-14.jpg)
The Scene Room
The Scene Room Podcast spotlights the movers and makers redefining the performing arts—focusing on innovative marketing, leadership, and the importance of collaboration. Hosted by Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bowman, with a keen eye on audience trends and cultural shifts, the goal is to explore how artists and organizations are connecting with communities, shaping the future, and redefining what it means to engage and inspire.
The Scene Room
Jennifer Rowley — The Approachable Diva: Strategy, Strength, and Community
When Jennifer Rowley steps onto the stage, audiences witness the culmination of meticulous preparation, physical discipline, and an authentic artistic presence that extends far beyond the footlights. But what happens behind the scenes? How does a world-class soprano navigate today's complex performing arts landscape?
Jennifer's approach to her craft breaks conventional boundaries. Rather than maintaining an untouchable "diva" image, she's built vibrant communities across social platforms where she personally engages with every comment and message. "I like being the approachable diva," she explains, revealing how this digital connection translates to meaningful in-person relationships with audiences. Her strategic analysis of which content resonates most—different for her Facebook versus Instagram followers—has allowed her to double her online presence in just months while maintaining her distinctive artistic voice.
The conversation shifts when Jennifer shares her transformative fitness journey following a debilitating foot injury that affected her singing. After surgery and rehabilitation, she discovered how strength training revolutionized her vocal performance: "I became stronger in my singing, stronger in my heart, stronger in my conviction." Her passionate advocacy for physical conditioning challenges outdated notions about singers avoiding core exercise, instead highlighting how core strength and cardiovascular health directly enhance vocal stamina and performance quality. "Lift heavy, sing heavy," her teacher says—wisdom Jennifer now embodies both physically and artistically.
Her Aria Bootcamp program applies this same holistic, preparation-focused approach to developing young artists. Created after observing inadequate audition preparation during her time as a competition judge, the program produces remarkable results—approximately 80% of participants secure young artist positions or jobs. Jennifer's philosophy is clear: "You have to be the most prepared person in the room at any time." From pre-screening videos to live audition techniques, her comprehensive training gives singers every tool needed to succeed in an increasingly competitive field. How might your artistic journey transform with this level of intentional preparation and holistic development?
All episodes are also available in video form on our YouTube Channel. All episodes are hosted by Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bowman.
Don’t forget to subscribe, share the love, and leave us a review to show your support—it means a lot to us!
Don't hesitate to reach out to us with guest ideas, information you'd like covered, or any ideas you might have—the hope is for this to be a continuous resource and dialogue with our listeners.
Visit TheSceneRoom.com for more information.
Hi, I'm Elizabeth Bowman and welcome to the Scene Room. Today I have Jennifer Raleigh in the room. I've had the privilege of seeing her perform on the Metropolitan Opera Stage many times and I also follow her on social media, where she's built a vibrant and active community. Jennifer, in addition to being an internationally acclaimed soprano, is very active in the teaching space. She has founded an aria boot camp, which we talk about in this episode quite a bit, and she also travels internationally giving master classes and seminars.
Elizabeth Bowman:In our conversation, jennifer shares her insights on the evolving role of social media in the performing arts, the importance of building authentic community, her inspiring fitness journey and how it's strengthened, her singing evolving role of social media in the performing arts, the importance of building authentic community, her inspiring fitness journey and how it strengthened her singing, and the deeply rewarding work she's doing as a teacher and mentor. If you're enjoying the podcast, please do like, share, review, do any of those things. It really helps keep these conversations going. I really appreciate the support. Now let's get to the conversation. Jennifer, welcome to the scene room. Thanks so much for coming. Oh, thanks so much for having me.
Jennifer Rowley:I'm super happy to be with you today.
Elizabeth Bowman:I've been following you online on my Instagram. I see you are very active. You have like a full blown community there. I mean, obviously I've followed your singing career as well. I've heard you sing on the Metropolitan Opera stage before, so it's really great to connect with you here.
Jennifer Rowley:Yeah, it's great to meet you too. I love your videos on Instagram as well and I love your interviews and your interview questions are they're so astute and so important, and loved the most recent videos with David Lomeli and Christian Van Horn. And just so happy to meet you and great to be here.
Elizabeth Bowman:Where are we podcasting from?
Jennifer Rowley:we're
Jennifer Rowley:podcasting from the beautiful state of Florida, where it is allergy central but also beautiful. We're in Fort Myers, florida, today.
Elizabeth Bowman:Right on, and so you live in Florida when you're not on the road.
Jennifer Rowley:I do. I live in Florida where I'm on vacation when I'm not working.
Elizabeth Bowman:You must be on the road quite a bit.
Jennifer Rowley:Yeah, I mean, I work a lot at you know at home as well teaching and things like that. But yeah, in between, this is my little sanctuary and happy place. So it's always nice when you walk in from being gone for a while and you can literally just go when you walk in the door. So it's always nice when you walk in from being gone for a while and you can literally just go when you walk in the door. So it's a great feeling to have your home feel like that.
