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Music Music She is an international opera star.

J'Nai Bridges, winner of three Grammy Awards and owner of a passport with more stamps than your local post office.

You might think this mezzo soprano wonder hails from New York or Los Angeles.

But nope.

She was born right here in Tacoma and raised in Lakewood.

Now she's back in western Washington to perform in Seattle Opera's production of Carmen.

J'Nai is next on northwest now.

I want to do this right off the top.

You have a great chance to see J'Nai perform Carmen at the Seattle Opera.

It's happening in May.

Write down these dates.

Jenny performs on May 3rd, ninth, 13th and the 17th.

Now you can easily come back to this spot in the video to double check those dates.

You can also go to her amazing website at jnaibridges.com/schedule to get those dates.

Tickets are available at Seattle opera.org.

J'Nai Bridges has performed Carmen, one of the most demanding parts there is in opera in Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Detroit, New York, Spain, Germany, Canada, Seattle, the Netherlands and Italy.

and she's been all over North America and the world in a number of other productions, too.

Frankly, if I recited all of J'Nai's awards performances and rave reviews, we wouldn't have any time for the interview.

So let's get right to it.

J'Nai, thanks so much for coming to northwest.

Now it is not every day I got to tell you we have an international opera star coming here to northwest now.

But it's so great that you're doing this.

Here are on your home television station of KTRK Public Television.

We're honored to have you.

I would say that, in the 14 years I've been doing northwest now, you're probably the biggest star we've had.

Oh, wow.

So so that's pretty cool.

First question.

You got to settle a bed out there.

I'm sure Tacoma or Lakewood.

Who gets to claim you, That's a tough one.

I mean, okay, I think I first of all, thank you for having me.

I'm so happy to be home.

Tacoma are Lakewood.

Well, I was born in Tacoma, okay.

And then in 1996, I believe Lakewood was incorporated.

So I have to say both.

I'm sorry.

I know, I know, that's not the answer you want, but really both.

So your next career is politics, right?

Yeah, maybe.

So how do people in your hometown treat you?

Do they treat you with, like, wow, here comes Jenny Bridges.

Are you like, you know, I know that girl.

I remember when you were out playing basketball.

So don't you tell me, how do they treat you?

How is it being in your hometown with you?

It's honestly a mixture.

When I come home, people are first just so grateful that I'm back.

And they're like, oh my gosh, you're back.

You're back home because I live out east.

So anytime I'm back home, it's just, a love fest.

And then there are some people that I look at them and I'm like, are you okay?

And then I realize, oh, they're kind of in shock because I, you know, I guess I do have the Grammys and I have the star.

Isn't that little Jenny?

Wasn't that.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

And you probably still call people Mr.. So and so and so Lizzie.

Yes yes yes yes yes.

No accolades will, you know, stop me from being hometown girl.

Yeah, yeah.

That's great.

Talk to me a little bit about being a basketball player.

There's a video out there on the internet I was watching, and you can hoop.

You know, just so people know.

Yeah, she's an opera singer, but I have a sneaking suspicion you could have possibly played ball.

Talked a little bit about, that.

What did you get from sports that kind of applied to opera?

I read something you read.

There's some things you get from a teamwork and some other stuff.

Talk a little bit about your hoops career and how and what carried over.

Absolutely.

I mean, I I've played basketball since a very young age, started at the YMCA and then in, you know, middle school and high school at Charles Wright Academy.

And I learned so much that, you know, first of all, the discipline that it takes to, excel in sports and in what I do as an opera singer.

They're very similar regimens.

I mean, hours and hours of, well, we did this at the at the hoop, you know, just simple.

And in the practice room at singing a scale, working on my breath over and over and making mistakes in the practice room so that when you get out on the court or the opera stage, the audience will never know.

And you, you know, you perform in a way that you don't really have to think about the technique.

You don't have to think about so much, about what has gone into it, because that's you're flowing, it's been done and you're flowing.

