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The road less traveled

Fort Dodge opera singer finds his own path to success

-Submitted photo
Michael Richardson, Fort Dodge native, recently won a national level singing competition. RIchardson has gone on to study opera as a graduate at James Madison University.

Most opera singers don’t spend the night in their car before a big performance, or even worse, a big competition. But Fort Dodge native Michael Richardson hasn’t taken the conventional path to following his passion.

After driving from Virginia to Northfield, Minnesota, to do just that, Richardson pulled out a first-place win at the National Association of Teachers of Singing competition in June.

It wasn’t the first time he spent the night in his car.

“It’s hard to ask for help when I need it,” Richardson said, attributing the decision to financial issues. “That’s pretty difficult for me. I don’t like feeling like a burden.”

And the last-minute decision, after figuring out he didn’t have enough money and couldn’t find anywhere to stay, didn’t come without consequences.

-Submitted photo
Fort Dodge native Michael Richardson, second from left, did not expect to be selected as a winner for the National Association of Teachers of Singing contest this summer at St. Olaf College in Minnesota.

“It most definitely did affect my performance that day,” Richardson said. “I’m personally surprised I got to the (final round) in the first place.”

He had changed out of his suit and started to pack his car up, assuming he wasn’t going to be called for the final round. His name was the first one announced.

In the middle of his fourth song, ”Here In This Spot with You” by John Duke, his throat became very dry.

“That, in singing, can spell trouble,” he said.

But in spite of it, he left in first place, surpassing only his own expectations for how well he would do.

-Submitted photo
Opera singer Michael Richardson stands with Sharon Morrical and Iowa opera singer Simon Estes.

After a long journey to reach a big marker of success, Richardson learned that he had to believe in himself as much as everyone else had along the way.

“That makes his win all the more sweet, because he hasn’t been handed the same tools as others he was competing against,” said Kathleen Schreier, a former Iowa Central Community College instructor who worked with Richardson along the way. “He walked in competing having slept in his car all night.”

She said that with the right backing, he could be the next Simon Estes.

After graduating from Fort Dodge Senior High, Richardson started his college career at Morningside College in Sioux City.

“I got caught up in a lot of other things that detracted from studying,” he said, leaving after a year with less than stellar grades, going to Iowa Central and Western Iowa Tech for a few years.

-Submitted photo
Fort Dodge native Michael Richardson pulled off a win in a national singing competition after spending the night before sleeping in his car.

“That didn’t pan out either,” he said at the latter, leading him to move back home, where he worked the night shift at the local Walmart while attending Iowa Central again.

He says working overnight at the store before going straight to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church every Sunday as a regular cantor played a big role in how he got to where he is today, with a grasp on his passion for music that complemented his natural talent.

“He would beat me (to church),” Schreier, the organist, said, describing his determination through obstacles. “There aren’t too many people that do that anymore.”

Throughout his career, Schreier said that financial problems have limited Richardson in what he can do. When opportunities like lessons from the world-renowned Estes in Ames came up, Richardson couldn’t take advantage of them without a reliable car.

A lot of his Walmart paychecks went straight to debt at Morningside College, which refused to release his transcripts so he could complete his degree.

-Submitted photo
Fort Dodge native Michael Richardson pulled off a win in a national singing competition after spending the night before sleeping in his car.

After almost six years of “spinning my wheels,” taking classes part-time, he decided to see whether he could actually get a degree from his work.

That’s where the network of mentors in his life, including Schreier, helped connect him with coaches at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, where he managed to graduate with his bachelor’s degree in 2018.

At that point, Richardson said he was satisfied enough.

“I fulfilled what I set out to do in the first place,” he said. “In all honesty, that’s where I wanted to stop. I thought I could go home and relax.”

His journey had other plans in mind. Music is his life now.

Now a graduate student with concentrations in opera at James Madison University in Virginia, he wants to perform professionally, possibily in Germany, since he has an affinity for German operas.

The win in Minnesota came after several rounds of competitions, beating out others first in the Virginia State National Competition and then in the Mid-Atlantic Regionals against singers from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and the District of Columbia.

At St. Olaf College in June, he performed five selections in German, Latin and Italian, putting to use all the lessons and practice through music that wasn’t always his favorite to perform.

Emotion plays a big part in the songs, a range he has to tap into.

The songs he sang depicted him as dying after being shot, going crazy, being drunk and professing love.

“I have to place myself there,” he said.

But a real challenge, he said, is getting his voice to reach every corner of the room.

“If the resonators aren’t in the right place doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” the song can fall flat, he said — particularly on higher notes.

As the resonators in his vocal tract performed well enough to bring him victory, something else resonated in him, too — a new song that only then started to become audible to him.

“The things people have been telling me over the years … I had to start believing it (myself), more than I do,” he said.

“Michael is not a person who toots his own horn,” Schreier said.

Though many of his struggles have been financial over the years, he started to recognize that some of them were mental, too.

“His musical ability came from his mother,” said his father, Michael Richardson Sr. “He has made me proud.”

His father didn’t find out he had slept in the car until after the fact.

“I was a little upset with him,” he said.

But if that’s one of the most upsetting things Michael Richardson has done, he said he’s been blessed with a good son.

“It’s a miracle he’s gotten himself to where he’s at,” Schreier added.

But when he makes it big after all the twists and turns, he’ll be able to say he did it on his own.

“He’ll have gotten there, really by himself,” Schreier said.

“Without music, I have no idea where I’d be,” Richardson said.

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