Elizabeth Bowman:So I mentioned before that I've been following your online community and, for those listening if they haven't followed you, can you explain what inspired you to build that community, when you made that decision to start building that community, and what outlets did you purposely decide to use? Like Instagram I mentioned, are you also on TikTok?
Jennifer Rowley:No TikTok, because TikTok would drive me insane. That's one rabbit hole I could never go down. But I also have a very large community on Facebook. I believe I have over 30,000 followers on Facebook as well, and what's really interesting about the two mediums Instagram and Facebook is there's very different audiences on both platforms and so, while I do share the same or similar content on both platforms, the discussions are often very, very different, which is really exciting. So the community on Instagram, which I love very much, is a younger community, which is really exciting. So the community on Instagram, which I love very much, is a younger community, which is fantastic, and I love being able to reach that younger generation of singer, and I decided to really start growing that community, I would say, in the last year.
Jennifer Rowley:I always used it, I always use social media and I always I always had fun sharing my career. You know I always had fun sharing that sort of behind the scenes look at the business because I follow celebrities and other opera singers and I love getting to see behind the scenes of, like the Lady Gaga Super Bowl halftime show. You know I love that side of the business. And so when I started using Instagram and you know, over the last several years you know post COVID and things like that it was really fun to be able to show an audience. You know what is happening behind the scenes. You know what is travel like, what is preparation like, what does the singer do to prepare for you know these big things that we see them on stage so that we're not so unreachable. I like being approachable, I like being the approachable diva and I like to be able to connect with my audience personally, not just in a theater but also online. I answer all my own DMs and I answer every single comment that everyone makes on my posts, which gets a little overwhelming sometimes, but I feel it's really important to engage the audience and that every single person feels like they can have an avenue to me and they can have a communication and a connection. You know, even on such a small platform as you know, social media I love the community.
Jennifer Rowley:I've been building the community even more this season and using not so traditional outlets to do so.
Jennifer Rowley:I just created a broadcast channel about a month ago and we have a thousand people in that broadcast channel where we get to connect even more intimately and I can share even more things that I don't necessarily put on the main feed in Instagram and Facebook, because I don't think everybody's interested in those things, and I can also help young singers, you know, with exercises and with behind the scenes information and with advice and with inspiration, and you know things that not every opera fan wouldn't necessarily be interested in, so it wouldn't.
Jennifer Rowley:It doesn't really have a place on my feed, but there are definitely people who want that information, so I'm having a really great time with that broadcast channel, learning what people like, learning what they want more of, and being able to reach that next generation. I think is also incredibly important, and it's incredibly important to me personally because I had such great mentors help me coming up in the business. So to just be able to be a small part of somebody's path is, you know, and as long as it's a positive part, then I'm very, I'm very honored and happy. So, yeah, I love my little community on Instagram and Facebook. It's fun.
Elizabeth Bowman:It used to be a nice thing to have followers and the like accumulation, but now it's an essential thing for artists to really prioritize building those communities Because in order to have a career in this business, you need that energy behind you and you know obviously we can't do this alone. It takes a village all of this, but now it's. It's more than ever. You got to invest in your community building skills.
Jennifer Rowley:You do, and I think that that community then invests in you.
Jennifer Rowley:And that's that's incredibly important for the future of our business. You know, I have a cousin who has two daughters teenage daughters and one of them told her when she got home from school this week that her class wanted to the teacher will let them listen to classical music during kind of study time and homework time. The students asked to listen to opera and my cousin's daughter basically said oh, I have a cousin who's a world famous opera singer, let's listen to her. And so their oh, I have a cousin who's a world famous opera singer, let's listen to her. And so their teenage class I don't even know what grade, seventh or eighth grade pulled up my YouTube channel and literally just put it on and listened to videos for an hour of me singing opera and I think I got like 20 new followers on YouTube that day because these teenagers were listening to opera during homework time.
Jennifer Rowley:And I think that's amazing and that's the formation of the new audience coming into the opera house. Maybe those students become new fans, become new donors, become opera singers themselves. You know, that's how we continue our business forward and that community online that YouTube, instagram, et cetera community you get those people excited, you get your followers excited, you get your fans excited and then they want to come see you in the theater and that's the most important part. The most important part is that they're coming offline and they're actually coming into the theater and sitting in that seat and buying that ticket and watching someone that they actually really care about, and I think that's it's exceptionally important for the advancement of our business and our art form.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah, and this personal connection, obviously between your cousin's daughter, was it? Yeah? So this idea that we need this personal connection, like they could have said, I really like this opera singer, let's listen to that and that wouldn't have necessarily resonated as much even if they had listened to the opera singer that they loved, or whatever, but the fact that they were like, well, this person is related to this person and that's a very simple connection, but the idea that there is a friendship there is important.
