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The Scene Room
The Scene Room Podcast spotlights the movers and makers redefining the performing arts—focusing on innovative marketing, leadership, and the importance of collaboration. Hosted by Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bowman, with a keen eye on audience trends and cultural shifts, the goal is to explore how artists and organizations are connecting with communities, shaping the future, and redefining what it means to engage and inspire.
The Scene Room
Christian Van Horn — Voice, Power, Authenticity
Christian Van Horn joins us for a refreshingly candid conversation about the evolving opera landscape and the challenges emerging artists face today. The renowned bass-baritone, currently performing at Paris Opera (as Philippe II in Verdi's Don Carlos), shares how traditional career trajectories have dramatically lengthened, with young artists often remaining in training programs well into their late thirties – a stark contrast to his own path.
"We are the media now," he asserts, explaining how his successful podcast (CVH Podcast) unexpectedly transformed not just his connection with audiences but his entire approach to performing. "It gave me power to be me," he reveals, describing how the confidence to be authentic on his podcast translated directly to greater artistic freedom on stage.
Our discussion ventures into provocative territory regarding talent development, with Christian offering a compelling perspective on what truly matters beyond technical proficiency. While acknowledging the solid foundation young singers receive, he argues passionately that emotional connection is what separates great singers from truly exceptional artists: "I didn't give the award to the most technically sound singers. I gave the awards to the ones that made me feel something."
The conversation also explores innovation in concert formats, the role of physical fitness in performance longevity, and the pursuit of authenticity in an industry often dominated by external criticism. Christian's insights offer a masterclass in career resilience and artistic integrity for performers at any stage. Whether you're an aspiring opera singer, established performer, or simply curious about the inner workings of classical music, this episode delivers wisdom that transcends the opera world.
Have you experienced the power of embracing authenticity in your own creative work? Share your thoughts and join the conversation.
All episodes are also available in video form on our YouTube Channel. All episodes are hosted by Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bowman.
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Hi, I'm Elizabeth Bowman and welcome to the Scene Room. Today I have bass baritone Christian Van Horn here. He is a regular with opera companies all over the world, currently singing with Paris Opera, and I've seen him many times on the Metropolitan Opera Stage. He also has a very successful podcast, the CVH Podcast. Today we talk about the opera industry, what emerging artists are facing as they carve out their careers in today's climate, and more. If you're enjoying the podcast, please do not hesitate to like, share, review, do all the little things to help keep these conversations going. We really appreciate it. And now let's get to the conversation. Christian, welcome to the scene room. Thanks so much for coming.
Christian Van Horn:Thank you for having me Glad to be here.
Elizabeth Bowman:Where are we podcasting from?
Christian Van Horn:I am sitting in my apartment in Paris right now.
Elizabeth Bowman:And what are you doing in Paris?
Christian Van Horn:I'm in the middle of the Don Carlos at the Paris Opera.
Elizabeth Bowman:I've heard so many great things about that production and your About the production All right. Well, in particular about your performance in that production I, you know, I haven't seen the production.
Christian Van Horn:It's my first fill-up, yeah, and it's been going great. You know, I think I waited 25 years to finally sing this one and it's going according to plan.
Elizabeth Bowman:That's great, and when's it running? Until?
Christian Van Horn:April 24th is the last performance.
Elizabeth Bowman:So not much longer. Paris is run by my old boss, Alexander Neef.
Christian Van Horn:He runs it well boy.
Elizabeth Bowman:I used to be his executive assistant.
Christian Van Horn:Is that right?
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah, in 2009, 2010, when he came to the Canadian Opera Company. So, yeah, we worked very closely together.
Christian Van Horn:Alexander's great. He's just one of the best Surprising you know for a young man. I guess he's young. I mean, I say young but he's basically my age, but he runs it. He runs it like he was born to do it.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah, when he came to Toronto for the Canadian opera job, he was only 34.
Christian Van Horn:So Right he still kind of looks 34. He's amazing, he's not aging. I played Mephistopheles a lot in Faust and I'm not so sure he'd make a deal with somebody. He looks good.
