SINGING ON 7 CONTINENTS

The challenge: Sing on all 7 continents

John’s goal of singing on all seven continents started to form with his acceptance into multiple programs that offered international performance opportunities during the summer of 2018. First, he was invited to perform an opera solo as part of Hills Academy’s Honor Concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall in June, 2019. Next, he was accepted into the Scholar’s Division of the renown National Children’s Chorus and invited to perform in South Korea and Japan in July, 2019.  Then, he was accepted into the prestigious Honors Performance Series (less than 2% acceptance rate from over 10,000 international nominees) where he was invited to perform at the Sydney Opera House in Australia in August, 2019.  

Performing at the Salzburg Music Festival in Austria had fueled a burning desire in him to sing on the international music stage. Since he knew that he would not be content to let his international singing efforts end in August, he created a new free opera concert series called, “Opera in Small Bites” with New York professional pianist Saffron Chung and took a gap year from high school to perform his opera concert series around the world.  

Since the schedule started with organized performances in North America, Asia and Oceania, John set an ambitious goal to bring his “Opera in Small Bites” concert series to the other four continents.

From June 2019 to March 2020, John performed in 15 different countries and on all 7 continents including Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Colombia, Egypt, Finland, France, Indonesia, Japan, Myanmar, Peru, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and the United States.  

On March 15, 2020, I successfully completed singing on my 7th continent at the age of 17 years and 243 days old! Please see the videos tab for my performances.

Opera in Small Bites: A musical vision for a better tomorrow

The driving purpose for why John created “Opera in Small Bites” was to expose others to the beauty of opera in a digestive format for younger and mostly non-opera fans. He felt that opera singing is typically appreciated more by older and more affluent audiences and he wanted to create a vehicle to make opera more accessible, more inclusive and more diverse.  His motto is, “if someone hasn’t heard opera, they can’t be a fan.” 

By singing classical and opera songs on all 7 continents, John had the opportunity to share his music with a diverse mix of people who otherwise would not have had the opportunity to experience opera. By performing in places such as Finland, Egypt, Colombia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Turkey and Peru, he was able to use “Opera in Small Bites” to bring a new opera experience to people in those countries. Numerous people told him that it was either the first time they heard opera signing or the first live opera song they had ever heard in their lifetimes. 

The first part of his musical vision for a better tomorrow is a world where all people, regardless of age, class, culture, geographic location or financial means, have the opportunity to hear and appreciate live opera songs.  

While John was in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, he learned that those three Baltic countries sang their way to independence. Yes, it’s true! The 4-year-long Singing Revolution included a human chain of 2 million people, spanning across the three countries, simultaneously singing patriotic songs which helped propel the Baltic countries towards peaceful independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991. The power of singing!

While in South Korea, John had an opportunity to sing in a joint performance with the National Children’s Chorus and the Lindenbaum Festival Orchestra, which consisted of youths from South Korea and North Korea whose families had defected to South Korea. The performance was held at the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) during the 2019 Lindenbaum Peace Festival to promote unity and harmony through music and was broadcasted live on South Korean television on July 13, 2019.

The second part of his musical vision for a better tomorrow is a world where countries and its people use the power of music to not only promote and achieve peace and harmony but also to use music as a vehicle to fight against causes that work against uniting the world’s people.

John’s experience at the Lindbaum Peace Festival demonstrated a powerful way that young people can use singing and music to make a difference in the world and inspired him to think of how he might inspire other young singers. He hopes that his achievement of singing on all seven continents as a seventeen year-old will inspire other young singers to take their music to international audiences to promote cross-cultural engagement. 

The third part of his musical vision for a better tomorrow is a world where young people are encouraged and have the opportunity to sing and perform in other countries using song and music to learn about other cultures and to teach other people about their culture. 

Press Coverage

April 23, 2020 - Article in the Broadway World Opera

Teen Opera Singer Achieves His Goal of Singing on All Seven Continents

April 22, 2020 - Article in the The Beach Reporter

How a Manhattan Beach teen opera singer achieved his goal of singing on seven continents

April 26, 2020 - Article in the The Daily Breeze

Coronavirus cut short his tour, but Manhattan Beach teen still sang on 7 continents