Jennifer Rowley:I follow her online. She answered my comment. She engaged with me. I like her. I have to tell you I mean this is a little off topic, but on topic.
Jennifer Rowley:This week I was riding my Peloton on the weekend and I got my first shout out. Hannah Corbin shouted out my name and said she loved my leaderboard name. I cannot tell you how loudly I squealed on that bike because I love her. I follow her online. I think she's incredible. I love her classes, but also I just love her messaging and who she is as a person.
Jennifer Rowley:I wouldn't know that if I didn't follow her on Instagram. And so, of course, I tagged her on Instagram and I was like, oh, anna Corbin gave me a shout out and then she messaged me back, you know, and said make sure you stretch. You know that kind of a thing. But that personal connection makes me love her more and makes me care about her, like as a person, and so that connection is what we need in our business in order to sort of make people go. Oh my God. She answered my comment Like that means so much to me. Then maybe you bring that audience member into the theater because it meant so much to you. It meant so much to them that you engage with them and they like your singing, so why not come in and actually see you sing? That's what I'm trying to build, anyways, and I think that's the best way to utilize these platforms. You know, you grow your audience by having that personal connection.
Elizabeth Bowman:Can I ask you're busy with the performing? You're busy do everything myself.
Jennifer Rowley:However, I work with the ladies of digital, max and Anthony, who are absolutely incredible, because I needed to be educated about social media. And Max and Anthony, while they do run social media channels as well, they are what they call themselves social media educators. I learned more from them in six months than I ever knew about social media prior to that, and the reason I started working with them was because I had them as a part of my young artist program, aria Bootcamp. I had them for a seminar last summer to educate our singers on how to utilize their social media for the upcoming audition season, and they gave a seminar that was so intelligent and so chock full of information that the singers all of them left inspired. I mean just personally inspired, but also inspired to share themselves and to open themselves up to an audience online and to be vulnerable and and to share their art and their music. And Max and Anthony did that, and it was really impressive to me.
Jennifer Rowley:And so, after ARIA Bootcamp, I wrote them personally and I said listen, I want to grow my brand online. I don't know how to do that. My follower number hasn't moved for like a year and I want to start reaching a new audience. I want to start bringing the mentorship and the teaching aspect of my career and my life into my social media platform. How do I do that? I don't know how to do that. I have zero problem asking anyone for help. In fact, I love asking people for help because I love learning new things. I love, you know, when someone else is more knowledgeable in something than I am, I want to learn about it. You know, and I still take voice lessons because I want to continue learning. You know, all of that knowledge fuels my knowledge to give to other people, and so when they gave this seminar, I just knew that I wanted to reach out to them. I wanted to add them to my team, and so we have a WhatsApp thread. We exchange ideas every single day.
Jennifer Rowley:We talk about the content that I'm putting up. We analyze the content that goes up. We look and see. You know what's resonating with people, what's getting the most. You know views, what's getting the most likes, what's getting the most shares. You know what post has 500 shares and which post has 100 shares and why like what. What's the difference in the content?
Jennifer Rowley:And then adjusting the content that I'm putting out so that my audience is getting what they actually want to see, and I had never done that before I never looked at the analytics of things, I never, you know. I just posted. I was like, oh, this is fun, I'll post this, you know. But actually looking at your audience and analyzing what they are responding to, what is resonating with them, made it so much easier for me to actually create an online presence and a brand and create pillars of content that, you know, resonated with all the different types of people who actually follow me. So they've been exceptionally helpful and I encourage anyone, I mean, and everyone in our business, to educate themselves on how to actually use these platforms so that your posts actually get somewhere because we all know that like half the time they don't go anywhere.
Jennifer Rowley:You know, and and how things change because they change, it seems, weekly. Things change. What you're supposed to do You're supposed to use keywords this day was use hash work tags. This day you're supposed to use, you're supposed to put keywords in the videos. You're supposed to put them in the caption. You're supposed to do that. You're supposed to use edits now. So you know, everything is changing every day.
Jennifer Rowley:It seems like, and it's really nice to have people to sort of guide you along that path and sort of show you the way. And they have contributed a ton, not only to my education but to the success of my social media channels, and I guess we've been working since September. So since September my accounts have doubled in size. Both accounts the Facebook account, more so, has almost tripled in size and the type of content that I am putting out. I now understand what I need to do, how to do it, what my audience is going to like, how long it needs to be, what needs to be in the first three seconds. You know all of those things and I can do it much more quickly than previously. So the education from Max and Anthony has been unbelievable.
Elizabeth Bowman:That's a sign of a good team, because they're empowering you to understand, Massively, empowering me and inspiring me.
