Teen singing sensation enthralls audiences
Three years after a popular television talent show launched child soprano Jackie Evancho on a meteoric career, she still has no singing coach, can’t read music and sticks to a modest rehearsal routine.
As she makes the transition from preteen singing sensation to professional artist, Evancho, who turns 14 in April, is seeking to balance her school work – and play time – with a busy concert tour schedule and recording her sixth album.
‘‘ She has the challenge of going from child star to legitimate artist,’’ says Lisa Evancho, who tours with her daughter, helping to steam- press her dresses before performances and supervising her rehearsal routine.
‘‘ It’s no longer ‘ Let’s go see the circus freak – the little girl with the grown- up voice’. It’s more like wanting her to stand on her own ability and keep the career going in that direction. And, it looks as if it is,’’ she says.
A runner- up finish on America’s Got Talent in 2010 introduced Evancho, from Pittsburgh, as the newest – and youngest – classical crossover singer. Since then, Jackie has packed concert halls across the country and overseas, as well as landing duets with Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett and Jose Carreras, and two solo TV specials for PBS.
She also appeared with Robert Redford in a 2012 movie, The Company You Keep.
Evancho got a standing ovation earlier this month at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Centre for the Performing Arts, where she displayed her stunningly mature vocal power, phrasing and range in a rendition of My Heart Will Go On, from the movie Titanic, as well as her personal favourite, The Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera.
Onstage, she still has a little- girl- lost look between songs, accompanied by nervous little waves and glances at the audience. These days, however, she opts for wearing an elegant evening gown, over the knee- length skirts she wore on America’s Got Talent.
‘‘ I still get very nervous,’’ Jackie confessed after the show. ‘‘ But I enjoy it all immensely.’’
As soon as she starts singing, the confidence in her largely untrained voice shines through. Despite her blossoming musical career, Jackie says she has no professional coaching, and only rehearses for an hour three times a week with her mother.
She is often asked how she got such a voice.
‘‘ We like to say it was a gift from God,’’ Jackie says, admitting she has tried three times to learn to read music, but just can’t get the hang of it.
She has tried voice coaches but none has worked out.
‘‘ They wanted to try and change Jackie’s voice,’’ her mother says. ‘‘ But we don’t want her to sound like every other soprano.’’
Music runs in Jackie’s family. Her father played drums in a band as a young man, and her mother played clarinet and oboe in high school.
Her own musical tastes are diverse, the way from classical to Lady Gaga.
Despite her lack of formal music training, Jackie has been blessed with such a good musical ear that she has a virtually photographic memory for what she hears.
‘‘ When she starts, she can see the entire song in front of her. It’s a rare gift,’’ says her travelling conductor John Mario Di Costanzo, who has worked with some of the
all world’s top opera divas. ‘‘ Jackie sees the architecture of a piece as she is singing.’’
Jackie performs at 2000- seat concert halls around the country about three times a month, and has almost 100 concerts under her belt. After a Christmas show, she did two Florida performances this month and will be at the 2600- seat Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix this week.
‘‘ My parents don’t want me to be exhausted. They let me stay home as much as possible so I can have my friends over,’’ she says.
The last two years were spent in cyber- schooling, but Jackie missed the classroom and returned last week to public school.
How big her career will become is still hard to say. She has no ambitions to become a pop singer, and says the classical crossover genre suits her voice better.
Her next album – another classical crossover – due out later this year, includes her first original composition.
She already has one album that sold over a million copies, and three Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 album chart.
Jackie says she hopes to go to university and study philosophy. ‘‘ Singing is my main goal, and I think philosophy will help me write songs.’’
However Jackie’s singing future turns out, she will have plenty in the bank to pay for university. ‘‘ She’s done very well and she can afford her own education – and probably her three siblings as well,’’ says her mother.