Yeah.

And it's very similar in that way.

And also, you know, learning it's okay to make mistakes on the basketball court.

I would lose a game sometimes.

Similarly, when singing opera it doesn't always go the way that you've planned.

You do the best that you can do.

But you might forget a word or crack a high note or something, and you have to recover quickly and not dwell on that.

The game has to keep going.

The opera has.

The show goes on.

Yeah, yeah.

So, you know, I don't think that's really emphasize enough learning.

It's okay knowing it's okay to make a quote unquote mistake.

You have to keep going.

And then after the game is over, after the show is over, say, okay, what happened?

And how can I, be better for the next time?

But short memory, but short memory?

Yeah, yeah.

You can't dwell on those mistakes because then it gets into your head and and that's kind of a rest.

And let's face it, opera too, is a bit of an athletic event.

I mean, you can have it on night where you're like, man, I just killed that.

And you probably have off nights too.

Yeah.

I mean, first of all, we're human, but it is very athletic in that sense.

And, you know, as an opera singer, we sing on amplified.

We don't use microphones.

So our body, our full body is our instrument, and that takes a lot of strength.

Yeah.

So I work out still.

I do, you know, shoot around whenever I can, but working out and being strong is essential.

Just as an athlete.

When did you start singing and do you remember having kind of an moment where you said, you know something?

I used to kind of like singing.

It was fun to do.

It was kind of a hobby.

Where did that transition to?

Hey, I think I have a future in this.

Do you remember that moment at all or I do?

Well, I grew up singing in the church, Allen A.M.E.

Church in Tacoma and age of five, I think so.

And and watching my father, he sings in the male chorus of the church for 40 years now.

And so music was always in my blood, always in my bones.

I grew up listening to Motown and different types of music, and I played classical piano from a young age, I think.

Five I started playing piano, but it wasn't until high school, really.

I joined the choir and my teacher, Julie Kangas, she kind of noticed that I had a special gift and suggested that I, I, you know, hone in on that.

And, and I took private voice lessons very late in high school.

I think it was the end of my junior year or maybe even beginning of my senior year, and I just fell in love with it.

And really, the moment that I knew that I had a gift was when I came home one day after a voice lesson and I popped, we recorded three songs, four songs, I'm sorry, for audition tape, and we put the CD in the CD player and my whole family, we were surrounded and we listened to the playback and we all were just like, wow, that's my voice.

And for for the first time, I heard my voice.

I heard my voice.

Because when I'm singing, you don't really hear it in the same way as it coming back to you.

But you became a believer.

I became a believer, and we all were kind of surrounded by each other, tearing up in amazement.

And I thought, wow, I think I have something.

I know you could go for a long time on this, but just give me a quick hit on your parents exposing you to music, exposing you to sports.

You know, I'm sure you credit them with a lot.

Talk a little bit about the role they played in developing your gift as gifts.

Plural.

Growing up.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I, I know everybody says this, but I have the best parents in the world.

My mother is was is always a teacher.

And so she could identify the gifts in all of her children.

And my father is extremely beautiful.

Excuse me.

Extremely musical.

So I like to credit my gift of music, to him.

But they dedicated and dedicate still their lives to, Yeah, just supporting their children and the gifts that we all individually have.

And so I'm just so grateful because there's been no mistakes in my life.

I really feel like everything that my parents have poured and poured into me and exposed me to has been a buildup to who I am and what I'm doing.

I mean, between the traveling, my my father was, in the military, and, I was exposed to traveling at a very young age and adapting to new places and new people.

Exactly.

And and as an opera singer, I'm traveling every few months to different cities, different countries.

So for me, this it it's in my blood and it's normal.

And then also hearing different languages.

I grew up hearing my parents kind of call each other these different, sweet names like Qazi, which means sweetheart in Germany because they met in Germany.

So it's kind of really all a full circle moment.

