“I’ve known since childhood that I had a knack for singing. My first performance in front of an audience was at 8 years old when I surprised folks with a karaoke rendition of Alicia Keys ‘Fallin” at the Michigan State Fair. Afterward, I got a big ovation.

I didn’t need the words, just the music. I got up there and sang my little song. I knew the words by heart. I’m a big music person, so if I listen to it long enough, I’ve got it. My family was a little shocked. They were all kind of looking at me. But the other people in the crowd were like, ‘Wow, look at this little girl singing this song.’ From that point on, I pretty much became obsessed with singing.

Growing up, I was singing all the time, performing in talent shows, the shower, and math class. Yeah, I’m sure I was annoying to some of my classmates.

I just sing whatever happens to be playing in my head at that time. Now, if there is a song that happens to go with the math, yeah, I’m definitely gonna sing that. My brain is a jukebox, so whatever is playing is playing.

From 2012 to 2016, I attended Spelman College, a historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Atlanta. I decided to pursue opera while working at the Atlanta Symphony as their artist liaison after graduation. That gave me a lot of face time and personal time with the contracted artists. In my first season, we brought in a group of African American opera singers, and I heard their voices, and it just clicked like nothing had ever clicked before. So that’s how I got to opera.

The technique for singing classical music is what creates such a distinct sound from other styles. One of the biggest differences is convergent singing versus divergent singing. With classical music and opera, you sing with a more closed front of your mouth and closed lips, and the back of your mouth is more open, where with pop singing, the back is more closed and the front is more open.

To achieve other things, like belting, for example, a lot of musical theater singers belt, and performers like Beyoncé do a lot of belting. Belting is a technique where you bring up your chest voice as high as you possibly can, which is actually really hard and you have to train to do. Jennifer Hudson is a great belter. It’s how you use the musculature and shape your mouth that really makes the difference between popular singing and classical singing.”

—Cynthia Harris,  trained mezzo soprano and teaching assistant in the University of Utah’s School of Music