Meet Emily Weinberg

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emily Weinberg. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Emily, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

To be honest, my answer is similar to most; self care. As both a professional opera singer and baker, basically my whole livelihood depends upon my ability to be creative in both fields on a regular basis which can be taxing on me both mentally and physically. Both of my jobs require a good amount of stamina, focus, and patience; so getting sleep, eating right (most of the time…), and making sure I get enough time both to myself and with my loved ones have really helped me to find a balance alongside my crazy schedule!

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?

My profession is split at the moment between working as a professional opera singer and running my own baking business. I recognize that is a fairly unusual combination but looking back on my life leading to this point, I don’t think there is anywhere else that I could have ended up.

I was raised in a fairly music-oriented household between my mother who was a music education major (specializing in flute) and my father who played music throughout the house whenever he had the chance with his selections ranging everywhere from classical to blues to zydeco. With an environment like that I couldn’t help but be drawn into the world of music!

I ended up starting piano lessons and concurrently joined the orchestra at my school as a violinist around age 11. While I enjoyed playing both instruments and loved being able to express myself through music, neither one ever felt like it was more than a fun hobby. The summer before I entered high school, I had stopped piano and decided to start singing lessons with a local teacher a few friends of mine were working with, Daniel Hendrick. Daniel taught me how to use my voice, my breath, and my body effectively enough so that when I decided to audition for the top chamber choir in my freshman year of high school, I was selected to get in!

I can’t even begin to describe the difference I felt between playing an instrument and singing, first as part of a group and later as a soloist. It was like the whole world had started to unfold in a completely new way. As we prepared to travel to San Francisco for my first choral competition, I had a moment that made me want to be a musician for the rest of my life, created by Ola Gjeilo’s “Northern Lights”. This is an “a capella” (unaccompanied) choral piece that created real magic for me in a moment of complete silence amidst the intense emotions created by building dissonant chords.

I continued to work with Daniel in private lessons until I left to attend the music program at Cal State Fullerton. The 5 years I spent at that institution were formative beyond belief and in addition to the number of lead roles I had the privilege to sing while I was attending, I was also granted the opportunity to be a part of two international tours with the CSUF University Singers, a core group led by Dr. Robert Istad with a propensity for emotionally poignant programs.

Once I graduated, I was immediately launched into working-musician-mode, taking on 5 different jobs at a time in order to make rent. Things continued on in that fashion until the pandemic hit and I, like many others, lost all of my employment within the space of a week. While that was a thoroughly depressing time as a young musician, feeling like I was being locked away just before I thought my career was going to take off, it ended up being a blessing in disguise. While taking a break from music, I picked up baking as a way to relieve stress. It was incredibly helpful and also provided a feeling of nostalgia, throwing my mind back to my childhood when my parents taught me to cook and bake and the world wasn’t falling apart around me.

Long after lockdown had ended, my hobby became so much more than a mental liferaft when a friend of mine who knew I loved to bake offered to pay me to make her birthday cake. I was shocked by the offer and flattered beyond belief and I accepted, baking her a yellow cake with a silky buttercream, raspberry jam filling, and homemade fondant decorations painted to look like the northern lights. It went over amazingly well and over the next year I had the occasional order from friends or family and I found that I really loved it, even as a job. One day I took a visit to my favorite brewery (Battlemage Brewing in Vista) to get rid of some leftover treats. A friend of mine took one, left, and then returned about 5 minutes later very angrily asking me “why are you not selling these??”

While I thanked him for the compliment and brushed it off as impossible in the moment, his question firmly took root in my mind and blossomed into a fantasy of making my own food under my own name and being able to create art through taste and appearance as I would want it to be. So, I approached the owners of Battlemage and organized my first popup stand as The Baking Mezzo at their market day that winter. I paired tailored desserts to three of their beers and from there everything took off.

I now balance my time between running my business and singing opera professionally with companies like San Diego Opera, Bodhi Tree Concerts, and the Pacific Lyric Association and am working to audition for young artist programs around the world. As a baker, in addition to private commissions I have a regular monthly popup with Battlemage (the 1st Wednesday of every month for trivia night), The Lost Abbey (the last Sunday of every month for their market day), and various specialty events like a cupcake pairing with The Lost Abbey (in East Village on August 15th) and Oktoberfests at which I will be selling my take on German desserts for Eppig (Point Loma on September 20th-22nd) and for Battlemage Brewing (September 28th).

Genuinely, falling into both of these professions has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me and I am so grateful for the opportunity to showcase different kinds of creativity for a living!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Dedication, enthusiasm, and understanding. In both of the worlds I live in, it is impossible to make it without those three qualities and they are really and truly concepts you have to take and make your own.
Finding what you love and what you are good at may be two (or more) different things but with every second of hard work you have to understand that life may not go your way sometimes, so pick yourself up and keep moving.
Additionally, I think some of the best advice I have ever gotten is to not let your job become your entire life. While I love both of my professions, having strong personal connections with biological and/or chosen family is a big part of what helped me get through stretches of fear and doubt. Family can be related to you or not, but most important is to keep around the people who you will show up for in tough times and who will do the same for you if you need it.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

If you can, step away from what is stressing you out. Whether that is playing a video game, going outside and walking to clear your head, or grabbing a drink with a friend, what I have found is that separating myself from a bigger issue, taking a break, and coming back to it later often allows me to clear my head and come back with a fresh perspective.
Even more than that though, asking for help is by far the hardest and best thing I have ever learned to do in personal and professional situations alike!

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