Making her voice heard

Young singer showing her grit in Claremon

By GARY DUTTON, Contributing Writer
Saturday, September 20, 2008 11:23 AM

CLAREMONT -- If a singer's voice is, in reality, an instrument, as many successful vocalists refer to what separates them from the other faces in the choir, Shayna Harvey's may be a small orchestra; a three-piece band at least.

Yes, the girl can sing. Getting there, though, has been an unorthodox trip, so far.

A stout bump on the noggin while in middle school started Harvey on an operatic path that took her from Maine to Europe. Her move to Claremont earlier this year has her polishing her newly-found rock and blues voice in area karaoke bars by night, while tutoring youngsters in what she does best to help buy the groceries each week.

Harvey, who'll turn 22 on Sunday, grew up in Belfast, Maine, listening, like many girls her age, to the likes of Janet Jackson, Jewel, and Mariah Carey. By the time she was nine, she says, she was readying herself to take over as the lead singer of rock group Nirvana, or Guns N' Roses.

But, she tells you, while she may have been just a kid, she was already savvy enough to know there must be something else out there even bigger and better suited for a little girl with a big voice. Hence, Harvey recalls, she headed down a different road, this one lined with Celine Dion's catalog.

And that's where the bump on the head came in. A friend had been given a Charlotte Church CD and, less than impressed by the non-poppish disc, in turn gave it to Harvey, telling the then-12-year old to "give it a try."

"I'd never heard opera before," Harvey recalls, but also remembers being blown away by Church's powerful voice. "I couldn't speak Latin, but started singing "Piejesu" from the liner notes," she says. "It was new to me, and I loved it."

A few days later, Harvey's head had a violent meeting with the girl's locker room wall at school, from where the seventh-grader was dashed by ambulance to the local emergency room, where her mother told an attending nurse of her daughter's vocal talent.

As fate would have it, the nurse's own daughter was a student of noted Maine opera teacher Ann Mills, of nearby Lincolnville. Calls were made, the knock to the head was deemed only cosmetic in magnitude, and Harvey met with Mills the very next day.

Mills was impressed by the young vocalist's initial work and, an auditory learner, Harvey went home that afternoon and worked hard, learning every song on the CD before returning the next day.

Opera lessons don't come cheaply, and could even be cost-prohibitive for a working class family in Belfast, Maine. That potential roadblock didn't stop Harvey's march forward though, as Mills, very impressed by the 12-year-old singer, volunteered to work with her for free.

"I was very privileged to have Ann for a teacher," Harvey says, noting that it was her mentor's belief in her ability that allowed her to progress

A year later, at 13, Harvey entered her first operatic competition, placing second, giving her the opportunity to audition for a traveling troupe, in which she landed the position of first chair. But then the reality of coming from a working class family in small-town Maine reared its ugly head again.

"Oh crap," she recalls thinking as the trip abroad teetered on the brink of disappearance. "We need money!"

But fate again smiled on the young singer. An acquaintance of her father's, another working class man who had recently come into some money, heard her sing "Ave Maria," a song dear to his heart.

How much money, he asked, would it take to send Shayna and her mother to Europe for 20 days? Nonplussed by the response of "about $9,000," he wrote a check in that amount.

Touring with a group of 212 singers, musicians, instructors, and chaperones, the kid from Belfast, Maine, sang in Germany - "It's like Maine with castles" - France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and the Netherlands. As one of about 50 choral students, she sang in the Notre Dame cathedral, an experience, she says, she'll hold dear for the rest of her life.

But the chances to grow in opera "in Hicksville, Maine" are few, Harvey states, and after six years of Tosca, Puccini, and such, she realized she possessed an instrument equally capable of doing big things in the fields of rock and rhythm and blues, too.

Sure, she says, she still loves opera, but she's much more likely to crack the big time in pop, rock, even country. With that reality before her, she's working on the material of Janis Joplin, KT Tunstall, Jewel, and Sarah McLachlan.

Claremont? It may not be the end of Shayna Harvey's journey but, she tells you, she came here to be near friends and "face it, it's a lot closer to places like New York City and Boston than Belfast, Maine, is."

Teaching, writing lyrics, lining up auditions, and trying out her recently-honed chops at the local karaoke clubs, Shayna Harvey's staying busy writing the next chapter in her life.

And, since arriving in the city, she says, beaming from ear-to-ear, "I've found my grit, too."

Grit? Stop by Claremont's Imperial Lounge on karaoke night. Shayna will be the one lifting the roof with "Piece of my Heart." Who says you can't find your grit in Claremont?

9/10/2008
WOW she sounds amazing!!!

It would be nice to see more talent like this being discovered on show's like american idol and america's got talent. Some of the stuff on there is such a joke!!! Good For her!!!!