen or someone was going to come into my hotel room. That's how it was. I was terrified and scared.

11:21
Julie Reumert
And you move to such a big city all on your own. So thoughts of regrets. Did I do the right thing? Am I going to like it here? How's the school? I was the first Dane to ever arrive at the school as a singer. So what are they going to think? How am I going to make any friends? Is it going to be competitive? What is this going to be like? How's my English? Oh, I didn't sleep at all that first night.

11:42
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And the school that you're talking about is the Manhattan School of Music and you had a dream about going there, which came true. How did you react when you heard that you actually got in?

11:55
Julie Reumert
I was in the library at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen, and I screamed. The librarian working there ran to me. She thought there had been an emergency. She's like, Julie, what's wrong? I got accepted! She's like, what? And I told her that I would get the email at some point, but I didn't know that it was going to be that day at all.

12:15
Julie Reumert
Then I ran up the hallway and I just kept screaming. And to tell you the truth, I peed a little bit in my pants. I actually did. I was screaming and laughing and crying. And I called my mom and my mom almost crashed the car. And she was also screaming and crying and it was such a crazy moment.

12:33
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Very dramatic. Was it everything that you wished for? And how did you manage to get by in New York? How did you make money? It's rather expensive and not exactly easy to make a good living in New York.

12:47
Julie Reumert
It is not. It is, and still is to this day, hard work. And what the New Yorkers would call a lot of hustling. You have to be on your toes all the time. And what happened when I got accepted is that I applied for a lot of scholarships both in and outside of Denmark. There are great foundations in Copenhagen — Uticon Foundation, Mærsk. I can name 30 foundations that helped me out.

13:17
Julie Reumert
So I started writing applications. And I actually recorded a CD that I sent out with my application so that people could hear a snippet of my voice. I put a CV, obviously. I also said, PS. I will come and sing at Christmas lunches and Easter lunches. And if you have an event or you have a board meeting or anything, I will — I actually still once in a while would do this. I would do it forever, because I'm indebted to all of these institutions for helping young artists, which they still do to this day. And it's unbelievable what they have done for me and my career.

13:51
Julie Reumert
So I put a budget with the applications. I knew the applications and I knew the amounts of the grants. So I would be like, okay, can you help me with the dorm? Can you help me with the tuition fee? Because it was $40,000 per semester, okay? When you look at the Danish kroner for that, you're like, say what now? And that's just for school. Then I need food and I need a place to stay, I need the dorm room.

14:15
Julie Reumert
I chose to stay in the dorm. I also discussed this with my parents. I was too scared to go out and try to find something in the city. I think it was the right choice to stay within the school knowing that there is a room for me. There won't be a landlord that suddenly the day before, would say, oh, it's not available. And I heard so many stories about people coming to an apartment and it wasn't there. So I was like, let's stay in the dorm for the first year.

14:38
Julie Reumert
So I sent out all these applications and would run around my parents' house whenever a letter came with a check, because it was wild. And I remember one particular time, this was Det Obelske Familiefond, which sent me a check and said, Congratulations, we're so proud of you, we can't wait to follow your journey, and here's a check. And I remember looking at it and I was like, Oh my God, Mom, I got 10,000 kroner, this is unbelievable. And she looked, she said, Julie, no, no, there's another zero. You got a hundred thousand kroner.

15:09
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Wow, that's impressive.

15:11
Julie Reumert
And I'm telling you, I almost fainted because that was the first check that I got. And then I realized, okay, now I can actually go there. And that was how I got through the first year. I was lucky enough to be able to take my stipend with me from the Danish government. I would take a loan from them to support me every month. And that's how I paid for food and phone bill and subway and all of that stuff. So grants and yeah.

15:40
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And for those who are not familiar with the Danish system, actually we get help from the state to go to school in our country. So, that is one great thing about Denmark, right?

15:50
Julie Reumert
I tell people that you get a stipend every month to go to school. And if you were to study abroad, you can take the stipend with you.

15:58
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
It is amazing when you think about it.

16:00
Julie Reumert
It really is.

16:01
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And you went to the Royal Danish Academy of Music before that. How would you compare the two schools? I imagine that the Manhattan School of Music is very international. Was it strict? Was it fun? What's it like?

16:14
Julie Reumert
It was very international and very competitive. But also I feel with most musicians around the world, there is a camaraderie and there is a familiar feeling. We all speak this universal language. We all read music, which is the same no matter where you go. So you would sit next to someone from China and from Portugal, and we would open up our music and all sing the same because we can all read it.

