In partnership with the Curtis Institute of Music, WHYY presents the following program.

[upbeat music] My name is Jeysla Rosario Santos.

[music] I am a soprano and I study opera at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Would you all please stand and help us honor the United States of America.

I wasn't into singing classically as a child.

I didn't sing classically until I got into my undergrad years.

So it's really like I sung at church.

I grew up at church so I was always around music and like the worship group and the singers but I didn't really practice as a child because I didn't know this is what I wanted to do.

You're invited to join vocalist Jeysla Rosario Santos as she sings our national anthem.

When I did get to my undergrad I had only sung classically for a few months before that to get into the program.

I realized that I needed to learn some classical pieces to be able to get into this program but I really wanted to get into music so I taught myself my two audition pieces and I auditioned and I got into the program [singing] And just being immersed in that, you know, classical world and hearing people sing classically, getting taught how to sing classically, it was like a process of falling in love with it as I was doing it.

[singing] As a child I was really obsessed with America's Next Top Model.

So I wanted to be a model.

Yeah.

I that didn't happen.

I got to do modeling today, but yeah.

Oh, the land of the free.

I would say once I graduated high school, got accepted into the undergrad program, that I realized that this was an industry that I really wanted to be a part of.

[singing] Honoring America, Jeysla Rosario Santos.

My family, they're always very supportive.

Nobody in my family is musically trained.

Most of them are musicians.

I come from Puerto Rico, so in Puerto Rico, music is alive.

Music is everywhere, and growing up in church as well, my grandpa played guitar, my uncles played guitar, my dad is a percussionist, my brother plays guitar, bass guitar, drums, everything.

My aunts sing.

So I was surrounded by music.

So I think it wasn't a big shock when I told them I was interested in music and wanted to go into it.

They didn't know how to proceed because nobody in the family had wanted to pursue this professionally before, but they were always very supportive.

I would say my friends were supportive.

In high school I was a choir kid, so most of my friends were also choir kids, friends who liked music.

Ready, set, go!

When I decided to pursue it and go to college for music, everybody was super supportive.

I performed at the Curtis Chamber Composers Recital.

It was a piece composed by my friend Sarina Khalili.

It was a piece she wrote about moving to the United States for the first time and leaving home and just how she dealt with that.

It was such a beautiful piece called Nomad.

It was composed for voice, guitar, and piano.

Where was anyone familiar with its language?

They did not know this stranger of people, whose bank was the only one in the valley.

[whispering] Oh, she's gone, oh, she's gone.

(sad, eerie music) (woman vocalizing) (piano music) (singing) (piano playing) (singing in foreign language) (piano music) (singing in foreign language) (piano music) (singing in foreign language) (piano music) (singing in foreign language) (piano music) (singing in foreign language) (piano music) (singing in foreign language) (piano music) (singing in foreign language) (piano music) (singing in foreign language) (piano music) (singing in foreign language) (piano music) (singing in foreign language) (piano music) (singing in foreign language) (piano music) (singing in foreign language) (piano music) (singing in foreign language) (piano music) (singing in foreign language) (piano music) (singing in foreign language) - So a day at Curtis would start with (upbeat music) - Coaching in the morning with some of the great coaches that we have in the voice and opera department.

Then I would go to an acting class.

Then I would go to one of my liberal arts classes or elective classes.

Then more coachings and more coachings.

We can have as many coachings as we want in a day.

So we take advantage of those.

and then rehearsals at night, and that's that.

[music] Curtis was my first choice.

I auditioned at seven programs and glory to God I got accepted into all of them but when I came to Curtis I fell in love with the city Philadelphia and I fell in love with the school and the campus but I really auditioned at Curtis just to say that I auditioned at Curtis I had no expectations at all of getting in so when I went back home after the audition season was over I put it out of mind I was like okay I'm just gonna wait on some other responses hopefully I get in and when I did get the admission letter from Curtis which was my final admissions letter I was in shock I was like oh my gosh this is it and I really wanted to get into Curtis from the moment I landed in Philly so when I finally did get it I took it as a sign yeah [Music] The tale of the new comet hits us at noon this time.

A new comet, light and framer.

Hits us at noon this time.

Acting class is required for all of the voice and opera people and I'm in the master's program so we all have to do a master's project and depending on what route we choose to go on for our master's project we have a class specifically for that route so I am in the community artist program master project and I'm taking a class for that we're also taking research topics and acting.

[Music] When I prepare for a recital and a performance, I first start with my translations.

Then after I have my translations now and I know what I'm singing, I then start to put the music into it.

[singing] Then I want to get with my collaborator, whether that be a pianist, a guitarist, etc., and put that together with them.

And after that, we just want to get as much rehearsal as possible and spend as much time with the pieces that we're performing before the actual performance.

[Music] And yesterday they would not have served me.

The type of repertoire that I prefer to perform, I mostly perform opera and art song.

I really do love performing both of those, but I think art song, because it's so broad and you can really express what you want to express as a person and individual through art song, rather than what's an assigned character has to express through what has been written for them, I think I prefer art song.

From my past performances, I would say I've learned to celebrate my wins more often.

I tend to be a person who gets in my head during a performance and after the performance, so I don't give myself that time to really celebrate the accomplishment of, like, I gave a performance.

But I'm getting better at that.

I'm getting better at celebrating my wins and giving myself time to pat myself on the back.

[ Music ] [ Singing ] [ Music ] [ Singing ] [ Music ] >> What has happened?

[ Music ] What has happened?

[ Music ] >> Something.

[ Music ] >> Nothing stirs.

All is silence.

[ Music ] >> What has happened?

>> Something.

[ Music ] >> Tell me.

>> Something swept across the earth.

Many are dead.

Very many.

Before my window.

As we're gnawed by the breath of God.

Disprezzata Regina.

Regina, Regina, disprezzata, disprezzata Regina del monarca romano.

Afflitta, afflitta, afflitta moglie.

Che fa?

Ove son?

Che penso?

Che penso?

O delle donne miserabile il sesso.

Se la natura e il cielo liberi ci produce, il matrimonio, il matrimonio ci incatena serve.

Se concepiamo l'uomo delle donne, miserabile il sesso, al nostro ampio tiranno formiamo le membra, allattiamo il carnefetto crudele che ci scarna e ci svela, e siamo costrette, siamo costrette per indegno a sorte, a noi medesme fabbricate.

When the first note hits and I'm there performing, I think the first thing that goes through my mind is, "Okay, this is going to happen how it's going to happen."

So I let go a little bit, but I'm at the same time focused because live performance is live performance and anything can happen.

So yeah, a mixture of hyper-focused and it is what it is.

We're here now.

Yeah.

I think in this industry, especially as a singer and especially in the classical music industry, we have to create a lot of our own opportunities.

We can't just wait for somebody to say yes to us.

So when I said create my own opportunities, I meant looking for places or people that I can say yes to.

And if I see a lack of something somewhere and I know that I have the skills or ability to enhance it or create something out of it, just going for that.

I would love to headline at the Santa Fe Opera House.

That's like an outdoor space and I've always thought it would be really cool to perform there.

Not necessarily an opera house but I've also always really wanted to be a part of the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.

The Casals Festival puts on different events throughout the summer with classical music.

So they have orchestra concerts, they have chamber concerts, they invite soloists, they put on an opera sometimes.

So I would love to either be a soloist there or be a part of an opera that they put on.

[MUSIC PLAYING] Next in my journey, I hope to continue to grow, create music, collaborate with more people, meet more people, travel more, and just continue storytelling and creating community through music.

[singing in Italian]