Meet a Soprano: Jane Mead
A career that began in Leningrad
(Posted April 2, 2016)
Jane Mead started to sing in at the age of 4 and a half in a preschool group of a Leningrad radio and TV choir. Later she continued singing with her school choir between the ages of 7 and 13. This choir was a participant of numerous competitions for regional and district school choirs and several times was awarded the first prize.
At the age of 19 she joined her first church choir with the Russian Orthodox church, where she practiced mostly chamber singing, acapella, Russian sacred music.
In 2011, Jane started singing again as a student with the Connecticut Choral Society. The springtime of the same year she joined the choir of Men and Women at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Newtown. She started to sing as an alto and was promoted to soprano by Ms. Fiona Southerland, the Music Minister at Trinity over the period of four years. That choir work gave Jane a great opportunity to study Western music, and train and develop her singing voice.
Over that period of time Jane had an opportunity to participate in several yearly pops concerts at Trinity as a soloist. In June of 2013, she participated at the Festival of Global Sacred Music and Fair Trade Bazaar for peace with the Russian folk song My star, accompanied by William Piciulli at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Bethel. The song was very well received by the audience.
During the spring of 2015 Jane was proposed to become one of the soloists for Taize worships at Trinity Episcopal church. At the same time she started to work on some solo pieces for regular services, coached by Ms. Southerland, which were performed at Trinity. Jane has been a member of the Danbury concert chorus since 2012.
Jane is at the beginning of her solo career at this point. She is still a choir member and is looking for an opportunity to become a soprano soloist, to receive more training and experience in that field. She is also interested in becoming a voice coach.