Elizabeth Bowman:I want to talk to you. I'm sure you're on podcasts and radio interviews all the time talking about your career and your journey in voice and stuff. I want to talk to you more about the state of the industry right now. That's way more interesting. So I'm going to start with the path of young artists today and how it differed from your path as an artist. So what it takes for emerging singers now to carve out a sustainable career, in your opinion, in today's industry.
Christian Van Horn:Honestly, I think I was too dumb to know how hard it was at the time and I had a pretty standard go. How that compares to today I'm not real sure. I went from grad school to young artist program, to regional work, to a Fest contract, to international work and it all sort of happened in two-year intervals and it seemed like every time I was placed a new spot I kind of leveled up to ready me for the next place and that was idyllic. Today the kids are, they're young artists until their late 30s. I can't even fathom that. I think any young singer doing it now really wants it, because they're setting themselves up for a much longer process than I did.
Christian Van Horn:That's not to say that I didn't go through a long process. It was a long time before anybody knew who I was, but I was at least being paid to sing pretty early on. You know, by the time I left Chicago as a young artist in 2006, I was a working musician. I've never had any other job but singing since college. It just went the way it seemed it was supposed to. Nowadays the kids are. They go from graduate program to graduate program. They have to go to a young artist. You know some of them are paying to sing. I can't even, you know, like these god-awful pay-to-sing things. And then young artists until they're 35, I had people cover me as young artists who were just a few years younger than me. It's mind-blowing. If you see a singer going for it today, they really want it. There's nobody doing it halfway. And if they are doing it halfway they're going to learn pretty quick that this is not for them.
Christian Van Horn:No-transcript You're lucky to get a few a year, especially when you're a student. You know, I think when I was in grad school you had four opera performances total, a recital, a couple of master classes. You were lucky to sing in front of people. We had studio class, which not everybody took advantage of, but I tried to. If there was studio class, I forced myself to sing. Just because you need the repetitions of performing in front of people.
Christian Van Horn:I get weary of anybody who wants you to pay to sing, but at the same time, if you don't have any other opportunity, I guess it's a viable route. You know, I remember the comedian Seth Rogan and he was talking to Jerry Seinfeld and Jerry asked him if he had done any standup and he says oh yeah, I did stand up when I first started in comedy and he says I thought I wanted to be a standup comedian until I met somebody who really wanted to be a standup comedian. And so I think I think that really pertains to what we do that if you're not fully obsessed, fully in, fully ready to say yes to almost anything, it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough because there's, there are people willing, willing, ready and able, and some people are ready to pay to sing to get that experience and I can't fault them, I can't fault people for trying anything.
Elizabeth Bowman:It sort of reminds me of. So my background is in PR and marketing and that kind of thing. But there was this magazine, which I won't name, that would write to me and ask if I wanted to pay for CD reviews. You know, preview articles.
Christian Van Horn:Can they be good cd reviews yeah, no, they.
Elizabeth Bowman:They basically say between the lines that it's like wink, wink, here's your review and you just pay us five I write it too yeah five, six hundred dollars and we'll publish this review for you.
Christian Van Horn:Oh, it's the end of the world.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah, and this was happening. Like 10 years ago this was happening, so not I mean, that's a long time and it's gotten worse now because now there's social media and influencers.
Christian Van Horn:I've given up on reviews. I've given up on somebody else doing any PR for us. I think we can be the media now. That's why I have my own podcast, that's why I have in charge of all of my social channels, that's why I have help with all of my social channels. We are the media now. I'm not going to wait for a record company or an opera house or anyone, frankly, to try and do my bidding because they're just they're not interested. It's not a thing anymore.
Elizabeth Bowman:Exactly, try and do my bidding, because they're just, they're not interested, it's not a thing anymore. Exactly, but yes, we were speaking, before we turned the mics on, about authenticity and this idea that this publication was known within the inner circles maybe not the outer circles of being this sort of corrupt magazine and if you did have a review or a preview in that magazine then people would know that you paid to play, and so there's this element of it showed you were serious to play and all of this talk of equality and diversity and you know, within the programs and emerging artists and and this kind of thing, and then having to pay thousands of dollars for these programs yeah which obviously only a certain portion can afford.
