After the season two finale of NBC’s “The Voice” aired, we reached out to NATS member Jonathan Retzlaff, Associate Professor of Voice and Chair of the Voice Department at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, to ask him about his former student Chris Mann.  Jonathan was kind enough to share some memories of Chris’s time at Vanderbilt and some of his work leading up to “The Voice:”

From the moment that Chris Mann entered the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University as a voice performance major in the fall of 2000, it was clear he was a young singer with many interests.  While he readily embraced the development of a classical foundation for his singing, he was drawn to many styles of music including big band era, pop, and jazz.  During his undergraduate career he was a four time regional N.A.T.S winner, sang in the Vanderbilt men's a cappella group "Dodecaphonics" (imagine throngs of fawning, screaming college co-eds in the audience), sang the role of Frederic in "Pirates of Penzance," and closed his senior recital with a set employing a jazz combo. He was clearly something of a singing ventriloquist!

Chris's journey since that time has taken him from coast to coast working with many different people in the business who always wanted him to morph his voice into something "other," which took him away from his classical roots.  Take his singing in the Warblers on the television hit show "Glee,"  for example.  Please compress the voice and take out any hint of vibrancy.  My words, not his.  And so it has been fascinating and rewarding listening to Chris bring a new sound to millions of Americans on NBC's "The Voice" and hear him return to the classical core of his instrument while remaining the charismatic performer he has always been.  We're all so proud of him and excited to see what the future holds.  And to you Chris, remember:  onset, sustain, and agility everyday!

Photo Credit: Lewis Jacobs/NBC