And my sports background as athletic and having siblings that are so supportive, I mean, when I think about it and articulate it, it's it's just I'm so grateful because, they were setting me up for success when they don't even know it.

Don't get weepy on me over there.

I try not to talk a little bit too, briefly about the you know, it takes a village.

We want to talk a little bit about your supporters.

I've just kind of got a list here.

College Success foundation, Tacoma, Seattle.

Theater group music at the more to come opera, Charles Wright Academy, your voice teachers and NAACP.

So Annie and, Amy church, youth usher board, children's choir.

I mean, my gosh.

Wow.

You know, there's a lot of people who can get a little claim, a little piece of Jeanette.

That's true.

And you did your research.

I love hearing that.

Yeah.

I mean, my my village is.

It runs so deep.

I have aunties and uncles and cousins and and as you mentioned, all of these amazing organizations, the links, an Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, so many people have supported me and continue to support me.

And, former Mayor Victoria Woodard, who bestowed upon me the the key to the city.

I mean, yeah, this to me, coming back to, to my home is really for me.

It's a thank you.

It's a thank you to all of these organizations, all of my village that have poured into me because I, I really believe that I would not be here without them.

Flip side of that.

You sense all this.

You have that sense of history.

You represent a diverse community.

All the hopes and dreams here.

Is there a lot of pressure?

Do you are you enjoying the trip?

I am enjoying the trip.

I mean, honestly, I have to say basketball set me up for not taking in all that pressure.

Yes, there are pressurized moments, but I breeze through it, you know?

And it's like if I think about it and I kind of think about it too much, then it does become a little bit overwhelming.

But honestly, my my background and spirituality keep me grounded.

And I know that I made for this.

And yeah.

When did you turn from singing into hardcore?

I'm going to get training for opera specifically as an art form.

Where did you go for that talk?

Talk briefly about your trip to the opera world.

Yes.

Well, you know, when I found this love of singing, I thought, wow, I'm going to audition for conservatories around the country at some local and, you know, some not.

And I ended up being accepted into Manhattan School of Music in New York City.

And so I went 3000 miles away across the country to New York with very little training.

And I just dove right in.

That's kind of just my personality.

I remember that first thing.

You didn't know, you couldn't do it, right?

Correct.

And when I got there, I have to say I was a little bit intimidated because the students had been my colleagues had been singing their whole lives and training, and I thought, wow, I don't like being at the so called bottom of the totem pole.

So I really worked hard.

New York was my playground, and I was always at Carnegie Hall and the Met Opera, jazz clubs and the cheap seats of all of these incredible halls.

And I worked really hard, and I ended up graduating with the highest honors.

And, it's it's just surreal because I'm actually being awarded or, and not awarded.

I don't know what the term is, but I'm getting an honorary doctorate from my alma mater.

Nice.

In a couple months, Manhattan School of Music, and really my senior year there is where I thought, okay, I really want to pursue this because then I then I was admitted into the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and that's extremely competitive.

I still accept 25 students a year.

So once I got into that, I thought, all right, I'm going to go for it.

And then I started doing competitions and winning international competitions and went to the Ryan Center, which is a young artist program at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, also extremely competitive and selective, and I knew I was working on my craft, but to be, recognized and awarded was just confirmation of, yeah, the hard work and to keep getting picked for the next thing.

Exactly.

And my love, you know, at the end of the day, my love for this art form and for, expanding what it looks like, you know, and what's nice is with that doctorate, you can teach someday when you get sick and tired of living out of a suitcase.

Exactly.

Which I love, by the way, I love teaching.

So talk a little bit about being a mezzo soprano.

Where does that sit on the vocal range and does that?

It seems to me where it sits and what little I know about opera that would open.

You're pretty versatile, which maybe opens up a lot of parts, but talk to educate me a little bit on that.

Yeah.

So there are, different voice types.

I'm a mezzo soprano, which is a lower voice type, but we also sing high.

So like you said, there's versatility in my voice type.