Elizabeth Bowman:It doesn't play into the equality well,
Christian Van Horn:I'm not sure that it was meant to. But, um, the all inclusive part of classical music is an important conversation. I'm of the position, be it correct or not, that best audition, best cellist, best maestro, best director should always win. Yeah, and that should never be based on any other factor, anything, anything other than that, and I think you're losing the quality of the product. Is there an imbalance? For sure there is. Is it being corrected? I hope so. I only want the best thing out there at all times, regardless of any other mitigating factor. That's not the time we live in, maybe, but I think we're starting that correction is righting itself a little bit. It was certainly imbalanced, that's for sure, but give it more time before it looks better. I think they put a big bandaid on it. Didn't really address the problem.
Elizabeth Bowman:No, I'm just saying that these programs don't necessarily play into the solution.
Christian Van Horn:No, I don't think so.
Christian Van Horn:Yeah, and then it puts people at a disadvantage, obviously, who might be extremely talented. I wouldn't tell anybody to pay to sing. I wouldn't tell anybody to pay to get reviewed. I don't think you can really stop talent. I don't think talent's going to get missed. I don't think we've ever had a paparotti slip through our fingers. You know what I mean. I think if you're great, you'll be heard. I remember my former agent who's retired now and we were together for over 20 years, and she said I didn't like singers who cold called me because if I was supposed to know about you I would. And that's a harsh reality, but it's the truth, and so I don't think real talent is ever going to get missed. Are there opportunities early on that could advance things faster? For sure, For sure, that's true. But the best is not going to get swept under the rug Never.
Elizabeth Bowman:Especially now, as you say you are the news, like you the royal, you are the news. You are empowered with your channels to get your message across.
Christian Van Horn:If you are putting your performances online in a way that you are satisfied with that, I like being in control of it, that if you search my name, the first 15 things to show up is something that I'm in control of. I think we're foolish not to be in control of it. Why would you let anybody else handle your brand? We live in a time where we can be in charge of what's seen and not seen for the most part. Look, if I have a bad night and somebody takes a video and puts it on YouTube, that's you know. I have no control over that, but the major thing is where we go for information about someone. I think you're foolish not to control it, and it's easily handled.
Elizabeth Bowman:Speaking of how you control your narrative and your content when you're working within these big opera houses, which you do and they have, like what are the rules in place for how much you can film the?
Christian Van Horn:rules are getting loose. It used to be pretty hardcore when I started. I'll tell you how old I am Nobody had a camera in rehearsal. There was no cell phone, so there was no camera, and on occasion, somebody might have a digital recording device or even a tape recording device, if you can imagine and these things were frowned upon big time the unions had a stranglehold on what could be recorded. If we're not selling our music in my case, with every breath it's just not going to be found. Otherwise, we don't have recording companies. Nobody's making money off recordings Literally nobody.
Christian Van Horn:It's a completely futile endeavor, and so if somebody takes a little 20 second clip in a rehearsal and it puts it up on their Instagram, and that gets a ton of traffic, 20,000 people look at it in three days and it sells a few tickets. Thank God, we need that. We absolutely need that. And so there was a time where you could not pull out a cell phone and take a video. They give you a book of rules. As soon as you walk in the room and say the following things you can't do, people are kind of turning a blind eye to it. Now we can put out a lot more, and if somebody doesn't want you to put it out or somebody in hindsight wants you to take it down. Probably it's already been seen. We're having a hard time controlling video. Now Everybody's got a camera in their hands. Everything's being captured.
Christian Van Horn:Opening night of Don Carlo here. Look, 20 videos show up on YouTube within an hour of the curtain. To try and get all those down, anybody who's interested has probably already seen it, and so I like that. It's loosening. I think we need to scout what we do. I think every time somebody opens up their cell phone, I hope they see what we do, whether it's me or somebody else, or just like repeating that this is great, the message that this is worthwhile, this art form is worth looking at and worth enjoying and worth investing in or even having your first look at. I think we have to repeat that with every breath because it will go away. If you don't live in somebody's cell phone, you don't really exist in that business. You exist in the world. Your friends and families love you, but if you want to exist in the classical world, you have to exist on somebody's phone. It's this dumb. I'm absolutely convinced it's this stupid.
