"The Enduring Legacy of Marian Anderson" w. J’Nai Bridges

Two-time Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano, Curtis Institute of Music graduate, and former varsity basketball captain J’Nai Bridges joins host Khadija Mbowe for a free-flowing conversation about her wide-ranging musical influences, structured systems for success, and the public humiliation that (inadvertently) led to her becoming a star.

In February 2024, Bridges joined The Philadelphia Orchestra to announce the upcoming rededication of its home inside the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts as Marian Anderson Hall. It will be the first major concert venue in the world to honor the late performer and trailblazer.


Chapters:

[00:00-2:59] Get To Know J'Nai Bridges
[3:00- ] J'Nai Reflects On Marian Anderson's Impact On Herself And The World
[09:16-12:44] The Public Humiliation That Changed J'Nai's Path
[12:45- 17:15] J'Nai's Full Circle Moment Being Part of the Hall Rededication Announcement
[16:16-17:14]  Music: J'Nai Bridges with Gustavo Dudamel, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) perform “Whole World In Your Hand” during Global Goal: Unite for Our Future on June 27.
[17:17-20:02 ] The Triumphs and Trials of Travel
[20:03-24:41] How J'Nai Has Developed Structures for Success
[24:42-27:31] J'Nai Reflects on Progress in the Classical Music World 
[27:32- 29:27] J'Nai's Cataclysm Sentence


Music from this episode:

BIZET, HABANERA,  J’Nai Bridges in the Canadian Opera Company’s 2022 production of Carmen

J'Nai Bridges with Gustavo Dudamel, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) perform “Whole World In Your Hand” during Global Goal: Unite for Our Future on June 27.


Links from this episode:

READ MORE: The Philadelphia Orchestra to Rename Its Home at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts MARIAN ANDERSON HALL in Honor of the Legendary Contralto, Civil Rights Icon, and Philadelphian:  https://www.philorch.org/about-us/contact-us/press-room/news-releases/the-philadelphia-orchestra-to-rename-its-home-at-the-kimmel-center-for-the-performing-arts-marian-anderson-hall-in-honor-of-the-legendary-contralto-civil-rights-icon-and-philadelphian/


Want more Marian Anderson? Listen to our season one episode with Jillian Patricia Pirtles, CEO of the National Marian Anderson Museum: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1364857/5986438


Marian Anderson Museum: http://marianandersonhistoricalsociety.weebly.com/


J’Nai Bridges:
https://jnaibridgesmezzo.com/

https://www.instagram.com/jnaibmezzo/

https://www.facebook.com/jnaibridgesmezzo/

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s HearTOGETHER series is generously supported by lead corporate sponsor Accordant Advisors. Additional major support has been provided by the Otto Haas Charitable Trust.

Transcript

MUSIC: BIZET, HABANERA,  J’Nai Bridges in the Canadian Opera Company’s 2022 production of Carmen

KHADIJA MBOWE VOICEOVER: Hello and welcome back to the HearTOGETHER Podcast from The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts. I’m your host, Khadija Mbowe— a socio-cultural content creator, classically trained soprano, and loving provocateur. Together, we’re here to clear out dusty assumptions about concert music and explore its potential to reflect and connect our world today.

The music you heard in the intro comes from “Habanera” the iconic aria from Bizet’s 1875 opera, Carmen. It’s the entrance music for the title character, sung here by our guest today — two-time Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges.

Raised in Tacoma, Washington, J’Nai was a high school basketball star before committing to music. Her competitive spirit and innate talent made her a devoted student, and ultimately, an in-demand performer. In 2019 BET even described her as The Beyoncé of Opera following her debut as Nefertiti in Phillip Glass’s Akhnaten.

Back in 2012, J'Nai made her Kennedy Center debut after winning the Marian Anderson Award. In February 2024, the honor came full circle when J'Nai joined The Philadelphia Orchestra to announce the upcoming rededication of its home inside the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts as Marian Anderson Hall. It will be the first major concert venue in the world to honor the late performer and trailblazer.
As you might imagine, it’s all been a bit surreal...

