May 1, 2025 • 45 mins
When Jennifer Rowley steps onto the stage, audiences witness the culmination of meticulous preparation, physical discipline, and an authentic artistic presence that extends far beyond the footlights. But what happens behind the scenes? How does a world-class soprano navigate today's complex performing arts landscape?
Jennifer's approach to her craft breaks conventional boundaries. Rather than maintaining an untouchable "diva" image, she's built vibrant communities across social platforms where she personally engages with every comment and message. "I like being the approachable diva," she explains, revealing how this digital connection translates to meaningful in-person relationships with audiences. Her strategic analysis of which content resonates most—different for her Facebook versus Instagram followers—has allowed her to double her online presence in just months while maintaining her distinctive artistic voice.
The conversation shifts when Jennifer shares her transformative fitness journey following a debilitating foot injury that affected her singing. After surgery and rehabilitation, she discovered how strength training revolutionized her vocal performance: "I became stronger in my singing, stronger in my heart, stronger in my conviction." Her passionate advocacy for physical conditioning challenges outdated notions about singers avoiding core exercise, instead highlighting how core strength and cardiovascular health directly enhance vocal stamina and performance quality. "Lift heavy, sing heavy," her teacher says—wisdom Jennifer now embodies both physically and artistically.
Her Aria Bootcamp program applies this same holistic, preparation-focused approach to developing young artists. Created after observing inadequate audition preparation during her time as a competition judge, the program produces remarkable results—approximately 80% of participants secure young artist positions or jobs. Jennifer's philosophy is clear: "You have to be the most prepared person in the room at any time." From pre-screening videos to live audition techniques, her comprehensive training gives singers every tool needed to succeed in an increasingly competitive field. How might your artistic journey transform with this level of intentional preparation and holistic development?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Elizabeth Bowman (00:00):
Hi, I'm Elizabeth Bowman and welcome to
the Scene Room.
Today I have Jennifer Raleighin the room.
I've had the privilege ofseeing her perform on the
Metropolitan Opera Stage manytimes and I also follow her on
social media, where she's builta vibrant and active community.
Jennifer, in addition to beingan internationally acclaimed
(00:22):
soprano, is very active in theteaching space.
She has founded an aria bootcamp, which we talk about in
this episode quite a bit, andshe also travels internationally
giving master classes andseminars.
In our conversation, jennifershares her insights on the
evolving role of social media inthe performing arts, the
importance of building authenticcommunity, her inspiring
(00:42):
fitness journey and how it'sstrengthened, her singing
evolving role of social media inthe performing arts, the
importance of building authenticcommunity, her inspiring
fitness journey and how itstrengthened her singing, and
the deeply rewarding work she'sdoing as a teacher and mentor.
If you're enjoying the podcast,please do like, share, review,
do any of those things.
It really helps keep theseconversations going.
(01:03):
I really appreciate the support.
Now let's get to theconversation.
Jennifer, welcome to the sceneroom.
Thanks so much for coming.
Oh, thanks so much for havingme.
Jennifer Rowley (01:12):
I'm super happy to be with you today.
Elizabeth Bowman (01:14):
I've been following you online on my
Instagram.
I see you are very active.
You have like a full blowncommunity there.
I mean, obviously I've followedyour singing career as well.
I've heard you sing on theMetropolitan Opera stage before,
so it's really great to connectwith you here.
Jennifer Rowley (01:31):
Yeah, it's great to meet you too.
I love your videos on Instagramas well and I love your
interviews and your interviewquestions are they're so astute
and so important, and loved themost recent videos with David
Lomeli and Christian Van Horn.
And just so happy to meet youand great to be here.
Elizabeth Bowman (01:49):
Where are we podcasting from?
we'repodcasting from the beautiful
state of Florida, where it isallergy central but also
beautiful.
We're in Fort Myers, florida,today.
Right on, and so you live in Florida when
you're not on the road.
Jennifer Rowley (02:04):
I do.
I live in Florida where I'm onvacation when I'm not working.
Elizabeth Bowman (02:09):
You must be on the road quite a bit.
Jennifer Rowley (02:10):
Yeah, I mean, I work a lot at you know at home
as well teaching and things likethat.
But yeah, in between, this ismy little sanctuary and happy
place.
So it's always nice when youwalk in from being gone for a
while and you can literally justgo when you walk in the door.
So it's always nice when youwalk in from being gone for a
while and you can literally justgo when you walk in the door.
So it's a great feeling to haveyour home feel like that.
Elizabeth Bowman (02:29):
So I mentioned before that I've been following
your online community and, forthose listening if they haven't
followed you, can you explainwhat inspired you to build that
community, when you made thatdecision to start building that
community, and what outlets didyou purposely decide to use?
(02:49):
Like Instagram I mentioned, areyou also on TikTok?
Jennifer Rowley (02:54):
No TikTok, because TikTok would drive me
insane.
That's one rabbit hole I couldnever go down.
But I also have a very largecommunity on Facebook.
I believe I have over 30,000followers on Facebook as well,
and what's really interestingabout the two mediums Instagram
and Facebook is there's verydifferent audiences on both
platforms and so, while I doshare the same or similar
(03:17):
content on both platforms, thediscussions are often very, very
different, which is reallyexciting.
So the community on Instagram,which I love very much, is a
younger community, which isreally exciting.
So the community on Instagram,which I love very much, is a
younger community, which isfantastic, and I love being able
to reach that youngergeneration of singer, and I
decided to really start growingthat community, I would say, in
the last year.
I always used it, I always usesocial media and I always I
(03:39):
always had fun sharing my career.
You know I always had funsharing that sort of behind the
scenes look at the businessbecause I follow celebrities and
other opera singers and I lovegetting to see behind the scenes
of, like the Lady Gaga SuperBowl halftime show.
You know I love that side ofthe business.
And so when I started usingInstagram and you know, over the
(03:59):
last several years you knowpost COVID and things like that
it was really fun to be able toshow an audience.
You know what is happeningbehind the scenes.
You know what is travel like,what is preparation like, what
does the singer do to preparefor you know these big things
that we see them on stage sothat we're not so unreachable.
I like being approachable, Ilike being the approachable diva
(04:20):
and I like to be able toconnect with my audience
personally, not just in atheater but also online.
I answer all my own DMs and Ianswer every single comment that
everyone makes on my posts,which gets a little overwhelming
sometimes, but I feel it'sreally important to engage the
audience and that every singleperson feels like they can have
(04:43):
an avenue to me and they canhave a communication and a
connection.
You know, even on such a smallplatform as you know, social
media I love the community.
I've been building the communityeven more this season and using
not so traditional outlets todo so.
I just created a broadcastchannel about a month ago and we
have a thousand people in thatbroadcast channel where we get
(05:03):
to connect even more intimatelyand I can share even more things
that I don't necessarily put onthe main feed in Instagram and
Facebook, because I don't thinkeverybody's interested in those
things, and I can also helpyoung singers, you know, with
exercises and with behind thescenes information and with
advice and with inspiration, andyou know things that not every
(05:25):
opera fan wouldn't necessarilybe interested in, so it wouldn't
.
It doesn't really have a placeon my feed, but there are
definitely people who want thatinformation, so I'm having a
really great time with thatbroadcast channel, learning what
people like, learning what theywant more of, and being able to
reach that next generation.
I think is also incrediblyimportant, and it's incredibly
(05:50):
important to me personallybecause I had such great mentors
help me coming up in thebusiness.
So to just be able to be asmall part of somebody's path is
, you know, and as long as it'sa positive part, then I'm very,
I'm very honored and happy.
So, yeah, I love my littlecommunity on Instagram and
Facebook.
It's fun.
Elizabeth Bowman (06:03):
It used to be a nice thing to have followers
and the like accumulation, butnow it's an essential thing for
artists to really prioritizebuilding those communities
Because in order to have acareer in this business, you
need that energy behind you andyou know obviously we can't do
(06:25):
this alone.
It takes a village all of this,but now it's.
It's more than ever.
You got to invest in yourcommunity building skills.
Jennifer Rowley (06:33):
You do, and I think that that community then
invests in you.
And that's that's incrediblyimportant for the future of our
business.
You know, I have a cousin whohas two daughters teenage
daughters and one of them toldher when she got home from
school this week that her classwanted to the teacher will let
them listen to classical musicduring kind of study time and
(06:57):
homework time.
The students asked to listen toopera and my cousin's daughter
basically said oh, I have acousin who's a world famous
opera singer, let's listen toher.
And so their oh, I have acousin who's a world famous
opera singer, let's listen toher.
And so their teenage class Idon't even know what grade,
seventh or eighth grade pulledup my YouTube channel and
literally just put it on andlistened to videos for an hour
of me singing opera and I thinkI got like 20 new followers on
(07:21):
YouTube that day because theseteenagers were listening to
opera during homework time.
And I think that's amazing andthat's the formation of the new
audience coming into the operahouse.
Maybe those students become newfans, become new donors, become
opera singers themselves.
You know, that's how wecontinue our business forward
(07:42):
and that community online thatYouTube, instagram, et cetera
community you get those peopleexcited, you get your followers
excited, you get your fansexcited and then they want to
come see you in the theater andthat's the most important part.
The most important part is thatthey're coming offline and
they're actually coming into thetheater and sitting in that
seat and buying that ticket andwatching someone that they
(08:05):
actually really care about, andI think that's it's
exceptionally important for theadvancement of our business and
our art form.
Elizabeth Bowman (08:12):
Yeah, and this personal connection, obviously
between your cousin's daughter,was it?
Yeah?
So this idea that we need thispersonal connection, like they
could have said, I really likethis opera singer, let's listen
to that and that wouldn't havenecessarily resonated as much
even if they had listened to theopera singer that they loved,
(08:35):
or whatever, but the fact thatthey were like, well, this
person is related to this personand that's a very simple
connection, but the idea thatthere is a friendship there is
important.
Jennifer Rowley (08:48):
I follow her online.
She answered my comment.
She engaged with me.
I like her.
I have to tell you I mean thisis a little off topic, but on
topic.
This week I was riding myPeloton on the weekend and I got
my first shout out.
Hannah Corbin shouted out myname and said she loved my
(09:08):
leaderboard name.
I cannot tell you how loudly Isquealed on that bike because I
love her.
I follow her online.
I think she's incredible.
I love her classes, but also Ijust love her messaging and who
she is as a person.
I wouldn't know that if I didn'tfollow her on Instagram.
