Conversations with Jared Brooks

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jared Brooks.

Hi Jared, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Music has always been a constant in my life, and I can’t remember a time where I didn’t have music. My father plays the trumpet and sings, and my grandmother was a church pianist. That’s not to say that they are the only musicians in my family. In fact, I can remember several family reunions with my grandmother playing the piano, and the rest of her six siblings and their family members, including us, would stand around the piano and sing through the Baptist Hymnal in four-part harmony.

My family always respected music, but no one pursued it as a career other than my grandmother. My dad majored in trumpet and voice performance for four years before deciding to drop out and become a firefighter. My mom never sang anywhere other than church choir, and one of my uncles marched briefly with the Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps. In a way, I think this respect and distance from music allowed me to forge my own path and want to learn more and more about it.

Though I was always around it, I didn’t take music seriously until high school. My entire life until that point had been sports. I was convinced that I would be a major league baseball player for the Atlanta Braves and that I would live a worry-free life. It wasn’t until my freshman year of high school, when I auditioned and was selected for the American Choral Directors Association National Honor Choir that I knew music was what I wanted to pursue. I spent a week in Minneapolis, Minnesota learning what it meant to sing with a group of people just as passionate about music as myself.

Although I loved it, this renewed passion for music was throwing a wrench into my plans to be an all-star first baseman for the Atlanta Braves. I had always known that the day would come where I would have to make a choice between music and sports. My father would remind me of this constantly, because of his experience as a music major in college. He was able to walk-on to the baseball team at Truett McConnell College, but had to make the decision to quit because of the expectations of his music scholarship and degree program. Because of this, I knew that whichever direction I was going to go, I would have to make a choice to put 100% of my effort into it. I was very fortunate that I didn’t have to make a decision like this until my sophomore year of high school. I was selected to attend the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program, which gave 600 rising juniors and seniors the opportunity to spend the summer at Berry College and study their desired major. I was fortunate enough to have been selected as one of 32 vocalists for the program in 2018. While I was ecstatic for this once in a lifetime opportunity, I knew that I would not be able to play summer baseball if I decided to go. Although it was a tough decision, I ultimately decided to attend GHP.

That summer was transformative to me. In many ways, it made me aware that I was allowed to have passion for music and that I could make a career out of it. I became very close with so many of the vocal majors, and we keep in touch still today. Many of us have graduated and are teaching, performing, and pursuing advanced degrees, but I think all of us would agree on what an incredible experience that summer was.

During my junior year, a small lady named Dr. Martha Shaw visited my high school choir class, and encouraged me to visit and apply to Reinhardt University to study music. I decided to visit on my high school spring break, and my mind was made up from the minute I stepped on campus. I was blown away at the beauty of the campus and the passion and artistry that was coming from the music department. At the time, I didn’t know that Dr. Shaw would end up being one of my greatest mentors. She would coach me through difficult times and teach me how to be a better person and musician.

Fast forward to my senior year of high school, and things are moving along so fast. I applied and was accepted to study music education at Reinhardt University. I finished my final year of marching band, I’ve just finished my final year on the varsity wrestling team, I went to the Georgia Music Educators Association Conference and participated in the All-State Sight Reading Choir, and had recently finished being a member of the GMEA All-State Chorus in February. I also competed in my region literary competition and won 1st place in the Boy’s Solo category, and was looking forward to the state competition in March. The next thing on my calendar was to travel to Mobile, Alabama to be a member of the Southern ACDA High School Honor Choir. I had no idea that the world was about to change forever.

Going into the final days of the ACDA conference, it was announced that our concert would be moved up a day and the conference would end early due to the coronavirus outbreak. I remember vividly sitting with my high school choir teacher, Mindy Forehand, trying to figure out how to use Google Classroom to utilize during our two week break. We had no idea that we would never return back to school and stay at home for the rest of the summer.

Though there were many negatives about that summer, there were a few positives. I learned how to play guitar, I didn’t know it then, but this would be a very important part of my musical journey. I got to spend a lot of time with my family, and I got to graduate at Atlanta Motor Speedway (in July). I also was able to look forward to being at Reinhardt in the fall, and pursue my dream of studying music.