16:38
Julie Reumert
And that was a really interesting thing for me to experience because I had only been with Danes and Swedes and Norwegians in Copenhagen. I hadn't really tried to sing with singers from around the world. The competition was there for sure. But you also find friendships because you are in it together. So even though we were competing and still are competing, we're all in the struggle together. We're all struggling to pay rent. We're all in the same boat.

17:02
Julie Reumert
It was strict. It was way more strict than Copenhagen, and way more old school. You would call the teacher, Miss this and that. You would never do that in Denmark. It was a whole authority thing that was very different. You were truly the student and it was my way or the highway.

17:18
Julie Reumert
I had a vocal professor get so upset with me, or the sound that I was making at the time, that she had to leave the room. She said, I don't know why you want to make this ugly sound. I can't stand it. So I'm going to leave the room. And so I looked at the pianist, I was like, okay, this is tough. And it was. But it was also pushing me in a direction that I needed.

17:45
Julie Reumert
There were a few tears. And then I realized, okay, I'm here to get better and this is their way and I'll find a way to navigate. But I was also, and I think that's maybe a Viking standing up for herself, I asked her, why did you walk out? I don't think anyone's ever asked her that. We ended up having a respectful relationship and I learned so much from her. She invited me to Thanksgiving and we developed quite a friendship. I still see her sometimes. She's a wonderful woman. They're all tough but they're soft underneath and they're preparing you for what's outside the doors of the school.

18:22
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
One thing is managing life as a student in New York. But then afterwards, you leave school and you have to make a career out of this. How have you managed doing that? I know that you're doing very well, but how does one do it?

18:35
Julie Reumert
I would say now looking back, some of it was pure luck. And the rest was hard work. I was fortunate to have the school help me open a lot of doors when I graduated. I was on this OPT visa, where you can work in your field of study, go out, audition, and apply for jobs.

18:57
Julie Reumert
I tell a lot of my singers that I teach that are younger, that are about to embark on this journey, going to school is not always a bad thing. I know it's expensive and I know then you have to do music history and you have to do oral skills and you have to do all these things you don't want to do. You just want to sing. And I understand that.

19:12
Julie Reumert
But I promise you that it will open doors to a lot of places afterwards. If I need to call an organ player, I have one that I went to school with. If I need to ask someone, how does this Czech diction go? I have someone that can help me with that. So having that network of people, a community that will make you feel less lonely when you're out on the other side.

19:34
Julie Reumert
And I think a lot of people that graduate anywhere, you are on the other side and you're like, what now? Wait, I don't have a schedule anymore? What am I gonna do? How am I going to get what? So that fear was helped somewhat. It was still there, I'm not going to lie. But the fact that we were all in it together, helped. So I would say that. It opened doors to, what do I do now? Will you audition? You get into a young artist program at an opera house, or you start auditioning for gigs that are in New York?

20:02
Julie Reumert
At that point, there was a website, young artists program tracker.com, where you would put in your portfolio, recordings, CV. And then you would just audition, audition, audition. And when I say it like that, I mean it like that. All day. You would wear your audition dress, you would put your hair up and you would go from one room to another at all these studios in Midtown where representation from the opera houses all over the United States would be sitting and auditioning young artists. So that's how it was.

20:34
Julie Reumert
When I graduated, I went home to Denmark for some time. And I would practice every single day to get ready for my audition repertoire that I had to sing. So a lot of the time, it's two to three contrasting arias — a fast one and the sad one and the slow one. And so you would have to show a little bit of everything. I would practice that nonstop.

20:52
Julie Reumert
And then when I got back, Bikuben Foundation had a house in Manhattan and I applied for that when I was still in school. So I got a little tiny apartment there along with some other amazing Danish students in architecture and design and philosophy. So suddenly I also got a little Danish community there doing what I did, getting a career, getting a job.

21:16
Julie Reumert
So I lived there and then I auditioned every day and I worked at the Metropolitan Opera shop. They have a souvenir shop with CDs for opera nerds. I wouldn't say that the normal general public would waltz into this shop. It was Mrs. Rubenstein from the Upper West Side or the Upper East Side who came in looking for a particular recording — which Madame Butterfly should I listen to? And then they would have these young artists that knew so much about opera, myself included. I'd be like, this recording with Mirella Frani from this and that.

21:49
Julie Reumert
That kind of paid rent and food. I worked there part time, and they were really generous with their hourly, because I know minimum wage was difficult. It still is. We won't even get into that. But they were very generous with paying students the same that they would pay the adults that were working there. And you also would get a little commission when you would sell certain things. So that actually became quite a good place for me. And the perks were that I could sit in the cafe and look at the opera singers that were singing on stage with my little lunchbox.