And so, of course, I tagged heron Instagram and I was like, oh
(09:28):
, anna Corbin gave me a shoutout and then she messaged me
back, you know, and said makesure you stretch.
You know that kind of a thing.
But that personal connectionmakes me love her more and makes
me care about her, like as aperson, and so that connection
is what we need in our businessin order to sort of make people
go.
Oh my God.
She answered my comment Likethat means so much to me.
(09:51):
Then maybe you bring thataudience member into the theater
because it meant so much to you.
It meant so much to them thatyou engage with them and they
like your singing, so why notcome in and actually see you
sing?
That's what I'm trying to build, anyways, and I think that's
the best way to utilize theseplatforms.
You know, you grow youraudience by having that personal
connection.
Elizabeth Bowman (10:11):
Can I ask you're busy with the performing?
You're busy do everythingmyself.
Jennifer Rowley (10:16):
However, I work with the ladies of digital, max
and Anthony, who are absolutelyincredible, because I needed to
be educated about social media.
And Max and Anthony, while theydo run social media channels as
(10:37):
well, they are what they callthemselves social media
educators.
I learned more from them in sixmonths than I ever knew about
social media prior to that, andthe reason I started working
with them was because I had themas a part of my young artist
program, aria Bootcamp.
I had them for a seminar lastsummer to educate our singers on
(10:59):
how to utilize their socialmedia for the upcoming audition
season, and they gave a seminarthat was so intelligent and so
chock full of information thatthe singers all of them left
inspired.
I mean just personally inspired, but also inspired to share
themselves and to openthemselves up to an audience
online and to be vulnerable andand to share their art and their
(11:23):
music.
And Max and Anthony did that,and it was really impressive to
me.
And so, after ARIA Bootcamp, Iwrote them personally and I said
listen, I want to grow my brandonline.
I don't know how to do that.
My follower number hasn't movedfor like a year and I want to
start reaching a new audience.
I want to start bringing thementorship and the teaching
aspect of my career and my lifeinto my social media platform.
(11:46):
How do I do that?
I don't know how to do that.
I have zero problem askinganyone for help.
In fact, I love asking peoplefor help because I love learning
new things.
I love, you know, when someoneelse is more knowledgeable in
something than I am, I want tolearn about it.
You know, and I still takevoice lessons because I want to
continue learning.
You know, all of that knowledgefuels my knowledge to give to
(12:10):
other people, and so when theygave this seminar, I just knew
that I wanted to reach out tothem.
I wanted to add them to my team, and so we have a WhatsApp
thread.
We exchange ideas every singleday.
We talk about the content thatI'm putting up.
We analyze the content thatgoes up.
We look and see.
You know what's resonating withpeople, what's getting the most
(12:32):
.
You know views, what's gettingthe most likes, what's getting
the most shares.
You know what post has 500shares and which post has 100
shares and why like what.
What's the difference in thecontent?
And then adjusting the contentthat I'm putting out so that my
audience is getting what theyactually want to see, and I had
never done that before I neverlooked at the analytics of
(12:53):
things, I never, you know.
I just posted.
I was like, oh, this is fun,I'll post this, you know.
But actually looking at youraudience and analyzing what they
are responding to, what isresonating with them, made it so
much easier for me to actuallycreate an online presence and a
brand and create pillars ofcontent that, you know,
resonated with all the differenttypes of people who actually
follow me.
(13:13):
So they've been exceptionallyhelpful and I encourage anyone,
I mean, and everyone in ourbusiness, to educate themselves
on how to actually use theseplatforms so that your posts
actually get somewhere becausewe all know that like half the
time they don't go anywhere.
You know, and and how thingschange because they change, it
seems, weekly.
(13:34):
Things change.
What you're supposed to doYou're supposed to use keywords
this day was use hash work tags.
This day you're supposed to use, you're supposed to put
keywords in the videos.
You're supposed to put them inthe caption.
You're supposed to do that.
You're supposed to use editsnow.
So you know, everything ischanging every day.
It seems like, and it's reallynice to have people to sort of
(13:54):
guide you along that path andsort of show you the way.
And they have contributed a ton, not only to my education but
to the success of my socialmedia channels, and I guess
we've been working sinceSeptember.
So since September my accountshave doubled in size.
Both accounts the Facebookaccount, more so, has almost
tripled in size and the type ofcontent that I am putting out.
I now understand what I need todo, how to do it, what my
(14:16):
audience is going to like, howlong it needs to be, what needs
to be in the first three seconds.
You know all of those thingsand I can do it much more
quickly than previously.
So the education from Max andAnthony has been unbelievable.
Elizabeth Bowman (14:28):
That's a sign of a good team, because they're
empowering you to understand,Massively, empowering me and
inspiring me.
Jennifer Rowley (14:41):
I mean, Anthony , I'm not kidding, sends me DMs
and messages all day long.
Oh, check out this post.
This might be something fun foryou to.
Oh, check out this post.
This is a new trend.
I think your audience wouldlike this trend, you know.
And then I make it my own,which I think is super important
, because my voice is whatpeople are tuning in for, right.
So I wouldn't want a teammember to do that for me.
I would want to do that myself,because I want to reach my
audience personally.
(15:02):
That's the point of what I'mdoing anyways.
Right, so you know as easy asit would be for me to put in to
chat GPT, write me a socialmedia caption about this video,
click.
I can't do that because itreally does need to be my voice,
you know, and my tone and mybranding, and you know I want
people to know me as a personthrough these posts as well.
Elizabeth Bowman (15:25):
Well, people can feel when it's not authentic
.
Even if they see the post andthey even think it's you, they
just don't connect to it.
It's like that X factor inperformance, like the difference
between a great performancethat moves someone and a
performance that was technicallyreally good but like had no
(15:46):
soul.
Exactly so I, yeah, I guess ata certain point.
You know, a lot of youngartists don't have the money to
hire an outside party, but it isgood to maybe have a workshop
and invest in that experience orjust have.
I mean, you pay for a voicelesson, right?
Jennifer Rowley (16:01):
Or just have I mean, you pay for a voice lesson
, right, you pay for a coachingJust have a one-on-one hour-long
session.
Just get some advice, just getsome help.
Just have somebody take a lookat your account with a fresh set
of eyes and go okay, this iswhat's resonating with your
audience.
(16:21):
These are the posts that havethe most interaction and
engagement.
You need to do more of that,you know.
Or or just just to have someone, just a consult, to have
someone look at your onlinepresence.
Are you Googleable?
Can we find videos of you?
Are you on YouTube?
Do you have a library of yourperformances?
Do you have a library of youraudition videos?
Can we go and find you quickly?
(16:42):
Because I promise you, you know, if you're doing a performance,
it's intermission.
People are standing out in thelobby.
They're.
Elizabeth Bowman (16:50):
Googling you.
Jennifer Rowley (16:51):
They're looking for you on Instagram, they're
looking for you on Facebook,especially if they like what
you're doing and they're like,oh, they get excited and they
want to follow you and they doit right then, and there, right
at the theater.
I mean, I can't tell youintermission of performances
when I see like the so-and-sofollowed you, so-and-so followed
you, like popping up on myphone during intermission.
It happens all the time, and sothat online presence is
(17:14):
exceptionally important.
So have a consultation.
You pay $100 to $200 for avoice lesson.
Pay it for someone to help youwith your social media as well,
so that you can actually getthat stuff out there.
Elizabeth Bowman (17:26):
It's really important.
The past two summers I didworkshops with emerging and some
professional artists at thecenter and the first thing I
would do when they would comeinto my office I would Google
them, yeah, and, but I wouldGoogle them with them sitting
next to me and they Word gotaround that.
(17:46):
That was how I was starting mysessions.
Some people had accounts thatthis is the generation that grew
up with the internet.
I didn't grow up with theinternet.
I started having a computerwhen I was in first year
university.
I had a computer.
You know, I had a computer, butbeyond that it wasn't part of
(18:11):
our fabric.
And so the kids, you know, whenthey're 10 or 11 or something,
they created a YouTube channel,yes, and then they forgot that
it's a YouTube channel.
And then there's some sort ofsong about how they like
strawberries or something.
Jennifer Rowley (18:27):
Yeah, that is so important, I mean, and also,
especially with so many youngartists followers, it's so
important that they understandthat I'm looking.
So, if you apply to my youngartists program, I'm going to
your Instagram.
I'm going to look for moreinformation.
I'm going to look to see if Iwant you at my program.
(18:48):
I want to see if you're a goodperson.
If you, if you're trollingpeople on Facebook and Instagram
, I don't want you there.
You know what I mean and I wantto see more videos.
I want to see more.
I want to see more of you.
I want to get to know you aswell and I promise you, I
promise you, that the castingdirectors are doing the same
(19:09):
thing.
I promise you that the castingdirectors are doing the same
thing.
They're sitting behind thattable and they are going to your
Instagram and they are going toyour YouTube and they are
Googling you.
I promise you they are.
So if we can't find you online,or if you have a social media
presence, that's all over theplace.
It doesn't look so great andpeople have to realize that that
is a part of this business.
(19:30):
You know it's huge.
I mean, just like any otherbusiness that you might apply
for a job in.
Like LinkedIn is a huge thing,especially for corporate America
.
People are going to yourLinkedIn.
So in our business, people aregoing to your Instagram.
It's going to happen.
So it better look good and itbetter be informational and
educational for me on you as anartist and a person and tell me
(19:51):
that I want to work with you.
That's, it's really important.
It's really important.
Elizabeth Bowman (19:55):
The other thing that we should highlight
here is because I often foundvideos from when they were 15 or
16 and they're notrepresentative of the talent
that is current and they sort ofthink well, whatever it was put
on YouTube and who cares,unlist, unlist it.
You got to get that stuff off.
(20:17):
You have to go through everyyear.
You should go through yourvideos and think does this
represent me as an artist now?
And if it doesn't, then it'sgone.
And if you're unsure, honestlyit's gone.
Yeah.
Jennifer Rowley (20:30):
I mean what I do love to see.
Sometimes I mean and this isnot every video, but sometimes I
do like to see a trajectory.
So if they have a video of animportant performance from,
let's say, five years ago theymade a debut, you know, here or
there, or they jumped in as acover and somebody caught it and
they have it on their YouTube Iwant to see the trajectory of
(20:50):
that, especially if it was avery good performance.
I think that's great to leavethere, but we don't need all of
the videos between that one andthen.
You know and what'srepresentative.
But but you can show atrajectory.
You just have to be strategicin your editing process.
