Donald Braswell II, San Antonio native, is appearing at a Pops Concert at the Symphony of the Hills in Hill Country in Kerrville, Texas on June 27, 2009 at 7:30pm. Tickets () are on sale after May 3rd at the Cailloux Theater Box Office. Contact them at info@symphonyofthehills.org or call (830) 896-9393 or (830)792-2469 per the concert promo. The spectacular event is expected to sell out quickly. A 2:30pm show may be held if that is the case and tickets for that show may also go fast, so interested people should get their tickets as soon as possible. To learn more go to Symphony of the Hills
Donald Braswell Fan Club Newsletter Editor, Doreen Lee, in collaboration with member, Judy Docter, created a beautiful account of this amazing singers re-entry into the world of symphonic performance. It is NOT my work. Doreen’s article is brilliantly written and I chose to publish it here untouched:
Songs through Silence: Donald Braswell’s Journey from Premier Tenor to Silence to Pops Tour
by Doreen Lee, in collaboration with Judy Docter
“Ed ho sentito nel silenzio una voce dentro me.” (And in the silence I heard a voice inside of me.) ~Paolo Limiti
When Donald Braswell takes the stage on June 27, 2009, to perform as a soloist in a concert with the Symphony of the Hills in Kerrville, Texas, he will have finally come full circle. The Juilliard graduate and protégé of Franco Corelli, the Prince of Tenors, was once known and praised for his leading tenor roles as Cavaradossi in Tosca, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, and Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly; but in 1995 he saw his career shattered in the disastrous few seconds of the automobile accident that destroyed his voice. The journey back to his rightful place in the spotlight accompanied by a full orchestra almost took 14 years, but once again, Donald Braswell has arrived, this time exuding the depth and passion of an artist matured and tempered by the pain and suffering of his long passage.
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As his bright vibrato trembled through the aria “Addìo, fiorito asil” (“Farewell, Flowery Refuge” from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly), Donald Braswell, though he did not know it at the time, was also bidding “addìo” to his career as a premier operatic tenor. It had been over five years since he had graduated from Juilliard, and he was quickly becoming an international star whose musical brilliance would soon equal that of Pavarotti, Carreras and Domingo.
But success, however promising, can be taken away in an instant.
That moment of adversity came for Braswell in late 1995. While cycling through Britain, he was hit by a car and as a result, suffered substantial damage to his throat. Because of the type of injury that he sustained, he was told by medical professionals that speaking would be a challenge for him and that singing was virtually out of the question. He would later recall going through a long period of depression after the fateful accident put a stop on his operatic career.
And understandably so. Braswell grew up surrounded by music, and had never imagined life in silence. His parents, Don Sr. and Jane, were Broadway performers who met on the set of L’il Abner. The music that could always be heard in the Braswell home complemented the tranquil South Texas hills in which he has spent most his life. During school, he would participate in community theater and perform at local events, all the while playing with his high school football team in order not to flaunt his aesthetic side. Shortly after college, his wife Julie persuaded him to apply to Juilliard, a school with a roughly 6% acceptance rate. He did it to humor her, thinking that he would never get accepted. But Julie and his family weren’t the only ones to recognize his talent; Juilliard not only accepted Braswell but offered him several scholarships.
Thus began the journey that would take the boy-next-door from Texas to international stardom. Braswell’s versatile lyric-dramatic tenor voice made him the perfect lead for many classic works from Puccini, Verdi and Donizetti. But the higher one climbs, the longer and harder becomes the fall.
In an interview with Trinity Broadcast Network’s Praise the Lord, Braswell stated that he had always believed that depression was something that could be overcome easily, and that it was only after his accident that he understood what it meant to go through depression. For two years, he could not speak at all. But despite this, he yearned for a way to express his pain in the most natural way he knew—through music. During this time, he composed “Look At Me”, a song which he has recently performed at several concerts. The song captivates the listener precisely because of its touching and powerful simplicity: “Look at me, ” the poetic voice begs of the audience, “I really am somebody.” He reminds us that underneath the sorrow of the silence that he was forced to bear, music was thriving and anxiously seeking a way to come out.
But at that time, the music within him had no means of finding a way out. It was then that Braswell began to realize that despite the pain he was going through, he had another source of happiness – his family. His first child was born during this time of silence, and he named her Aria. Braswell told Diane Bliss of Detroit PBS: “An aria is the love song, the place of expression and emotion in an opera. I named her that because when I didn’t have a voice, Aria was going to be the voice for me. She was my song when I didn’t have one.”
Eventually, Braswell learned to take the accident that stopped his career and turn it into something positive. He took on a new attitude towards life. “God was trying to show me something,” he would later recall. “When I was a professional opera singer, I was very successful at it…after this happened, and my child came along…I looked into the eyes of that child…I realized…it really wasn’t about me.” During the next few years, he and his wife had two more children, and because he was no longer touring the world, he was able to watch his three daughters grow.
When, against the odds, Braswell’s voice started to come back, he took on performance opportunities with local groups and his church in order to strengthen his singing. When the time was right, it was Julie who, like before, put him on a path that would take him back to the world of music – the world in which he rightfully belongs. In 2007, when the third season of NBC’s America’s Got Talent was searching for new talent, Julie sent in an audition video on her husband’s behalf. In September of that year, he was called to Dallas for a preliminary audition. In a 90-second performance, his life would be changed – again.
When he announced that he would be singing Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up”, laughter could be heard from the audience and booing ensued. By the end of the song, the audience was unanimously chanting their approval for him to advance to the next round. And he did, but not for long. The judges did not let him move on to Top 40, and Braswell, thrown off his musical career for the second time in his life, went back to his normal job and thought that singing was simply not his destiny.
But fate would have it otherwise. When a wild card spot opened up in the Top 40, Braswell was one of the eight contestants selected for a chance to return. The American public, perhaps impressed by his ability to turn the audience around during his first audition, perhaps awed by his powerful voice and the grace with which he handled himself on stage, voted Braswell back into the Top 40. From there, he went on to become a finalist, where, 13 years after being told that he might never speak again, he sang to a standing ovation and later won fourth place.
His experience on America’s Got Talent gave Braswell the opportunity to explore other genres of music. When the show’s producer, Simon Cowell, encouraged him to sing “Unchained Melody” at the finalists’ concert in Las Vegas, Braswell, still holding on to his classical roots, was at first skeptical. However, he trusted Cowell’s judgment and today “Unchained Melody” is one of his signature pieces as well as a fan favorite. He has since then performed even more soulful pieces like Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” and done Elvis impressions, while still remaining loyal to the people who followed him through and before America’s Got Talent with covers from classical crossover artists such as Mario Frangoulis and Andrea Bocelli.
Now imagine a classically trained singer performing pop, rock or soul with a full orchestra. This is what Braswell will achieve in his participation with the Symphony of the Hills. When he launches the Symphony’s 2009-2010 season, he hopes to launch a Pops tour that will eventually give him the opportunity to perform with symphony orchestras around the nation. Through all that he has experienced, Donald Braswell is back home, both to the Hill Country that he has known since childhood and also back to his rightful place in music with a full orchestra.