22:21
Julie Reumert
And then I got a church job as well every Sunday that of course also in the holidays, Easter, Christmas, would bring in more money because there were more concerts. I got solo stuff. And then I booked my first job right after graduating as Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, the children's opera with New York Lyric Opera, which was my first real contract and my first kind of real deal.

22:45
Julie Reumert
And then I said to myself and my family and my friends that I would stay here until I can't work here anymore. Then I'll come home to Denmark and sing or do something else. But I will stay here, until I can't anymore.

22:59
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And now you've been performing at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and as you mentioned New York Lyric Opera — 

23:06
Julie Reumert
Just when you say it now, I get goosebumps. Are you sure that's me?

23:10
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And how did you manage that?

23:13
Julie Reumert
And this is where luck comes. Because after the hustling and bustling and getting to know people in the industry, there was a woman who was running the New York Lyric Opera. And she would say, Julie, have you met so and so, and you should sing for so and so. And oh, you know William, then do you know William's cousin, who's a conductor at blah blah? You should sing for him, and I'll get you an audition for that.

23:32
Julie Reumert
And that's when your circle starts to broaden. And that's when you start building your career, and building the pillars. And then over time, you are in the back of people's heads when they are doing things. They're like, oh, you know what? Julie would be good for this. Or maybe Julie knows someone. And then suddenly you start having this chain reaction of people that you know, and sing with and sing for and work with.

23:57
Julie Reumert
Bridget Kibbey, a wonderful harpist, played at a Carmina Burana I did, and then we did a piece together and then she ended up singing with me in Carnegie Hall, because she had had a concert there and told me I should audition for this part. So it's people that make it all happen. It's like little circles in the ocean and just moving into waves and here you are. And a lot of hard work showing up, and never saying no.

24:24
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And you have to train a lot to keep your voice.

24:27
Julie Reumert
All the time. I also teach young opera singers that are starting this whole journey. And some of them are really surprised when I tell them that I still take voice lessons. But I still take voice lessons because I still need a pair of ears and a technician that can look at what I'm doing and what I might be doing wrong, which is a lot of things still. So there's always that constant work on your voice and on your craft.

24:51
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Operas tell stories, and as a singer you play roles that are sometimes very emotional. Operas are often very dramatic and tragic, at least the ones that I've listened to and seen.

25:05
Julie Reumert
Oh yeah, no, you're spot on.

25:09
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And I often ask actors if they leave work behind when they go to bed at night or if they're still affected by their work emotionally. How is that for you? Do you get so emotionally involved when you sing that it's hard to leave it behind when you leave the theater?

25:26
Julie Reumert
Yes and no, I think for singers, it's a bit of a split personality, I want to say, but in a healthy way. My identity as a singer is different. Over the years, I've learned to put that away and open and close that door to — this is Julie as a singer and it is dramatic and you are portraying and conveying emotions that are not yours, and it's not your life.

25:51
Julie Reumert
And I had difficulty early on to differentiate, what am I singing through here? And of course you are like an actor or actress taking some of it from your own life and living some of it. Or at least imagining or picking something that may be similar to what your character is going through.

26:10
Julie Reumert
But a lot of these characters are so far away from the life that I live. And of course, because it is opera, it is so dramatic that you're like — You're that upset that he left you? You're going to kill somebody? What? It is different. I don't know, 'coz I'm not an actress in that sense, but I'm not using my own speaking voice. I go on stage and it's like different [singing] and it's a different hat that you put on. Sometimes it can be hard to leave it behind.

26:35
Julie Reumert
But I would say it's more coming home from using your body that way and having been on stage, which is an adrenaline rush. So it's more that that can be hard to slow down and breathe and come down from that, because that's difficult. You've been on stage, you've been in the moment. And you've been channeling this music and doing all of this that is just in your whole body. And that can be hard to fall asleep and takes me a few days to come down from that.

27:02
Julie Reumert
So I would say it's more the physical feeling of it and that you're hyper alert than the actual emotional part of it. Because the character I leave behind, usually I'm like, okay, she's done. She doesn't follow me around usually. She might in the future, who knows, but so far I've been able to leave her at the house, leave her at the stage.