You know and and determine okay, this one, you know you can
hear my voice Everything's great, the high notes are great,
we're intonation is good, youknow all those things and we're
(21:13):
not just leaving everything upthere like.
Be strategic and what you showpeople.
Basically.
Elizabeth Bowman (21:18):
Yeah, I'm mainly saying about the quality
of that performance.
So obviously, if you're 11 andyou're performing, you know a
child solo in front of anorchestra and that was an
amazing experience for you andit's obvious that you are a
young performer and you'reperforming with good intonation
and all those things, thenfabulous.
(21:38):
Keep it up.
But, yeah, you shoulddefinitely go through your
videos and then make that calland if you need help, go with.
Go through them with yourteacher, maybe.
Jennifer Rowley (21:50):
Yeah, go through them with your teacher.
Go through them, have a friendlook at them.
You know, have a.
Have a colleague look at themand help you.
Another set of eyes, a freshset of eyes on everything is is
great.
Elizabeth Bowman (21:59):
So tell me, you're doing this ARIA bootcamp,
what is this?
So ARIA?
Jennifer Rowley (22:04):
bootcamp is my young artist training program,
based down here in Florida.
We do it at the Sarasota OperaHouse in August every season and
it is a program, a trainingprogram, where singers can come
and basically have a one-stopshop for audition season.
I was finding, as I waswatching, you know, I started
(22:24):
judging competitions.
I've judged in that competitionfor several seasons now and
I've judged several othercompetitions.
And I was noticing that thepreparation for auditions was
not thorough enough and a lot ofpeople were showing up to
auditions not knowing what theywere talking about, having wrong
notes, wrong rhythms,intonation, not great languages.
(22:44):
And then you know wondering whyam I not getting hired?
You have to prepare for yourauditions as if you were
preparing a role.
You have to be so prepared,overly prepared, you have to be
the most prepared person in theroom at any time.
This is always my opinion.
However, when it comes toauditioning, you have to be
prepared before the in-personaudition, because now and since
(23:07):
COVID, a lot of our auditionsnumber one happen online and
happen via a video link, butnumber two you can't get into
that live audition if yourpre-screening video that you
send is not good enough, and sothe preparation begins super
early way, earlier than a lot ofsingers actually do it.
And so, because I was findingthat there was a lack of
(23:29):
preparation, I thought to myselfthat we should have a place
where singers could go to getall of that preparation, in an
atmosphere of positivity anduplifting and cheerleading but
also challenging, where we caninspire people to do better and
to work harder in a positive way, of course and go into those
(23:51):
auditions knowing everything,being so fully prepared that
nerves are a thing of the past.
You know, we have nervesbecause we doubt ourselves and
if you're so overly prepared, ifyou're so fully prepared, you
know everything about whatyou're going to sing.
You don't have to doubt, it'sthere.
I was super inspired by mymentor, martina Arroyo, and her
Prelude to Performance program,where she taught us how to be
(24:16):
the most prepared person in theroom, how to learn our roles, in
a way that number one, theywould never leave because you
learn them so thoroughly.
But number two, you know acharacter inside, outside,
upside down, and you can becomethat character because you know
their background.
You've read that sourcematerial.
You know every single word thatthey are singing.
(24:36):
Everyone around you is singingthe chorus, is singing
everything, and she taught ushow to prepare so thoroughly
that that's never left me.
It's always been a part of mycareer and it's the way that I
still prepare to this day.
And I took her inspiration andsaid well, why aren't we
preparing auditions this way?
And so that's why I createdARIA Boot Camp, because we
(24:57):
needed a place where we couldeducate young artists and help
them level up for thosepre-screening recordings and
those auditions.
And it works to a point where Iwould say, 80 to a hundred
percent of the people, peoplewho leave RE Boot Camp have more
auditions that they've ever hadbefore and they all have a job
for the next season.
Yeah, I would say that.
(25:18):
I mean, some of our singerslast season were in undergrad,
so they're not going toobviously have a job this season
.
So I would say, 80% of thepeople in our program last
season have a young artistprogram this summer and that's
massive, especially when youwere talking about 30 something
singers, you know, and, yeah,our undergraduates are young
singers.
We had 19 year olds last year.
It was amazing and they weremore prepared than the 30 year
(25:39):
olds, which was great.
But you know they're going to do, you know, something at their
school or something like that,so they're not going out and
doing a ton of auditions, butthey're already starting to
prepare for graduate schoolauditions, which is incredible,
so they're going to be the mostprepared people in that room,
because they started at 19 andlearning how to audition and the
strategy of that and how tobuild a package that's going to
(26:01):
be compelling and marketable.
And then all of the things thatgo around being that young
artist, the social mediapresence and the website
presence and your languages andthe acting and how to present
yourself in an audition and howto present yourself on camera
for the pre-screening recordingand all of these things, and so
we put it together into oneprogram in two weeks and I'm
(26:25):
super proud of it and I reallyhope that Martina Arroyo is
proud of it too, because Ireally I was so inspired by that
woman and still am so inspiredby that woman and everything
that she did for young artistscoming up in the business.
It was absolutely phenomenal.
Elizabeth Bowman (26:39):
That's great.
I studied singing growing up inuniversity as well, but there
was this idea that the auditionswould come and you do like one.
You do like one one mockaudition or something.
You know where you would runyour rep and really wouldn't be
like a comparable situation.
You know you would walk intothe room there would be zero
(27:02):
pressure because it wouldprobably be your teacher just
sitting there and you're like,wow, this is just like a lesson,
Like, except now I'm going toand I also set up that pressure
situation for them as well.
Jennifer Rowley (27:12):
I created, uh, the first ever Florida
collaborative audition panels atmy, at our bootcamp, where last
season I had nine Florida basedhouses come in person to the
opera house and hear singers andgive feedback and some of them
got invited for mainstage andand young artists auditions at
those houses and some of themgot invited for main stage and
young artists auditions at thosehouses and some of them got
(27:32):
hired for young artists auditionfor young artists programs
through those, those auditionpanels.
So we're mocking, for surewe're mocking, but then we're
doing.
And at the end of the programwe have an amazing video company
, simply Sings, that doesincredible audition videos and
they're doing those videos inthe last three days of the
(27:54):
program they're recording thosevideos and they're taking those
videos with them and they lookand sound phenomenal and this
company literally can record anyvoice type.
I would trust them to record meand it's hard to record big
voices, but they make abeautiful video, they sound
great and I really, trulybelieve because the budgeting
(28:14):
now for travel for operacompanies to hear singers is way
less, you know, way less sinceCOVID, less people are getting
into that room, you know.
So we still have the samenumber of singers auditioning,
right, we still have the samenumber of singers applying.
I think the Met competition thispast season had 1200 singers
apply, right, but how manysingers are getting actually
heard at the district level?
(28:35):
I mean, maybe it's 400.
And that's big If you thinkabout, like, I don't know if a,
if a Des Moines is going to NewYork city to hear singers back
in my day, when Des Moines washearing singers, they come for
six days, right, they come toNew York for six days, they'd
hold up at Nola Studios andthey'd hear eight or 10 hours of
singers and you know, hearthree and 400 singers.
(28:56):
No, no, now they're coming fortwo days, they're hearing 75
singers, but they still have thesame thousand applicants.
So your pre-screening videoshave to get you from those
thousand applicants to one ofthe 75 to 100 that actually gets
in the room where it happens.
And so those videos and that'swhy I say the preparation has to
start so early those videoshave to be better than an
(29:20):
in-person audition, because theyhave to get you through the big
mass of people that areapplying.
They have to get you throughthat and into the room, and
that's what we do, that's whatwe focus on, and it's been very,
very successful, so I'm superexcited about it.
Elizabeth Bowman (29:36):
Control the variables you can control
Exactly.
It's a theme on this podcastLean into all the things you can
control and you'll be muchbetter off.
Can I circle back to yourPeloton?
And absolutely, you'll be muchbetter off.
Can I circle back to yourPeloton?
Sure, I've seen you onInstagram also lifting
kettlebells and doing variousfitness things.
(29:59):
When did you start?
Jennifer Rowley (30:06):
this fitness journey and what does it mean
for you and how is ittransforming you?
Well, the transformation is ishuge.
First of all, last, last year,I would say October of where are
we right now?
So not 24, october of 23.
I was doing something, somesort of workout, in my living
room and I stepped funny on myfoot and twisted the bones in my
right foot.
And that set off plantarfasciitis so badly that I was in
(30:29):
a boot for six weeks.
I could barely walk.
Thankfully, with steroids andthe walking boot and things like
that, it healed enough for meto do my fall schedule, but it
never fully healed and Istruggled from I mean really
from when it happened, but Ireally struggled in the spring
(30:51):
of last season.
I struggled vocally because Icouldn't put weight fully on
both of my feet.
I struggled physically becauseI couldn't do everything that I
was being asked to do.
Stairs were like a non-option.
It got to the point where I wasin so much pain on a daily
basis that I couldn't walk backand forth to my apartment.
(31:12):
In Italy, when I was working inTorino, I couldn't walk back
and forth to my apartment twice.
Italy when I was working inTorino, I couldn't walk back and
forth to my apartment twice aday and my apartment was a
six-minute walk.
I could walk once, so I wouldwalk in the morning, I would
take all of my food for the dayand I would just sit there in
the theater all day long and wehad a rehearsal from like 10 to
1, 4 to 10 or something likethat, and so I was just sitting
there because I couldn't.
I didn't have enough movementin me to walk twice and also do
(31:36):
the six to eight hours ofrehearsal that I was being asked
to do, and I wasn't singingwell.
I was singing okay, but Iwasn't singing like me, I wasn't
fully able to connect to mysupport, I wasn't able to get my
pelvic floor in action, Icouldn't put full weight on the
heel of the right foot, Icouldn't wear certain types of
shoes, I mean, it was just, itwas completely debilitating and
(31:57):
I gained a lot of weight becauseI couldn't move.
And then, of course you know,you're upset because you can't
move, and so then you're stress,eating and you're depressed,
and it's a vicious cycle thatgoes nowhere.
And so after that job I camehome to Florida and I had some
time off and I had a surgery onthe foot, where my doctor went
in and cut the plantar fascia inthree different places and I
(32:19):
went back into a boot because Icouldn't put any weight on it
after that and then started theprocess of rehabilitation and
physical therapy, Having been inthe boot so many times since
October, completely threw off mypelvis, my tailbone, my hip, my
ankles, and everything was weak.
