Java.July.2017

ejecting the ideal of what a singer is or what they
are supposed to do that seems to fall away when the
singer and the audience converge into one.
When Vivette was 16, she visited the Lyric Opera of
Chicago to audition as an actress. She landed some
parts and was able to share the stage with famous
opera singers such as Renée Fleming, Samuel Ramey
and Bryn Terfel. Samuel Ramey would give her
lessons backstage after shows. She was able to soak
up a lot of great lessons from the singers, and they
have stayed with her to this day.
After she turned 18, Vivette moved from the suburbs
into the city. There, she met bestselling author James L.
Swanson. “He introduced me to all sorts of interesting
people. I think that’s the great thing about writers,”
said Vivette. “They see the world through this colorful
lens of characters and places, converging them all
together. And there’s this backdrop of a scene about to
play out. That was what was so fun about hanging
out with him. It impacted how I live my life. Every day
there is a scene that can happen, straight out of a
film, if you create it.”
Vivette stresses the importance of surrounding
herself with people from diverse backgrounds. She
feels that this has shaped her as a person and made
her more dynamic in general. “When you hang out
with one type of group, it can make life a bit too
narrow,” Vivette said. “When you broaden the types
of friends in your life, like scientists or historians, the
better conversationalist you become and the more
interesting the world becomes. If you have a lot of
different friends who are educated and diverse, it’s
almost like having a college education in itself.”
Vivette moved to Arizona about 15 years ago and
began taking voice lessons with Ruth Dubinbaum,
a prolific teacher who has helped several students
reach incredible achievements in the singing world.
Vivette originally trained with her about five times
a week, but she didn’t have an agenda when she
first started. She just wanted to dedicate herself to
the discipline and get better. For Vivette, singing is
an athletic endeavor, and in order to keep in shape
you have to train voraciously. The thing is, singers
can’t hear their voices as someone else hears
them. Vivette compares it to hearing your voice on
voicemail. It sounds so foreign. A voice coach can
help a singer in ways that the singer can’t.
“I didn’t have a particular goal. I just wanted to
reconnect with music,” Vivette said. “I wanted to
get into the technique and rediscover myself, take it
to a place where I could be in the zone and get my
mind off the rest of my life and just be in the studio.
10 JAVA
MAGAZINE