I originally planned to go straight into law school and had taken the LSATs and sent off applications. My diversion into opera and theater resulted from volunteering during my last semester at UVA to sing a small opera scene for a doctoral student doing some of her research in the music department. She had been unearthing old French operas from the Baroque period and had to direct a scene from one as part of her program. She asked for students from the singing groups to assist her and I volunteered. I sang the tenor part of Sancho from “Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse” by Joseph Boudin de Boismortier. After completing the performance, the doctoral student-director told me she thought I should study opera and contacted four teachers in New York and Philadelphia to have me sing for them. That summer, I sang for two of the teachers in the small practice studios in Carnegie Hall.
Although I was not ready to move to New York at that time, I found a teacher in Washington, DC and two years later auditioned for and received a full scholarship to study opera at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.
I quickly learned I did not have a Pavarotti-sized voice, but found a lot of good work singing secondary character roles in opera and operetta, lead roles in American musical theater, and oratorio in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Chicago, Dayton, in Wisconsin, and at rotating repertory theaters in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida.
As with a lot of struggling performers, I did a lot of different things to try to branch out and pay the bills. I was an “extra” in the Movie “Natural Born Killers” and also was an extra in several episodes of “The Untouchables” television series. I did some “voice-over” work for radio ads, appeared in print ads and brochures for United Airlines, and was on the cover of a medical magazine. I was also the tenor voice on an educational series of CDs of children’s songs to teach English to non-native speakers.
After becoming a lawyer, I continued for a while singing with some of the professional choral groups in Washington, DC including the Bach Consort, and the Washington Opera Chorus. I have performed in several local Theater productions such as the Little Theater of Alexandria (where I met my wife). Since becoming a father, though, I have devoted my free time to my boy-girl twins who are now 9.
My prior life in music and theater still shows up every now and then, especially in our annual Christmas party. As a family, we always sing a special Christmas creation we have adapted from a popular song with lyrics that recount what has occurred during the past year. It must be ok, because people keep coming to our party.
I like to tell people that I lived a vagabond life for ten years until I decided I needed to direct my performance energies to something that had a steady salary and benefits. I believe my background has made me an effective trial lawyer, as conducting a trial is very much engaging the jury in following and accepting your story as opposed to your opponent’s. Although I have never sung out “objection” during a trial, my ability to convince a jury comes from persuasive speaking learned from performing in front of large audiences.