Jennifer Rowley:I mean, Anthony, I'm not kidding, sends me DMs and messages all day long. Oh, check out this post. This might be something fun for you to. Oh, check out this post. This is a new trend. I think your audience would like this trend, you know. And then I make it my own, which I think is super important, because my voice is what people are tuning in for, right. So I wouldn't want a team member to do that for me. I would want to do that myself, because I want to reach my audience personally. That's the point of what I'm doing anyways. Right, so you know as easy as it would be for me to put in to chat GPT, write me a social media caption about this video, click. I can't do that because it really does need to be my voice, you know, and my tone and my branding, and you know I want people to know me as a person through these posts as well.
Elizabeth Bowman:Well, people can feel when it's not authentic. Even if they see the post and they even think it's you, they just don't connect to it. It's like that X factor in performance, like the difference between a great performance that moves someone and a performance that was technically really good but like had no soul. Exactly so I, yeah, I guess at a certain point. You know, a lot of young artists don't have the money to hire an outside party, but it is good to maybe have a workshop and invest in that experience or just have. I mean, you pay for a voice lesson, right?
Jennifer Rowley:Or just have I mean, you pay for a voice lesson, right, you pay for a coaching Just have a one-on-one hour-long session. Just get some advice, just get some help. Just have somebody take a look at your account with a fresh set of eyes and go okay, this is what's resonating with your audience. These are the posts that have the most interaction and engagement. You need to do more of that, you know. Or or just just to have someone, just a consult, to have someone look at your online presence. Are you Googleable? Can we find videos of you? Are you on YouTube? Do you have a library of your performances? Do you have a library of your audition videos? Can we go and find you quickly? Because I promise you, you know, if you're doing a performance, it's intermission. People are standing out in the lobby. They're.
Elizabeth Bowman:Googling you.
Jennifer Rowley:They're looking for you on Instagram, they're looking for you on Facebook, especially if they like what you're doing and they're like, oh, they get excited and they want to follow you and they do it right then, and there, right at the theater. I mean, I can't tell you intermission of performances when I see like the so-and-so followed you, so-and-so followed you, like popping up on my phone during intermission. It happens all the time, and so that online presence is exceptionally important. So have a consultation. You pay $100 to $200 for a voice lesson. Pay it for someone to help you with your social media as well, so that you can actually get that stuff out there.
Elizabeth Bowman:It's really important. The past two summers I did workshops with emerging and some professional artists at the center and the first thing I would do when they would come into my office I would Google them, yeah, and, but I would Google them with them sitting next to me and they Word got around that. That was how I was starting my sessions. Some people had accounts that this is the generation that grew up with the internet. I didn't grow up with the internet. I started having a computer when I was in first year university. I had a computer. You know, I had a computer, but beyond that it wasn't part of our fabric. And so the kids, you know, when they're 10 or 11 or something, they created a YouTube channel, yes, and then they forgot that it's a YouTube channel. And then there's some sort of song about how they like strawberries or something.
Jennifer Rowley:Yeah, that is so important, I mean, and also, especially with so many young artists followers, it's so important that they understand that I'm looking. So, if you apply to my young artists program, I'm going to your Instagram. I'm going to look for more information. I'm going to look to see if I want you at my program. I want to see if you're a good person. If you, if you're trolling people on Facebook and Instagram, I don't want you there. You know what I mean and I want to see more videos. I want to see more. I want to see more of you. I want to get to know you as well and I promise you, I promise you, that the casting directors are doing the same thing. I promise you that the casting directors are doing the same thing. They're sitting behind that table and they are going to your Instagram and they are going to your YouTube and they are Googling you. I promise you they are. So if we can't find you online, or if you have a social media presence, that's all over the place.
Jennifer Rowley:It doesn't look so great and people have to realize that that is a part of this business. You know it's huge. I mean, just like any other business that you might apply for a job in. Like LinkedIn is a huge thing, especially for corporate America. People are going to your LinkedIn. So in our business, people are going to your Instagram. It's going to happen. So it better look good and it better be informational and educational for me on you as an artist and a person and tell me that I want to work with you. That's, it's really important. It's really important.
Elizabeth Bowman:The other thing that we should highlight here is because I often found videos from when they were 15 or 16 and they're not representative of the talent that is current and they sort of think well, whatever it was put on YouTube and who cares, unlist, unlist it. You got to get that stuff off. You have to go through every year. You should go through your videos and think does this represent me as an artist now? And if it doesn't, then it's gone. And if you're unsure, honestly it's gone. Yeah.
