Astoria Music Festival soloists balance singing with family life

Published 5:00 pm Thursday, June 13, 2013

At the Astoria Music Festival, which opens Friday night and runs three weekends, audiences will hear poised professional musicians and singers making music in the Liberty Theater.

Behind the scenes, all have a story about what they overcame to get here.

Saturday night, the Festival will mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner.

The 7:30 p.m. concert includes Wagners Siegfried Idyll, and the first act of Die Walküre. Two of the three soloists are Stacey Rishoi, as the Walküre female lead Sieglinde, and Gustav Andreassen, as her evil husband, Hunding.

In real life the Cincinnati-based singers are married, with one young son.

For most of our careers this far, we have been under the same management, so weve been fortunate to have been able to work together now and then, said Rishoi. Some opera, some concert work, even some recital work.

Gus recently signed with different management, so its doubtful those engagements are likely to happen all that often anymore. Thats why singing in Astoria together is so awesome. Another reason its awesome is because Oregon is Gus home state.

Rishoi said her husband has many family members in Portland. It’s so special to be able to come back to reconnect with all of them, especially now that we have a child. Our hope and plan is to move back one day in the near future.

Both are excited about their Astoria debut.

As we get older or shall I say more vocally mature the music of Wagner is seeming to suit us both amazingly well. There’s so much great Wagner repertoire for both of us. Im suited primarily for the zwicshenfach roles (in between soprano and mezzo), Sieglinde, Kundry, Venus, etc., and Wagner wrote a ton of stuff that Gus is perfect for, King Mark, Gurnemanz, and believe it or not, Wotan.

Gus is a real bass, but he has a solid high extension, which is essential for that role. Call me biased, but I think it’s exciting to hear a real bass singing that role.

The singers hooked up with Keith Clark, artistic director of the Astoria Music Festival, at Portland Summerfest in 2011 when Rishoi sang Carmen and Andreassen took part in a recital. The couple already had a strong connection with Astoria Music Festival favorite Richard Zeller: Andreassen and Zeller attended the same high school in Portland and all three studied at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.

But there is another family member to consider:?they have a 21/2-year-old son, Owen Lucas Rishoi Andreassen.

Travel is complicated, in part because he no longer flies free.

Also, it’s amazing how much stuff needs to be lugged around for a baby/toddler, Rishoi said. Now that we have a child, doing a gig together, or apart for that matter, requires one thing that we’ve never had to think about before: babysitting.

Besides my wonderful mother, who has made herself available for lengthy opera jobs to help me with our son on out-of-town gigs, Gus and I want to acknowledge our sincere gratitude to his mother (from Milwaukie), who has been a tremendous help to us during the rehearsal process for our gig here in Astoria.

She has been willing and able to take care of Owen Lucas during all of our rehearsal obligations. Shes even coming up to Astoria to watch him there, minus the performance, however, which she is attending. Thank God for grandparents!”