approach to Turandot. My feeling was (and still is) that she is
a young girl thrust into a situation where she has been given
responsibility beyond her years, and she is constantly struggling
between being the fierce princess and a scared young teenager. I
tried to put that into my singing. Puccini really wrote a lot of soft
moments into the score, and I wanted to bring those out—not
just the loud, screamy dramatic moments. Since I am a younger
singer for the role, I wanted to capitalize on that.”
Loutsion’s approach was, without a doubt, successful and she
was well received and reviewed for h er performance. “It was
amazing to work with Antony Walker again—he is definitely one
of my favorite conductors out there. He pushed me in the best
way possible to create my Turandot, and I’m so grateful for that,”
she says. “It was also incredible to have the company, cast and
community rally around me. I’ve never felt so supported in a role,
and it was humbling.”
Loutsion adds, “Some of the best singing moments of my
life happened during ‘Turandot.’ It was also amazing to take my
opening-night bow and see Greek flags waving in the audience—
opening night happened to be on Greek Independence Day and
there were about 200 Greeks in the audience.”
Her future plans are to sing as long as possible. Loutsion
is currently booked over a year in advance, and is hoping to
continue to be booked out farther and farther in advance. “I’ve
been throwing around lots of different ideas for post-performing
life,” says the singer. “I do love teaching, and could see myself
potentially teaching at a university, but I also would love to run
a company someday. I definitely want to stay in opera in some
capacity, even if it isn’t on the stage. I want to be prepared for
post-singing life, but I don’t want to get there just yet!”
The opera singer comes home to Canonsburg as often as she
can, which varies from year to year since she’s on the road so
much. “Truthfully, my favorite thing to do when I’m home is
to be with my parents, eat a home-cooked meal and chant in
church with my dad,” she says. “I love being able to get back to
my roots and block out the craziness of this career when I’m in
Canonsburg. It’s the simple stuff that can definitely be the most
exciting—there’s no place like home.” n
immigrant did for our community. That instilled a sense of hard
work and responsibility in me, and led me to want to experience
as much as possible.”
Loutsion knew she was destined for a career in opera at the age
of 15. “In high school, I saw ‘Turandot’ at Pittsburgh Opera and
the piece absolutely sold me,” she says.
Loutsion had been studying voice with an opera singer who
lived in Washington, Pa., and her voice was definitely heading
in a classical direction. She began listening to opera, and just
continued to fall in love with the art form. “When Dr. Robert
Page (conductor of the Junior Mendelssohn Choir at the time)
told me he thought I had what it took, that’s when I decided to go
forward with it, and there was no turning back,” she recalls.
Loutsion continued on to Ithaca College to attain her Bachelor
of Music in Vocal Performance and the University of Southern
California for her Master of Music in Vocal Arts and Graduate
Certificate in Vocal Arts. From there, her career began to take off
as she appeared as an Apprentice Artist at Central City Opera, a
Resident Artist at Pittsburgh Opera, an Apprentice Artist at The
Santa Fe Opera and a Filene Young Artist at Wolf Trap Opera,
studying and coaching under a wide variety of big-name voice
teachers, coaches and conductors.
“I don’t feel like I have a ‘big break’ story,” says Loutsion. “I’ve
been extremely lucky to slowly go incrementally upward in the
business. It has always been my opinion that ‘slow and steady
wins the race,’ and that has been true for me. As the years have
gone by, each one has led me to better contracts at better houses,
and I really hope it continues that way.”
In her climb to the top, Loutsion has sung major lyrico-spinto
operatic roles at some of the biggest houses in the country
including Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Florencia, Donna Anna,
Lady Macbeth and others for Central City Opera, Fort Wayne
Philharmonic, Wolf Trap Opera, the National Symphony
Orchestra Palm Beach Opera, Central City Opera, Opera on the
James, Arizona Opera, North Carolina Opera, Dayton Opera,
San Francisco Opera and more.
This past spring, Loutsion returned home to make her debut as
the icy princess Turandot in Puccini’s grand and final opera with
Pittsburgh Opera. “The journey to ‘Turandot’ started in August
2015,” she recalls. “My agent reached out to me and told me that
Pittsburgh was interested in having me sing in the 2016-2017
season as Turandot. At first, I was a little scared—Turandot isn’t
a role one takes on lightly because it is fiendishly difficult and
generally sung by older singers. I wrote back and told my agent
that I would potentially be interested, but I wanted to revisit the
role—I had studied it when I was a young artist at Pittsburgh
Opera in 2011—and I definitely wanted to do an actual audition
for the company so that they knew what to expect of my
Turandot.”
For the next few months Loutsion worked on the role, and
in December of 2015, sang an audition for Christopher Hahn
and Bill Powers of Pittsburgh Opera. “They hired me on the
spot!” she says. She spent the next year really working on the
role—coaching it with different people, working on it with her
teacher and offering the first big aria for competitions to get used
to having it on its feet. “I tried to always sing it with my voice and
not imitate singers who have made it famous, like Birgit Nielsen,
for example,” she explains. “I wanted to take an easy, vulnerable
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