Jennifer Rowley:I mean what I do love to see. Sometimes I mean and this is not every video, but sometimes I do like to see a trajectory. So if they have a video of an important performance from, let's say, five years ago they made a debut, you know, here or there, or they jumped in as a cover and somebody caught it and they have it on their YouTube I want to see the trajectory of that, especially if it was a very good performance. I think that's great to leave there, but we don't need all of the videos between that one and then. You know and what's representative. But but you can show a trajectory. You just have to be strategic in your editing process. You know and and determine okay, this one, you know you can hear my voice Everything's great, the high notes are great, we're intonation is good, you know all those things and we're not just leaving everything up there like. Be strategic and what you show people. Basically.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah, I'm mainly saying about the quality of that performance. So obviously, if you're 11 and you're performing, you know a child solo in front of an orchestra and that was an amazing experience for you and it's obvious that you are a young performer and you're performing with good intonation and all those things, then fabulous. Keep it up. But, yeah, you should definitely go through your videos and then make that call and if you need help, go with. Go through them with your teacher, maybe.
Jennifer Rowley:Yeah, go through them with your teacher. Go through them, have a friend look at them. You know, have a. Have a colleague look at them and help you. Another set of eyes, a fresh set of eyes on everything is is great.
Elizabeth Bowman:So tell me, you're doing this ARIA bootcamp, what is this? So ARIA?
Jennifer Rowley:bootcamp is my young artist training program, based down here in Florida. We do it at the Sarasota Opera House in August every season and it is a program, a training program, where singers can come and basically have a one-stop shop for audition season. I was finding, as I was watching, you know, I started judging competitions. I've judged in that competition for several seasons now and I've judged several other competitions.
Jennifer Rowley:And I was noticing that the preparation for auditions was not thorough enough and a lot of people were showing up to auditions not knowing what they were talking about, having wrong notes, wrong rhythms, intonation, not great languages. And then you know wondering why am I not getting hired? You have to prepare for your auditions as if you were preparing a role. You have to be so prepared, overly prepared, you have to be the most prepared person in the room at any time. This is always my opinion. However, when it comes to auditioning, you have to be prepared before the in-person audition, because now and since COVID, a lot of our auditions number one happen online and happen via a video link, but number two you can't get into that live audition if your pre-screening video that you send is not good enough, and so the preparation begins super early way, earlier than a lot of singers actually do it.
Jennifer Rowley:And so, because I was finding that there was a lack of preparation, I thought to myself that we should have a place where singers could go to get all of that preparation, in an atmosphere of positivity and uplifting and cheerleading but also challenging, where we can inspire people to do better and to work harder in a positive way, of course and go into those auditions knowing everything, being so fully prepared that nerves are a thing of the past. You know, we have nerves because we doubt ourselves and if you're so overly prepared, if you're so fully prepared, you know everything about what you're going to sing. You don't have to doubt, it's there. I was super inspired by my mentor, martina Arroyo, and her Prelude to Performance program, where she taught us how to be the most prepared person in the room, how to learn our roles, in a way that number one, they would never leave because you learn them so thoroughly. But number two, you know a character inside, outside, upside down, and you can become that character because you know their background. You've read that source material. You know every single word that they are singing. Everyone around you is singing the chorus, is singing everything, and she taught us how to prepare so thoroughly that that's never left me. It's always been a part of my career and it's the way that I still prepare to this day.
Jennifer Rowley:And I took her inspiration and said well, why aren't we preparing auditions this way? And so that's why I created ARIA Boot Camp, because we needed a place where we could educate young artists and help them level up for those pre-screening recordings and those auditions. And it works to a point where I would say, 80 to a hundred percent of the people, people who leave RE Boot Camp have more auditions that they've ever had before and they all have a job for the next season. Yeah, I would say that. I mean, some of our singers last season were in undergrad, so they're not going to obviously have a job this season. So I would say, 80% of the people in our program last season have a young artist program this summer and that's massive, especially when you were talking about 30 something singers, you know, and, yeah, our undergraduates are young singers.
Jennifer Rowley:We had 19 year olds last year.
Jennifer Rowley:It was amazing and they were more prepared than the 30 year olds, which was great.
Jennifer Rowley:But you know they're going to do, you know, something at their school or something like that, so they're not going out and doing a ton of auditions, but they're already starting to prepare for graduate school auditions, which is incredible, so they're going to be the most prepared people in that room, because they started at 19 and learning how to audition and the strategy of that and how to build a package that's going to be compelling and marketable. And then all of the things that go around being that young artist, the social media presence and the website presence and your languages and the acting and how to present yourself in an audition and how to present yourself on camera for the pre-screening recording and all of these things, and so we put it together into one program in two weeks and I'm super proud of it and I really hope that Martina Arroyo is proud of it too, because I really I was so inspired by that woman and still am so inspired by that woman and everything that she did for young artists coming up in the business. It was absolutely phenomenal.
Elizabeth Bowman:That's great. I studied singing growing up in university as well, but there was this idea that the auditions would come and you do like one.
Elizabeth Bowman:You do like one one mock audition or something. You know where you would run your rep and really wouldn't be like a comparable situation. You know you would walk into the room there would be zero pressure because it would probably be your teacher just sitting there and you're like, wow, this is just like a lesson, Like, except now I'm going to and I also set up that pressure situation for them as well.