I can sing roles that are lower.

Carmen sits a little bit lower, and she kind of pops up to high notes every once in a while.

I can also sing higher roles, but but at the end of the day, a mezzo soprano.

We don't tend to sing and stay in our higher register.

We kind of are in the middle of our voice.

Sing lower and you'll hear some high notes from time to time.

Sopranos, they tend, they live up, live up in their higher registers.

And, for the male voices, it's tenor and they're the higher voices of the of the men.

And bases are the low old man river type.

Voices.

So and then you have countertenor which they have higher voices but are usually in the male physique.

But the bottom line is your voice is kind of sitting in the sweet spot.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

And, and also a mezzo tend to have really long careers because we sing anywhere from pants rolls which are young boys to old ladies, you know, so we can the voice develops over time and it ages.

And I would like to say that I'm kind of in my prime of my vocal trajectory, but I can keep singing for at least 20 more years.

And there's so many roles that will fit my voice depending on the maturity of it.

Yeah.

You've talked about the healing power of music.

And we're at a point in this country where we need some healing and we need some unifying sounds a little bit about what music means from that perspective and what your perspective is on that.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that music, specifically the voice and, amplified voice is the ultimate vessel to deep healing.

It's the I mean, the voice is the first thing we hear when we're born.

We cry when we're born.

And, I've done a lot of music, therapy, going into nursing homes.

And when people, they don't necessarily remember things, they feel music.

It's it's it's about feeling.

And the voice evokes a very deep feeling.

And I think that you hit the nail on the head.

We are in a very, tough position and moment in our country and world, and I think that music has the ability to make people feel better, but also, to heal and, and also make them think about their position in, in our world.

And my job as an artist is to hopefully evoke emotion and evoke, I want people to leave the theater.

Yes.

Feeling better, feeling a release, and also thinking about these themes of the operas.

Carmen has a ton of themes that are very relevant today.

Domestic violence, love, anger, and what we do with these emotions and how do we, at the end of the day, heal ourselves so that we can bring healing to the world?

You've done Carmen in a lot of different venues.

Seattle, New York, you know, a variety of places, speaking generically, about that opera, why is it considered so demanding that do you find it demanding, or do you kind of just boom, right through it?

Well, it is demanding.

I mean, it is it's a difficult thing, actually.

I mean, people might not necessarily think that because they recognize the tunes, the habanera, the Toreador Song, but the pacing of the role that I sing.

Carmen, it's quite difficult because if you sing too much, if you give too much emotion too soon, there's nowhere to go.

So it's all about emotional and vocal pacing.

And then again, it's kind of like a team sport.

You have to collaborate with many different players.

So there's a conductor, there's your colleagues on stage, there's the whole, world of the costuming, which you have to know how to handle.

Heavy.

Yeah, exactly.

And then it's just the storytelling.

I mean, that's the most beautiful part, in my opinion, about what I do.

It's telling a story.

And that takes, a lot of intention, a lot of rehearsal and a lot of really delving deep into the character.

Let's talk a little bit about the future here in our last five minutes, movie star Timothy Shalom, as you know, recently took some heat for, you know, saying he he didn't want to be, in a dying art form.

I think he was kind of deliberately misinterpreted to some point, because I get I think what he was trying to say is that a lot of these fine arts, you know, the audience is aging out, the donor class is aging out.

And we have to find something new to hold on to, to continue to grow the sport or grow the art or whatever it may be.

How do you see that?

How does bringing opera to other communities fit into that?

And how do you get young people who are just here doing this?

You know, TikTok, the last 30s and their attention is done.

How do you get them into opera?

What what are your I know if you had the answer to that, you'd you know, you'd be a billionaire.

I would be, but what is your thinking on that?

Yeah.

I mean, well, when he said that, yes, it sparked a lot of outrage and I was I was pretty offended.

But then I thought, well, if he's thinking that way, there probably many other people that thinks that way.

