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City People

Old dream, new push

A classically trained tenor who's performed at the Met and Radio City Music Hall takes a second crack at a music career.

By SHERRI DAY
Published January 6, 2006

BALLAST POINT - Cornelius White once performed at the Met. Now, he works for MetLife.

A classically trained tenor, he has two masters. In one corner is his dream of captivating an audience with his voice. Tugging at his sensibilities are the grownup pressures of survival.

Thirteen years ago, the grownup in him won.

But now, at 43, White plans to battle back.

"I need to go where my heart is," said White, who by day is a case manager for disability insurance at MetLife. "To follow my dream and do what I need to do. That is not only perform, but also teach, because I have so much to share."

White has experienced the roar of fawning audiences before. He performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and at Radio City Music Hall.

He earned lead roles in several operatic and theatrical productions, including Georges Bizet's Carmen and Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly.

But opportunities dried up in the early 1990s, and White joined corporate America.

Now, older and wiser, he vows to own the stage again.

"I don't want to give into the fears of success not happening for me," he said.

According to family lore, White began singing in the womb. As he toddled around his Brooklyn, N.Y., home, his mother played operas and orchestral music from her hi-fi. She took him to see Broadway shows and exposed him to popular rhythm and blues artists.

White showed early flashes of vocal prowess at 3, when he mimicked Julie Andrews and Aretha Franklin. At 5, he got his first instrument, a set of orchestra-worthy cymbals. By 9, he moved on to the accordion, an instrument he mastered in three years.

He wasn't yet a teenager when he won a music contest and the right to accompany bandleader Lawrence Welk on a television show.

Working alongside mentor John Motley, then director of music for New York City's public schools, White met jazz great Dizzy Gillespie, contralto Marian Anderson and percussionist Max Roach.

As a member of the chorus, he sang for the late Shah Reza Pahlavi of Iran, Harry Belafonte and Gloria Vanderbilt.

Motley remembers White as a gifted student.

"If (Cornelius) wanted to, he could be on Broadway," said Motley, 84. "From some of the things I hear on Broadway, he's way ahead. I don't know why he stopped."

When White finished high school in 1979, he enrolled in the University of Hartford's Hartt College of Music. In his senior year, he landed a role in a Radio City Music Hall production of Porgy and Bess.

He left school temporarily but earned a music degree in 1984 and began a career as a vocalist performing music that spanned genres from jazz to oratorios. He even sang background vocals for the New Kids on the Block.

After 13 years in the business, White moved to Atlanta in 1991 and spent a decade working at a telecommunications company. But music was never far from his mind.

After he moved to Tampa in 2002, White tried to revive his vocal career.

So far, he's landed several operatic roles, including a spring 2005 performance of Purlie with actor Blair Underwood at New York City's City Center. His 2006 dance card already bears witness to demand for his talent. He's preparing to reprise roles in Porgy and Bess and working on a holiday album.

He also gives voice lessons to students at Ruth Eckerd Hall's performing arts division.

"What is exciting to me about him is he's still a practicing, growing vibrant artist, and he brings that to the private lesson," said Joyce Wehner, education director at Ruth Eckerd Hall's Hoffman Institute. "He's often called away to work professionally and that, as well, is a plus."

Jennifer Scott, whose daughter Elizabeth studies under White, calls his approach "well rounded."

"I know I sound like I'm gushing, but he's absolutely wonderful," Scott said.

White's students are all children.

He has high hopes for them - but also for himself.

"If you do have dreams, you don't want to live a life of regret," White said. "You need to go after them even if it's just a matter of going after them and seeing that it's not for you."

- Sherri Day can be reached at sday@sptimes.com or 813-226-3405.

AGE: 43.

LIVES IN: Ballast Point.

SPEAKS/SINGS: English, Italian, French and German.

PLAYS: Piano and accordion.

REGRETS: Not singing with Luther Vandross before he died.

REVERES: Leontyne Price.

READS: Philosophy and self-help books.

DREAMS OF: Opening his own performance school.

BELIEVES: "There's nothing better than performing, and the audience roars."

[Last modified January 5, 2006, 08:50:08]