I was weak, I felt broken.
(32:40):
It was an awful feeling.
I had zero control of my body.
I had zero control over mysinging.
I felt like I was broken intopieces and couldn't put it back
together.
And also, as I just said, Igained a lot of weight and was
unhappy with that.
And so when the boot came offafter the surgery, I went to the
doctor and I said listen, I gotto start exercising, I've got
to get this weight off.
(33:01):
And the doctor said I don'tthink you'll ever be able to run
again which I really enjoyeddoing and he said certainly not
now.
And he said but why don't youget on a bike?
He was like a bike is not goingto put any pressure on that
flannery fascia and it's notgoing to put any pressure on the
incisions that we made in thefoot and it's going to stabilize
.
You know, if you use the clips,if you use a stationary bike
(33:22):
with clips, it's going tostabilize your foot completely
and you're not going to be ableto, it's not going to be able to
move, basically.
And he was like I think you'llbe able to do that.
And I was like okay, great.
So my husband and I rented aPeloton.
Obviously we.
We weren't sure if we weregoing to like it, of course,
because it's, you know, it's oneof those things where people
are very polarized over thisPeloton, which makes zero sense
to me because the only benefitswe've found from it have been
(33:45):
exceptionally positive, like tothe point of like a positive
addiction to exercise.
But he was absolutely right inthat the cycling shoes are hard
on the bottom and they have aclip and they hold your foot
completely steady and flat andthere is absolutely no pressure
on the arch and on the plantarfascia.
So I was able to ride.
(34:05):
I couldn't ride long but Icould ride and there was an
instructor.
There is an instructor on theplatform named Jen Sherman, and
Jen Sherman taught a ride thatwas different than everybody
else, kind of on the platform,and it's a low impact ride and
it's a special ride where youdon't leave the saddle, you
don't stand up, and it is forpeople who are recovering from
injury.
It is for people who can'tstand up, it's for people who
(34:29):
want to put less, you know,stress on their joints.
And through these rides I wasable to gain strength, gain
fitness, gain cardiovascularfitness and lose a lot of weight
.
Then I couldn't think, becauseI had.
I had lost, I guess, 35 to 40pounds between April and like
(34:51):
July.
And in July I was starting toprepare for Fanchula in Beijing
and I could not.
I had a wobble that was like asbig as a Mack truck.
It was so bad because I didn'thave as much surface area
anymore to push on.
And so my teacher said, Jen,you have to start lifting
(35:13):
weights.
And I was like, ah, I didn't.
I have no idea how to liftweights, what to do, nothing
like that.
But the Peloton platform hasstrength training and I found,
through exploration in the app,some amazing women instructors
that were incrediblyinspirational and incredibly
(35:33):
generous in how they plan theirprogramming for people who have
never lifted weights before andwant to learn.
You know, and, and there thereis a platform there where you
can start from absolutelynothing and not knowing anything
, and they will teach you how todo a deadlift and break it down
, and it's really, it'sfantastic.
And so in July I startedlifting and that was the game
(35:57):
changer right there, the minuteI started lifting weights, the
weight just melted off.
I became stronger in my singing, I became stronger in my heart,
I became stronger in myconviction, in my confidence in
in everything you know.
Lift heavy, sing heavy, myteacher says.
And it really.
(36:18):
It gave me so much strength andinternal strength, not just
external strength, internalstrength.
I felt like I can do this, Ican repair, I can build myself
back up again.
And so since July I have beendoing that and it has changed my
life.
And they only recently addedkettlebells to the Peloton
platform and I'm obsessed withthem because it's cardio and
(36:42):
lifting weights at the same timeand I literally wake up every
day excited to go in my littlehome office gym and ride that
bike and lift the weights andbetter myself, my body, my
singing.
I mean it's literallylife-changing, from having that
(37:02):
injury and really just feelingbroken to feeling stronger than
I ever have in my life, to beingsmaller than I ever have in my
life.
I literally have given all ofmy clothes away because none of
them fit.
Whoever shops the Goodwill inFort Myers, Florida like gets
like some real amazing designerfinds because I'm taking
everything there and justdonating it all.
(37:24):
It's been an amazing journey andmy singing has never felt
better because I can actuallyfeel my singing.
I can feel my singing in myentire body and I always did
before as well, but now I feelit in a different way.
Now I really feel how toutilize my back and my lats and
my pelvic floor and my deep coreand all of these things and
it's a really.
It's incredibly inspiring, butit's also I'm also incredibly
(37:47):
proud of myself.
You know, to have made thistransformation is it's something
I never thought I would be ableto do I've always struggled
with my weight my entire careerand to really look in the mirror
and go.
I'm really strong and I lookawesome and I can't wait, you
know, to step on stage and havepeople hear what I have to give
and see who I am and and notfeel any doubt with any of that.
(38:09):
It's just, it's an amazingfeeling.
So it's, it's been anincredible journey.
Elizabeth Bowman (38:13):
That's amazing .
It's lovely to hear you talkabout it and to feel your
confidence while you talk aboutit.
Thanks, I also love Peloton.
Jennifer Rowley (38:27):
I love that Peloton.
I I'm obsessed with it.
Sometimes we have guests in thehouse which require us to use
our Murphy bed.
That's in that same office, andso we have to move the Peloton
into our bedroom, my husband andI's bedroom.
I can't sleep.
I literally cannot sleep withthat Peloton in the room.
I want to ride it, I want to beon it.
I like want to be on it all day.
I don't want to do anythingelse and I can't sleep and I'm
up in the middle of the nightLike when is it time?
When can I wake up and ride thedamn Peloton?
(38:49):
It's terrible.
Elizabeth Bowman (38:50):
They also have really great yoga classes on
there and everything isfantastic the stretching, the
yoga, the mobility.
Jennifer Rowley (38:56):
I just took for the first time a hip mobility
class on there.
Oh my God, it was amazing.
Elizabeth Bowman (39:06):
My hips felt incredible after like just
absolutely amazing, so muchincredible stuff on there.
So you raise an interestingpoint here in terms of the core
strength and then itsrelationship with the singing,
which you know is no surprise.
Like if you have that core andpelvic floor strength, then
you're going to be a strongersinger.
These things need to beunderscored in school.
I think yeah they do.
(39:27):
When you're a younger singer.
That's why.
Jennifer Rowley (39:29):
I'm underscoring them online.
Yeah, because it's not beingtaught.
I can't tell you how manysingers I see master classes
lessons at ARIA bootcamp whohave zero foundation of breath
zero, whose teachers have toldthem expand your ribs and hold
them out and that's what theyhave learned about breathing and
they haven't learned how thebreathing mechanism actually
(39:50):
works.
And we are masters of musicwith no basis in anatomy and
physiology and we have spenthundreds of thousands of dollars
on education and we can't tellsomeone how the body actually
works to create airflow andcompression, to bring the cords
together, and it is a.
It's a damn shame.
It's a damn shame, yeah, butit's something that I am trying
(40:14):
to educate singers on throughthe online platforms.
Of course, I have a lot ofposts about fitness for singing
and a lot of posts on how to usethe fitness to strengthen the
singing, because that isactually exceptionally important
.
I do a lot of collaborationalso with the musical athlete,
who is a biomechanics expert.
Chris is absolutely incredible.
I mean, he is one of the mostmajor cheerleaders for whole
(40:39):
body singing at this point andhis information is second to
none.
And it's amazing some of thevideos he puts out.
There was a video that Iabsolutely adored, maybe last
year, or something, where hetalked about foot contact and
pelvic floor use and how thepelvic floor actually won't
connect if your big toe is upoff the floor, and why and a lot
of singers stand with theirtoes up off the floor like back
(41:01):
on their heels, and it's nowonder they can't connect to
their support and how you haveto find full foot contact in
order to get pelvic floorsupport, which then gets you for
full core closure.
It's it's amazing how the bodyworks from just a little toe,
you know.
But all of these things aresuper important to learn, and I
cannot tell you how many peopleargue with me online about how
(41:23):
singers should not work on deepcore.
Singers should not do abs,quote unquote and yes, you
shouldn't do abs, absolutelyLike we don't want to tighten
our abdomen in order to support.
That's not what we're talkingabout.
We want to strengthen all thestuff around it.
We don't.
I don't need abs, but deep coreis not talking about abs.
(41:44):
It's very different.
Elizabeth Bowman (41:45):
Very, very different, even if you
strengthen your abs, even if youdo.
Let's just say it's figure outhow to sing around them it's
also about when you're learningto strengthen your body.
You're learning how to relax itand then contract it, and then
relax and contract, so it's notlike you're putting yourself
into a spasm, exactly.
Jennifer Rowley (42:07):
And a healthy muscle, when it's relaxed, is
malleable.
A healthy muscle is loose andjiggly and free right, and then
when it's relaxed, it's ready togo.
You know it's activated andthat's.
You know.
The breathing mechanism is thesame.
It's that release andactivation.
But I can't tell you how manypeople argue with me online and
(42:29):
I literally have to be like look, it's my channel, it's my video
and I'm going to put out theinformation that I know is right
.
You can argue with me as muchas you want.
The algorithm loves you for it.
Thank you so much for making myvideo go further, but you're
not going to change my mind.
It's not going to happen.
I'm living proof of it.
You're not going to change mymind.
Elizabeth Bowman (42:49):
Yeah it to me.
It makes zero sense that youwouldn't strengthen your body in
order to be a stronger singer.
The body is an amazing thing.
Jennifer Rowley (42:59):
And how would cardiovascular health not help
you as a performer on stage?
How would cardiovascularstamina not be beneficial to a
five-hour-long Wagner opera thatyou have to stand on stage the
whole time because you're Votanor whatever?
Even Tosca Tosca the role thatI've done the most in my career
(43:22):
is an hour and 20 somethingminutes of actual singing, not
resting.
Actual singing right, she's onstage the whole night, but
actual singing is an hour and 20minutes.
That's a lot of singing andit's not soft.
There's a lot of instruments toget over and the entirety of
act.
Two is literally you managingyour heart rate the whole time
(43:44):
so that you don't get out ofbreath Because as your heart
rate elevates in the emotion ofthat act and in the movement of
that act, and especially if youhave a very active staging where
you're being thrown on thefloor and picked up and thrown
and this and that, the otherthing you have to manage the up
and down of your heart rate inorder to keep your breathing
(44:06):
steady so you can actually sing.
How do we do that if we don'thave cardiovascular stamina
aerobically?
So I don't understand theargument of no exercise for
singers.
