An interview article by Rosemary Phillips,
Spring 2008
Believe!
 |
Ken Lavigne |
Ken Lavigne believes. In fact, he believes so passionately he’s made a recording (his second) with songs like You Raise me Up, Because We Believe and his own creation I’m Coming Home – and called it ‘believe’. He has also taken a gigantic step to follow his heart and his dream of singing at Carnegie Hall in New York.
“I had an epiphany this last Christmas,” said this award-winning singer from his home in Chemainus, BC, where daughter Gracie was off to school and little Lucy was being taken by mother Alice to a mum’s social group. “Why am I waiting for something to happen?” continued Ken who has been a member of the original Canadian Tenors and Romanza and has appeared with orchestras across Canada and the US. To perform at Carnegie Hall is, for a singer, a huge accomplishment, rather like a mountaineer reaching the summit of Mount Everest. “I don’t want to wake up 20 years from now and wonder why I didn’t take the opportunity. I casually sent Carnegie Hall an e-mail with my biography. I got an immediate response that they’d love to have me.”
He took a deep breath. “The thing is, this is my dream; this is what I want to do. The important thing is that I am on the stage to sing my heart out. I’m the eternal optimist!”
And sing he does, with a magnificent tenor voice that is both naturally beautiful and clear; a touch of Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli but distinctly Ken Lavigne. And like preparing for a mountain climb, before he goes to Carnegie Hall in January 2009 he’s warming up with performances of his favourite songs (accompanied by a lush 40-piece orchestra conducted by Simon Capet) in concerts for his Island fans!
“To have people know me gives me the confidence to try the big thing. These are my friends, people I know who come to the shows. It’s nice to live in a community where you can risk and go out on a limb.”
Ken has fans from one end of the Island to the other and thousands will remember him from his solo performance at Symphony in the Harbour 2005 with the Vancouver Island Symphony. There’s something special about him, besides his wonderful voice; he’s non-pretentious, just Ken, telling his stories like he’s relaxed in your own living room.
“I first got into music in my late teens,” he said with a chuckle. “My choir teacher said that if I wanted to go to university I should try out for the UVic music program. I went for the audition and waited my turn in the hallway alongside all these confident sopranos. I’d hear them through the door, then they’d come out shaking. I asked what they were singing and they’d say; Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven. I thought, ‘who?’ Then it dawned on me that maybe there was an expectation of something in another language. I only had two songs that I knew by memory; I did Danny Boy. They must have liked it. That song helped me get my student loan. I do it now for every show.”
Ken has been singing professionally since his graduation and he takes his music very seriously, but not himself. “I want to do an impeccable job,” he added laughing, “but as for myself, I am human. I need to engage the audience and talk about the music. I share stories about the songs and about my life, whatever comes to mind.”
On the program are songs that will touch every heart - The Prayer, Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Song of the Mira, Nessum Dorma, Hymn a l’amour by Edith Piaf and of course, Danny Boy.
An evening with Ken will have you believing that you can do anything when you put your heart to it – for Ken is doing just that.
For more information visit Ken Lavigne's
web
site. Take in the awesome video of Ken on the Road to Carnegie Hall; he not only tells you his dreams he talks about the music and you see and hear him in performance! It's well worth the viewing - but what is even better - is to see him live on stage. His new site also includes information on the Carnegie concert and on the opportunity for fans to make the trip to the Big Apple and experience New York, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Theatre and much more.
Note: There are many more articles on this site.
Follow the link to view the Index
of Articles.
Go to Top of Page |
