El Estoque: How did your life shape you to be a singer?

Ally Tsvinev: My dad was very musical because he would perform all the time in front of people with people he lived near and stuff like that and people enjoyed it. My grandma was also a famous opera singer, so I just it just kinda influenced me from my family. I did choir in third grade and, it really got me going, and I just kept continuing on with music. It got more serious, and I did a lot of competitions and stuff, and it just kind of got me to continue doing it today.

EE: Did you take any lessons?

Tsvinev: I never took vocal lessons, but I took choir year after year since third grade.

EE: Tell me about your competitions.

Tsvinev: Well, for the the last 3 years I have competed in South Bay Idol and this year right now I’m in the semi finals, which is this Saturday, and it’s a big competition with just people from the Bay Area. Top 20 people go to semi finals and the top 10 goes to finals and then the top three are picked out of that. It’s a really hard competition, and it has a lot of really good people in it that have amazing talent, and sometimes it makes jealous that people are better there. But it’s good and I really hope I make finals.

EE: How are you preparing?

Tsvinev: I’m doing a lot of just practicing over, and I have a lot of days where I have really long rehearsals, and I have group rehearsals. I get some help from choir teacher Shari D’Epiro, and I get advice from other people … Then I record myself and listen to it and pick out what things I want to fix and what things I want to leave the same – things like that.

EE: How are your peers being supportive of your singing career?

Tsvinev: My dad is kind of one of those people that constantly pushes me further than I can handle, so he pushes me to do a lot more than I think I can. That usually ends up in me actually having better results, so he’s kind of my main supporter. I have a lot of friends that always go to my performances and stuff – they’re just always around.

EE: How does singing affect your daily life?

Tsvinev: It’s a lot of time commitment because it’s a lot of long rehearsals that I have to do for certain performances, and there’s less time to work on school work. But I do have time in class and at school to do some of the school work, and I have tutors that help me. It’s just really long, and it kind of drains all my energy. I’m left during the day feeling completely exhausted like I am today. But it’s still fun,and it’s worth it.

EE: Describe your singing career in one word.

Tsvinev: Let’s see, there’s a lot of words I can use.

EE: I’ll let you use three.

Tsvinev: I’d say eccentric, strenuous and most probably fun.