[Applause]
[Music]
this song is my personal anthem
throughout my life singing and opera has
been my solace becoming an opera singer
has taught me so many important life
lessons including confidence and loving
myself for who I am and how I look the
wonderful thing about being an opera
singer is you’re allowed to be
unapologetically yourself when you sing
see the voice is unique instrument
because no two voices sound the same the
color and timbre of our voices is
determined by our face shape this is why
family members often sound similar but
even then you don’t sound exactly like
your parents or your sibling your voice
is yours singing and confidence are also
incredibly connected the voice simply
won’t work if you hold back you have to
let your sound go and let your breath
flow in order to create a proper sound
this is a really vulnerable feeling and
it can be frightening if you’re holding
on to anything painful but vulnerability
is also an amazing feeling because when
you were true and honest with yourself
you are able to love yourself in ways
that you never thought possible
now of course I didn’t
always love myself or the way that I
looked but my story really begins when I
was seven years old and I first started
singing in the winston-salem children’s
chorus in North Carolina it was through
this children’s chorus that I got to
sing in my very first opera La Boheme
when I was nine years old I was a loud
outgoing and fearless child I often came
home with report cards saying that I
talked a little too much in class so
singing was the ultimate form of
expression for me because I was able to
be free and open with my voice without
fear of judgement now around the same
time that I was discovering love for
singing I was diagnosed with a jaw
disorder over the next eight years I
would battle the balance between loving
myself for my singing and hating myself
for my jaw disorder this culminated when
I was a teenager and I was bullied for
how I looked
as I grew older my skull grew but my jaw
stayed the same and that gave the
appearance that I didn’t have much of a
chin so the bullies called me the very
original name of no chin good one
bullies but looking back I think part of
the reason I was a target was because I
was a girl who was loud and opinionated
I didn’t always agree with what my
classmates thought about politics or
religion and at first I wasn’t afraid to
argue but I quickly learned to be silent
to avoid ridicule and that crushed me
throughout it all I would turn to music
I would come home after a horrible day
of being teased and I would sing I would
blast music in my room and sing or play
piano and sing along with that so
throughout my teenage years opera was
becoming my refuge I was a really good
singer and on stage and in high school
choir I was accepted for who I was
no one judged me for my looks but
instead I was welcomed with open arms
because of my voice opera allows you to
be loud
classical music is the only form of
singing that doesn’t require
amplification we learn how to project
over a full orchestra into a hall using
nothing but our bodies our breasts and
our resonance this is an incredibly
empowering feeling and especially for
someone like me who is being silenced in
school forced to live inside of my shell
I felt so powerful knowing that I could
fill a room with my voice using no help
from a microphone finally when I was 16
I had surgery to correct my jaw I
already knew by this point that I wanted
to be an opera singer so my family and I
worked really closely with the surgeon
to make sure that the surgery didn’t
affect my singing in a negative way now
as you can tell from my x-ray this was
major surgery it involved total joint
replacement and facial reconstruction
and I still have all that metal except
for the bracelet it’s hidden in here but
despite this major surgery I wasn’t
afraid at all because all I wanted was
to look normal so I wouldn’t be teased
anymore but of course the one thing that
I wanted was the last thing to happen I
didn’t look normal until about a year
after surgery
when all the swelling went down and I
finally had feeling again in my face and
chin but the thing that kept me going
was as always music because after
surgery I finally had the space inside
my mouth to access the resonance that I
needed so my voice was clearer more
present and more beautiful than ever
before and I finally began to learn the
love to love the way that I looked
because I knew it was because of my face
that I had the sound that I had the fact
that I have really big eyes allows my
expressions to be seen from the back of
a hall and my small oval face creates
perfect resonance for my own sound opera
is incredibly inclusive people of all
shapes and sizes of all colors and
backgrounds sing opera
and music is a universal language every
single culture sings I could
into a room full of people who speak
completely different languages but if we
can read music we can sing together and