I really don't get it.
Elizabeth Bowman (44:16):
It makes no sense to me.
It's like saying the earth isflat and the earth is round.
Jennifer Rowley (44:21):
Anyway, boy, they will argue on Facebook.
Oh, they love to argue onFacebook.
Elizabeth Bowman (44:28):
I feel like I could talk to you for several
hours on this podcast, but Igotta, I gotta wrap it up.
Several hours on this podcast,but I gotta, I gotta wrap it up,
but um, thank you so much forcoming and my pleasure,
absolutely my pleasure, and Ihope everyone will go to your
channels and check your contentout.
And also, everyone should gofor a walk and uh, you know, get
(44:50):
that cardiovascular, absolutely.
Jennifer Rowley (44:53):
Health going, and mental health too.
I mean, exercise gives usendorphins.
Endorphins make us feel good.
We sing better when we feelgood.
It all makes sense, you know.
Hi, I'm Elizabeth Bowman and welcome to
the Scene Room.
Today I have Jennifer Raleighin the room.
I've had the privilege ofseeing her perform on the
Metropolitan Opera Stage manytimes and I also follow her on
social media, where she's builta vibrant and active community.
Jennifer, in addition to beingan internationally acclaimed
(00:22):
soprano, is very active in theteaching space.
She has founded an aria bootcamp, which we talk about in
this episode quite a bit, andshe also travels internationally
giving master classes andseminars.
In our conversation, jennifershares her insights on the
evolving role of social media inthe performing arts, the
importance of building authenticcommunity, her inspiring
(00:42):
fitness journey and how it'sstrengthened, her singing
evolving role of social media inthe performing arts, the
importance of building authenticcommunity, her inspiring
fitness journey and how itstrengthened her singing, and
the deeply rewarding work she'sdoing as a teacher and mentor.
If you're enjoying the podcast,please do like, share, review,
do any of those things.
It really helps keep theseconversations going.
(01:03):
I really appreciate the support.
Now let's get to theconversation.
Jennifer, welcome to the sceneroom.
Thanks so much for coming.
Oh, thanks so much for havingme.
Jennifer Rowley (01:12):
I'm super happy to be with you today.
Elizabeth Bowman (01:14):
I've been following you online on my
Instagram.
I see you are very active.
You have like a full blowncommunity there.
I mean, obviously I've followedyour singing career as well.
I've heard you sing on theMetropolitan Opera stage before,
so it's really great to connectwith you here.
Jennifer Rowley (01:31):
Yeah, it's great to meet you too.
I love your videos on Instagramas well and I love your
interviews and your interviewquestions are they're so astute
and so important, and loved themost recent videos with David
Lomeli and Christian Van Horn.
And just so happy to meet youand great to be here.
Elizabeth Bowman (01:49):
Where are we podcasting from?
we'repodcasting from the beautiful
state of Florida, where it isallergy central but also
beautiful.
We're in Fort Myers, florida,today.
Right on, and so you live in Florida when
you're not on the road.
Jennifer Rowley (02:04):
I do.
I live in Florida where I'm onvacation when I'm not working.
Elizabeth Bowman (02:09):
You must be on the road quite a bit.
Jennifer Rowley (02:10):
Yeah, I mean, I work a lot at you know at home
as well teaching and things likethat.
But yeah, in between, this ismy little sanctuary and happy
place.
So it's always nice when youwalk in from being gone for a
while and you can literally justgo when you walk in the door.
So it's always nice when youwalk in from being gone for a
while and you can literally justgo when you walk in the door.
So it's a great feeling to haveyour home feel like that.
Elizabeth Bowman (02:29):
So I mentioned before that I've been following
your online community and, forthose listening if they haven't
followed you, can you explainwhat inspired you to build that
community, when you made thatdecision to start building that
community, and what outlets didyou purposely decide to use?
(02:49):
Like Instagram I mentioned, areyou also on TikTok?
Jennifer Rowley (02:54):
No TikTok, because TikTok would drive me
insane.
That's one rabbit hole I couldnever go down.
But I also have a very largecommunity on Facebook.
I believe I have over 30,000followers on Facebook as well,
and what's really interestingabout the two mediums Instagram
and Facebook is there's verydifferent audiences on both
platforms and so, while I doshare the same or similar
(03:17):
content on both platforms, thediscussions are often very, very
different, which is reallyexciting.
So the community on Instagram,which I love very much, is a
younger community, which isreally exciting.
So the community on Instagram,which I love very much, is a
younger community, which isfantastic, and I love being able
to reach that youngergeneration of singer, and I
decided to really start growingthat community, I would say, in
the last year.
I always used it, I always usesocial media and I always I
(03:39):
always had fun sharing my career.
You know I always had funsharing that sort of behind the
scenes look at the businessbecause I follow celebrities and
other opera singers and I lovegetting to see behind the scenes
of, like the Lady Gaga SuperBowl halftime show.
You know I love that side ofthe business.
And so when I started usingInstagram and you know, over the
(03:59):
last several years you knowpost COVID and things like that
it was really fun to be able toshow an audience.
You know what is happeningbehind the scenes.
You know what is travel like,what is preparation like, what
does the singer do to preparefor you know these big things
that we see them on stage sothat we're not so unreachable.
I like being approachable, Ilike being the approachable diva
(04:20):
and I like to be able toconnect with my audience
personally, not just in atheater but also online.
I answer all my own DMs and Ianswer every single comment that
everyone makes on my posts,which gets a little overwhelming
sometimes, but I feel it'sreally important to engage the
audience and that every singleperson feels like they can have
(04:43):
an avenue to me and they canhave a communication and a
connection.
You know, even on such a smallplatform as you know, social
media I love the community.
I've been building the communityeven more this season and using
not so traditional outlets todo so.
I just created a broadcastchannel about a month ago and we
have a thousand people in thatbroadcast channel where we get
(05:03):
to connect even more intimatelyand I can share even more things
that I don't necessarily put onthe main feed in Instagram and
Facebook, because I don't thinkeverybody's interested in those
things, and I can also helpyoung singers, you know, with
exercises and with behind thescenes information and with
advice and with inspiration, andyou know things that not every
(05:25):
opera fan wouldn't necessarilybe interested in, so it wouldn't
.
It doesn't really have a placeon my feed, but there are
definitely people who want thatinformation, so I'm having a
really great time with thatbroadcast channel, learning what
people like, learning what theywant more of, and being able to
reach that next generation.
I think is also incrediblyimportant, and it's incredibly
(05:50):
important to me personallybecause I had such great mentors
help me coming up in thebusiness.
So to just be able to be asmall part of somebody's path is
, you know, and as long as it'sa positive part, then I'm very,
I'm very honored and happy.
So, yeah, I love my littlecommunity on Instagram and
Facebook.
It's fun.
Elizabeth Bowman (06:03):
It used to be a nice thing to have followers
and the like accumulation, butnow it's an essential thing for
artists to really prioritizebuilding those communities
Because in order to have acareer in this business, you
need that energy behind you andyou know obviously we can't do
(06:25):
this alone.
It takes a village all of this,but now it's.
It's more than ever.
You got to invest in yourcommunity building skills.
Jennifer Rowley (06:33):
You do, and I think that that community then
invests in you.
And that's that's incrediblyimportant for the future of our
business.
You know, I have a cousin whohas two daughters teenage
daughters and one of them toldher when she got home from
school this week that her classwanted to the teacher will let
them listen to classical musicduring kind of study time and
(06:57):
homework time.
The students asked to listen toopera and my cousin's daughter
basically said oh, I have acousin who's a world famous
opera singer, let's listen toher.
And so their oh, I have acousin who's a world famous
opera singer, let's listen toher.
And so their teenage class Idon't even know what grade,
seventh or eighth grade pulledup my YouTube channel and
literally just put it on andlistened to videos for an hour
of me singing opera and I thinkI got like 20 new followers on
(07:21):
YouTube that day because theseteenagers were listening to
opera during homework time.
And I think that's amazing andthat's the formation of the new
audience coming into the operahouse.
Maybe those students become newfans, become new donors, become
opera singers themselves.
You know, that's how wecontinue our business forward
(07:42):
and that community online thatYouTube, instagram, et cetera
community you get those peopleexcited, you get your followers
excited, you get your fansexcited and then they want to
come see you in the theater andthat's the most important part.
The most important part is thatthey're coming offline and
they're actually coming into thetheater and sitting in that
seat and buying that ticket andwatching someone that they
(08:05):
actually really care about, andI think that's it's
exceptionally important for theadvancement of our business and
our art form.
Elizabeth Bowman (08:12):
Yeah, and this personal connection, obviously
between your cousin's daughter,was it?
Yeah?
So this idea that we need thispersonal connection, like they
could have said, I really likethis opera singer, let's listen
to that and that wouldn't havenecessarily resonated as much
even if they had listened to theopera singer that they loved,
(08:35):
or whatever, but the fact thatthey were like, well, this
person is related to this personand that's a very simple
connection, but the idea thatthere is a friendship there is
important.
Jennifer Rowley (08:48):
I follow her online.
She answered my comment.
She engaged with me.
I like her.
I have to tell you I mean thisis a little off topic, but on
topic.
This week I was riding myPeloton on the weekend and I got
my first shout out.
Hannah Corbin shouted out myname and said she loved my
(09:08):
leaderboard name.
I cannot tell you how loudly Isquealed on that bike because I
love her.
I follow her online.
I think she's incredible.
I love her classes, but also Ijust love her messaging and who
she is as a person.
I wouldn't know that if I didn'tfollow her on Instagram.
And so, of course, I tagged heron Instagram and I was like, oh
(09:28):
, anna Corbin gave me a shoutout and then she messaged me
back, you know, and said makesure you stretch.
You know that kind of a thing.
But that personal connectionmakes me love her more and makes
me care about her, like as aperson, and so that connection
is what we need in our businessin order to sort of make people
go.
Oh my God.
She answered my comment Likethat means so much to me.
(09:51):
Then maybe you bring thataudience member into the theater
because it meant so much to you.
It meant so much to them thatyou engage with them and they
like your singing, so why notcome in and actually see you
sing?
That's what I'm trying to build, anyways, and I think that's
the best way to utilize theseplatforms.
You know, you grow youraudience by having that personal
connection.
Elizabeth Bowman (10:11):
Can I ask you're busy with the performing?
You're busy do everythingmyself.
Jennifer Rowley (10:16):
However, I work with the ladies of digital, max
and Anthony, who are absolutelyincredible, because I needed to
be educated about social media.