So you know who I am I yes, I'm a singer.

I'm an artist.

I love what I do.

On top of that, I am a huge advocate for expanding the art form, and I always have been.

And I think, you know, looking at me, I walk down the street, people don't necessarily automatically think that I'm an international opera star.

So why don't they think that it's because they haven't seen that, and what they have in their mind is completely different.

So I think visibility number one is essential.

So for instance you having me here, thank you so much.

It is crucial for people to see themselves and also to hear their stories being told.

New stories are being told, which is really great.

They can opera make it on TikTok.

It's I think opera can.

We just have to definitely be innovative and look technology.

The socials are not going anywhere, so we have to evolve.

And I think a lot of that is on us as artists, as, on organizations to say, okay, we have to get with the times and, you know, we have to do things a little bit differently.

We have to show faces on billboards that are historic and shows and that that look different than possibly what they have been.

In addition, it doesn't mean a race, you know, what has been, traditional but diversifying but diversifying.

Yeah.

And, I'm actually it really excites me because to me, that just gives us, a lot of opportunity really.

And and what better time to, to do that than now?

You know, when you look out at the audience from the various shows you do, I know you do some things, you know, for recording specifically, but when you're in a venue at a theater, a performance hall, do you see any young people at all, any young couples who maybe got a babysitter for the kid?

Are they all a bunch of old people like me?

Sitting in there, I absolutely do.

I see young people coming and and there are efforts that, companies are making to reach out to younger demographics and, and, and more diverse demographics.

So the efforts are being made.

But it's it's not something that I think should just be kind of like a box ticked, like I, you know, try to say, yes, a box ticked.

It has to just be the norm, you know, and it should have always been that way, but it hasn't been.

And so now we just have to continue, to, to publicize and, and make opera and classical music cool because it actually and find a new donor base and find it.

Yes.

Expand the donor base for sure because there are people that want to, contribute.

They just don't necessarily sometimes feel welcomed.

And so there, there's that aspect as well.

Okay.

It's like, why should I contribute?

Give me a reason.

And so, I think that we have to do that, you know, and there are plenty of reasons to do that last 45 seconds for you.

What is left?

I mean, you've climbed such a mountain.

To me, it seems like you're pretty close to the top of that mountain, but everybody always kind of feels like they have.

No, you've got a new goal.

What is that?

What is the mountain that you look up at and say, you know, I wouldn't mind climbing that.

What is next for you?

Wow.

Well, it's funny that you're asking this because I won my third Grammy recently, so I thought about that and I was like, wow, what?

What else is there?

Well, there's so much I want to collaborate.

I want to cross genre, collaborate.

John Baptist, capsid, Chris Martin maybe.

Who knows?

But also, I love film.

You know, I'm a singer actress, so why not tap into that?

I mean, there are plenty of, artists that have started with, you know, an art form and they've expanded.

Yeah, I look at soundtracks.

Audra McDonald, friends.

Yes.

Soundtracks and and even Rihanna.

I mean, she started with music and now she's in makeup and fashion.

I love fashion.

Okay.

So you know, who knows about nine, maybe one day.

Or we need to keep children's books.

You never know.

We need to keep an eye on you.

And in other words, absolutely.

Yes.

J'Nai thanks so much for coming in northwest now.

Great, great honor to have you.

Thank you for having me.

I'm happy to be home.

The old cliche headline is local kid done good.

It's used to describe a local resident who achieves national or international fame.

The bottom line that headline is just a fact.

In the case of J'Nai Bridges, and I hope you take the time to seek out her performances live on social media or streaming on the web.

My thanks to J'Nai Bridges for coming to northwest now.

I also want to add my thanks to all the artists and authors who have appeared on northwest now, over the course of the past 14 years.

I hope this program got you thinking and talking.

You can find this program on the web at K because stream it through the PBS app or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

That's going to do it for this edition of northwest.

Now until next time, I'm Tom lace and thanks for watching.

Music