J'NAI BRIDGES: Honestly, I never imagined any of this. I just have been going with God and going with this gift and really respecting it, putting respect on this thing that I love so much. And, you know, as someone that does attempt to put their very best effort out there and who has sacrificed so much for this craft, it takes a lot of sacrifice. Just like anything, I think, that demands greatness. It's nice to be recognized.

KHADIJA MBOWE Can you give me three words that describe your artistic style?

J'NAI BRIDGES: Oh, wow. I think classic, ambitious, inviting.

KHADIJA MBOWE Those are so good.

J'NAI BRIDGES: Thank you. I mean, I really feel that about myself because I sing a lot of traditional works as we know it, but then also I sing a lot of new music and I create, and so I feel like ambition…there are more words that I want to give but yes, those are the three.

KHADIJA MBOWE Classic, ambitious, and you said inviting was the last one, correct?

J'NAI BRIDGES: Yep.

KHADIJA MBOWE Well, I want to talk a bit about your inspirations then to see if maybe those singers are where you get those three major artistic influences, performance styles from. Can you talk about a few of your influences that bring up those words when you think of them?

J'NAI BRIDGES: Sure. It's so funny because a lot of my influences aren't classical musicians, but a lot of them are. So I'll name a few. Definitely Whitney Houston is one I admire. Obviously the voice, just the voice in itself. For me, there is no greater voice and the passion that is behind the voice, it's just so raw and pure and unveiled in a way, and it just hits you. It just hits you, your heart and your soul. So I always, when I think about communicating my art and my music and my voice, I think of Whitney and I try to channel her.

Stevie Wonder. He is just brilliant. His musicianship is just something that I really feel is unparalleled, and I draw a lot of my inspiration from him because there are no limits.
He's done everything, and I just am really inspired by that, by him.

Leontyne Price, the seriousness that she took over her instrument is something that always, I have to remind myself if I want to be great, I'm going to channel Leontyne Price. And whenever I hear any recording of her or see any clip of her, I'm just like, oh my gosh. Her and Beyonce. I'm just like, to me, they're at the pedestal in terms of performance and real care for the craft.

And then of course, Marian Anderson, she's the foundation for me. I just feel like she walked out on stage and she said, here I am. And you had no choice but to receive that gorgeous gift and presence and feeling that she transfixed the world with and changed the world with, and opened so many minds and hearts and broke down so many barriers. I don't, I think I read once that she never really tried to do that necessarily, but she just did because of who she was.

Rather, she didn't focus on that. And I understand that because exhausting to have to focus on carrying the load, ultimately making people better. That's not anybody's job, in my opinion, but it's possible if you are really just living out your purpose and your gifts. I really think that's what she did, and it hit hearts deeply. Those are just a few. That was a very longwinded answer.

KHADIJA MBOWE: I mean I’m asking a singer about their favorite voices, it's going to be a long-winded answer. But also, I appreciate how much care you took with thinking about those people and specifically why you appreciate them so much. And it makes sense the way you talk about singing, that if you have that kind of mindset, your voice will be all the things you described, but especially inviting. And so speaking though of Marian Anderson, because she's definitely a very big inspiration for me as well, I wanted to ask you if you remember when you first heard her sing and what that was like for you, if you do remember.

J'NAI BRIDGES:I do remember when I was a student at Manhattan School of Music in the library. She had a leider album, and Brahms, I just remember hearing her sing a bunch of Brahms songs, and I was like, whoa. The sound is a little bit distorted always, just because of the times in which they were recorded, but I could still feel the power and depth of her instrument and her communication. So I remember just being in the Manhattan School music library, listening to her singing Brahms and I, because of that, I went down the rabbit hole with Brahms and leader in general. I love German lied, so whenever I sing a recital, I definitely program it with German art songs, and that's because of Marian Anderson. So yeah, that was the first time, and it was very, very, very impactful for me.