27:23
Julie Reumert
And a lot of things happen when you take off your costume and your dress and you take the stuff out of your hair, you take the makeup off and then you're like, okay, now it's Julie going to the subway, going home. And it's also when you live in New York, you are being kicked to the curb the minute you step outside those doors, because the city doesn't care. It's still the city. There's a deli around the corner, someone got into an argument. You're back in reality so fast. You can't really dwell in, oh, I was just on stage. No, you're on the 1 train going home. You're not that special.

27:53
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
Yeah, different kind of drama, but still drama.

27:56
Julie Reumert
Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, you leave that pretty fast.

28:01
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And what is your favorite opera and the most rewarding role you've had?

28:05
Julie Reumert
It's such a hard question because there are the operas that blew you away when you were younger, and the operas that you heard with certain singers that were just so beautiful because of the way that they portrayed that role. There are different houses that have different acoustic things and scenography and so many different things.

28:23
Julie Reumert
I would say Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera. The Zeffirelli scenography of it snowing in the second act. They have this screen they put down and then it snows for real and they're freezing and there's a little fire in that little house where they live. To this day, it's one of my favorite things. It's cold in New York and you go back to the Danish winter time. And it's dark outside and you come into the opera house.

28:49
Julie Reumert
And the Metropolitan Opera is also home for me because I worked there and I know every corner, every smell. It's still my favorite opera because it's such a beautiful story and the music is unbelievable. That's why it's still there every year and why it's sold out. I have not sung Mimi. I have done some Bohème in my life but not on stage.

29:12
Julie Reumert
But some of my favorite roles, it's hard. I love singing Mozart. And I've had a few things I've done — The Marriage of Figaro, I've done Susanna. And those are just fun, cause you get to move around a lot, and I'm a very active person. So I love those. And I love the play and the recits and the dialogues.

29:31
Julie Reumert
And so I would say, yeah, that's probably my favorite role to this day. But I also loved my first role, Gretel, that will always be something special, playing a kid and running around with a broomstick. And there's a witch, and that I also loved. So it's a really hard question to answer. I'm sorry, that wasn't very clear.

29:48
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
I completely understand. I expected to get more than one anyway. How important is it to know many languages as an opera singer? I mean you very often have to sing in Italian or German or French. Do you speak all these languages to be able to sing the operas or do you learn the lines?

30:08
Julie Reumert
A lot of the work we do is diction. When you look up a word in the dictionary and you see the pronunciation afterwards, you see the diction. And that is very important to singers. We work on getting the perfect diction and the perfect pronunciation of these words. You meet with a coach that specializes in coaching singers in these diction and in the words and in the language.

30:28
Julie Reumert
Of course you pick up a lot. I've done a lot of opera singing in Italy. I've done a lot of programs also in school in Italy. If they speak slow, I can understand a lot of what they're saying. French, I've picked up a lot. My parents have spent a lot of summers in France and have a little apartment in the South of France.

30:45
Julie Reumert
And of course you sing so much in these languages. So many words, obviously, they're all about love and betrayal, so I know a lot about that. I don't speak it fluently at all, but I can pick up an Italian book and read it very well in the diction. The same in German. We have German in school growing up in Denmark. And it's closer to Danish — that comes in handy. And I'm happy that I had such a strict German teacher in high school because I hated it back then. But now I'm like, thanks so much.

31:15
Julie Reumert
So yes, I don't speak a lot of these languages fluently, but I do know how to speak a lot of this operatic language. And of course also Russian Czech. I did a piece right after I graduated for the TedX event in New York City, where I had to sing in Czech. And it was very difficult. There's a lot of consonants. I worked with a language coach for a long time to get those words right.

31:37
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
And how about singing in Danish?

31:39
Julie Reumert
Yeah, Danish is also actually its own difficult language to sing in. And it's wonderful. And now being away from Denmark, it always makes me very nostalgic. I don't know if my Danish colleagues feel that way. But now singing it over here, I've done a few concerts with Danish music at the Scandinavia House in Manhattan. And it makes me very nostalgic every time, and sentimental.

32:03
Julie Reumert
So for me, it's a different experience singing in Danish, I think. But we have so much great music and great operas and beautiful things that I try to really present and introduce to the US audience as much as I can. So I love singing in Danish. Although it is difficult. It really is. A lot of our consonants are very far back in the throat and also vowels, the æ, ø, å, which is like [sound effects].

32:27
Julie Reumert
It's no joke when they actually make fun of our language, say it sounds like gibberish or like [sound effects]. It is difficult to sing and it is very far back. So you work a lot on bringing it forward and bringing the constants and the vowels in a place where it's, I would say, a little bit brighter. So that comes with its own obstacles and difficulties, for sure.