Jennifer Rowley:I created, uh, the first ever Florida collaborative audition panels at my, at our bootcamp, where last season I had nine Florida based houses come in person to the opera house and hear singers and give feedback and some of them got invited for mainstage and and young artists auditions at those houses and some of them got invited for main stage and young artists auditions at those houses and some of them got hired for young artists audition for young artists programs through those, those audition panels. So we're mocking, for sure we're mocking, but then we're doing. And at the end of the program we have an amazing video company, simply Sings, that does incredible audition videos and they're doing those videos in the last three days of the program they're recording those videos and they're taking those videos with them and they look and sound phenomenal and this company literally can record any voice type. I would trust them to record me and it's hard to record big voices, but they make a beautiful video, they sound great and I really, truly believe because the budgeting now for travel for opera companies to hear singers is way less, you know, way less since COVID, less people are getting into that room, you know. So we still have the same number of singers auditioning, right, we still have the same number of singers applying.
Jennifer Rowley:I think the Met competition this past season had 1200 singers apply, right, but how many singers are getting actually heard at the district level?
Jennifer Rowley:I mean, maybe it's 400.
Jennifer Rowley:And that's big If you think about, like, I don't know if a, if a Des Moines is going to New York city to hear singers back in my day, when Des Moines was hearing singers, they come for six days, right, they come to New York for six days, they'd hold up at Nola Studios and they'd hear eight or 10 hours of singers and you know, hear three and 400 singers. No, no, now they're coming for two days, they're hearing 75 singers, but they still have the same thousand applicants. So your pre-screening videos have to get you from those thousand applicants to one of the 75 to 100 that actually gets in the room where it happens. And so those videos and that's why I say the preparation has to start so early those videos have to be better than an in-person audition, because they have to get you through the big mass of people that are applying. They have to get you through that and into the room, and that's what we do, that's what we focus on, and it's been very, very successful, so I'm super excited about it.
Elizabeth Bowman:Control the variables you can control Exactly. It's a theme on this podcast Lean into all the things you can control and you'll be much better off. Can I circle back to your Peloton? And absolutely, you'll be much better off. Can I circle back to your Peloton? Sure, I've seen you on Instagram also lifting kettlebells and doing various fitness things. When did you start?
Jennifer Rowley:this fitness journey and what does it mean for you and how is it transforming you? Well, the transformation is is huge. First of all, last, last year, I would say October of where are we right now? So not 24, october of 23. I was doing something, some sort of workout, in my living room and I stepped funny on my foot and twisted the bones in my right foot.
Jennifer Rowley:And that set off plantar fasciitis so badly that I was in a boot for six weeks. I could barely walk. Thankfully, with steroids and the walking boot and things like that, it healed enough for me to do my fall schedule, but it never fully healed and I struggled from I mean really from when it happened, but I really struggled in the spring of last season. I struggled vocally because I couldn't put weight fully on both of my feet. I struggled physically because I couldn't do everything that I was being asked to do. Stairs were like a non-option. It got to the point where I was in so much pain on a daily basis that I couldn't walk back and forth to my apartment. In Italy, when I was working in Torino, I couldn't walk back and forth to my apartment twice. Italy when I was working in Torino, I couldn't walk back and forth to my apartment twice a day and my apartment was a six-minute walk. I could walk once, so I would walk in the morning, I would take all of my food for the day and I would just sit there in the theater all day long and we had a rehearsal from like 10 to 1, 4 to 10 or something like that, and so I was just sitting there because I couldn't. I didn't have enough movement in me to walk twice and also do the six to eight hours of rehearsal that I was being asked to do, and I wasn't singing well. I was singing okay, but I wasn't singing like me, I wasn't fully able to connect to my support, I wasn't able to get my pelvic floor in action, I couldn't put full weight on the heel of the right foot, I couldn't wear certain types of shoes, I mean, it was just, it was completely debilitating and I gained a lot of weight because I couldn't move. And then, of course you know, you're upset because you can't move, and so then you're stress, eating and you're depressed, and it's a vicious cycle that goes nowhere. And so after that job I came home to Florida and I had some time off and I had a surgery on the foot, where my doctor went in and cut the plantar fascia in three different places and I went back into a boot because I couldn't put any weight on it after that and then started the process of rehabilitation and physical therapy, Having been in the boot so many times since October, completely threw off my pelvis, my tailbone, my hip, my ankles, and everything was weak.
Jennifer Rowley:I was weak, I felt broken. It was an awful feeling. I had zero control of my body. I had zero control over my singing. I felt like I was broken into pieces and couldn't put it back together. And also, as I just said, I gained a lot of weight and was unhappy with that.