And Max and Anthony, while theydo run social media channels as
(10:37):
well, they are what they callthemselves social media
educators.
I learned more from them in sixmonths than I ever knew about
social media prior to that, andthe reason I started working
with them was because I had themas a part of my young artist
program, aria Bootcamp.
I had them for a seminar lastsummer to educate our singers on
(10:59):
how to utilize their socialmedia for the upcoming audition
season, and they gave a seminarthat was so intelligent and so
chock full of information thatthe singers all of them left
inspired.
I mean just personally inspired, but also inspired to share
themselves and to openthemselves up to an audience
online and to be vulnerable andand to share their art and their
(11:23):
music.
And Max and Anthony did that,and it was really impressive to
me.
And so, after ARIA Bootcamp, Iwrote them personally and I said
listen, I want to grow my brandonline.
I don't know how to do that.
My follower number hasn't movedfor like a year and I want to
start reaching a new audience.
I want to start bringing thementorship and the teaching
aspect of my career and my lifeinto my social media platform.
(11:46):
How do I do that?
I don't know how to do that.
I have zero problem askinganyone for help.
In fact, I love asking peoplefor help because I love learning
new things.
I love, you know, when someoneelse is more knowledgeable in
something than I am, I want tolearn about it.
You know, and I still takevoice lessons because I want to
continue learning.
You know, all of that knowledgefuels my knowledge to give to
(12:10):
other people, and so when theygave this seminar, I just knew
that I wanted to reach out tothem.
I wanted to add them to my team, and so we have a WhatsApp
thread.
We exchange ideas every singleday.
We talk about the content thatI'm putting up.
We analyze the content thatgoes up.
We look and see.
You know what's resonating withpeople, what's getting the most
(12:32):
.
You know views, what's gettingthe most likes, what's getting
the most shares.
You know what post has 500shares and which post has 100
shares and why like what.
What's the difference in thecontent?
And then adjusting the contentthat I'm putting out so that my
audience is getting what theyactually want to see, and I had
never done that before I neverlooked at the analytics of
(12:53):
things, I never, you know.
I just posted.
I was like, oh, this is fun,I'll post this, you know.
But actually looking at youraudience and analyzing what they
are responding to, what isresonating with them, made it so
much easier for me to actuallycreate an online presence and a
brand and create pillars ofcontent that, you know,
resonated with all the differenttypes of people who actually
follow me.
(13:13):
So they've been exceptionallyhelpful and I encourage anyone,
I mean, and everyone in ourbusiness, to educate themselves
on how to actually use theseplatforms so that your posts
actually get somewhere becausewe all know that like half the
time they don't go anywhere.
You know, and and how thingschange because they change, it
seems, weekly.
(13:34):
Things change.
What you're supposed to doYou're supposed to use keywords
this day was use hash work tags.
This day you're supposed to use, you're supposed to put
keywords in the videos.
You're supposed to put them inthe caption.
You're supposed to do that.
You're supposed to use editsnow.
So you know, everything ischanging every day.
It seems like, and it's reallynice to have people to sort of
(13:54):
guide you along that path andsort of show you the way.
And they have contributed a ton, not only to my education but
to the success of my socialmedia channels, and I guess
we've been working sinceSeptember.
So since September my accountshave doubled in size.
Both accounts the Facebookaccount, more so, has almost
tripled in size and the type ofcontent that I am putting out.
I now understand what I need todo, how to do it, what my
(14:16):
audience is going to like, howlong it needs to be, what needs
to be in the first three seconds.
You know all of those thingsand I can do it much more
quickly than previously.
So the education from Max andAnthony has been unbelievable.
Elizabeth Bowman (14:28):
That's a sign of a good team, because they're
empowering you to understand,Massively, empowering me and
inspiring me.
Jennifer Rowley (14:41):
I mean, Anthony , I'm not kidding, sends me DMs
and messages all day long.
Oh, check out this post.
This might be something fun foryou to.
Oh, check out this post.
This is a new trend.
I think your audience wouldlike this trend, you know.
And then I make it my own,which I think is super important
, because my voice is whatpeople are tuning in for, right.
So I wouldn't want a teammember to do that for me.
I would want to do that myself,because I want to reach my
audience personally.
(15:02):
That's the point of what I'mdoing anyways.
Right, so you know as easy asit would be for me to put in to
chat GPT, write me a socialmedia caption about this video,
click.
I can't do that because itreally does need to be my voice,
you know, and my tone and mybranding, and you know I want
people to know me as a personthrough these posts as well.
Elizabeth Bowman (15:25):
Well, people can feel when it's not authentic
.
Even if they see the post andthey even think it's you, they
just don't connect to it.
It's like that X factor inperformance, like the difference
between a great performancethat moves someone and a
performance that was technicallyreally good but like had no
(15:46):
soul.
Exactly so I, yeah, I guess ata certain point.
You know, a lot of youngartists don't have the money to
hire an outside party, but it isgood to maybe have a workshop
and invest in that experience orjust have.
I mean, you pay for a voicelesson, right?
Jennifer Rowley (16:01):
Or just have I mean, you pay for a voice lesson
, right, you pay for a coachingJust have a one-on-one hour-long
session.
Just get some advice, just getsome help.
Just have somebody take a lookat your account with a fresh set
of eyes and go okay, this iswhat's resonating with your
audience.
(16:21):
These are the posts that havethe most interaction and
engagement.
You need to do more of that,you know.
Or or just just to have someone, just a consult, to have
someone look at your onlinepresence.
Are you Googleable?
Can we find videos of you?
Are you on YouTube?
Do you have a library of yourperformances?
Do you have a library of youraudition videos?
Can we go and find you quickly?
(16:42):
Because I promise you, you know, if you're doing a performance,
it's intermission.
People are standing out in thelobby.
They're.
Elizabeth Bowman (16:50):
Googling you.
Jennifer Rowley (16:51):
They're looking for you on Instagram, they're
looking for you on Facebook,especially if they like what
you're doing and they're like,oh, they get excited and they
want to follow you and they doit right then, and there, right
at the theater.
I mean, I can't tell youintermission of performances
when I see like the so-and-sofollowed you, so-and-so followed
you, like popping up on myphone during intermission.
It happens all the time, and sothat online presence is
(17:14):
exceptionally important.
So have a consultation.
You pay $100 to $200 for avoice lesson.
Pay it for someone to help youwith your social media as well,
so that you can actually getthat stuff out there.
Elizabeth Bowman (17:26):
It's really important.
The past two summers I didworkshops with emerging and some
professional artists at thecenter and the first thing I
would do when they would comeinto my office I would Google
them, yeah, and, but I wouldGoogle them with them sitting
next to me and they Word gotaround that.
(17:46):
That was how I was starting mysessions.
Some people had accounts thatthis is the generation that grew
up with the internet.
I didn't grow up with theinternet.
I started having a computerwhen I was in first year
university.
I had a computer.
You know, I had a computer, butbeyond that it wasn't part of
(18:11):
our fabric.
And so the kids, you know, whenthey're 10 or 11 or something,
they created a YouTube channel,yes, and then they forgot that
it's a YouTube channel.
And then there's some sort ofsong about how they like
strawberries or something.
Jennifer Rowley (18:27):
Yeah, that is so important, I mean, and also,
especially with so many youngartists followers, it's so
important that they understandthat I'm looking.
So, if you apply to my youngartists program, I'm going to
your Instagram.
I'm going to look for moreinformation.
I'm going to look to see if Iwant you at my program.
(18:48):
I want to see if you're a goodperson.
If you, if you're trollingpeople on Facebook and Instagram
, I don't want you there.
You know what I mean and I wantto see more videos.
I want to see more.
I want to see more of you.
I want to get to know you aswell and I promise you, I
promise you, that the castingdirectors are doing the same
(19:09):
thing.
I promise you that the castingdirectors are doing the same
thing.
They're sitting behind thattable and they are going to your
Instagram and they are going toyour YouTube and they are
Googling you.
I promise you they are.
So if we can't find you online,or if you have a social media
presence, that's all over theplace.
It doesn't look so great andpeople have to realize that that
is a part of this business.
(19:30):
You know it's huge.
I mean, just like any otherbusiness that you might apply
for a job in.
Like LinkedIn is a huge thing,especially for corporate America
.
People are going to yourLinkedIn.
So in our business, people aregoing to your Instagram.
It's going to happen.
So it better look good and itbetter be informational and
educational for me on you as anartist and a person and tell me
(19:51):
that I want to work with you.
That's, it's really important.
It's really important.
Elizabeth Bowman (19:55):
The other thing that we should highlight
here is because I often foundvideos from when they were 15 or
16 and they're notrepresentative of the talent
that is current and they sort ofthink well, whatever it was put
on YouTube and who cares,unlist, unlist it.
You got to get that stuff off.
(20:17):
You have to go through everyyear.
You should go through yourvideos and think does this
represent me as an artist now?
And if it doesn't, then it'sgone.
And if you're unsure, honestlyit's gone.
Yeah.
Jennifer Rowley (20:30):
I mean what I do love to see.
Sometimes I mean and this isnot every video, but sometimes I
do like to see a trajectory.
So if they have a video of animportant performance from,
let's say, five years ago theymade a debut, you know, here or
there, or they jumped in as acover and somebody caught it and
they have it on their YouTube Iwant to see the trajectory of
(20:50):
that, especially if it was avery good performance.
I think that's great to leavethere, but we don't need all of
the videos between that one andthen.
You know and what'srepresentative.
But but you can show atrajectory.
You just have to be strategicin your editing process.
You know and and determine okay, this one, you know you can
hear my voice Everything's great, the high notes are great,
we're intonation is good, youknow all those things and we're
(21:13):
not just leaving everything upthere like.
Be strategic and what you showpeople.
Basically.
Elizabeth Bowman (21:18):
Yeah, I'm mainly saying about the quality
of that performance.
So obviously, if you're 11 andyou're performing, you know a
child solo in front of anorchestra and that was an
amazing experience for you andit's obvious that you are a
young performer and you'reperforming with good intonation
and all those things, thenfabulous.
(21:38):
Keep it up.
But, yeah, you shoulddefinitely go through your
videos and then make that calland if you need help, go with.
Go through them with yourteacher, maybe.
Jennifer Rowley (21:50):
Yeah, go through them with your teacher.
Go through them, have a friendlook at them.
You know, have a.
Have a colleague look at themand help you.
