Elena Vizuet Shares Her Talents with Her Adopted Country

Elena Vizuet is becoming a recognizable name in Coronado due to her extraordinary musical talent and her contribution to the public arts in Coronado and San Diego.

As a founder and artistic director of Musica Vitale and Crown City Chorale, both non-profit art organizations, she shares her professional expertise in bringing pleasure for the singers and enjoyment for the audiences.

With over 30 years of experience, performing internationally in Russia, Budapest, and Mexico, she added the San Diego Opera to her resume with more than 100 productions and the position of Teaching Artist. Vizuet also taught voice and conducting classes to undergraduate students in Russia and at Mesa City College which opened doors to aspiring opera singers. Her versatile musical talents include singer, pianist, music instructor, and conductor.

Few teenagers are certain of their eventual career choice, but in Russia Vizuet was selected at 15 years old to attend a school dedicated to music with the intention of producing a professional musician. “You don’t go to high school, you go to that specialty education which you start early. Your regular subjects, general education, they’re diminished, like chemistry and physics. They give you the basics. You cannot be totally ignorant, but kind of a summary, and, of course… you have the language, literature, mathematics to some extent, but everything else is again kind of a summary in the diminished state. We still have them, but the way is cleared for music.”

The music part of school was from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., “So it’s four years of Music College (instead of high school) and five years of Conservatory, so it’s very thorough, very extensive, rigorous, and thorough music education which I’m glad I had.” Vizuet has an MA in Choral Conducting and an MA in Music Education from the prestigious Ural Conservatory in Russia.

Russian life became very difficult financially even though she was working as a professor of music at the Music College.

“I was a widow at that point. I had two daughters, and they were going into middle school. Things were just horrible. I understand it was a transition and everything, but with your master’s degree you work your butt off. You’re trying to bring your kids up, and the government just doesn’t pay you. They just don’t pay you. They didn’t have money; they didn’t pay salary. They will squeeze a little bit of something so you will not die. It was after Gorbachev, but it wasn’t like that all the time, so after Gorbachev things were pretty good for a while. I don’t remember when exactly that happened, but ‘96, ’97 were very tough years, and ‘98.”

Vizuet came to the U.S. in 1998 when she decided to join Dan, an American, whom she had been meeting up with in Moscow for three years and writing to. He had considered helping with the cleanup in Chernobyl, and his Moscow visits were to see if he could acclimate to the environment. “He works with nuclear reactors and some variant, so he could do some of the cleaning work that I guess America, under Clinton, was ready to do, give a helping hand. If he would be contracted, he wanted to see could he stand the environment, the weather, the food, people, so that’s why he visited Moscow.”

Vizuet quickly noticed the food differences in America. “Food always was very fresh, you know, no additives and substitutes and nothing preservative [in Russia]. Before, if you have bread, it will get two days; it will become dry. Your milk will spoil in three days.”

Vizuet recalled harvesting herbs for tea. “You harvested herbs yourself in the mountains for herbal tea. You dry herbs, and you know what is good for your stomach, what is good for your heart, what is good when you cough. Everybody had collection of that. It was kind of normal. Everybody knew when to go and collect herbs. We got everything from nature.”

Moving to a new place with a different language, food, customs, and climate takes adjustment. Vizuet mentioned the “isolation, lack of language, hormonal because I became pregnant fairly soon, so Alistair is Dan’s child. Nature is so different.” Russia at the time was having winter, but Coronado still had flowers blooming. She missed the seasons, the snow, and lack of rain.

Determining her equivalent educational background was an obstacle to employment. In the interim, she became a cantor at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

It took a few years to learn that her credentials were equal to an American MA. Comparing Russia and the U.S., Vizuet noticed more women in professional positions in Russia even in the music area. “In Russia I think being a woman is a little easier… professionally.”

“I wanted to use my skills, and I came across the SD Opera Company having auditions. We made the tape at home and sent it, then they invite you to a live audition and I was hired. I was with the company for over 20 years, over 100 productions, in the chorus and there were small roles as well on occasion… That job helped me create strong bonds with wonderful people and use my skills and feel that I belong here. You do want to apply your knowledge and skills and share with others. Otherwise, what are they for? To get rich? Not my goal.”

Her husband adopted both girls. The older daughter Maria lives in New York, is married, and works in a music school. She is a concert pianist with a BA from Manhattan school of music and an MA in music education from Hunter College. Vera, who graduated Magna Cum Laude from Santa

Barbara with a psychology degree, works from home as a sales representative. Alistair graduated from UCSD as a mechanical engineer and works for Qualcomm.

Adapting may not have been easy, but the family found that “people came to the rescue. For my children, friends at school helped them through the first two years. For me, one of the most cherished memories is of Mary Jane Carpenter, who led an English as a second language evening class at Coronado.”

“The best thing about Coronado is that I can swim in the bay every morning, walk everywhere, and see the best sunsets. And, of course, people. People are treasures; they are indispensable. Each one leaves a forever mark in your heart, sometimes a bruise, but then you heal and grow. But those are exceptions. More often people share their hearts with you. I’ve been incredibly lucky to meet many such people here in Coronado.”