Happiness Is a Foretaste of Heaven
I have always had a very keen intuition. I can sense a person from a distance, and even before they speak, I know that they are meant for me. Sometimes this can even happen through a computer screen or through email, when I simply have the feeling that there is someone on the other side whom I can somehow relate to. When I was researching Urška Bernik, a master concert singer, I naturally came across her blog and noticed the title of an interview: “The most beautiful makeup I can put on is happiness”. Urška knows, feels, writes, creates, photographs, sings… and all the time lives to the full. She doesn’t want to miss a single moment of life. I just knew I would like her.
I really don’t know where to start. You have so many different roles, from an alto to a mother, from a blogger to a photographer, you are also an artist… So who is Urška?
Maybe it’s easiest to start at the other end. I’m certainly not a superwoman who masters her roles, of which there are many, on several fronts in life, and all at the same time. I’m more someone who seeks beauty, which I try to find in all of these roles. I want to be honest and vivacious in all of my roles, and I certainly don’t take them for granted. Sometimes I forget, but I still try to be grateful for all the roles that I have. I wouldn’t want to randomly choose my favourite one. At the moment, there’s only one role in which I honestly feel irreplaceable, and that’s my role as a mother of three children. If we connect all of the roles together, then I’m “Urška”. That’s what I want the most, to live with all my heart.
When and how did you fall in love with singing?
Already as a little girl. Singing was love at first sight, sound, feeling. Singing in a choir is particularly special. I think most choral singers know what I’m talking about. When so many hearts beat in the same rhythm and tempo, when so many people feel emotions at the same time. Oh. I sang in children’s choirs, then youth choirs, and finally in various adult ensembles. At one point, I was singing in seven choirs at the same time. It’s lucky there are seven days in a week. The only problem was that the rehearsals weren’t evenly distributed over the days. Then there was that spark. My curiosity about singing crossed a magical border and became the sound of the heart, as well as a responsibility. After that, during my studies at the Ljubljana Academy of Music with Professor Pia Brodnik, I got a position in the Slovenian Philharmonic Choir, where I’ve been employed for ten years now.
You’re employed by the Philharmonic Choir. How does each day unfold?
Quite ordinarily. Well, maybe one difference between singers and non-singers (among other things) is that we warm up our voices after brushing our teeth in the morning. This is somehow a natural part of personal hygiene. I don’t think they taught me this at the Academy, but sometimes warming up the voice can also involve convincing the children that it’s high time to leave home, because the train won’t wait. In general, though, it’s best to warm up the voice with gentle humming or exercises with a straw and water. Hehe. It’s best for everything: for my vocal cords, my patience, and also for my children and husband. Not necessarily in that order.
Then I warm up properly at work and get my voice and thoughts in the right place. Rehearsals usually start 9.30 in the morning. Most of the rehearsals are in the morning, but there are also quite a few rehearsals and concerts in the afternoon or evening. Practising at home is something else that my loved ones are forced to put up with. Sometimes I end up having a discussion with my teenager about what is considered noise pollution and what is not, but normally they’re really patient.
What about creating your blog? I just lost myself in everything you create! How did it all begin?
I started writing the blog as a student mother at the Ljubljana Academy of Music. When I realised that my practising of arias and lieder was temporarily incompatible with a sleeping child in the same room, one time I plucked up the courage and clicked the button below the written text: “publish”. Then writing short diary entries about everyday trifles grew into columns and articles for book publishers. In photography, I’ve always seen how emotions, relationships and breathing can be captured in visual art. Then I just confiscated my husband’s camera. It was similar with weaving. As a little girl from our region, I knew how to make lace, crochet and knit, but I entered the world of combed merino wool and its design as a big girl, and the motivations were really mine.
What is happiness for you, complete happiness?
Complete happiness. A few years ago, I would probably have just burst out: colours. Today, I would say that happiness is shadows. I often used to feel like I was always one step too slow to catch happiness. That famous lucky happiness. Then I started writing a gratitude journal, and I noticed many happy moments: on the tram, at work, on the road, in a meadow, in the forest, among piles of unfolded laundry. Lots of opportunities to be happy. Then I attentively count the gifts. Today, I call happiness a foretaste of heaven. I feel it when time stands still. Sometimes this happens to me at a concert, when we’re carried away by the music, and other times when I’m barefoot picking my mother’s fragrant peonies in bloom. In my gratitude journal I carefully list the gifts, when I catch my husband’s kiss, when the summer wind catches the hanging laundry, when instead of expensive jewellery, I “wear” little hands around my neck that just don’t want to let me go.
