Before You Go: Opera Singer Strives to Support Aspiring Artists through Education and Progress

By Jim Pytell, Assistant Editor On May 29, 2017

Greatness manifests itself in many different ways, one of which is a person realizing he or she possesses a talent so profound that it has to be pursued.

“Some teachers I had instilled in me the value that if you have a great talent, you have the obligation to share it with others,” says world-renowned professional opera tenor, Michael Fabiano.

The Montclair native utilized his operatic talent and has vaulted into a hugely successful career in the field. He performs at the most important opera venues across the globe including the San Francisco Opera, New York’s Metropolitan Opera House and Paris Opera.

Fabiano’s top notch musical artistry is evident, but equally so is his devoted commitment to improving art education in order to help individuals realize and achieve success because of their own artistic talent.

Fabiano is the co-founder of ArtSmart, a foundation which provides free professional voice lessons to children in areas that lack adequate access to the arts.

“The last five years, I’ve been trying to conceive of ways for artists to monetize their careers and have more success in the vocation of music making,” says Fabiano, who also wants to help artists find more dignity in what they’re doing. “[One] answer we found was teaching young adults who lack access to the arts.”

ArtSmart launched its pilot program at Newark East Side High School in September 2016. It was a huge success. The foundation’s popularity is growing, with agreements reached with two new schools in San Francisco and Philadelphia to start programming in September 2017.

Fabiano points out that there is also an opportunity for, and responsibility on the industry itself, to help mine new artistic talent, ensuring that the industry continues to grow.

“The opera industry is in a period of change. … I’ve found that the opera world tends to be 5 to 10 years behind the development of other industries – though there are certainly exceptions,” Fabiano says, suggesting that more emphasis needs to be placed on keeping up with rapid technological advances and evolving consumer habits.

“Today, people do things in a binge sense … [and] look at entertainment way differently than they did 10 years ago,” he adds. “I would recommend that presenters around the country start thinking about that [binge] model. [For example], they could present many different projects in a weekend so that people can literally binge on opera and classical music. This would help to attract people from many different communities other than just the one that is local.”

Fabiano has used his unique talent not only to carve out a life path for himself, but to educate children in the arts and provide a space for them to express themselves, as well as help to push his own industry in a direction of growth and progress.

“We know that music is transformational and that it is a rock, which is so essential in all of our lives,” he says. “We will show that it plays a wildly more essential role in the development of our youth, and we can’t wait to continue to share it more and more [through ArtSmart].”

 

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