"I never have stage fright"

Series: Young Opera Talents (I)

Krenare Gashi: "I've never wanted to be a star. I simply want to perform and to give my all."

Photographer: Frank Peterschröder

-The name can be a bit confusing, since "Krenare Gashi" sounds Asian to European ears. The 24-year-old native of Kosovo laughs. "I know, I was once in Tokyo and was surprised to see 'gashi' in many of the street names," she says. "But in Kosovo it's a completely common surname, belonging to something like one-third of the population." Yet by naming her "Krenare" - Albanian for "pride" - her parents hit the nail right on the head. They have every reason to be proud of their daughter, who has just returned from Chicago, where she performed in Bizet's "Carmen" at the Opera Theater. Her appearance in Chicago was the culmination of a spontaneous promise made by Brian Dickie, the theater's general director, at the 2007 "Neue Stimmen" award ceremony: that Gashi would be invited to perform in Chicago.

"It was exciting and lovely, and I enjoyed every minute of it," she says, her brown eyes shining at the memory. "It's another world - the stage is gigantic." She didn't experience any stage fright, she says, just "some opening night nerves, but that was good." In fact, she says she never has stage fright, probably since she's not all that ambitious. "I've never wanted to be a star," she explains. "I simply want to perform and to give my all." And it's this refreshing lack of self-consciousness that enchants her audience. "Even as a child I liked to sing and recite poetry," she recalls. "The first time I was on a stage I was five years old. It was always what I wanted. And I wanted to sing."

Even though no one in the family had ever shown much musical talent, her parents, who have six other children, let her follow her own path. "They were very relaxed about it," Gashi says. "My second-oldest sister really supported me, saying if you want it, go for it." Which she did. At the age of 10 she joined a folkdance group, at 13 she started piano lessons and a year later she took her first voice lesson. The war in Kosovo was raging at the time. "The night before my 14th birthday we were sleeping at my uncle's house. There was no electricity and my family surprised me by lighting a million candles," she says. "But instead of being happy, we were all crying, because we thought it might be the last time we were all together. When the NATO troops later arrived, it felt like being born for the second time." In thinking back, Gashi feels that the war is possibly the reason why she now loves the experience of being onstage singing, engaging in such a "beautiful art."

When it was time to enter secondary school, fate lent a helping hand. "My best friend and I were so poorly prepared for getting into the school specializing in natural sciences that we didn't pass the entrance exam," she says. "So there was nothing preventing me from going to the school specializing in music." Once she passed her final exams there, she secured a spot at the music conservatory in Kosovo, although she also applied to the conservatory in Detmold, Germany, as well. A month before leaving for her audition she took an intensive language course in order to be able to say at least a few words in German. All the same, having been accepted, she had a hard time of it in Germany, at least at first. "I was actually supposed to start during the summer semester, but I decided to spend it learning German," she recalls. "I was terribly homesick and spent the entire semester in tears. As the youngest child in a large family I had never before spent even one day alone." Never the less - or perhaps as a result - she quickly learned German, which she now speaks remarkably well.

A poster at the conservatory piqued her interest in the "Neue Stimmen" competition. "Luckily, I had no idea how many people enter it," she says. "So I said, there's nothing to lose, I'm just going to enjoy myself." That she "only" finished in seventh place has never bothered her. "I was just glad to have made it that far at all," she says. By participating, not only did she get to go to Chicago, but she made it to Frankfurt last March as well - and has since graced the stage at Dresden's famous Semper Opera.

What's next? "I have a few auditions scheduled, let's see what happens," she says. "I just want to sing - now and long into the future. I don't want to be a flash-in-the-pan, and then that's it." As anyone who has seen her onstage knows - she has little to worry about on that score.