Jessica Vosk takes a ‘Wicked’ turn at holidays

When Broadway star and self-proclaimed “Christmas junkie” Jessica Vosk visits Symphony Center to sing with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra during this year’s Merry, Merry Chicago! holiday revue, it will seem like a veritable vacation. 

Best known for her role as Elphaba in the hit musical “Wicked,” Vosk is used to pouring out her heart and soul eight times a week for months on end before capacity crowds around the country and in midtown Manhattan. Consequently, she thinks everything else seems less daunting by comparison.

Not that she takes any gig lightly. On the contrary, this self-described “scrappy hustler” from New Jersey who once worked in investor relations on Wall Street is garnering stellar reviews for her latest work — including other symphonic performances and a recent sold-out concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall, her solo debut at the legendary venue. Broadway World gave her a rave: “[T]here are times when Jessica Vosk sings that you find yourself wondering how a sound so beautiful, so perfect, so pure could exist in real life.”

For Merry, Merry Chicago!, running Dec. 17-23, Vosk will offer some Broadway standards, along with traditional carols and holiday songs. There might even be a sample from her yuletide-themed EP, "It’s a Very Coco Christmas, Baby," released last year.

Though an amateur performer since childhood, when she sang in community-theater productions with her artistically inclined parents, Vosk was a late bloomer by professional show-biz standards. After a financially stable but creatively stultifying stint on Wall Street, she did a career 180 that required countless hours of vocal and acting retraining, not to mention a slew of open-mike nights at small clubs and innumerable auditions for which she’d always show up extra early — and that didn’t always pan out.

“Would I be where I am without having learned business and finance?” she said. “No, probably not. I left that [Wall Street] job, and my parents were so mad, but I wasn’t going to be happy at all if I didn’t pursue what I loved. I knew it could totally [bomb], and it could be the worst thing in the entire world that had ever happened, but I still needed to try.”

One hard-won opportunity led to another until the 15th-anniversary run of “Wicked” came along and vaulted her (almost literally — Elphaba does a bit of flying) into the spotlight. And there she remained until the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, at which point Vosk’s world went dark for more than a year. It was a shock to the system that made her question the viability of her beloved but now precarious vocation. That’s when her ever-lurking practical side took over, and Vosk enrolled in virtual real-estate school. Before long, she said, she’ll be officially licensed to sell — if that’s even necessary.

While the latest pandemic developments could throw a wrench into her plans, there’s more scheduled solo vocal work ahead (including symphonic appearances in London and Ireland early next year) that will further bolster her already impressive resume of appearances in San Francisco (with Michael Tilson Thomas), Chicago, at Tanglewood and with the New York Philharmonic. There’s something unique and thrilling about being backed by a full orchestra, Vosk said, that’s unlike any other vocal experience she has had. The lush arrangements and soaring strings sections for which she has a special affinity. The brilliant maestros and top-notch instrumentalists. For this versatile vocalist and “music-theory nerd,” it’s heaven, and “the stuff that makes me super-excited as a musician.”

As for whether Chicago audiences, which are likely to include “Wicked” fans, might get a small taste of Elphaba at her holiday shows, Vosk seems open to the possibility.

“Knowing me, that’s something I will add to a song, because that’s just who I am. I still have that little rebel in me.”

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