Elizabeth Bowman:I talk about this particular thing on the episode that will air the week before your episode with David Lamelli, because I've had a lot of experience. David's a big believer.
Christian Van Horn:He's a big believer in this and he taught me a lot of what I know. I mean, he's a huge proponent of say it as many times as you can.
Elizabeth Bowman:My experience is backstage as a publicist. I mean publicists tend not to be liked that much, or they in the past, I mean because we wanted to push the envelope and cover these.
Christian Van Horn:yeah, well you guys had the ideas. You were like let's think outside the box. How can we say this again? You know, we're trying to say the same thing in as many ways as possible to bring as many people to the table. We are people, are storytellers, and that's our story needs to be told if you want to stay, if you want to keep going, if you want to grow. I try to remember that this is a business. I'm running a business and once I realized that my socials weren't for my friends and family, but they were for my business. It was a lot easier. It was all this pressure was off and just said yes, how do I bring as many people to the table as possible?
Elizabeth Bowman:That's a good reframing of how to create your content. I want to ask you, going in a different direction now. Concert formats they've been the same for well, I don't know how long, for a long time where we arrive and then we have, you know, our first half usually, and then there's an intermission, and then the second half, and even with the repertoire choices, you know you start with Bach and then you start moving through the periods and then by the end you have your party song.
Christian Van Horn:You nailed it. That's Recital 101.
Elizabeth Bowman:So I just want to ask you. I mean, we're trying to innovate, trying to bring in new audiences, trying new things. Is it time to tackle the concert format?
Christian Van Horn:I think we absolutely have to. I never like to go. No, that's not true. I saw Brain Tarrifle sing super songs at Carnegie Hall 25 years ago and it was a religious experience and it was sold out.
Christian Van Horn:I don't believe the American audience, the American audience wants this anymore. I think you have a hard time keeping their attention. I think they want to be a part of it. There's an interactive nature to what we do. They want to be involved, be invested. They want to know the artists, they want to know, they want to engage personally in a lot of ways and I have something in the works now where I'm going to be doing half recital of music.
Christian Van Horn:I love, not necessarily classical music, but with my voice. That's going to be the first half and the second half is going to be a live podcast. I've told enough of my audience to know that they would show up for this and we're going to run the podcast as just as I do in my home studio here. But we're going to do it for a live audience and we're going to have that interaction, that interface, that that communication. We've got to try something. There are artists who can go and sing Vinterreise and get a sold out audience. The number of people that can do that is becoming less and less in the States. That's something that can do a little bit better in Europe, a lot better. But to get people to show up to a concert in America, we have to start thinking outside the box for sure. I don't think there's any other way. Let's try it all you know. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
Elizabeth Bowman:I love that idea and I actually want to ask you about your podcast, because I think that that is such a great way to connect with your audience and it brings out many layers in that you're interviewing a lot of your colleagues there. What inspired you to start the podcast in the first place?
Christian Van Horn:Well, I did during COVID and I needed a place to vent. I needed to connect to the audience. I needed to use my voice. I felt silenced. We all did. This is years ago now.
Christian Van Horn:I'm not complaining about COVID, but it was time to try new things and I got the absolute best equipment money could buy because I needed it to sound good. If a podcast doesn't sound good, it does not have my interest, and so I made sure to get the highest end microphones and until I had a guest in the room, it was just me, and I still do plenty episodes. That's just me and we catch up on what's going on or whatever I want to talk about. I rarely have a plan. I do not have talking points. I turn the microphones on and I go. They're all about 20, 25 minutes long and then, if I have a guest, it could go for an hour, two hours. I've gone three hours. You know it's not unusual if we're having a good time.
Christian Van Horn:It surprised me. The initial interest didn't surprise me because everybody was searching for something, but the growth since then has been phenomenal. I think that I've connected with the audience in a way that I get a lot of messages about it and people want to continue the conversation. What I hear more than anything else is people say I feel like I'm sitting there with you. I feel like I'm at the table with friends and we're laughing and we're talking and I can't imagine a better compliment.
