Power of Love

hmmm

Caitlyn Renee – this is who I am. If you wish to know a few things about me, then you have come to the right place. If after you read this, you go surf the net and forget everything you’ve read, then remember this one thing: I am entirely and completely a slave to the everlasting art of song. It moves me, makes me, shakes me, breaks me, drives me, pushes me, starves me, entices me, excites me and I love every minute of my life because I am able to learn about it everyday.

Subliminally, I have been in love with music since before I could write. Each morning I would sit on my bed and beg to watch “Beauty and the Beast”. Mainly because I believed that I would marry Gaston, but also because I knew every line to each song by the age of five. Disney movies were the foundation for my love of song. To this day I can still sing complete songs from probably each Disney movie made between 1990 and 2000.

Side by side with my love for Gaston, I found myself totally fascinated with the exquisite vocals of the very first female composer ever to win an Academy Award, Ms. Barbara Streisand. Such great movies as "A Star Is Born", "The Mirror Has Two Faces”, and “Yentl” totally solidified her as one of my all time favorite performers. Don’t tell anyone, but at the tender age of seven, I found myself cutting off my own hair with a dull pair of scissors so that I could be cool like Yentl.

I am no longer seven, so I would be remiss to say that coupled with my love for Barbara is a similar affinity for two other beautiful, influential and phenomenal women. Multiple Tony Award winner Audra McDonald and the always sensational Celine Dion, both of whom are technically skilled with incredibly powerful vocals. They are truly incomparable!

But it wasn’t until I was in middle school that I had a voice to go along with my love of music and theatre.

I joined Chorus in my sixth grade and excelled in it all three years of middle school. When I entered my freshmen year of high school, another type of entertainment captured my attention. I auditioned for the spring play, The Wiz, because the idea of singing on stage excited me. I had no acting experience… I had no dancing experience, but I seemed to fly through the audition process. I was so excited to have earned a role in the play. Joy of joys - at the very beginning of the play I was granted a solo spot, singing "The Feeling We Once Had". From then on out I had starring roles in each semester of my high school career, including Maria in “West Side Story” and Rose in “Fences”

The summer after my sophomore year I got to participate in the “Shakespeare Intensive for Teens Performances” at the Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern. I played Phoebe in “As You Like It”. Wow! It was a wild and wacky summer, but the practices, performances and friendships will remain with me forever.

“Parting is such sweet sorrow”

The summer after my junior year, I enjoyed the privilege of being one of thirty students in all of the state to be accepted into the Georgia Governors Honors Program for Theatre. On the beautiful campus grounds of Valdosta State University, my mind was fashioned with the brilliance of Stanislavski and Uta Hagen. An entirely delightful summer filled with fine arts! My psyche was so significantly challenged that my way of thinking was completely altered. The experience also opened me up to the beauty of choral music. I was so motivated to sing choral music that in my senior year I joined chorus again for the first time since the eight grade. I was afraid that I was so far behind, but almost immediately I gained various solos and fit right in!

Another huge development in my life has been the exclusive one-on-one classical training that I’ve started receiving. My vocal coach makes me reach deep within myself to pull out some of the most exquisite sounds. I am now comfortable performing in various registers and octaves, even occasionally going into the whistle register. The best is yet to come!

So now with my mind packed full of theatre ideas, I was ready to start my senior year off with a bang… but unfortunately, I was not in the right forum for my new way of thinking. Armed with that realization, I decided to make one of the boldest decisions of my life. I changed schools midway through my senior year. I knew no one. No one knew me. I had to work harder than ever before to make a name for myself in a place unfamiliar to me. But changing schools mid-semester senior year was the best thing I could have ever done.

The final week of my graduation I jumped at the opportunity to participate in a singing contest at the Buckhead Blue Room Wine and Bar. I chose to sing “Power of Love” by Celine Dion. I was the only teen involved in this event, but I evidently did well because I was selected as one of the finalist to compete the following week. Now, with ten finalist competing for a cool grand, I brought out some of my best stuff.

I opened up singing Teena Marie’s “Cassanova Brown”, a cappella! That was followed with a sensational performance of an old Billie Holiday classic – “Summertime”. Closing out I did Chaka Kahn – “Ain”t Nobody”. I was so excited when I won this event!

All of my experiences have challenged me in so many ways and have prepared me to go out there and share my instrument, my voice with any and all who will listen. So now I can only hope that the you and the rest of the world is ready to listen to me sing as much as I love to!

I will continue to strive to find fresh and new ways to grow as a performer and to deliver quality songs to all of you, my adoring fans.