Ksenia Popova’s career choice had a lot to do with her parents.
When she was a little girl growing up in Moscow, Russia, there was always music because her parents were dancers. Indeed, very good dancers -nine-time Russian ballroom champions.
Unfortunately, Popova really couldn’t do ballroom. She pursued ballet but that wasn’t her thing either. She tried to express her love for music with piano, then guitar. Nah.
Then she started singing.
“It was comfortable and it really worked for me,” said Popova, who recently turned 18. “Opera is so beautiful.”
Today, Popova is an aspiring opera singer who will take her career a notch higher when she begins her musical studies in the fall at the California Institute for the Arts in Valencia.
Popova, a senior at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, has been singing in Washington since she was 11. For the past two years, she has put on a recital. This year, she wants to put on her final recital and she wants it to be special.
The recital will be Sunday night at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lynnwood. Donations are accepted.
Popova wants to share her talent with the community as her way of saying thanks and goodbye. And, as a singer who has won statewide competitions, Popova promises not to disappoint.
“My wish would be to fill as much of the place as I can,” Popova said. “There’s always people who love to hear different music and I have a little bit of everything in my program: baroque and opera arias and musical theater. All the music I wanted to pick, I picked it because it was really fun to sing and fun for the audience to hear.”
This concert closely mirrors Popova’s musical journey. She will open with an Italian piece, the first piece she performed at age 11, “Caro Mio Ben,” by Giuseppe Giordani. Then she’ll do a couple of songs by composer Libby Larsen that are cute and contemporary.
Next, she’ll perform “Laurie’s Song,” from Aaron Copeland’s opera “The Tender Land,” about a girl who is leaving home.
There’s also some musical theater thrown in, Popova said.
Popova is doing for this recital what she has done for the previous two: everything.
She produces and distributes the fliers, she sends e-mails, she secures the venue and plans the program. She even prepares the refreshments. She pays all the fees out of her savings account.
She does it all because it means that much to her.
“It’s a big thing for me, so it’s nice to share with people.”
Arts writer Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424 or goffredo@heraldnet.com.
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