Christian Van Horn:I want it to be that welcoming and that natural, because that's all it is. It's just me sitting with a friend. We turn on the microphones and we talk as if you know, some people are uncomfortable and you have to like, lean into it and work into it. But once you just realize you're chatting with a pal with genuine interest in what they're doing, it's show business central. I don't have just singers, I have actors or comedians and we're just talking about show business and we love it, we're obsessed with it. I'm obsessed with show business and all its facets, and so when you're fascinated with something and you're talking with other people fascinated with it, you can't help but to engage. People want to be a part of it. They want to hear what you're so excited about. Plenty of my people that listen have nothing to do with classical music.
Elizabeth Bowman:Has the podcast changed the way that you look at your career or the industry in general?
Christian Van Horn:It's a great question. It gave me power. It gave me power to be me and I think in turn, without sounding too pretentious, that I took the confidence of being able to just be me. I was just me on the podcast, without any filter, and it was popular, and so I said you need to do this in your performance. You need to do exactly what you think you're supposed to do and not really worry about what somebody else's idea of what you're supposed to do is. And in that way, as an artist, I became free and I'm certain that I grew as an artist because I just decided just do your podcast.
Christian Van Horn:Your performance is your podcast. Yes, we have to honor what's on the page, we have to honor the music, we have to honor the composer. We're doing all of those things. But when it came to the storytelling part, I said it's me or they can find somebody else that has paid tremendous dividends and just talking for 275 episodes, you lose your fear of being you, and that's what I think a lot of performers have. They're scared of being you, and that's what I think a lot of performers have. They're scared of being themselves. They're pretending to be a singer or they're pretending to be an actor or they're pretending to be a character. So just don't pretend it. Be it Actually. Be it in that moment. Make it real. If you need to cry, cry. If you need to laugh out loud, laugh out loud. That was the everything changed for me in that journey of the podcast. It's an odd thing to say, but it opened as many doors as anybody I've met along the way.
Elizabeth Bowman:It's ironic that it's the hardest thing to teach to just be yourself, and I've also been through this journey of learning to be myself, you know, and I feel like I've only really concretely succeeded in this in my 40s.
Christian Van Horn:You know it, you know when you're doing it because it feels good.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah.
Christian Van Horn:It feels correct. I think so often we spend so much time in training, right? Especially as a classical musician for 15 years, I was surrounded by people telling me how terrible I was. You're constantly being corrected. You're in rehearsal even today, and people are a little more nervous to walk up to me and tell me small things, but I'm still bombarded with people saying this needs to be like the little. There's 85 people in the room justifying a paycheck, trying to tell you how to be better and you go. You know what? Everybody be quiet. Everybody be quiet. This is going to go very well. If I'm just me, I had to silence a lot of that or filter it. Take it in respectfully and filter it. We're trained to think that we're doing it wrong, so that when you do have a personal idea, you go oh, maybe that's wrong, maybe my instincts are wrong, not at this point. You're not going to be an artist for 25 years and not have something good to say. You wouldn't have made it this far.
Elizabeth Bowman:I wasn't going to ask you about this, but it does sort of tie in to this authenticity point. You're obviously very fit. I see that you're very fit Smoking mirrors. But you do have a commitment to your health and wellness, and this also plays into the role of confidence.
Christian Van Horn:Absolutely being comfortable in your body is a big part of that. Sure.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah. So can I ask has this always been part of your life, or is this something that you sort of doubled down on at a certain point?
Christian Van Horn:Yeah, I mean, I've always I've had a gym membership for God knows how long I believed in exercise. For sure I come from athletes and so you know there's not a job in this world that is not improved by you being healthier. I'm not a dancer, but you know like I certainly take care of how I look More because it's one of the few things in this business that you can control. My views may be controversial. Some people say, oh, I can't, I don't want to lift weights because you know it would hurt my voice. I don't partake in that at all. If you feel healthy, you sing healthy, and as long as you're not lifting more than you should or grunting or something like this, you should be just fine. With lightweight training, Uh, I had to do a show where I was half dressed for a good portion of the show and that put the fear of God in me.
