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Jonathan Cilia Faro From Now On In His Own Words feeling that you are losing your voice along with your dignity and your “I am Italian so for me food is a willpower… day by day you lose your huge part of my life. Cooking, eating, self-confidence along with your actual sharing life over food. Imagine going real self. You feel like you are back home after your chemo disappearing completely. All you treatment [with] no dinner because know is pain and loss and mind- even the idea of food, any smell of numbing fear. food makes you sick to your stomach to the point where you can’t imagine You become a loser for all the people ever eating again. While you are close to you because you are no sleeping all you can taste is bitterness longer “somebody", and nobody in your mouth, it's so intense that you encourages you, all this gets cry. Everything about your life is confirmed by vocal exercise failures bitter now. when the voice does not do what it used to and the piano which was once This thing is a monster - it scares an your salvation and a place of joy adult man who once thought of becomes your enemy. Your mind has himself as strong and brave. Waking forgotten every note of every song, up in the middle of the night alone and your body just wants to give up and scared. You try to scream but and nothing goes right and you think your voice does not come out, you are it never will again. For a singer losing your voice is like for a runner losing a leg. For most of my life, my voice Success, although not easy, came was all I had, all I could count on and fairly quickly for Jonathan. He was what made me the person I thought I signed to a recording contract at was and was meant to be. sixteen and sold over 100,000 copies of his first album, “Always Close to You start to neglect your own Me.” personal care; your hair grows wild and your beard is a jungle and you let Not content to develop his voice only, go. You start to focus on other things Jonathan has established himself as a and soon you are away from music, talented pianist, songwriter – and working as a waiter in a restaurant those are just his musical talents. He and helping in the kitchen… You are has served in the army, studied slow and spend your life in a daze theology and enjoys to cook and make feeling like shit all the time both his own wine. physically and emotionally. However, when Jonathan was diagnosed with cancer his career came ” to an abrupt halt. With seemingly These startling words give us a little everything lost, it was the hardest glimpse into the hell that tenor battle that he’s yet had to fight. Jonathan Cilia Faro experienced when Through surgery and chemotherapy, he was diagnosed with cancer at the Jonathan battled his way back. age of twenty-five. Up until then, Coming out on the other side has Jonathan had been well on his way to completely changed him, not only as a fulfilling his dream of becoming an singer but as a person. international classical crossover singing star. His latest album, “From Now On” named after a track of the same title, It was a nun who first discovered his puts on display a rich tenor voice voice and encouraged the potential ringing out with purpose. Singing she heard. mainly in his native Italian, Jonathan distinguishes himself not only as a The rich distinctive voice of Luciano solid singer with the potential of wide Pavarotti drifting through the Sicilian appeal but as an artist with a passion summer made a lasting impression on that is inspiring. Jonathan and solidified his love for music. “Music is the most beautiful thing to ever happen in my life, music is true art,” Jonathan tells us. Despite everything he has gone through he says, “The music inside you never it's still there. Every pain, every stops, it keeps playing inside you even hardship can become a beautiful when you stop hearing it for a while melody.” “From Now On” is available to purchase now. jonathancf.com Robert Emery Music is my home “Music is all I’ve ever known. I’ve been performing since the age of seven, so the stage is really not a stage, but home.” Pianist. Arranger. Conductor. I had no training and didn’t know Producer. Entrepreneur. Robert how I could do this, didn’t know it Emery is the definition of a multi- was an unusual thing to do, it was just passionate musician that is something that I did.” constantly evolving. His influence is However, his special ability did not seen in crossover artists such as escape the notice of his mother who Russell Watson, Joanna Forest, decided soon after it was time to get Jonathan Antoine and I believe his him lessons. Robert began to study presence in the genre will only grow with a local piano teacher. “After with time. about a year I was put through a test The piano was a gift that had been and I couldn’t read music.” His passed down from his grandmother. incredible ear for music had allowed The popular program “Top of the Robert to play back the examples Pops” was a favorite of the Emery’s from his teacher without actually and provided a special challenge for learning how to read music. “Nobody Robert. “I used to just listen to the knew but they found out at that point. number one song on Top of the Pops So, I was then taken to another and would go to the piano and play it. teacher who focused me really hard piano. One is that you have all eighty- on learning to read music.” eight notes in front of you, you can see them all, it covers the range of His education continued in primary pitch, and it covers all instruments. It school where he also began studying goes up to the highest note any other cello. “We also had general music instrument can play and goes down to classes twice per week where we the lowest note that any other would all get together and play instrument can play. And because of percussion. I also sang in the choir that, and because of the volume, that and there was a little school orchestra you can play really loud or really that I played in, so I was surrounded quietly, I fell in love with the idea that by music.” I could produce sounds on the piano Robert refers to this nurturing period that would sound like a finished piece as being covered in a “musical duvet” right away. Whereas if I wanted to which helped him become the play the pop song I heard on Top of musician he is today (which includes the Pops on the flute, you’d only hear being a self-taught conductor). the tune, and almost any other “When I was eighteen, I conducted instrument you would just play the the Birmingham Philharmonic tune or you would play the bass, but Orchestra… I created a concert with piano you can do everything.” called, ‘The Classical Spectacular’, Through the years he has grown to which looked great, sounded okay, but love many pieces but favorite among I had the time of my life. And I them are Rachmaninov’s “Piano thought, ‘How hard can waving a Concerto No. 2” and Gershwin’s, stick be?’ So, I just threw myself into “Rhapsody in Blue.” Robert seems it. After that I realized, yes, it is quite not only to love the music but the hard. When you throw yourself into composers as personalities. the deep end like that you learn, “Rachmaninov incidentally, was an hopefully, to be successful very interesting character. He lived in quickly, and if you don’t then you Russia and when he wanted to move realize it’s not for you. I was very to America, he loved his house so lucky that I realized conducting was much he effectively dismantled it, for me.” shipped it to America and rebuilt it in However, the piano will always be the states. Gershwin was an significant for Robert. “There are a interesting character because when couple of things I love about the he wrote Rhapsody in blue, he couldn’t actually physically write to London to go to the Royal College music, he didn’t have the theoretical of Music and I get a job as a church knowledge. He was a ‘Jazzer ‘really. organist in Chiswick, just to earn a bit On the very first performance the of money. Literally the first Sunday orchestral parts were written by his that I played the Vicar said to me, ‘I’d arranger and he essentially said to like you to meet someone whom I the conductor, ‘When it gets to the think you might find useful.’ And Mike piano solo bits I’m going to play what Dixson walked down the aisle.” The I play, it’s not written down, and vicar also introduced Robert to basically when I want you to join back Michael Reed. “I have become very in I’m going to give you a nod, and close with both of them, but Mike that’s when you rejoin.’ And that first Reed in particular, who is even the performance was never recorded, the Godfather to my son, and that really sheet music was never there, apart sparked off my interest in theatre.” from what the orchestra played, so the “What it means to me is the conductor ran home and tried to combination of a great story with remember what Gershwin had played, drama, hopefully, a great set, and and that is what we know today as costumes.

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