Another set of eyes, a freshset of eyes on everything is is
great.
Elizabeth Bowman (21:59):
So tell me, you're doing this ARIA bootcamp,
what is this?
So ARIA?
Jennifer Rowley (22:04):
bootcamp is my young artist training program,
based down here in Florida.
We do it at the Sarasota OperaHouse in August every season and
it is a program, a trainingprogram, where singers can come
and basically have a one-stopshop for audition season.
I was finding, as I waswatching, you know, I started
(22:24):
judging competitions.
I've judged in that competitionfor several seasons now and
I've judged several othercompetitions.
And I was noticing that thepreparation for auditions was
not thorough enough and a lot ofpeople were showing up to
auditions not knowing what theywere talking about, having wrong
notes, wrong rhythms,intonation, not great languages.
(22:44):
And then you know wondering whyam I not getting hired?
You have to prepare for yourauditions as if you were
preparing a role.
You have to be so prepared,overly prepared, you have to be
the most prepared person in theroom at any time.
This is always my opinion.
However, when it comes toauditioning, you have to be
prepared before the in-personaudition, because now and since
(23:07):
COVID, a lot of our auditionsnumber one happen online and
happen via a video link, butnumber two you can't get into
that live audition if yourpre-screening video that you
send is not good enough, and sothe preparation begins super
early way, earlier than a lot ofsingers actually do it.
And so, because I was findingthat there was a lack of
(23:29):
preparation, I thought to myselfthat we should have a place
where singers could go to getall of that preparation, in an
atmosphere of positivity anduplifting and cheerleading but
also challenging, where we caninspire people to do better and
to work harder in a positive way, of course and go into those
(23:51):
auditions knowing everything,being so fully prepared that
nerves are a thing of the past.
You know, we have nervesbecause we doubt ourselves and
if you're so overly prepared, ifyou're so fully prepared, you
know everything about whatyou're going to sing.
You don't have to doubt, it'sthere.
I was super inspired by mymentor, martina Arroyo, and her
Prelude to Performance program,where she taught us how to be
(24:16):
the most prepared person in theroom, how to learn our roles, in
a way that number one, theywould never leave because you
learn them so thoroughly.
But number two, you know acharacter inside, outside,
upside down, and you can becomethat character because you know
their background.
You've read that sourcematerial.
You know every single word thatthey are singing.
(24:36):
Everyone around you is singingthe chorus, is singing
everything, and she taught ushow to prepare so thoroughly
that that's never left me.
It's always been a part of mycareer and it's the way that I
still prepare to this day.
And I took her inspiration andsaid well, why aren't we
preparing auditions this way?
And so that's why I createdARIA Boot Camp, because we
(24:57):
needed a place where we couldeducate young artists and help
them level up for thosepre-screening recordings and
those auditions.
And it works to a point where Iwould say, 80 to a hundred
percent of the people, peoplewho leave RE Boot Camp have more
auditions that they've ever hadbefore and they all have a job
for the next season.
Yeah, I would say that.
(25:18):
I mean, some of our singerslast season were in undergrad,
so they're not going toobviously have a job this season
.
So I would say, 80% of thepeople in our program last
season have a young artistprogram this summer and that's
massive, especially when youwere talking about 30 something
singers, you know, and, yeah,our undergraduates are young
singers.
We had 19 year olds last year.
It was amazing and they weremore prepared than the 30 year
(25:39):
olds, which was great.
But you know they're going to do, you know, something at their
school or something like that,so they're not going out and
doing a ton of auditions, butthey're already starting to
prepare for graduate schoolauditions, which is incredible,
so they're going to be the mostprepared people in that room,
because they started at 19 andlearning how to audition and the
strategy of that and how tobuild a package that's going to
(26:01):
be compelling and marketable.
And then all of the things thatgo around being that young
artist, the social mediapresence and the website
presence and your languages andthe acting and how to present
yourself in an audition and howto present yourself on camera
for the pre-screening recordingand all of these things, and so
we put it together into oneprogram in two weeks and I'm
(26:25):
super proud of it and I reallyhope that Martina Arroyo is
proud of it too, because Ireally I was so inspired by that
woman and still am so inspiredby that woman and everything
that she did for young artistscoming up in the business.
It was absolutely phenomenal.
Elizabeth Bowman (26:39):
That's great.
I studied singing growing up inuniversity as well, but there
was this idea that the auditionswould come and you do like one.
You do like one one mockaudition or something.
You know where you would runyour rep and really wouldn't be
like a comparable situation.
You know you would walk intothe room there would be zero
(27:02):
pressure because it wouldprobably be your teacher just
sitting there and you're like,wow, this is just like a lesson,
Like, except now I'm going toand I also set up that pressure
situation for them as well.
Jennifer Rowley (27:12):
I created, uh, the first ever Florida
collaborative audition panels atmy, at our bootcamp, where last
season I had nine Florida basedhouses come in person to the
opera house and hear singers andgive feedback and some of them
got invited for mainstage andand young artists auditions at
those houses and some of themgot invited for main stage and
young artists auditions at thosehouses and some of them got
(27:32):
hired for young artists auditionfor young artists programs
through those, those auditionpanels.
So we're mocking, for surewe're mocking, but then we're
doing.
And at the end of the programwe have an amazing video company
, simply Sings, that doesincredible audition videos and
they're doing those videos inthe last three days of the
(27:54):
program they're recording thosevideos and they're taking those
videos with them and they lookand sound phenomenal and this
company literally can record anyvoice type.
I would trust them to record meand it's hard to record big
voices, but they make abeautiful video, they sound
great and I really, trulybelieve because the budgeting
(28:14):
now for travel for operacompanies to hear singers is way
less, you know, way less sinceCOVID, less people are getting
into that room, you know.
So we still have the samenumber of singers auditioning,
right, we still have the samenumber of singers applying.
I think the Met competition thispast season had 1200 singers
apply, right, but how manysingers are getting actually
heard at the district level?
(28:35):
I mean, maybe it's 400.
And that's big If you thinkabout, like, I don't know if a,
if a Des Moines is going to NewYork city to hear singers back
in my day, when Des Moines washearing singers, they come for
six days, right, they come toNew York for six days, they'd
hold up at Nola Studios andthey'd hear eight or 10 hours of
singers and you know, hearthree and 400 singers.
(28:56):
No, no, now they're coming fortwo days, they're hearing 75
singers, but they still have thesame thousand applicants.
So your pre-screening videoshave to get you from those
thousand applicants to one ofthe 75 to 100 that actually gets
in the room where it happens.
And so those videos and that'swhy I say the preparation has to
start so early those videoshave to be better than an
(29:20):
in-person audition, because theyhave to get you through the big
mass of people that areapplying.
They have to get you throughthat and into the room, and
that's what we do, that's whatwe focus on, and it's been very,
very successful, so I'm superexcited about it.
Elizabeth Bowman (29:36):
Control the variables you can control
Exactly.
It's a theme on this podcastLean into all the things you can
control and you'll be muchbetter off.
Can I circle back to yourPeloton?
And absolutely, you'll be muchbetter off.
Can I circle back to yourPeloton?
Sure, I've seen you onInstagram also lifting
kettlebells and doing variousfitness things.
(29:59):
When did you start?
Jennifer Rowley (30:06):
this fitness journey and what does it mean
for you and how is ittransforming you?
Well, the transformation is ishuge.
First of all, last, last year,I would say October of where are
we right now?
So not 24, october of 23.
I was doing something, somesort of workout, in my living
room and I stepped funny on myfoot and twisted the bones in my
right foot.
And that set off plantarfasciitis so badly that I was in
(30:29):
a boot for six weeks.
I could barely walk.
Thankfully, with steroids andthe walking boot and things like
that, it healed enough for meto do my fall schedule, but it
never fully healed and Istruggled from I mean really
from when it happened, but Ireally struggled in the spring
(30:51):
of last season.
I struggled vocally because Icouldn't put weight fully on
both of my feet.
I struggled physically becauseI couldn't do everything that I
was being asked to do.
Stairs were like a non-option.
It got to the point where I wasin so much pain on a daily
basis that I couldn't walk backand forth to my apartment.
(31:12):
In Italy, when I was working inTorino, I couldn't walk back
and forth to my apartment twice.
Italy when I was working inTorino, I couldn't walk back and
forth to my apartment twice aday and my apartment was a
six-minute walk.
I could walk once, so I wouldwalk in the morning, I would
take all of my food for the dayand I would just sit there in
the theater all day long and wehad a rehearsal from like 10 to
1, 4 to 10 or something likethat, and so I was just sitting
there because I couldn't.
I didn't have enough movementin me to walk twice and also do
(31:36):
the six to eight hours ofrehearsal that I was being asked
to do, and I wasn't singingwell.
I was singing okay, but Iwasn't singing like me, I wasn't
fully able to connect to mysupport, I wasn't able to get my
pelvic floor in action, Icouldn't put full weight on the
heel of the right foot, Icouldn't wear certain types of
shoes, I mean, it was just, itwas completely debilitating and
(31:57):
I gained a lot of weight becauseI couldn't move.
And then, of course you know,you're upset because you can't
move, and so then you're stress,eating and you're depressed,
and it's a vicious cycle thatgoes nowhere.
And so after that job I camehome to Florida and I had some
time off and I had a surgery onthe foot, where my doctor went
in and cut the plantar fascia inthree different places and I
(32:19):
went back into a boot because Icouldn't put any weight on it
after that and then started theprocess of rehabilitation and
physical therapy, Having been inthe boot so many times since
October, completely threw off mypelvis, my tailbone, my hip, my
ankles, and everything was weak.
I was weak, I felt broken.
(32:40):
It was an awful feeling.
I had zero control of my body.
I had zero control over mysinging.
I felt like I was broken intopieces and couldn't put it back
together.
And also, as I just said, Igained a lot of weight and was
unhappy with that.
And so when the boot came offafter the surgery, I went to the
doctor and I said listen, I gotto start exercising, I've got
to get this weight off.
(33:01):
And the doctor said I don'tthink you'll ever be able to run
again which I really enjoyeddoing and he said certainly not
now.
And he said but why don't youget on a bike?
He was like a bike is not goingto put any pressure on that
flannery fascia and it's notgoing to put any pressure on the
incisions that we made in thefoot and it's going to stabilize
.
You know, if you use the clips,if you use a stationary bike
(33:22):
with clips, it's going tostabilize your foot completely
and you're not going to be ableto, it's not going to be able to
move, basically.
And he was like I think you'llbe able to do that.
