Opera singer Jennifer Davison’s journey from Ohio to Vienna is a remarkable story of passion and purpose. In an interview with The NYC Daily Post, I asked her to reflect on how her early days in Ohio laid a foundation for her future in the arts.
“Two things stand out as things that carried me towards or created a path for me into the arts from those early days in Ohio. The first: growing up in the Catholic Church. My mother, though not a professional, was a soloist in the church, and I started playing my guitar and singing in masses very early. Music at church felt like home to me. The lighting, the incense, the atmosphere inside the church, the ‘costumes’ and the dramatic storytelling there is highly operatic! I suppose that is also why I began to feel at home in the opera,” Davison recalled.
From baseball to opera: discovering shared passions
As a child, Davison’s love of baseball introduced her to the excitement of shared experiences, which she later found in opera.
“The first time I saw an opera at the Met, Pavarotti made an appearance as a last-minute substitute in a short role called the ‘Italian Tenor’ in Richard Strauss’ ‘Der Rosenkavalier.’ When he came out, the audience went bananas. Hearing the roar of that crowd reminded me of all the crowds I heard on those baseball radio games and I was mesmerized. Opera can do this? I thought that was an awesome power,” Davison explained.
Her formal training in operatic singing began at the Peabody Conservatory, where she worked with teachers like Marianna Busching and Mark Markham, describing it as a transformative period: “The school was small but located smack dab in the center of Baltimore, which was a city I came to love. We had beautiful facilities, plus access to the Johns Hopkins University — where I got to take classes, or work out in their gym — what’s not to love? It was a vibrant time for me and I felt really nurtured and supported.”
The power of song
For Davison, her voice is more than an instrument — it’s an intimate reflection of who she is, as singers must rely on internal sensations rather than external cues.
“As a singer, our bodies are our instruments, which is an incredible but also daunting thing. We can’t look at what we are doing, like a violinist or pianist can, because so much is happening internally. There is a lot of tuning into the body that is necessary,” she explained.
Davison sees song as a bridge to our emotional and social lives, beginning with the sounds we hear in the womb. “The power of song goes back to the very beginnings of our life. As we grow in our mother’s wombs, the first sense we develop is hearing.”
She emphasized that song has historically been a force for peace and even physical health, as singing releases endorphins, strengthens immunity and brings people together in collective joy. She also stressed the essential role of breath in singing, describing it as the foundation of life and sound: “The voice and the breath also carry massive emotional components. We can live for weeks, even months without food, days without water, but without oxygen we are goners in a matter of minutes.”
For her, the voice’s intrinsic link to breath reflects a profound truth about life, and she believes in using this connection to enrich individual and collective well-being.
Creating ArtWave: art for well-being and health
Davison co-founded ArtWave with soprano Bea Robein to promote health through the arts.
“ArtWave is an impact start-up designed to bring the power of the arts to people in accessible forms to increase health, wellbeing, and thriving,” she said.
ArtWave offers interactive events like “Serenade for the Soul” and a six-week program, “Aufatmen” (“Respire”), supporting individuals with long COVID and similar conditions. They’re also developing an app with “Microdoses of Art” to replace unproductive habits with “nutrient-rich” doses of music, theater, dance and more.
“It’s a kind of mindfulness app using the arts,” Davison said.
Arts for health network: creativity as human potential
As a delegate for the Arts and Health Early Career Research Network Intensive, Davison reflects on creativity’s potential, calling it “human solar-water-wind power.” Inspired by novelist and philosopher Fyodor Dostoevsky, she sees her mission as bringing beauty into the world to ease suffering.
“Dostoevsky wrote, ‘Beauty will save the earth,’ and as a student, I started to feel my mission was to bring Beauty into the world to reduce human suffering,” Davison explained. Her programs focus on using music and arts to foster healing, describing her role as a “critical yeast” in a regenerative health ecology.
Her advice to emerging artists: imagine, create and evolve
Davison encourages artists to envision the world they want to create and shared an amusing story of her husband being seen as “crazy” for running in 1980s Austria — a habit that is now considered mainstream.
“The arts have always been with us as a source of inspiration, imagination, connection, or as motivation, healing, letting loose, or elevating our state,” she said, urging artists to see beyond the “gray tinted glasses” of a mechanistic world and embrace their gifts. She added: “Dare to imagine the kind of world you want to live in.”
Quoting Viktor Frankl, she underscored the importance of nurturing potential, viewing artists as crucial to humanity’s journey toward growth and connection. “There is so much more human potential to be nurtured, unfolded, unfurled — and connected to,” she stated, reminding artists that we all play a part in “which way we sail this ship.”
Featured Image: Photo by Tony Gigov
Edited by: Steven London & James Sutton
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