Meet Jenny Cresswell

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jenny Cresswell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jenny, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience comes from a deep desire to communicate, and to understand this thing we call life and how we all influence and affect each other. I work in two adjacent fields where in so many cases I should have been knocked down for the count. I am both an academic professor and a professional opera singer. I hold a doctorate from the University of Michigan, where I was a Presidential Fellow through the Rackham Graduate School, as well as a recognized Scholar through the Center for the Education of Women. I am also a single mother, a first generation college student, an autism advocate, a sexual violence survivor, and a four-time undergraduate college drop-out.

I have always referred to myself as “the solid A-.” I come from the generation that was expected to have a specialty in the arts. What is the one thing that makes you stand out? In my case, I think it was that I wanted to do everything. Or rather, I did absolutely anything to get the job done. I had a “portfolio career” about 20 years before it became cool to have one. And through it all, I never stopped singing; not even for a week.

I know that I bring some unexpected flavors to the spaces I work in. While we are starting to have more conversations about inclusivity and accessibility, you don’t see hardly any single mothers in the opera world or, in my experience, the music departments at colleges and universities. I have never doubted my talents or abilities – not as a mother or a creator. As both a performer and an academic, I’ve been told I’m polarizing and fearless. And the only response I can have is that when your walls have been shaken down so many times, you no longer fear trivial things like an artistic choice, or your voice cracking, or saying the thing that everyone is thinking but no one is willing to acknowledge out loud. One well-known director cracked a joke in a recent production I was in and announced to the cast before opening night, “Don’t be afraid to go too far. You won’t. Except maybe you, Jenny; that’s where you start.” Everyone sort of giggled, and I ended up getting great reviews for that production, but at the time, I couldn’t tell if that comment was a compliment or at my expense. And at the end of the day, I just threw it out of my mind, because it didn’t matter. I knew what my job was when I went on stage.

Sometimes you just push through things and it isn’t until later, when you are describing it to someone else and you see their eyes get like saucers or their jaws drop and you realize that maybe you took on a little too much, or maybe you sound a little unhinged. I remember when my children were one and two years old and I was singing a leading role in a concert production of the opera, Turandot. That would have been plenty of work on its own, but I was also the children’s chorus director and was warming them up backstage before hand and touching base with all of the them between acts.

I was working on my doctorate when the pandemic hit and had just gotten divorced a few months before. I was now a single parent and both of my kids were still in elementary school, and we were all schooling from home. I would put slices of leftover pizza on paper plates and send them up to their rooms so I could teach my classes online. I joked that in 2020 we all became college roommates. Fortunately, I lived near my parents at the time and had their help when I had rehearsals or had to make recordings of projects. I graduated in 2021 and that was a very chaotic time. I had finished recording my final dissertation project, and in the following week wrote my 70 page document. I was dealing with some health issues and had surgery scheduled for the following week. I got it all done under the deadline, and even was chosen to record the National Anthem at Hill Auditorium for the graduate school virtual ceremonies (there were no live ceremonies that year).

The job market is so competitive, and there is still so much discrimination against mothers and single mothers in the classical music space. Without full-time employment in the 2023-2024 academic year, I moved my family to Detroit, where I knew I at least had a singing contract. That’s when I turned to technology. I went on TikTok and started sharing singing tips and clips and built an online studio with over 30,000 followers. I also created an app called GoPractice, geared towards aspiring and professional singers.

I’m happy to say that I recently accepted a faculty position at Simpson College in Indianola Iowa, and my children and I are looking forward to this new adventure.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I feel like I covered so much in the opening story. What I can say is that I am still focused on my app, GoPractice, which is available on Google Play and the App Store. I’m still teaching through TikTok (Dr.Jenny_Soprano), and I am now on faculty at Simpson College in Indianola Iowa. I am available for master classes, recitals, and social media clinics for artists.

My brand is the anti-brand. One of my favorite things I hear when I’m visiting college campuses or programs and students recognize me is, “Oh my gosh, you’re exactly like you seem on social media.” And that’s because I am. This is an art form that craves and begs for authenticity. I feel like that path we are sending young artists down today about branding is a mistake. Let people see you with all of your flaws and challenges next to the successes. It will make you less intimidating and encourage them not to quit just because something tears them down for a moment.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The three things that have allowed me to succeed is the love for my children and wanting to set a good example for them, relentlessness (some people would call it perseverance), and the deep belief that underneath it all, despite circumstances that none of us have control over, we are all very similar at our roots. No one is better than anyone. And if you think about what you would want on your tombstone some day, it probably won’t be about what you were good at, or how much money you had, or what accolades you received. It comes down to character.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

The most impactful thing my parents ever did was work. They are both hard workers, but I definitely inherited my relentless perseverance from my father. He switched jobs when I was very young and built his way up to be highly respected in the community. He would work from before the sun came up, come home, and then work until it went down, every day. His example taught me to push past the pain, and to get your mind and spirit to convince your body it can keep going even when you’re exhausted; to just go until you get it done. Some people might read that and think it’s unhealthy, but everyone starts from a different place and we don’t get to choose where that is. That’s not how life works. Sometimes, if you want to achieve things in spaces full of people who started out in a softer position, you have to push through to be so good that they have zero choice but to acknowledge and respect it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cresswellvoicestudio.com
• Instagram: drjennysoprano
• Other: TikTok: Dr.Jenny_soprano

Image Credits

Elizabeth van Os (pictures 1-3)
Austin Richey (onstage photo with clock)