Christian Van Horn:And it wasn't that I wasn't fit. I was, but I didn't look half dressed ready for thousands. And what I? My? My worst fear came true. But I had my worst fear eight months prior, so I fixed it.
Christian Van Horn:And my worst fear was that I was going to be half dressed on the cover of the New York times, and that is exactly what happened there. I was half dressed in the cover of the art section of the New York times and thank God that I was happy with the way I looked. I wasn't entirely happy, but I was way, but I was happy with what I had done to that point. And look, we're paid to be looked at and listened to. I think it's crazy to not try and look presentable. There are some people who sing so well they can look like anything, or they sing repertoire. That's so impossible that only two people do it that they can look the way they look, but the second those genres get flooded. You're going to see even the Wagnerians start to look like models, because it's that next aspect that makes you stand out. It might not be for everybody, but I can attest to how it pays out for me.
Elizabeth Bowman:I also work out quite a bit. I'm a runner, I run a lot, but I started out I was recovering from a surgery shortly after the pandemic and it actually gave me license to slow right down, because when you're recovering from surgery, there's no ego in the equation right. Our egos get the best of us. Yes, they do. Yeah, we're like, oh, I'm going to start running. So then you start, you just like run out the door and you know, and, and get injured and get humbled.
Elizabeth Bowman:But I started by speed walking and now you know I'm about to run my third marathon.
Christian Van Horn:Oh, amazing. I'm so impressed by marathon runners, so impressed.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah, I mean thank you, but it's the whole, the whole process of it. It's. It is this like spiritual thing for I think, most marathoners or runners in general, the training aspect of it. It's, it's not, it's mostly about mental health, I think.
Christian Van Horn:Yeah.
Elizabeth Bowman:And this whole journey because I started running three just over three years ago and I also quit drinking.
Christian Van Horn:Yeah, good one.
Elizabeth Bowman:Smart, so I feel good. I feel great, but I just it's sort of want. It's like I want people to know like all you need to do is get out there and speed walk and then just spend some time outside. It will change your life, even if you commit to even two miles of speed walking.
Christian Van Horn:Oh, just taking a walk every day is better than not taking a walk every day.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah.
Christian Van Horn:You know how simple is it to put your shoes on and go outside. You know, yeah, I don't ever think that anybody needs to be turned into a fitness model. That's for some people. I like to feel strong. I hurt my back last year in a performance in a rehearsal where I threw myself on the ground and I pinched a nerve in my lower back and I was laid up for five days and then I faked that I was okay, but I wasn't okay. I finally took anti-inflammatory drugs to calm this down. I was in so much pain and the doctor and it was over here in France. And the doctor said you are 46 years old. Most people don't throw themselves on the ground for three hours during a rehearsal. It just doesn't happen. You're moving in a way that's not very age appropriate. And she said if you were a professional athlete you would have been retired 10 years ago or more.
Christian Van Horn:This is a physical job and even just kneeling down on a hard stage and getting back up swiftly is a challenge. I sing Escamillo all the time in Carbon. I did one recently in San Francisco and I'm standing on the table singing the aria and at the end of the aria in the rehearsal the director says OK, now jump off the table onto the stage. I said I would never, I can't. My jumping off the table days are over. It wasn't good for me when I was 25 and I'll kill myself now.
Christian Van Horn:And so I work out so that I can maintain as much as I can, as I watch those parts get more and more difficult. Use it or lose it. I'm going to work out until I'm dead because it's the only thing that keeps me getting up in the morning. It's as much a mental thing as anything else. I hate going to the gym. I hate it, but I love leaving the gym having gone. I love that part, and so I remember that part when I'm, when I'm struggling. If I put my shoes on, I'll go. That's the best of battle. Put my shoes on.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah, I mean same same with the runners out there. If they say they'll run one mile, then they'll do more.