I arrived at Reinhardt in August of 2020, and began my four year journey of studying music and leading me to where I am today. I began leading worship for Reinhardt Campus Ministries, which gave me so many opportunities around the metro-Atlanta area to lead worship and get involved with so many great churches. I also began taking voice lessons with my teacher, Dr. Cory Schantz, who helped nurture my voice and molded me into the musician I am today. I began to compete in state and regional voice competitions with the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and I began to have a lot of success. My sophomore year, I won my classical and musical theater categories at both the state and southeastern regional NATS competition. I was also selected as a semi-finalist for the National NATS competition that was taking place in Chicago, Illinois.

I was lucky enough to go and compete and place fourth in the competition. This was the first time that I really thought to myself that I could be a successful performer, and that there were other options than teaching music. The next school year, I began to take several steps towards my performing career. I was awarded the role of The Witch in Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, and began the preparation process to sing the role in March of that year. Preparing and performing that role was such a joy and it gave me the confidence I needed to begin auditioning for summer Young Artist Programs. I ultimately decided to attend the Varna International Music Academy summer program in Columbia, South Carolina. There I spent four weeks singing the role of Mr. Buchanan in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and getting coachings from spectacular guest artists. While at Varna, I was also able to be in the chorus for the Verdi Requiem. The music was so difficult, yet so moving, and it made me begin to fall in love with oratorio repertoire.

The next fall I began applying to graduate schools for vocal performance. I knew that this was something I wanted to do, and a graduate degree in voice would give me the experience and time that I wanted to really discover myself as an artist. I was fortunate enough to have applied to six schools and received auditions at all six, as well as substantial financial offers from three of them. I also proposed to my wife in November, and we set a date for June to be married. We knew that we wanted to be together for wherever life took us. She also began the process of applying for graduate school for choral conducting and narrowed her list down to two schools. UMKC was not originally our first choice for graduate school. The only reason I knew about it was because I had worked with Professor Dale Morehouse at Varna the previous summer. We also knew one of the former choir directors from Georgia State University was now the Visiting Director of Choral Activities at UMKC, and we decided to apply.

In the spring, we both began our student teaching practicum to finish our music education degrees. I was placed at Sequoyah High School with Josh Markham, who had also studied with Dr. Shaw when she was at Shorter College in Rome, GA. In Mr. Markham’s classroom I began to grow and fall in love with teaching. Before that semester, my mind was made up and I was sure that I would absolutely hate being in the classroom. But to my surprise, the opposite happened. I loved working with the students every day and being able to see their growth and passion for music. I was tasked with teaching the freshmen treble voices class every day, and it still is one of my greatest joys that I have been able to experience. This did put me in an odd spot though, because I was planning to go to school for vocal performance, but I had just found out how much I enjoyed teaching.

During spring break of that year, my wife and I decided that we were both going to go to UMKC. She has grandparents that live close by, we already have connections there, and we would be able to go together. The school year eventually came to a close. I said goodbye to my students at Sequoyah, and began planning for our move halfway across the country to Kansas City. Luckily, I had a lot of experience as an RA in undergrad at Reinhardt, and I was able to apply and receive an assistantship with UMKC Housing that provided us a place to go and a stable income. My wife and I got married at the end of June, went on our honeymoon to Disney World, came back home to pack up the car and left the next day for Kansas City.
When we moved up to KC, I began applying for worship leader positions around the KC metro. I had been leading modern worship for four years at Reinhardt, and I really thought that’s what I would do. None of the opportunities were really calling to me, but then I saw an audition post to be a choral/vocal intern at Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village. I auditioned and was fortunate enough to have gotten the position for this school year. I knew that I had never really allowed myself to focus only on classical singing, and if I moved all the way to Kansas City for this degree program that I needed to make the most of it. I was also very fortunate in the fact that Village is a member of the Kansas City Arts Alliance and collaborates with so many wonderful musicians and ensembles within the KC metro. I have loved my time with Village and I am looking forward to continuing with them next year.

When signing up for classes, I knew that I wanted to be in choir. First, because I love choir and it is the foundation of so many musical experiences for me, and second, because I wanted to learn and grow from Dr. Jennifer Sengin. Before classes started, I met with Dr. Sengin and Dr. Charles Robinson to discuss the possibility of double majoring in vocal performance and choral conducting. I had been itching all summer to conduct again, and I wanted to see if it was possible. I met with them and got all of the information I needed, but took some time to contemplate. Ultimately, I decided to apply and audition for the choral conducting program to add on to my vocal performance degree. I was accepted into the program and will now finish in 2027 with two masters degrees in vocal performance and choral conducting.