create memories that transcend language
I finally fully came into myself when I
went to college I ended up going to
Ithaca College in New York where no one
knew me no one knew about my surgery or
my jaw disorder or how he looked before
so I didn’t have to let my jaw to find
me anymore and I didn’t allow myself to
be silenced anymore either
I sang my heart out I spoke out about my
beliefs and opinions and I learned the
amazing possibilities that being an
opera singer opens up because on stage
you could be whoever you want to be on
stage I was a boy or a witch or a queen
or the woman that every man was in love
with and the best part of this is I was
able to find a little bit of myself
in every single character that I played
now of course Alber isn’t always easy
it’s a really competitive business so we
face a lot of rejection and criticism
but over the years I’ve learned to block
out the negative voices and to trust
myself and that has made me stronger
than ever before now that I’m an adult
my passion has become introducing people
of all backgrounds to opera I decided to
become a mentor for my students helping
them learn to love themselves just as I
learned to love myself through music
when I began teaching I started to
notice some common ground among my
students especially my female students
between the ages of say 10 to 18
oftentimes these girls and young women
would come in and they seemed afraid to
make a loud sound or scared to make
mistakes and I quickly saw my younger
self in a lot of them the girl whose
voice had been taken away by teasing and
ridicule I knew that in order for them
to sing the best that they could I had
to help them learn to be confident but I
also decided that this lesson was in a
way more important than their vocal
technique
if I could help these girls really love
themselves to not be afraid of making
mistakes but to let their voices go I
could really make an impact on their
lives in addition to teaching I also do
outreach shows with Arizona opera so we
go all over the state of Arizona and
perform first in all different kinds of
schools ranging from title one schools
to private conservatories but every
single child regardless of their
background leaves those performances
changed it’s amazing to see these kids
learn what I have learned over the years
that being an opera singer makes you a
superhero
we are forces to be reckoned with when
we sing and no one can tell us to be silent again thank you
[Music]
this song is my personal anthem
throughout my life singing and opera has
been my solace becoming an opera singer
has taught me so many important life
lessons including confidence and loving
myself for who I am and how I look the
wonderful thing about being an opera
singer is you’re allowed to be
unapologetically yourself when you sing
see the voice is unique instrument
because no two voices sound the same the
color and timbre of our voices is
determined by our face shape this is why
family members often sound similar but
even then you don’t sound exactly like
your parents or your sibling your voice
is yours singing and confidence are also
incredibly connected the voice simply
won’t work if you hold back you have to
let your sound go and let your breath
flow in order to create a proper sound
this is a really vulnerable feeling and
it can be frightening if you’re holding
on to anything painful but vulnerability
is also an amazing feeling because when
you were true and honest with yourself
you are able to love yourself in ways
that you never thought possible
now of course I didn’t
always love myself or the way that I
looked but my story really begins when I
was seven years old and I first started
singing in the winston-salem children’s
chorus in North Carolina it was through
this children’s chorus that I got to
sing in my very first opera La Boheme
when I was nine years old I was a loud
outgoing and fearless child I often came
home with report cards saying that I
talked a little too much in class so
singing was the ultimate form of
expression for me because I was able to
be free and open with my voice without
fear of judgement now around the same
time that I was discovering love for
singing I was diagnosed with a jaw
disorder over the next eight years I
would battle the balance between loving
myself for my singing and hating myself
for my jaw disorder this culminated when
I was a teenager and I was bullied for
how I looked
as I grew older my skull grew but my jaw
stayed the same and that gave the
appearance that I didn’t have much of a
chin so the bullies called me the very
original name of no chin good one
bullies but looking back I think part of
the reason I was a target was because I
was a girl who was loud and opinionated
I didn’t always agree with what my
classmates thought about politics or
religion and at first I wasn’t afraid to
argue but I quickly learned to be silent
to avoid ridicule and that crushed me
throughout it all I would turn to music
