Vocal Performance Grad Writes Children’s Book About Stage Fright
Lindsey Brakhage recently wrote a children’s book to help fundraise her opportunity to sing in Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte in Berlin, Germany this summer. Her book, Lindsey the Lion, is about a little girl with fiery red hair that has one big problem: her voice. Whenever she speaks, her voice is so loud that glass cracks, plates shatter, and the neighbor’s dog always runs away. When she gets a role in the school musical, she gets a very bad case of stage fright. The book inspires readers that you should never be afraid to show the world your true voice, no matter how different it might be.
The story was inspired by Ms. Brakhage’s own journey towards becoming an opera singer, as well as her preschool students’ need for a book to help them overcome their own stage fright. Ms. Brakhage’s Berlin opera program is funded in part by Chapman Cultural Center, its donors, the County and City of Spartanburg and the South Carolina Arts Commission which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of SC.
In 2017, Ms. Brakhage made her debut at Carnegie Hall with the Manhattan Opera Studio in New York. She earned a Master of Music Degree in Vocal Performance here at Converse.
Lindsey currently works as the Publicity and Patron Services Coordinator for the Petrie School of Music.