I’ve just spent the last two and a half weeks working on Julia Wade’s new Inspirational music CD, Every Day. (Read more about Julia’s new CD at her Inspiratus blog.)

She took a “vacation” from her job in Boston where she is the soloist at the world headquarters of the Christian Science Church.

It’s one of those jobs where people think she shows up on Sunday and sings a couple of services and that’s about it, but, in reality, it’s pretty much a full-time job considering all the preparation, research, rehearsal and administrative work she puts into it.

So the perception in Boston is that Julia is on vacation, but the reality is that she moves from one difficult, totally time consuming job to one that is probably at least twice as intense.  That’s the job of recording an album.

Singing on a high professional level and the blood, sweat and tears that go into that endeavor often have the result of making the final task, the performance itself, look easy and natural.  That’s the idea.  A performer should look and feel like they’re having a good time up there and are living the experience gracefully, flawlessly and easily.

If only people knew.

Now we all have jobs and many of us feel under appreciated.  Most jobs are filled with the minutiae of detail that when done right go under the radar of the average Joe.  Many of us wish at times that somebody else knew just how much work we had really put into the completion of a task.  Honestly, most people don’t care.  They just want it done.

It’s the same with singing, only often more so.  It’s more so because the perception by most people is that the actual act of singing is so easy.  If you’re talented, just open your mouth and sing!  What could be easier than that?

Well, I’m here to tell ya’ today that it just ain’t so.  I know.  I’m a witness.

To perform on the high level that Ms Wade does takes an unbelievable dedication, concentration, commitment and yes, blood, sweat and tears.  I’ve just watched her up close go through a month of preparation and performance that would normally wilt the average Jane.

And for the many of us who have come to know the work of Ms Wade, she is definitely not the average Jane.  Blessed with a powerful instrument to begin with (her voice), she studied and sang classical music for many years, and her career as an opera singer climaxed most fitfully at one of the world’s great opera houses, The Rome Opera.

About that time, sensing deeply that there were another directions to explore, she re-invented herself and moved her talents and instrument production to a much more accessible sound and style in order to reach even a larger audience.  She undertook a transformation that has been tried most unsuccessfully by many of the world’s greatest singers – the daunting task of changing her voice from classical to pop.

Most singers who try this never figure it out.  The classical production and techniques are just too different and ensconced in the performer and so the change over is never fully made.  But Julia is smart as well as talented.  She studied, she listened, she found the right teachers who understood the differences between the two styles and worked with her helping her morph into a new voice.

It took her about ten years.  Was she out of action during that time?  No, in fact she worked constantly as a church soloist, a Broadway voice, a pop enthusiast, and still a classical professional.  In that ten-year period I was privileged to be able to watch her make the transition and even play a role in the transformation.

So is she now a rock n’ roller?  No, that would be a waste of a great instrument – nothing against rock n’ roll.  Julia has become what the world now understands to be a Classical Crossover vocalist.  Think:  Josh Grobin, Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli.

In the past five years as soloist in Boston, she has lead a transformation of music in that church both retaining the classical excellence of the past and opening new vistas of contemporary, often more accessible music for others.  Through her own crossover, she has led a world-wide church transformation that has people more involved in the music of the church than ever and also has the youth pouring back through the doors of the church.

And now she will shift again.  In her new CD, though continuing to inspire through uplifting thought, she will take a more secular approach to its content.  The songs, many of which will still be sacred songs, will also speak of many of the issues in her life that grab her attention – world peace, love on a human scale and the myriad of relationships between people that she witnesses Every Day of her life.

So I’ve had the chance to watch her take this “vacation” time and turn it into a three-week onslaught of concentration and activity focused on the making of an album.  Between her daily vocal rehearsal on the 14 songs that will go on the CD choosing from over 40 initially selected as possibilities, her lyric study and acting dissemination of the song moments, her weekly vocal lessons with her voice teacher preparing the technical approaches to the difficulties each song presents and her preparation sessions with me, her producer and orchestrator, she also manages to run two divisions of Watchfire Music – the Digital Sheet Music and Customer Service.

You may ask, “When might she sleep?”  Without sleep, one cannot sing at such a high level.  She also has to be in perfect health and overall at the top of her game.  So she also sleeps and eats.

We’re at the end of this phase now.  Three songs in the can and eleven to go.  As I write to you, she sleeps, pretty much exhausted only to get up later this morning and greet and organize our staff coming in for the day and then begins to prepare her solo work for her return to Boston this coming weekend.

Here we are at the end of her vacation.  She’ll go back to Boston and everybody will say, “Welcome back, Julia.  We missed you.  Did you have a good vacation?  Did you get some rest?”

She’ll smile and say, “Well, I didn’t get much rest, but I had a great vacation.”

Next week we’ll record the 4^th song on the CD while she prepares her solos for the weekend.  In another month she’ll take another “vacation” for a couple of weeks and we’ll see if we can knock off another 3 or 4 songs.

If all goes well, we hope you’ll be able to give and get Julia Wades new CD, Every Day, for Christmas.

We’ll keep you posted.

For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link,
please visit Watchfire Music.