Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacob Pence.
Hi Jacob, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I began performing opera in the Tampa Bay area in 2006 as a college student at the University of Evansville in Indiana. At the time, I was preparing the music for a role in an upcoming production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the newly formed St. Petersburg Opera Company. The opera company provided students and young artists opportunities to develop their performance skills alongside mature artists during joint workshop sessions with the production and artistic teams.
Additionally, students and young artists gained performance experience through public performances of musical selections from the opera company that would arrange to promote the production. After the production ended, I was asked to return to St. Petersburg Opera as an understudy during the following production of Die Fledermaus in December 2006, where I filled in onstage for the artist I was understudying when he became incapacitated by a car accident. After the successful run, I was hired to perform a small role in the following summer production of La Boheme with St. Petersburg Opera.
Since that time, I graduated from the University of Evansville in 2007 and The Ohio State University in 2009 with a Master’s Degree in Music Performance in Voice. I also completed artist training programs around the country with Indianapolis Opera, The Crested Butte Music Festival, Music by the Lake at Aurora University, Columbus Opera, The Lexington Opera Society, OperaNeo, and the Martina Arroyo Foundation as well as performing roles with Kentucky Opera and Indianapolis Opera.
After relocating and establishing myself in Florida in 2017, I began performing with Opera Orlando and Opera del Sol returning to St. Petersburg Opera in 2019 before beginning to perform in productions with Opera Tampa in 2021.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Opera singers continuously develop their singing, acting, language, and musical skills throughout their careers and progress come with diligent practice, but only incrementally. Singers spend their lives auditioning, practicing, and applying for opportunities to showcase their talents and skills to opera companies or arts organizations that can provide them with work.
They constantly have to reassess and adjust to the feedback they receive from their voice teacher, musical coaches, and language instructors, alongside the feedback they receive during auditions, competitions, and what they observe from listening/viewing recordings of themselves. It is a difficult task to sort through all of this information to determine what criticism is valid and what advice can be discarded.
It is also expensive to continuously cultivate these skills using all of these resources. Personally, I had to take multiple, non-musical jobs after graduation and return home to live with my parents in order to re-establish my financial stability before moving to Florida permanently.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As a classically trained baritone, I perform music written for middle-low male voices in genres including opera, operetta, oratorio, as well as select styles of musical theatre and popular music.
I tend to specialize in operatic and musical theater roles requiring character work or comic behavior. These roles often make a lasting impression on the audience and either propel the plot forward with their antics or help bring levity to a very serious story in-between the dramatic developments involving principal characters.
My favorite role to perform has been Figaro from Mozart’s opera “The Marriage of Figaro.” Like Mercutio from Romeo and Juliette, Figaro grapples with the comic and tragic demands of everyday life but is able to surmount the challenges to his happiness besides his wife and friends. It has some great music and it requires careful study and preparation as the opera is nearly three hours in length.
My comedic timing and dramatic training set me apart from other performers of opera. Many characters in operatic plots do not exhibit the emotional range required by roles like Figaro so being a strong actor and singer distinguishes my work from my contemporaries.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up as the eldest of three siblings, I was often responsible for helping my parents with my brother and sister. I was more serious and introverted, and less comfortable socializing outside of my family and church community.
I enjoyed learning, as I still do today and appreciated going to museums and visiting historical sites alongside attending theatrical, ballet, orchestral, and musical theater performances. I always loved to sing and began singing with my family at church before beginning to study music at school. Once in school, I took my study of Music very seriously and tried to perform as often as possible with choirs, in talent shows, and in musicals during high school.
While I did enjoy quieter, solo activities like reading, working puzzles, model building, and playing video games; I did enjoy team sports such as baseball, basketball, camping as a Boy Scout, and studying Tae Kwon Do.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @jacobgpence
- Facebook: @pence85
