For local singer, love of music is what it’s all about

Aspiring opera singer Jason Winfield poses for a portrait at his family's store near Vanderwagen Tuesday. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

GALLUP — Once upon a time, Jason Winfield thought his future lay in country music.

Back then he was a high school kid who wore cowboy boots and hats, he had written and recorded music with country singer Eddy Raven, and he regularly wowed the hometown crowd at Sacred Heart Cathedral with his beautiful tenor voice. The idea of singing opera wasn’t even on the radar screen.

More than a decade later, Winfield is still wearing cowboy boots and hats, he still keeps up with his mentor Raven, he still loves country music, but now his dream job would be to one day sing at the Vatican. Singing in operas is very much on his radar screen as Winfield is now trying to break into the professional field of performing for opera companies.

On Tuesday, Winfield talked about the latest developments in his musical career. The son of Robert and Michelle Winfield, owners of the Winfield Trading Company, Winfield was interviewed in the new trading post his brother Justin has opened across the highway from their parents’ original business.

A 1998 graduate of Gallup High School, Winfield was one of the stand-out vocalists in GHS’s Concert Chorale, which was then directed by choir teacher Linda Kaye. Through Kaye’s encouragement, Winfield said, he applied to Northern Arizona University’s music program, where he received a full-tuition scholarship to study vocal performance.

Although Winfield said he loved singing in NAU’s choirs, he admits he majored in music more as a way to go to college for free, and his sights were still set on a country music career.

“I thought that up to my junior year in college,” he said. “I thought I wanted to do country music.”

Dr. Eric Tucker, a NAU music professor, changed all that.

Tucker challenged Winfield to “buy wholeheartedly into opera for one year,” Winfield recalled. If he still wasn’t interested after one year, Tucker would drop the subject.

Tucker’s strategy worked. “I just fell in love with it,”

Winfield said of opera. “I never looked back.” In addition to being cast as the baker in Sondheim’s musical “Into the Woods,” Winfield said he landed the role of Ferrando in Mozart’s opera “Cosi fan tutte.”

After graduating from NAU in December 2002, Winfield said he began looking for possible graduate programs in music. During a summer program in Italy, Winfield met opera singer Linda Roark-Strummer, who teaches at the University of Tulsa. She invited Winfield to sing for her husband, Peter Strummer, a noted voice teacher and opera performer.

Winfield said the try-out didn’t go as he had hoped, but Strummer offered him valuable criticism that Winfield said he knew would help him reach the next level of development. As a music major in college, he had been a “big fish in a little pond,” Winfield admitted, but his voice wasn’t at the caliber it needed to be for him to compete professionally. Winfield said he made the decision to forgo graduate school in order to study under the Strummers for several years. He was following advice, he explained, to seek out voice teachers that are known for producing professional performers.

Winfield said he continues to work with the couple, often via a webcam and iChat, but he also spends time in Gallup and Flagstaff and has started making the rounds of opera company auditions. According to Winfield, the window of opportunity for men to break into the professional opera field is between 23 and 35. At age 29, Winfield said he expects his full lyric tenor voice to continue to mature as he ages.

Performing at auditions is exciting but stressful, he said.

“They’re so many things that can go wrong in a live audition,” he explained. Adding to the personal stress of competing in auditions, Winfield said opportunities may become more limited because opera companies are struggling with recession-related economic difficulties.

Winfield said he hasn’t worked out an alternative career plan if he doesn’t break into professional opera productions. He’s gotten some positive feedback, he said, so he’s planning to continue pursuing his goal. In the meantime, Winfield said he appreciates the support he continues to receive from his family and the local community.

“My family has endlessly supported me doing this,” he said. “This community has really embraced me,” he added, “and I’ve very grateful for that.”