And I was like okay, great.
So my husband and I rented aPeloton.
Obviously we.
We weren't sure if we weregoing to like it, of course,
because it's, you know, it's oneof those things where people
are very polarized over thisPeloton, which makes zero sense
to me because the only benefitswe've found from it have been
(33:45):
exceptionally positive, like tothe point of like a positive
addiction to exercise.
But he was absolutely right inthat the cycling shoes are hard
on the bottom and they have aclip and they hold your foot
completely steady and flat andthere is absolutely no pressure
on the arch and on the plantarfascia.
So I was able to ride.
(34:05):
I couldn't ride long but Icould ride and there was an
instructor.
There is an instructor on theplatform named Jen Sherman, and
Jen Sherman taught a ride thatwas different than everybody
else, kind of on the platform,and it's a low impact ride and
it's a special ride where youdon't leave the saddle, you
don't stand up, and it is forpeople who are recovering from
injury.
It is for people who can'tstand up, it's for people who
(34:29):
want to put less, you know,stress on their joints.
And through these rides I wasable to gain strength, gain
fitness, gain cardiovascularfitness and lose a lot of weight
.
Then I couldn't think, becauseI had.
I had lost, I guess, 35 to 40pounds between April and like
(34:51):
July.
And in July I was starting toprepare for Fanchula in Beijing
and I could not.
I had a wobble that was like asbig as a Mack truck.
It was so bad because I didn'thave as much surface area
anymore to push on.
And so my teacher said, Jen,you have to start lifting
(35:13):
weights.
And I was like, ah, I didn't.
I have no idea how to liftweights, what to do, nothing
like that.
But the Peloton platform hasstrength training and I found,
through exploration in the app,some amazing women instructors
that were incrediblyinspirational and incredibly
(35:33):
generous in how they plan theirprogramming for people who have
never lifted weights before andwant to learn.
You know, and, and there thereis a platform there where you
can start from absolutelynothing and not knowing anything
, and they will teach you how todo a deadlift and break it down
, and it's really, it'sfantastic.
And so in July I startedlifting and that was the game
(35:57):
changer right there, the minuteI started lifting weights, the
weight just melted off.
I became stronger in my singing, I became stronger in my heart,
I became stronger in myconviction, in my confidence in
in everything you know.
Lift heavy, sing heavy, myteacher says.
And it really.
(36:18):
It gave me so much strength andinternal strength, not just
external strength, internalstrength.
I felt like I can do this, Ican repair, I can build myself
back up again.
And so since July I have beendoing that and it has changed my
life.
And they only recently addedkettlebells to the Peloton
platform and I'm obsessed withthem because it's cardio and
(36:42):
lifting weights at the same timeand I literally wake up every
day excited to go in my littlehome office gym and ride that
bike and lift the weights andbetter myself, my body, my
singing.
I mean it's literallylife-changing, from having that
(37:02):
injury and really just feelingbroken to feeling stronger than
I ever have in my life, to beingsmaller than I ever have in my
life.
I literally have given all ofmy clothes away because none of
them fit.
Whoever shops the Goodwill inFort Myers, Florida like gets
like some real amazing designerfinds because I'm taking
everything there and justdonating it all.
(37:24):
It's been an amazing journey andmy singing has never felt
better because I can actuallyfeel my singing.
I can feel my singing in myentire body and I always did
before as well, but now I feelit in a different way.
Now I really feel how toutilize my back and my lats and
my pelvic floor and my deep coreand all of these things and
it's a really.
It's incredibly inspiring, butit's also I'm also incredibly
(37:47):
proud of myself.
You know, to have made thistransformation is it's something
I never thought I would be ableto do I've always struggled
with my weight my entire careerand to really look in the mirror
and go.
I'm really strong and I lookawesome and I can't wait, you
know, to step on stage and havepeople hear what I have to give
and see who I am and and notfeel any doubt with any of that.
(38:09):
It's just, it's an amazingfeeling.
So it's, it's been anincredible journey.
Elizabeth Bowman (38:13):
That's amazing .
It's lovely to hear you talkabout it and to feel your
confidence while you talk aboutit.
Thanks, I also love Peloton.
Jennifer Rowley (38:27):
I love that Peloton.
I I'm obsessed with it.
Sometimes we have guests in thehouse which require us to use
our Murphy bed.
That's in that same office, andso we have to move the Peloton
into our bedroom, my husband andI's bedroom.
I can't sleep.
I literally cannot sleep withthat Peloton in the room.
I want to ride it, I want to beon it.
I like want to be on it all day.
I don't want to do anythingelse and I can't sleep and I'm
up in the middle of the nightLike when is it time?
When can I wake up and ride thedamn Peloton?
(38:49):
It's terrible.
Elizabeth Bowman (38:50):
They also have really great yoga classes on
there and everything isfantastic the stretching, the
yoga, the mobility.
Jennifer Rowley (38:56):
I just took for the first time a hip mobility
class on there.
Oh my God, it was amazing.
Elizabeth Bowman (39:06):
My hips felt incredible after like just
absolutely amazing, so muchincredible stuff on there.
So you raise an interestingpoint here in terms of the core
strength and then itsrelationship with the singing,
which you know is no surprise.
Like if you have that core andpelvic floor strength, then
you're going to be a strongersinger.
These things need to beunderscored in school.
I think yeah they do.
(39:27):
When you're a younger singer.
That's why.
Jennifer Rowley (39:29):
I'm underscoring them online.
Yeah, because it's not beingtaught.
I can't tell you how manysingers I see master classes
lessons at ARIA bootcamp whohave zero foundation of breath
zero, whose teachers have toldthem expand your ribs and hold
them out and that's what theyhave learned about breathing and
they haven't learned how thebreathing mechanism actually
(39:50):
works.
And we are masters of musicwith no basis in anatomy and
physiology and we have spenthundreds of thousands of dollars
on education and we can't tellsomeone how the body actually
works to create airflow andcompression, to bring the cords
together, and it is a.
It's a damn shame.
It's a damn shame, yeah, butit's something that I am trying
(40:14):
to educate singers on throughthe online platforms.
Of course, I have a lot ofposts about fitness for singing
and a lot of posts on how to usethe fitness to strengthen the
singing, because that isactually exceptionally important
.
I do a lot of collaborationalso with the musical athlete,
who is a biomechanics expert.
Chris is absolutely incredible.
I mean, he is one of the mostmajor cheerleaders for whole
(40:39):
body singing at this point andhis information is second to
none.
And it's amazing some of thevideos he puts out.
There was a video that Iabsolutely adored, maybe last
year, or something, where hetalked about foot contact and
pelvic floor use and how thepelvic floor actually won't
connect if your big toe is upoff the floor, and why and a lot
of singers stand with theirtoes up off the floor like back
(41:01):
on their heels, and it's nowonder they can't connect to
their support and how you haveto find full foot contact in
order to get pelvic floorsupport, which then gets you for
full core closure.
It's it's amazing how the bodyworks from just a little toe,
you know.
But all of these things aresuper important to learn, and I
cannot tell you how many peopleargue with me online about how
(41:23):
singers should not work on deepcore.
Singers should not do abs,quote unquote and yes, you
shouldn't do abs, absolutelyLike we don't want to tighten
our abdomen in order to support.
That's not what we're talkingabout.
We want to strengthen all thestuff around it.
We don't.
I don't need abs, but deep coreis not talking about abs.
(41:44):
It's very different.
Elizabeth Bowman (41:45):
Very, very different, even if you
strengthen your abs, even if youdo.
Let's just say it's figure outhow to sing around them it's
also about when you're learningto strengthen your body.
You're learning how to relax itand then contract it, and then
relax and contract, so it's notlike you're putting yourself
into a spasm, exactly.
Jennifer Rowley (42:07):
And a healthy muscle, when it's relaxed, is
malleable.
A healthy muscle is loose andjiggly and free right, and then
when it's relaxed, it's ready togo.
You know it's activated andthat's.
You know.
The breathing mechanism is thesame.
It's that release andactivation.
But I can't tell you how manypeople argue with me online and
(42:29):
I literally have to be like look, it's my channel, it's my video
and I'm going to put out theinformation that I know is right
.
You can argue with me as muchas you want.
The algorithm loves you for it.
Thank you so much for making myvideo go further, but you're
not going to change my mind.
It's not going to happen.
I'm living proof of it.
You're not going to change mymind.
Elizabeth Bowman (42:49):
Yeah it to me.
It makes zero sense that youwouldn't strengthen your body in
order to be a stronger singer.
The body is an amazing thing.
Jennifer Rowley (42:59):
And how would cardiovascular health not help
you as a performer on stage?
How would cardiovascularstamina not be beneficial to a
five-hour-long Wagner opera thatyou have to stand on stage the
whole time because you're Votanor whatever?
Even Tosca Tosca the role thatI've done the most in my career
(43:22):
is an hour and 20 somethingminutes of actual singing, not
resting.
Actual singing right, she's onstage the whole night, but
actual singing is an hour and 20minutes.
That's a lot of singing andit's not soft.
There's a lot of instruments toget over and the entirety of
act.
Two is literally you managingyour heart rate the whole time
(43:44):
so that you don't get out ofbreath Because as your heart
rate elevates in the emotion ofthat act and in the movement of
that act, and especially if youhave a very active staging where
you're being thrown on thefloor and picked up and thrown
and this and that, the otherthing you have to manage the up
and down of your heart rate inorder to keep your breathing
(44:06):
steady so you can actually sing.
How do we do that if we don'thave cardiovascular stamina
aerobically?
So I don't understand theargument of no exercise for
singers.
I really don't get it.
Elizabeth Bowman (44:16):
It makes no sense to me.
It's like saying the earth isflat and the earth is round.
Jennifer Rowley (44:21):
Anyway, boy, they will argue on Facebook.
Oh, they love to argue onFacebook.
Elizabeth Bowman (44:28):
I feel like I could talk to you for several
hours on this podcast, but Igotta, I gotta wrap it up.
Several hours on this podcast,but I gotta, I gotta wrap it up,
but um, thank you so much forcoming and my pleasure,
absolutely my pleasure, and Ihope everyone will go to your
channels and check your contentout.
And also, everyone should gofor a walk and uh, you know, get
(44:50):
that cardiovascular, absolutely.
Jennifer Rowley (44:53):
Health going, and mental health too.
I mean, exercise gives usendorphins.
Endorphins make us feel good.
We sing better when we feelgood.
It all makes sense, you know.
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