MUSIC

"Its not my job to create an artist but it is to

free the artist. I can bring them to the water
of the song, but I cant drink it for them."

Ron Browning

Words Dancing on Air

by Renee Armand | photography by Jerry Atnip

icture the moment. A great singer, alone on a stage, bathed

in light. An adoring audience, mesmerized. Rapturous

applause, the spirit soaring. What crazy alchemy conjured this
magic, what powerful formula transformed a sound wave into
an emotion that leapt across the footlights and straight into the
heart? How does that happen? Well, it's not easy. You can start
by taking equal parts talent and luck and throwing in a good
measure of timing, tenacity, and desperation. Sweeten the mix
with a dash of hunger and desire, and, if the stars align in the right
configuration, you might just have the elixir you were searching
84 | December 2O12

for. Or you can call vocal coach extraordinaire Ron Browning, a

creative tour de force that nurtures and supports the beginning
student and the successful artist.
Brownings credits and skills loom large and far beyond the
musical geography of Nashville. He teaches at the Castleton Opera
Festival, which is under the leadership of world-renowned Maestro
Lorin Maazel, conductor of the New York Philharmonic (200209)
and currently conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. Maazel has
said about Rons work at Castleton, Ron is simply a master! The
singers absolutely love working with him. Browning traveled to

NashvilleArts.com

Norway with Wynonna Judd when she performed at the Nobel

Peace Prize Concert. In the liner notes of her Classic Christmas CD,
for which he produced her vocals, she writes, When the student
is ready, the teacher appears. God sent Ron to me just in time.
From the Schermerhorn stage she dedicated Ave Maria to Ron
and then said, He is an angelic spirit, and anyone interested in
singing needs to study with this man.
In an interview for the BBC, Ben MacDougal said about Browning,
To use the word Zen may be a little contrived, but there is a sense
of his being connected to the universe that puts people instantly at
ease, and Id argue that this is part of the secret to his success. The
interconnectedness of all things embodies this sentiment perfectly,
and it provides the medium and backdrop of a formidable talent. It,
perhaps, goes some way to unraveling the mystery that describes
consummate musicality rather than just some musical talent.
His work is a high form of the distillation of what he observes
and hears (he is a true listener), moving his artists constantly
towards honesty, authenticitywhich is different and specific
for each singer, each student. One of his skills is to release their
uniqueness, not to create it.

Teacher Ron Browning with student Wynonna Judd

"Singing is an act of intimacy, of passion.

It is intensely personalat least, it
should be. Its physical; the whole body
is the instrument vibrating with the
power of sound. The song is your skin.
You have to be that song."
He also means to somehow retrieve the soul of the child in each
of us, that moment of the original gift. We are all born to sing. We
are born crying out. Our first sounds are music, the rush of our
mothers blood and the beat of her heart. Our heartbeats swing
its not a straight beatand thats as cool as can be!
As a gifted singer, writer, musician, and performer, he knows
what hes talking about. He grew up in a loving and expressive
musical family in the town of Vicco, Kentucky, population 700,
and from the time he was in third grade, he was playing stride
piano in church. They would send for this little boy to play for
their soloists and choirs, and he began to work on vocals by
picking out harmonies for them. Also, Old timey people would
stand up to give testimony and they would just start to sing
under the spirit. He pauses, emotional. I take so much of what
I do today from that.
His technique is complex but addresses any level of singer, and
he always asks his students, What do you want? and hears even
more than what they may answer. As a teacher, his goal is to build
the instrumenthow to use the voice. As a coach, its phrasing,

finding material, musical style. As a performance coach, its how

you claim the stage. Are you at home? Are you believable? As an
artists counselor, its what it takes to build a professional career.
He is in constant demand by record companies and legendary
producers in all genres to work with their new acts, because his
intuition and skill and clarity bring out the best of what they are
capable of doing.
Ron Browning was given the very first Lifetime Mentor Award by
the Nashville Jazz Workshop in September 2010 For inspiring and
enriching the lives, hearts, and minds of so many. It recognizes his
conviction that there is no end of creativity. It is constant. You cant
limit art. He never has.
To see a video of Wynonnas voice lesson with Ron Browning visit
www.nashvillearts.com.
To learn more about Ron Brownings work and to schedule a voice
lesson visit www.ronbrowningmusic.com.

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