When Breanna Sinclairé stepped up to the microphone on the stage of San Francisco's Castro Theatre a couple weeks ago, and let fly with a version of Gershwin's Summertime, it was if all the air in the vast room had been channeled into her soaring soprano, which shook the walls and the handful of observers in attendance.
The looks of shock were nothing new to Sinclairé, a transgender artist whose life journey has been hitched to the gift of song since her childhood in Baltimore, Maryland. She sang her first solo in a Baptist church at the age of five. But the real musical seed was planted when her grandmother took her to her first opera, Madame Butterfly.
"I grew up in a family of musicians," Sinclairé said, settling into one of the Castro Theatre's seats. "My grandmother was very immersed into classical music."
Since her first forays into singing, Sinclairé has sung in concerts around the U.S. and beyond -- and in 2015 stepped onto the Oakland A's field to become the first transgender person to sing the National Anthem at a Major League Baseball game.
"Music is a part of me, Sinclairé said. "It’s my life."
Sinclairé's personal journey hit some rough notes. She said as a child she was abused by her father, who left the family when Sinclairé was young. Music became her refuge for troubled times.
Despite her love of opera, her mother sent her to a university in Canada with hopes she'd become a pastor. But she left to pursue her singing dreams at the prestigious Baltimore School of the Arts. From there she enrolled in the California Institute of the Arts in Southern California. It was there she transitioned -- which she described as a difficult time.
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"As a trans-person I think it’s the common theme of our community," Sinclairé said. "We struggle a lot - we deal with a lot of discrimination, we deal with a lot of housing discrimination."
Her musical trajectory was side-swiped in 2010 when she flew to New York to study with a singing coach who then declined to work with her. Out of money -- and luck -- Sinclairé spent three months homeless in the frenetic city.
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Yet once again music came to her rescue. She was in a grocery store -- shoplifting, she recalls -- when a man heard her humming and struck up a conversation. On the spot, he wrote a check for Sinclairé to return to Cal Arts.
"He said 'Breanna, I want you to fly back to Cal Arts and I want you to finish your degree,'" Sinclairé remembered. "And I want you to text me your degree and I want to see you at the Met one day."
After making good on her promise to graduate from Cal Arts, Sinclairé broke barriers again, becoming the first trans woman of color to take part in the opera program at San Francisco's Conservatory of Music where she received her Master's Degree.
Despite all the accolades and achievements, Sinclairé still finds challenges within the profession of her chosen musical genre.
"Being a Black trans woman in the classical world can be very exhausting," Sinclairé said. "Because there’s very little belief in my talent, so I do have to work extra hard."
The pandemic threw a whole other set of wrenches into the wheels of Sinclairé's career, just as it seemed she was hitting her stride. Concerts and appearances were relegated to the virtual world. Still, she got an opportunity to travel to Toronto, Canada to appear in the opera film, Bound. This summer she'll travel to the prestigious Berlin Opera Academy for a role in the opera Hansel and Gretel.
But first, she plans to take part in San Francisco's Pride Weekend which was cancelled for in-person events the last two years due to the pandemic.
"I think this is our first Pride together, besides it being virtual," she said. "So I really think it’s going to be an emotional experience for a lot of people."
And emotion is what's churned up every time Sinclairé sings -- converting new fans with her voice and her implausible story.
"Not only is Breanna Sinclairé a unique talent on the world stage," said Sinclairé's publicist David Perry, "she’s one of the most courageous artists and individuals I ever met."
On the Castro Theatre stage on that recent day, Sinclairé followed-up Summertime with the soprano aria O Mio Babbino, for a few local merchants who snacked on hors d'oeuvres in the Castro Theatre balcony.
She is determined to use her voice to gain the respect of the classical world - yet is proud of what she has already accomplished as a trans woman of color forging her own path.
"Being who we are, and authentic is the most beautiful thing," she said. "It takes someone like us that are strong to really walk this journey."