I would come home after a horrible day
of being teased and I would sing I would
blast music in my room and sing or play
piano and sing along with that so
throughout my teenage years opera was
becoming my refuge I was a really good
singer and on stage and in high school
choir I was accepted for who I was
no one judged me for my looks but
instead I was welcomed with open arms
because of my voice opera allows you to
be loud
classical music is the only form of
singing that doesn’t require
amplification we learn how to project
over a full orchestra into a hall using
nothing but our bodies our breasts and
our resonance this is an incredibly
empowering feeling and especially for
someone like me who is being silenced in
school forced to live inside of my shell
I felt so powerful knowing that I could
fill a room with my voice using no help
from a microphone finally when I was 16
I had surgery to correct my jaw I
already knew by this point that I wanted
to be an opera singer so my family and I
worked really closely with the surgeon
to make sure that the surgery didn’t
affect my singing in a negative way now
as you can tell from my x-ray this was
major surgery it involved total joint
replacement and facial reconstruction
and I still have all that metal except
for the bracelet it’s hidden in here but
despite this major surgery I wasn’t
afraid at all because all I wanted was
to look normal so I wouldn’t be teased
anymore but of course the one thing that
I wanted was the last thing to happen I
didn’t look normal until about a year
after surgery
when all the swelling went down and I
finally had feeling again in my face and
chin but the thing that kept me going
was as always music because after
surgery I finally had the space inside
my mouth to access the resonance that I
needed so my voice was clearer more
present and more beautiful than ever
before and I finally began to learn the
love to love the way that I looked
because I knew it was because of my face
that I had the sound that I had the fact
that I have really big eyes allows my
expressions to be seen from the back of
a hall and my small oval face creates
perfect resonance for my own sound opera
is incredibly inclusive people of all
shapes and sizes of all colors and
backgrounds sing opera
and music is a universal language every
single culture sings I could
into a room full of people who speak
completely different languages but if we
can read music we can sing together and
create memories that transcend language
I finally fully came into myself when I
went to college I ended up going to
Ithaca College in New York where no one
knew me no one knew about my surgery or
my jaw disorder or how he looked before
so I didn’t have to let my jaw to find
me anymore and I didn’t allow myself to
be silenced anymore either
I sang my heart out I spoke out about my
beliefs and opinions and I learned the
amazing possibilities that being an
opera singer opens up because on stage
you could be whoever you want to be on
stage I was a boy or a witch or a queen
or the woman that every man was in love
with and the best part of this is I was
able to find a little bit of myself
in every single character that I played
now of course Alber isn’t always easy
it’s a really competitive business so we
face a lot of rejection and criticism
but over the years I’ve learned to block
out the negative voices and to trust
myself and that has made me stronger
than ever before now that I’m an adult
my passion has become introducing people
of all backgrounds to opera I decided to
become a mentor for my students helping
them learn to love themselves just as I
learned to love myself through music
when I began teaching I started to
notice some common ground among my
students especially my female students
between the ages of say 10 to 18
oftentimes these girls and young women
would come in and they seemed afraid to
make a loud sound or scared to make
mistakes and I quickly saw my younger
self in a lot of them the girl whose
voice had been taken away by teasing and
ridicule I knew that in order for them
to sing the best that they could I had
to help them learn to be confident but I
also decided that this lesson was in a
way more important than their vocal
technique
if I could help these girls really love
themselves to not be afraid of making
mistakes but to let their voices go I
could really make an impact on their
lives in addition to teaching I also do
outreach shows with Arizona opera so we
go all over the state of Arizona and
perform first in all different kinds of
schools ranging from title one schools
to private conservatories but every
single child regardless of their
background leaves those performances
changed it’s amazing to see these kids
learn what I have learned over the years
that being an opera singer makes you a
superhero
we are forces to be reckoned with when
we sing and no one can tell us to be silent again thank you
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