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Jennifer
Fletcher goes from Pure Gold to pure gold singer
If you like a little Puccini with your
Christmas pudding, make a reservation for the Blue Willow Tea Room
tomorrow evening.
That’s where you’ll hear the amazing voice of
Gravenhurst opera singer Jennifer Fletcher. The York University
student is home for Christmas and will be singing a selection of
festive and classical pieces in the intimate dining room at
Muskoka Wharf. Her mom, Elaine, works there.
Gravenhurst Rotarians were treated to a taste
of her repertoire at Monday’s appreciation lunch for the local
clergy. It was the second year that club member Jim Cruickshank
had arranged for her to sing, with her accompanist Dean Perry, the
minister of music at Trinity United Church in Gravenhurst who
helped launch her vocal studies. Fletcher, who was just in her
final year of high school, sang beautiful, traditional carols
then.
What a difference a year makes. For Rotarians
this week, it sounded like:
An angel we had heard on high
Sweetly singing o’er the plains
And the mountains in reply
Echoing her joyous strains
Gloria, in Excelsis Deo!
With only one strike-interrupted semester
under her belt, Fletcher was able to forego the seasonal holiday
favourites – save for a lovely version of White Christmas.
Instead, the audience was enraptured with her soft, simple, and
crystal clear singing – even if they didn’t understand a word she
was saying.
It earned her a standing ovation – one of
many she had better get used to. At just 18, Fletcher is already
comfortable in the world of opera and classical singing.
Familiar to local music fans at GHS Pure Gold
shows at the Opera House as one half of a singing duo with her
older sister Mandy (and a family quartet), Fletcher’s solo career
has a new dimension. Celine Dion pop songs have been replaced with
arias and new idols like American sopranos Kathleen Battle and
Renée Flemming.
Fletcher’s talent for singing was discovered
and nurtured by Perry – himself a gifted organist and choir
director – who guided her for her formative few years, while
passing her along to one of his musical mentors, Orillia vocal
coach Doreen Simmons.
And it was Simmons, who has worked with her
the past couple of years, who arranged an audition with Fletcher’s
current vocal coach at York, Catherine Robbins. But it was all
done, almost reluctantly.
Fletcher hadn’t made up her mind on
post-secondary study. “I knew I could sing, but I didn’t know what
I wanted to do, for sure.” Last February’s York audition changed
her mind.
So has her progress. She is now taking music
performance with her major being classical voice. She does an hour
a week with Robbins, along with music theory music, general arts,
theatre and dance. It’s a four-year program.
You have to be ready for anything.She says
she’s learning a lot and while it’s “challenging” at times, she
says she’s keeping up.
And she’s enjoying it. But there’s no more
Celine. “You don’t study pop. Classical singing is better for your
voice. It’s the right way of singing.” “My friends have told me I
should try out for Canadian Idol,” she says, admitting it has
crossed her mind – but not seriously. But for now she’ll just “go
with the flow,” and see where her voice takes here.
Already she’s won four gold in October at a
Newmarket singing festival, which features a lot of fellow York U.
singing students. And she’s also sung at Wilfrid Laurier and other
venues, such as Alliston, where they too have discovered her
beautifully-maturing voice.
She says opera-trained students often do
post-grad study or go to Europe for further training.
Right now, she’s happy to be home for
Christmas and singing with her sister (a nursing student at Trent)
on Christmas Eve, accompanied by Perry at Trinity United, and also
with the Cellar Singers’ Penny Varney.
So, if you can’t get to church Christmas Eve
or hear her recital at the Blue Willow tomorrow, you’ll probably
have to wait for Carnegie – not the old library.
And you’ll
likely catch her – some day – at the Gravenhurst Opera House,
where she’ll be a natural headliner in her old alma mater hall.
And you can say you knew her when. |