KHADIJA MBOWE: I bet. Because especially, I mean, yeah, university. How old were you then? You were, if you don't mind me asking?

J'NAI BRIDGES: Yeah, 18, 19.

KHADIJA MBOWE: Wow, okay. And had you been singing before, as in this style of music?

J'NAI BRIDGES: So classical singing came a bit later for me. I essentially started right before I went to Manhattan School of Music. Yeah, it, it's not that long of a story. Long story short, I was an athlete and I had to, well, a coach ultimately forced me to choose between basketball and singing through a very unfortunate circumstance. It was really traumatic and dramatic at the time where we had a basketball game, I had a choir rehearsal, and they were the same day. He said that I could attend the choir rehearsal as long as I got to the game on time to suit up and play. So finished the rehearsal. My mom drove me two hours up north for this game. It was a very important game too. And I got there in time, got my gear on, suited up, and went to warm up, and he sat me on the bench and I was like, coach, what are you doing?

I got to warm up with my team. I'm ready. And he sat me on the bench. The game started, one quarter went by, two quarters went by. It was halftime. I was still on that bench and I was a captain, so I was just so upset. I was in tears. My mother was livid, and he yelled at me in front of the whole stadium and I walked out. And that was the last day that I played competitive basketball. And I was so upset, and I completely just turned all of my efforts towards singing.

I had been in the choir in high school, so my choir teacher always said, you have a natural gift. Maybe you should start studying privately. And so that incident really kind of made me pivot to start taking singing a bit more seriously. So this was my junior year, the end of my junior year, I think. And so then I started studying with a private teacher, and I fell in love with it, and I took the crazy risk of auditioning for conservatories with very little training, and I got into all of them. So yeah, I turned down my basketball scholarships and I ended up going to Manhattan School music for my undergraduate degree.

Yeah, I mean, I was really green. I remember that. I remember being so nervous. My classmates had been studying for years, and I was brand new, so it was scary. But the athlete in me, the competitive spirit was like, okay, I'm not okay with not being on top. So I worked really, really hard, and New York was my playground. So coming from Seattle all the way across country to New York as an 18-year-old, I had no choice but to just dive in. It was all a huge shift and a very scary, yet it felt like the right thing to do. So I did it, and I've always been that way big on feeling. So in hindsight, that was supposed to happen, and I'm grateful for that silly coach who called himself teaching me a lesson. I do believe everything happens for a reason.

KHADIJA MBOWE What does it feel like coming full circle in this moment from discovering Marian Anderson to singing? To singing in a hall named after her? And what is the importance of naming halls after legends like this?

J'NAI BRIDGES: It's really full circle. So I will also mention that I went to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where Queen Marian Anderson is from. And having gone to graduate school in Philadelphia, stepped foot in her home many times, some concerts in her home, and then being a recipient of the Marian Anderson Award, I feel like she has always been with me, always since I started singing and discovered this voice in me. I feel like she is me. I mean, she's a part of me. So this moment is really, it's quite surreal actually, because I've always imagined whenever I step on stage, I think of her. I think of her, and I think of many other black opera singers, women opera singers that have come before me, but particularly Marian Anderson, because she is the one that set the tone and paved, paved the way.

I'm just so grateful, and I am proud of this moment and of Philadelphia realizing the importance of naming this hall after her. Because without her, certainly classical music would be so much different. She was such a pioneer and influenced so many, not just black everybody. So it's only appropriate that this hall is renamed after her, and I think it's important to keep these names, her name, alive, well, and alive. So to have her name in an institution where we enter, I just feel like we are entering an elevated experience, and it is going to have a depth, and it's deep now. But I know that once we enter into the Marian Anderson Hall, there's going to be a reverence that comes along with that. And it's really just going to, I think the music making the music receiving hopefully continue to just open minds and hearts, which is what she did. It's amazing. I'm just like, yes. Finally, someone got it.