This spring semester has been the busiest I have ever been as a performer, but I have loved every second of it. I was able to be the tenor soloist in the Mozart Vespers with UMKC Choirs and Orchestra, perform as Rapunzel’s Prince in Sondheim’s Into the Woods, perform as Le Prince Charmant in Viardot’s Cendrillon, and receive a coaching from world-renowned composer, Jake Heggie, on one of his pieces that I performed in a concert celebrating his works. I also was able to travel back to Reinhardt for a weekend and perform as the tenor soloist in Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb. These experiences have been everything that I hoped for when I decided to pursue vocal performance, and I am so excited to see what the future holds. Future performances for this year include: Tenor soloist for Bach’s Mass in G major with the KC Baroque Consortium and Village Chamber Choir in May, and Canio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci with Lawrence Opera Theater this August.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There have been so many struggles as I decided to pursue this career. Many trivial and many that were much more daunting. As a high schooler, deciding to choose music over sports was a struggle that I had to deal with and learn how to focus on just one thing. At the end of high school, the Covid-19 Pandemic was definitely one of the most difficult things to overcome. I didn’t know whether the music field would be a viable option anymore, and I had no idea how my first semester of college would look like. Going into college, I also became worried about finances for the next four years. My grades in high school were not great, and my music scholarship was not able to cover the remainder of the cost. I knew that I needed to do whatever I could to make sure I didn’t need to pay for college and that I could leave college debt free. My freshman year, I took out the maximum loan that I could, and my mom took out a loan for the rest of the cost of tuition. The next year I was hired as an RA and applied for several other scholarships that allowed me to not have to pay for college.

My junior year of college I attended a summer opera program in Columbia, South Carolina. That summer, my voice went through a very intense shift and I was not able to sing the same way I had for 3 years. When I returned for my senior year, I had to relearn a lot of technique for my voice because it had gotten much thicker and sat a little bit lower. I struggled with this because I felt that I had ben consistently improving and then all of the sudden I was at a plateau and not improving how I wanted to. I was able to work through this voice shift and start learning what my voice did and didn’t like.

Perhaps one of the biggest struggles thus far has been deciding to move from Georgia to Kansas City, and being so far away from family. My family is very important to me and has inspired me in so many different ways, so it has been very difficult being so far away and not being able to make a short drive to spend time with them.

This year I struggled a lot with deciding whether or not I wanted to pursue conducting as well. As I said, I absolutely loved conducting and teaching while I student taught in the Spring of 2024, and I spent a lot of this year realizing how much I missed it. I absolutely adore performing, but I was itching to also be on the podium. I’m not sure which direction these degrees will take me, but I know that I want to be a well-rounded musician and learn as much as I can about the subjects I’m passionate about.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a professional singer, specializing in all genres of music. Classically, I spend a lot of time singing operatic and oratorio repertoire, as well as choral singing in large and chamber ensembles. I spent many years as a contemporary worship leader and have experience leading worship as well. I think I am most proud of my versatility as an artist. I love new challenges and being able to step into any situation and fit into a role or musical genre. I think this also sets me apart from other singers because it allows me to say yes to as many opportunities as possible.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
Dr. Martha Shaw, my undergraduate choral director and mentor
Dr. Cory Schantz, my undergraduate voice teacher and mentor
Mrs. Mindy Forehand, my high school choir teacher and mentor
My family, specifically my mother, my father, my sister, and my grandmother.
My wife, Melody.

All of these people have given me constant support and guidance as I decide to pursue this crazy profession of music. I have never had to question that they have my best interests at heart and they want to see me grow into the best person and musician that I can be. I would have quit singing a long time ago if I had not had their support, love, and guidance.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @j.brooks.8 and @jaredbrookstenor
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@jaredbrookstenor?si=0PIRzIVAVfjRspAT

Image Credits
Brandon Parigo – UMKC’s Into the Woods photos
Patrick Oliverio – Headshots