Jennifer Rowley:And so when the boot came off after the surgery, I went to the doctor and I said listen, I got to start exercising, I've got to get this weight off. And the doctor said I don't think you'll ever be able to run again which I really enjoyed doing and he said certainly not now. And he said but why don't you get on a bike? He was like a bike is not going to put any pressure on that flannery fascia and it's not going to put any pressure on the incisions that we made in the foot and it's going to stabilize. You know, if you use the clips, if you use a stationary bike with clips, it's going to stabilize your foot completely and you're not going to be able to, it's not going to be able to move, basically. And he was like I think you'll be able to do that. And I was like okay, great.
Jennifer Rowley:So my husband and I rented a Peloton. Obviously we. We weren't sure if we were going to like it, of course, because it's, you know, it's one of those things where people are very polarized over this Peloton, which makes zero sense to me because the only benefits we've found from it have been exceptionally positive, like to the point of like a positive addiction to exercise. But he was absolutely right in that the cycling shoes are hard on the bottom and they have a clip and they hold your foot completely steady and flat and there is absolutely no pressure on the arch and on the plantar fascia. So I was able to ride. I couldn't ride long but I could ride and there was an instructor. There is an instructor on the platform named Jen Sherman, and Jen Sherman taught a ride that was different than everybody else, kind of on the platform, and it's a low impact ride and it's a special ride where you don't leave the saddle, you don't stand up, and it is for people who are recovering from injury. It is for people who can't stand up, it's for people who want to put less, you know, stress on their joints.
Jennifer Rowley:And through these rides I was able to gain strength, gain fitness, gain cardiovascular fitness and lose a lot of weight. Then I couldn't think, because I had. I had lost, I guess, 35 to 40 pounds between April and like July. And in July I was starting to prepare for Fanchula in Beijing and I could not. I had a wobble that was like as big as a Mack truck. It was so bad because I didn't have as much surface area anymore to push on. And so my teacher said, Jen, you have to start lifting weights. And I was like, ah, I didn't. I have no idea how to lift weights, what to do, nothing like that.
Jennifer Rowley:But the Peloton platform has strength training and I found, through exploration in the app, some amazing women instructors that were incredibly inspirational and incredibly generous in how they plan their programming for people who have never lifted weights before and want to learn. You know, and, and there there is a platform there where you can start from absolutely nothing and not knowing anything, and they will teach you how to do a deadlift and break it down, and it's really, it's fantastic. And so in July I started lifting and that was the game changer right there, the minute I started lifting weights, the weight just melted off. I became stronger in my singing, I became stronger in my heart, I became stronger in my conviction, in my confidence in in everything you know.
Jennifer Rowley:Lift heavy, sing heavy, my teacher says. And it really. It gave me so much strength and internal strength, not just external strength, internal strength. I felt like I can do this, I can repair, I can build myself back up again. And so since July I have been doing that and it has changed my life. And they only recently added kettlebells to the Peloton platform and I'm obsessed with them because it's cardio and lifting weights at the same time and I literally wake up every day excited to go in my little home office gym and ride that bike and lift the weights and better myself, my body, my singing. I mean it's literally life-changing, from having that injury and really just feeling broken to feeling stronger than I ever have in my life, to being smaller than I ever have in my life. I literally have given all of my clothes away because none of them fit. Whoever shops the Goodwill in Fort Myers, Florida like gets like some real amazing designer finds because I'm taking everything there and just donating it all.
Jennifer Rowley:It's been an amazing journey and my singing has never felt better because I can actually feel my singing. I can feel my singing in my entire body and I always did before as well, but now I feel it in a different way. Now I really feel how to utilize my back and my lats and my pelvic floor and my deep core and all of these things and it's a really. It's incredibly inspiring, but it's also I'm also incredibly proud of myself. You know, to have made this transformation is it's something I never thought I would be able to do I've always struggled with my weight my entire career and to really look in the mirror and go. I'm really strong and I look awesome and I can't wait, you know, to step on stage and have people hear what I have to give and see who I am and and not feel any doubt with any of that. It's just, it's an amazing feeling. So it's, it's been an incredible journey.
Elizabeth Bowman:That's amazing. It's lovely to hear you talk about it and to feel your confidence while you talk about it. Thanks, I also love Peloton.
Jennifer Rowley:I love that Peloton. I I'm obsessed with it. Sometimes we have guests in the house which require us to use our Murphy bed. That's in that same office, and so we have to move the Peloton into our bedroom, my husband and I's bedroom. I can't sleep. I literally cannot sleep with that Peloton in the room. I want to ride it, I want to be on it. I like want to be on it all day. I don't want to do anything else and I can't sleep and I'm up in the middle of the night Like when is it time? When can I wake up and ride the damn Peloton? It's terrible.
Elizabeth Bowman:They also have really great yoga classes on there and everything is fantastic the stretching, the yoga, the mobility.
Jennifer Rowley:I just took for the first time a hip mobility class on there. Oh my God, it was amazing.