KHADIJA MBOWE VOICEOVER: In 2020, J’Nai emerged as a leader as classical music shifted toward conversations of inclusion and racial justice. She proposed, and led, a highly successful panel on race and inequality in her art form with the Los Angeles Opera, which the New York Times called “a conversation of striking scope and candor”. Since then, J’Nai has been named one of the Kennedy Center’s NEXT50 cultural leaders, was featured in the All Stars Campaign for Converse shoes’ Breaking Down Barriers Collection, and appeared on the digital SOUND/STAGE series with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel. Here’s an excerpt of her singing, He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands, from that series.
 
MUSIC: J'Nai Bridges with Gustavo Dudamel, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) perform “Whole World In Your Hand” during Global Goal: Unite for Our Future on June 27.

KHADIJA MBOWE I want to get back to what you were saying about sacrifice, because I think something that folks maybe don't even realize about the life of an opera singer is how much you travel and how much time that takes away from you being not even just in spaces with your loved ones, but still because you're always going, how many days out of the year, if you even know, OMG your face!

J'NAI BRIDGES: Oh, gosh. So I don't know the exact amount of days. However, I will say it's about 75% of the year. Wow. Yeah. It's been more, it varies year to year. This is the first year in my whole career where I have been able to be in my home for five months. Consecutive consecutive months. Yeah. Because singing in New York all spring, which is so nice. I can go to bed in my bed and wake up in my bed and in my space and not have to pay extra rent because as opera singers, we pay for to live on the road. It's horrible.

KHADIJA MBOWE Wait, what? Yeah,

J'NAI BRIDGES: Yeah. I hate that I even have to say it, but it's true. So it's really stressful being on the road. It's very stressful financially, emotionally, it can be. I now have a system in place though, in terms of making home everywhere I sing, because that's what you have to do when I'm in a country or a city for two months or more. Sometimes you got to make it feel like home. So I have my rituals and I actually like to travel, so that helps. I can't imagine not liking to travel. I will say that I don't like it as much as I used to, and I think that just comes with age. But generally speaking, I love experiencing new cultures and new environments and people and food, and I like flying too. So it's just overall, it's nice for me, but being home right now is great, and it is just helping me focus on other aspects of my life that are sometimes neglected when you're on the road, just because there's no real settling, if that makes sense.

KHADIJA MBOWE How do you keep, I guess, vocal hygiene, so to speak? Because you've talked a lot about respecting your instrument, and so how does that work when you're always on the go?

J'NAI BRIDGES: So with all this sickness going around, especially, it is just so difficult, but me personally, I drink a lot of water. I sleep, I sleep eight hours every night. I work out, I have humidifiers going everywhere. I think I have a humidifier in 10 different countries because I buy them and then I leave them. But thankfully, I make friends with someone in the country or city, and I leave them with them, and then I come back and I'm like, Hey, I need my humidifier. So a lot of humidity and I've become very structured, and that kind of goes against my nature, an Aquarius, and I am really an Aquarius.

KHADIJA MBOWE I need to Okay. For the audience. For the audience. Aquariuses unfortunately are known as the weirdos of the astrology sign. No offense,

J'NAI BRIDGES:But everyone loves us.

KHADIJA MBOWE But yes, Aquarius also say that it's true.

J'NAI BRIDGES: No, we are definitely like, we're an air sign, so we kind of dance to the beat of our own drum, and that doesn't vibe with everyone. But I will say that there have been some structures I've put in place that really help my life.

KHADIJA MBOWE Well, okay. So do you have any advice for some of us other, not just air signs, but just folks that are artists requiring help with structure, asking for a friend? Of course.