32:46
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
How do you feel when you sing Hans Christian Andersen's "I Danmark er jeg født," which is translated into "I was born in Denmark," or "I'm from Denmark."

32:55
Julie Reumert
Yeah.

32:57
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
It's a very sentimental song that he wrote while Denmark was at war with Germany, I believe. And we were almost about to lose our country. Or at least I think that's what he was fearing.

33:10
Julie Reumert
Yeah, it's one of my favorite songs. There's a few melodies composed for the lyrics. And I sing it a lot. I actually did a concert. My dad was in the audience and the concert was over and I was like, Dad, can you come up here and let's do "I Danmark er jeg født"? My dad was like, what now? and walked up to the stage and we did it and people loved it.

33:30
Julie Reumert
It makes me feel proud of being Danish and it makes me smell the Danish summers. And it makes me remember my childhood and all the things that make Denmark so great. And so it's a very beautiful song and it makes me feel so happy to sing it. I sing it to my daughter. I try to sing it at all encores at all concerts. My dad and I have jazzed it up a little bit. I think it should be our national anthem, actually. Not that I don't like our anthem, I think that's also beautiful.

34:01
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
We could have a third one. We have two already — so we could have number three, too.

34:07
Julie Reumert
We could, right?

34:08
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
My final question to you. You're in New York now. Do you think you'll stay in New York? Do you think you'll ever go back to Denmark? And when I talk to you 20 years from now, what are you doing?

34:23
Julie Reumert
Oh my god. It's hard when you put your roots down somewhere. And they are really rooted here and I have married an American, and I'm also a US citizen. I have an American passport and I do feel very much 50-50. I'm a true Dane and I will always be Danish and I'm proud to be Dane.

34:45
Julie Reumert
And my daughter has dual citizenship and is half Danish. You never say never. You know what I mean? I dream big. I don't think that it's something that's in the near future because I love my job. And I really am so fortunate that my parents and my family and friends can visit and I go to Denmark a lot and we see each other a lot. We spend a lot of holidays in Copenhagen, so I feel like I get the best of both worlds.

35:08
Julie Reumert
So I don't think that I'm going to be living in Denmark in the near future. But you never know. What if my daughter wants to study there and I'm like, you're not going to study there without me having a somewhat say in what's going on? And if you want to go party, I'm going to be there and pick you up. So who knows if she wants to study in Denmark?

35:26
Julie Reumert
But right now, I do want to work and live here and for her to grow up. She's at a Scandinavian school. We have so much of Denmark here and a lot of Danish friends. And so I feel very much like I'm a little bit at both places all the time. I still perform in Denmark once in a while as well. So I'm very fortunate and very lucky to not feel like I am missing out. So I would say I've found a very good middle ground here.

35:52
Julie Reumert
In 20 years, I don't know. You know what? This is a dream of mine that's come up to the surface recently. I really want to start a music school. I don't know how that came, but I was like, what am I gonna do when I'm done singing? And I hang the hat, which for singers probably never will happen. You see these videos of 90-year-old sopranos singing.

36:13
Julie Reumert
I feel like I will always be singing, I will always be a performer. But I see a lack of serious musical education for the age group that I do teach, which is young artists that are about to go to undergraduate school here, about to audition for these music schools. I don't see a serious classical young educational institution.

36:36
Julie Reumert
I have a little secret plan. If there's anybody out there, I would love to start a school. I know someday there was this old abandoned townhouse on the Upper West Side that I used to pass on my way home. And I would be like, it's probably $10 million, but that is a perfect spot for a music school.

36:54
Julie Reumert
And I was like, I can open up the windows and there'll be opera in the streets and little young opera singers with the dream in their tummy are going to show up here and I'm going to open up the door and say, it's possible! We're going to make it happen! And you're going to come in here and I have pianos and we're going to do it. And you're going to learn the opera technique. So that kind of went away for many years, but now it's come back to the surface. And I think that's something I want to do.

37:15
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
That sounds like a fabulous plan. Thank you so much, Julie, for your time. We appreciate that you were with us at Danish Originals.

37:24
Julie Reumert
It's so much fun to talk about art and singing and you never do that. You just show up and sing. You never say anything, except, "My name is Julie, I'll be singing." [sound effect] So it's fun to get a voice. Yeah, I love it. Oh, it was such an honor. Thank you for having me.

37:41
Tina Jøhnk Christensen
For today's episode, Julie Reumert chose P.C. Skovgaard's Strandbillede, Rågeleje or The Beach at Rågeleje from 1843 from the collection of the National Gallery Of Denmark.