Since placing second on “America’s Got Talent” five years ago, 15-year-old Jackie Evancho’s life has changed, but she remains pretty modest about the path it’s taken. “From my perspective, I just travel a lot more and people just recognize me,” she said in a telephone interview Oct. 21. Instead of just being another face in the crowd, she said people will say, “Hi, Jackie” to her if they pass her on the street. Evancho will perform at the Honeywell Center in Wabash at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20 in support of her latest album “Awakening.” Tickets are $29, $49, $69 and $100 and can be purchased at honeywellcenter.org Evancho said being on “America’s Got Talent” was a positive experience. “It was really for me. I made so many friends on the show, it was like a family,” she said. According to her biography on her website, jackieevancho.com, her first performance on “America’s Got Talent” left audiences and judges “astonished that such a perfect, beautiful, soprano voice could come from a 10 year-old girl.” During her next appearance in the competition, judges asked her to improvise a tune “which she performed flawlessly.” The young, classical-pop crossover soprano was inspired to sing after watching the film version of the Broadway musical “The Phantom of the Opera” with her mother and older sister Juliet. “It really inspired me to sing and what I sing,” she said, after stating, “It’s kind of a classical sound.” She said she tries to write her own music, but with so much going on it’s not easy to do. On her current tour, Jackie said it’s “more of an easy-going tour. I don’t travel for months on end.” She said she has three to four concerts a month, but with the holidays approaching that has increased. She does go to public school, but the school provides her with her work ahead of time, which she has to turn in when she returns. For her shows, she has no opening act. “It’s just me. I’m not that big yet,” she said. “I have sung with a lot of great, inspiring artists, but there’s not really one in particular I would adore to sing with because each one has their own unique (qualities),” she said. For her Nov. 20 show at the Honeywell, she said the audience can expect to hear songs from her current and past albums and a “few surprise songs I know people adore that I’m excited to share.” Jackie has three siblings, one who recently made the pages of People magazine with her. Earlier this month, Jackie stepped out to perform at the Global Lyme Alliance’s inaugural gala in New York with her transgender sister Juliet by her side, according to the article. It was the first time Jackie shared with the world that her 17-year-old sister – born Jacob – was transgender. “It’s never been an issue to me,” Jackie said during the Oct. 21 interview. “She always seemed like a girl to me.” The two always played with dolls together and dress up. Jackie said Juliet’s happiness was what matters to her. As for her own dreams, Jackie said by her mid-20s and 30s she hopes to have children and still have her musical career. She wants to inspire people and keep inspiring them. People have told her that her voice kept them from suicide. As for issues that are important to her, she said, “There’s a lot of issues I like to focus on. I wish people would be more accepting of LGBT. I also work with the Humane Society to prevent seals from being beaten. I am an ambassador for the Humane Society.” After high school, she plans to go to college – New York University is her first choice – and study psychology. When Jackie is not performing, going to school or doing charity work, she said she’s just a normal teenage girl. “I spend time at the house. I spend time with friends and all that teen stuff,” she said.