Christian Van Horn:Right, yeah, oh, they're going to do five miles today. Okay, 12 later, you know.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah, but yeah, no, I think that this plays, I mean the nutrition, the like you say control the variables you can control.
Christian Van Horn:Yes.
Elizabeth Bowman:Nutrition and then some movement in your life will bring a great deal of confidence. Oh yeah, and then obviously, the same discipline to your craft. So the practice.
Christian Van Horn:You know we're lucky to do this for a living. Plenty of people don't like their jobs. I think my dad didn't like his job and he did it for a long time and he liked what it got him. You know he liked that it took care of his family. But I don't think that he particularly enjoyed aspects of his job. And I get to sing songs and tell stories for a living. Shame on me if I don't stay disciplined to do that. There are people that would cut off their left arm to have a fraction of my schedule. How dare I not do everything in my power to do this as well as I can? I'm obsessed with staying in the game. Nobody knows when they're going to have their last show. We don't know Could be tonight. It's not going to be because I was lazy or because I didn't respect it or didn't appreciate what I had.
Elizabeth Bowman:Those are some good words. I want to take this in a different direction as we wrap up the conversation. What do you think they should be teaching in performing arts programs for the upcoming performers, whether they be a singer or I've been asked this a lot.
Christian Van Horn:It's a good question. The foundation needs to be solid. I'm surrounded by talent. Everybody I know is a great singer. There's nobody around me that isn't a great singer. This is already done. The foundation is clearly being taught to young singers. They can sing. If they're standing next to me, they can sing. If you would like to stand down front further, your voice must be unique. There's a lot of cookie cutter to the sound, the quality of the sound. There's a lot of generic, perfect techniques, if you will.
Christian Van Horn:I adjudicated a competition at the Eastman School of Music last month and I was the sole judge, and so I got to pick. The parameters were mine and I didn't give the award to the most technically sound singers. I gave the awards to the ones that made me feel something. That's what we have to aim for. It's a hard thing to teach students to let go, but the one that I gave the first prize to made me cry. If you can do that, you got a chance in this business. If you can make people feel you got a real chance. We need to teach people to go there. Go to that place, make it real.
Christian Van Horn:Don't apologize. There's an element of apology in what we do, because I think we're surrounded by too many people telling us we're wrong. Once you sort of accept that you have something to offer every chance you get. If you're good at this one little thing, lean into that with all your might. Tony Griffey made me cry when I went to see him sing. Erin Morley makes me cry when I hear her sing. There's, there's something in those performances where they could crack the high note. I don't care for one second, but because they've made me feel something, I go. That's what I want to be. I want people to feel something. The technique is there. Everybody sings well, that's not get past that. Think beyond that. That's what I hope they're teaching the kids, especially because they seem to have to train 10 more years than I did. If you have to go 10 more years to become an artist, become an artist. We've got plenty of singers. We don't need any more singers. We really don't.
Elizabeth Bowman:That brings us full circle, because you can't convey a message without knowing who you are yourself.
Christian Van Horn:That's true, you have to live a little bit.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah, having the confidence to speak. So that's, that's through your voice. And so all of this, all of this talk that we've had about confidence and authenticity and really cutting through, I always say honesty resonates and that's really it, like that is the X factor. That's where someone is coming through unfiltered and saying what they want to say, instead of in their head thinking, okay, I've got my high note coming up, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to let that stuff go.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah, you have to let it go and really focus on the message when the performance comes around, and you know I tell the story as clearly as you can.
Christian Van Horn:If you believe it, they'll believe it Exactly.
Elizabeth Bowman:I want to thank you so much for being on the podcast today.
Christian Van Horn:My pleasure. I love talking shop. I love talking the opera business, music business, show business, branding business this stuff excites me and we live in a great time where we're the storytellers. We're not waiting for people to tell our stories, we're telling them. I'm turned on by anybody who's in this field. I'm happy to chat with you.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah, I wanted you to be on the podcast, in particular because you exemplify this.
Christian Van Horn:Oh, thank you, I hope so.
Elizabeth Bowman:From the outside. I can see your channels, I can see everything.
Christian Van Horn:I have help Believe me. It takes a village. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
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