The Star Next Door

Roswell resident Jamie Barton is lighting up the international opera scene

Atlanta has long been recognized as a major center for the music industry. Many international music stars from all genres call the Big Peach home, from long-popular favorites like Elton John, Usher and André 3000, to the new and rising artists like Disney star Chyna Parks and rapper T.I. But few know that Roswell is home to not only an acclaimed mezzo-soprano, but possibly one of the best opera singers in the world.

Last June, Roswell resident Jamie Barton was crowned the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, one of opera’s most prestigious honors. The competition, held every two years and including representatives from each country, is referred to as “the Olympics of opera,” and has launched the international careers of several superstar artists, including Wales' own bass-baritone Bryn Terfel. Barton made competition history by walking away with not only the “Best Singer” crown, but also the award for “Song Prize,” the first woman in the history of the competition to do so.

It’s a long way from Rome, Georgia, where little Jamie started singing in her church. “I remember hearing my Dad harmonize while everyone else was singing the hymn melodies,” recalls Barton, “and asking him to teach me how to do that.  He taught me how to hear the harmonies and sing along with them.  I think this gave me a really wonderful musical ear from very early on."

Growing up on her family’s farm did not provide much exposure to opera. Instead, Barton grew up surrounded by classic rock and bluegrass. Several times a year, Barton’s extended family would gather together for Saturday night pot-luck dinners and jam sessions, instilling in her from an early age a deep love of music.

But while in high school, Barton visited Shorter College (now Shorter University) and saw a performance that would radically change her life. It was her first exposure to opera.

“Two wonderful singers, Elizabeth Claxton (Castillo) and Kellie Jenkins (Van Horn), were singing Fiordiligi and Dorabella in the music department's production of Mozart’s ‘Cosi Fan Tutte,’” said Barton. “It was the first time I'd heard live opera, and it was a hilarious production. I really enjoyed it!”

Taken with the world of opera and contemplating a career as a professional singer, after high school Barton enrolled at Shorter College, where her voice teacher Dr. Brian Horne recognized and nurtured her potential talent. After graduating from Shorter, Barton followed Horne to Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she earned her master’s degree. In 2007, while at Indiana, she participated in the Met Council Auditions, a nationwide competition for young singers that ends on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. Barton was a Grand Prize finalist, and in 2009 debuted at the Met as the Second Lady in Mozart's "The Magic Flute.”

During her time at Indiana, Barton also became aware of the Cardiff competition, and very much wanted to compete. It wasn’t an easy process.

“Singers must be nominated to be invited to audition,” Barton explained.  “I was nominated for a few years. In 2009 I auditioned unsuccessfully. In 2011, I was nominated but couldn’t audition. But 2013 brought me the luck that I had been waiting for.”

The grueling process for Cardiff involves multiple steps and requirements. After being nominated, the singer must submit a DVD audition. From the thousands of submissions, about 400 are selected and invited to audition for a second time, this time live in one of nine locations around the globe.  Less than 100 singers make it past this level (52 in 2013), and those must compete for the 20 available spots.  The singers chosen for those 20 spots are invited to compete in Cardiff representing their country in the initial rounds of the competition. The field is then further narrowed to the finalists.

Throughout the entire process, Barton maintained her optimism. “I'd always had a good feeling about this competition,” she said. “Something about it just seemed like the right fit.”

Barton had planned on entering both categories, but thought her best chances were with the main prize.  “My voice is bigger and more operatic than the typical recital singer, so I thought if they were going to go one way, it would be with the operatic prize.” She was “absolutely stunned” when judges awarded her both the top prize and the song prize.

“It's difficult to articulate what that meant to me.  My very beginnings of a classical singer at Shorter College were on the recital stage.  Art song taught me how to be a singer... that I was awarded the highest prize available for this particular genre of classical singing absolutely overwhelmed me.  It still does!”

Barton’s success at Cardiff launched a new phase in her career. In October, after a brief stint in Australia, she returned to the Met, this time in a leading role as Adalgisa in Bellini’s “Norma.” (The New York Times called her performance “a revelation.”)  She has been invited to perform in January at Carnegie Hall in "The Marilyn Horne Song Celebration." (Barton has noted Horne as one of her early influences.)

This weekend, she returns home for her debut at Atlanta’s Spivey Hall, where she will perform selections from Elgar’s “Sea Pictures” as part of her program. While a staple of the English concert repertoire, few vocal artists can do justice to this piece as a whole.

“The selection requires a dark vocal color, such as a contralto’s voice, while making great demands on the upper register of a singer,” explained Barton’s manager, Michael Benchetrit with Columbia Artists Management, Inc.  “The singer must also have excellent diction to get the poems across. Jamie has all these qualities, and so the piece has become a bit of a ‘calling card’ for her in performances here and abroad.”

In regards to her homecoming at Spivey Hall, Barton is honored to be invited to sing at the prestigious venue. “I'm very, very proud of getting to sing in Spivey Hall.  To have a solo recital there is one heck of a benchmark for any singer out there, but that I will get to be in front of an audience of my "hometown people"... that means the world to me.”

Barton pointed out with a smile that this is her solo debut at Spivey Hall. “I actually performed there in 2005, singing Brahms’ ‘Alto Rhapsody’ with the Shorter College Chorale.” She laughingly added, “If I only knew then what was ahead for me!”

Jamie Barton performs at Spivey Hall in Morrow on Sunday, 17 November at 3.00 p.m. Tickets are priced at $46 (with discounts for subscribers, groups, students and Georgia educators) and are available for purchase now. A pre-concert talk with Clayton State music faculty member Dr. Kurt-Alexander Zeller begins at 2:00 p.m. and is included in the ticket price. For ticket purchase and details, visit www.spiveyhall.org.