Get to know Austin

What are you doing in school?
"I’m at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music, studying vocal performance."
How long have you been singing in choirs?
"I started at age 5 singing with the Children’s Chorus of Maryland and taking musicianship classes."
What is your favorite musical memory?
“Staging my first opera, Dead Man Walking, with Baltimore Opera. I was 7 (so not exactly age-appropriate material) but definitely an experience I’ll never forget."
Do you have any special talents or interests outside of music?
“I ride horses!”
Who is your favorite composer?
"I love Amy Beach!"
Who's your favorite non-classical musical artist?
"Florence and the Machine."
What song have you not been able to stop listening to?
"Okay I know it's lame but BWV 140, it's my very favorite Bach Cantata and it also appears in one of my very favorite movies."
​What's the most interesting fact about you?
“I’m a vegan!"
Breakfast for dinner or dinner for breakfast?
"Always breakfast for dinner. Get those vegan pancakes."
If you could turn anything purple, what would it be?
"Coffee. That would be cool."
What's your favorite holiday and why?
"I have always loved Easter, when my dad and I go to a sunrise service before any of our family is awake."
Are you a morning person or a night owl?
"A morning person--I love to be up with the sun."
What's your favorite thing about singing in Lux?
"Everyone who sings with Lux is not only very talented but also so excited and passionate about what the group does, and it’s fun to be surrounded by that."
What's your favorite song you've sung with Lux?
"I loved singing She Walks in Beauty​ [by Paul Mealor].  Just really cool melodies and a beautiful setting of really intimate poetry."

Austin Nikirk is looking forward to her fifth season with Lux. She is a senior at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music, studying Vocal Performance. At the conservatory, Austin is a member of the College Choir and Audeamus treble voice ensemble, and studies in the studio of Dr. Susan Hochmiller. In the Fall of 2018, Austin studied abroad in Paris, France, at the École Normale de Musique, in the studio of Madame Sylvie Valayre. Austin has sung in choirs since she was 5 years old, starting with the Children’s Chorus of Maryland under Betty Berteaux, and, upon graduation, the American Kodály Children’s Chorus. As a soloist, she has sung in eleven operas, and had roles in five: Cis in Albert Herring, the First Witch in Dido and Aeneas, Adele in Die Fledermaus, and Mrs. Pinkerton in The Old Maid and the Thief, and is anticipating the title role of Pauline Viardot's Cendrillon this spring.

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