Like many singers, Kimberly Hawkins started singing at a young age. “I started singing in school choirs in junior high, age twelve,” the Chicago-born, Aurora Illinois-raised singer states. “I did musicals in junior high, high school and beyond.”
Her interest in opera goes back to Sesame Street, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, and the Grant Park Symphony. “Sesame Street had a stop-action photography video of an orange with rubber band lips singing the "Habanera" from Bizet's Carmen. I fell in love with that video.” Mr. Rogers invited opera singers to the neighborhood and The Grant Park Symphony (her first live orchestra concert) plays a concert before the fireworks on July 3rd.
It wasn’t until her senior year of college that she started her formal training, voice lessons and coaching. Already a psychology/biology double major, Hawkins was also active in her campus choir. “My college choir was about to go on tour around Illinois.” She states. “My friend Brenda had the big solo for the song "Ain't…show more content… “Some of these traditions are alive and well in African American churches.” She explains. “I started reading music when I was eight years old and noticed we weren't singing the music as it was printed in the hymnals. I didn't know it then but I was inheriting an oral (and aural) tradition.” grew up hearing people improvise harmony around me in church pews. When I began this project I wrote out the parts meticulously. But as I stood in front of the microphone I wanted to improvise harmony the way I had in church. So I stopped writing and just sang. My first experiment with African percussion instruments (djembe, dunun, calabash, etc.) was Kum ba yah. I wanted to push back against the song's fluffy, derogatory image in popular culture. The percussion adds some of the gravitas the prayer