J'NAI BRIDGES: Yeah. I mean, for me, I started this whole structure thing by literally writing down what I need to do so that I don't have an email sitting in my box for two months. So yeah, I think just writing things down for me, I have little things that I do that are kind of ritualistic that help. I have to make my bed every morning. I have to have my cup of hot water, lemon and honey first thing before I eat anything that I do. My whole pampering of the skin and all of that, and this is all before I look at my phone. So when people don't hear from me, my manager publicist, that's why, because I'm not ready for them and it'll be okay. Yeah, I think it's really important for artists to not feel like they owe anybody anything, and that obviously has come. I have developed that, I'll say because as a young, eager, also sometimes struggling artist, you just got to do what you got to do, and you feel like you have to answer this and put yourself out there in this way, and a lot of times you do, but I think if I were to tell my younger self that I'm not in the people pleasing business, I just would've had less anxiety.

KHADIJA MBOWE What do you think or what did success look like for you initially when you were first starting out your career, when you were maybe getting gigs, maybe not getting as many versus post Grammy J'Nai?

J'NAI BRIDGES: I mean, I think success for me was just getting a job. There are a lot of singers out there. Jobs are limited. Well, the jobs that I wanted were limited now post Grammy and not even post Grammy. It is post Grammy, but also post 2020. I just feel like I don't, yes, I have worked for where I am right now, but also I don't have to wait on somebody to give me a job. I am creative. We're creative. We can create, and that's something that Covid could never take away. Racism can never take away. So I will say that post Grammy, my outlook on creating is just different. It's expanded and I feel more powerful.

KHADIJA MBOWE I just have two more questions for you.

J'NAI BRIDGES: Okay.

KHADIJA MBOWE Firstly, I wanted to ask you, because in 2020 you had done a panel through, was it through LA Opera with them, like in collaboration, and now it's 2024. You've had a bit of time, not a lot of time, but a bit of time. Have you felt like there has been actual progress and change in this industry since you had that panel discussion, or has it been a little like, or it can be both? It's a spectrum.

J'NAI BRIDGES: Definitely both. My first inclination is to say yes, because I have noticed and been a part of change for the better. I can now say that I've been directed by a black director. I've been conducted by a black conductor. This was not the case. Pre-conversation, pre LA opera, and obviously this is never ending work that needs to be done. I will say though, that conversation, I didn't realize the impact it would have, but I'm grateful and hopeful because I do feel that there's been progress. There have been stories that I've told that I never imagined would be on an operatic stage. Now, within those stories, I do feel like it's a start. It definitely is a start. I personally don't want any more. I shouldn't say anymore, but I don't want any more black trauma on stage. I just, it's a lot. We live it every day, and I don't need to live it on stage as well. That's just me.

There are a lot of stories that can be told, and there are also fiction stories that could be made up. It doesn't have to be something that comes from our life, everyday life, but I love that there are stories we're being told. Don't misunderstand me, but I also feel like it has really just opened people's eyes and ears and catapulted a bigger conversation. Even the Asian Opera Alliance, that was a direct effect, that conversation, and that was something that also needed to be done. So yes, I think there has been change and there needs to continue to be changed and work towards equity and inclusion, which is not ticking off boxes, really doing the work.

KHADIJA MBOWE My last question, and this is a question that has nothing to do with music, but if you want it to, it's just something I love to ask people. It's called the cataclysm sentence, which is basically, I know, right? If all the humans in the world were to be wiped out because of some giant cataclysm that happened, some catastrophic event, and there was a new batch of human beings taking over the earth, what piece of advice would you give them? It's a lot, but yeah, I know.

J'NAI BRIDGES: That's a lot. That's a really great question. Focus on loving yourself. I truly believe that if we as individual humans really did the work on delving into loving ourselves, then it would just be such a different place. I think.

KHADIJA MBOWE I love that. Well, J’Nai, thank you so so juch for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this, I know  they’ve got you running around everywhere.

J'NAI BRIDGES: So very grateful to be a part of this podcast and thank you for your amazing questions. Really really insightful, thank you.

KHADIJA MBOWE VOICEOVER: The love is so mutual. Thanks again to J’Nai for sharing a bit of her story with us and thanks so much to you! For listening to the HearTOGETHER Podcast from The Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center. I’m Khadija Mbowe, and I’ll see you back for our FINAL episode next month.