Elizabeth Bowman:My hips felt incredible after like just absolutely amazing, so much incredible stuff on there. So you raise an interesting point here in terms of the core strength and then its relationship with the singing, which you know is no surprise. Like if you have that core and pelvic floor strength, then you're going to be a stronger singer. These things need to be underscored in school. I think yeah they do. When you're a younger singer. That's why.
Jennifer Rowley:I'm underscoring them online. Yeah, because it's not being taught. I can't tell you how many singers I see master classes lessons at ARIA bootcamp who have zero foundation of breath zero, whose teachers have told them expand your ribs and hold them out and that's what they have learned about breathing and they haven't learned how the breathing mechanism actually works. And we are masters of music with no basis in anatomy and physiology and we have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on education and we can't tell someone how the body actually works to create airflow and compression, to bring the cords together, and it is a. It's a damn shame. It's a damn shame, yeah, but it's something that I am trying to educate singers on through the online platforms. Of course, I have a lot of posts about fitness for singing and a lot of posts on how to use the fitness to strengthen the singing, because that is actually exceptionally important. I do a lot of collaboration also with the musical athlete, who is a biomechanics expert.
Jennifer Rowley:Chris is absolutely incredible. I mean, he is one of the most major cheerleaders for whole body singing at this point and his information is second to none. And it's amazing some of the videos he puts out. There was a video that I absolutely adored, maybe last year, or something, where he talked about foot contact and pelvic floor use and how the pelvic floor actually won't connect if your big toe is up off the floor, and why and a lot of singers stand with their toes up off the floor like back on their heels, and it's no wonder they can't connect to their support and how you have to find full foot contact in order to get pelvic floor support, which then gets you for full core closure. It's it's amazing how the body works from just a little toe, you know.
Jennifer Rowley:But all of these things are super important to learn, and I cannot tell you how many people argue with me online about how singers should not work on deep core. Singers should not do abs, quote unquote and yes, you shouldn't do abs, absolutely Like we don't want to tighten our abdomen in order to support. That's not what we're talking about. We want to strengthen all the stuff around it. We don't. I don't need abs, but deep core is not talking about abs. It's very different.
Elizabeth Bowman:Very, very different, even if you strengthen your abs, even if you do. Let's just say it's figure out how to sing around them it's also about when you're learning to strengthen your body. You're learning how to relax it and then contract it, and then relax and contract, so it's not like you're putting yourself into a spasm, exactly.
Jennifer Rowley:And a healthy muscle, when it's relaxed, is malleable. A healthy muscle is loose and jiggly and free right, and then when it's relaxed, it's ready to go. You know it's activated and that's. You know. The breathing mechanism is the same. It's that release and activation. But I can't tell you how many people argue with me online and I literally have to be like look, it's my channel, it's my video and I'm going to put out the information that I know is right. You can argue with me as much as you want. The algorithm loves you for it. Thank you so much for making my video go further, but you're not going to change my mind. It's not going to happen. I'm living proof of it. You're not going to change my mind.
Elizabeth Bowman:Yeah it to me. It makes zero sense that you wouldn't strengthen your body in order to be a stronger singer. The body is an amazing thing.
Jennifer Rowley:And how would cardiovascular health not help you as a performer on stage? How would cardiovascular stamina not be beneficial to a five-hour-long Wagner opera that you have to stand on stage the whole time because you're Votan or whatever? Even Tosca Tosca the role that I've done the most in my career is an hour and 20 something minutes of actual singing, not resting. Actual singing right, she's on stage the whole night, but actual singing is an hour and 20 minutes. That's a lot of singing and it's not soft. There's a lot of instruments to get over and the entirety of act.
Jennifer Rowley:Two is literally you managing your heart rate the whole time so that you don't get out of breath Because as your heart rate elevates in the emotion of that act and in the movement of that act, and especially if you have a very active staging where you're being thrown on the floor and picked up and thrown and this and that, the other thing you have to manage the up and down of your heart rate in order to keep your breathing steady so you can actually sing. How do we do that if we don't have cardiovascular stamina aerobically? So I don't understand the argument of no exercise for singers. I really don't get it.
Elizabeth Bowman:It makes no sense to me. It's like saying the earth is flat and the earth is round.
Jennifer Rowley:Anyway, boy, they will argue on Facebook. Oh, they love to argue on Facebook.
Elizabeth Bowman:I feel like I could talk to you for several hours on this podcast, but I gotta, I gotta wrap it up. Several hours on this podcast, but I gotta, I gotta wrap it up, but um, thank you so much for coming and my pleasure, absolutely my pleasure, and I hope everyone will go to your channels and check your content out. And also, everyone should go for a walk and uh, you know, get that cardiovascular, absolutely.
Jennifer Rowley:Health going, and mental health too. I mean, exercise gives us endorphins. Endorphins make us feel good. We sing better when we feel good. It all makes sense, you know.
