Harvard is one of the most diversely talented colleges in the country, and many times students don’t even know the extent of their peer’s abilities. In our new series, we interview and showcase some of the college’s best artists and their work.
Freshman Charlotte McKechnie’s awe-inspiring vocal talent has led to performances with Billy Boyd, appearances on BBC’s “Songs of Praise”, a performance for Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, and an irate phone call from Sean Connery.
Happily for the HPR, it also led to a performance at one of our September meetings. Originally from Glasglow, Scotland, Charlotte’s singing career began at age three, and her television career at age five with Scottish Television’s “A Child’s Christmas”, a T.V. special that featured McKechnie singing various Christmas Carols. At age eight, she began playing the violin and has since played for the Scottish National Orchestra and Harvard’s own BACHSOCH. By ten, she was touring Britain with a production of Puccini’s La Boehme, and in 2007, she was awarded BBC’s Young Chorister of the Year. She has performed in Rome, Turin, Paris, Copenhagen, Nuremburg, Leipzig and China. Sunday, she sat for an interview with the HPR to discuss her musical experience.
Harvard Political Review: How does one go about teaching a three-year-old how to sing?
Charlotte McKechnie: When I was three, I was acting with the Scottish Youth Theater. One of my first performances was actually an impromptu one where my parents and I were at a conference and I ran away from them, and I found a stage, and I found a microphone, and I started to perform. I took a [microphone] off a politician, I think, and I started singing some little nursery rhyme. My parents were freaking out… and then they heard my voice over the loudspeaker and came to the main auditorium and stage, and there I was singing in front of all the delegates. That’s when I think they realized. “Oh, we have a performer in our daughter. “ I was doing acting classes at the time as well, and it just kind of grew. I was very lucky in that I’ve had a lot of experience mostly through the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
HPR: How did you go about winning BBC’s Young Chorister of the Year?
CM: Well, the entrance requirement is that you have to have been a Choral Scholar, [have sung] in a church choir for four years, and had been doing it for years. There are about 500-900 applicants a year, and you send in a tape with you singing an Aria, a religious song, and a hymn. Then, they narrow it down from 900 to four boys and four girls, and then we all performed at St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was really cool because the BBC had completely taken over the Cathedral and the audience was completely sold out. They had being standing around the block in the queue to get in, and I performed in the recite, and I won.
HPR: Can you explain the phone call from Sean Connery?
CM: Well, we were driving along one night, illegally actually because you’re not supposed to have handsets in the car, and I got this phone call and it was Sean Connery. First of all, he went on this really long rant about our answering machine at home (apparently it wasn’t working properly, and he really wasn’t impressed). But he asked if I would sing for Scottish Homecoming…. It was really surreal. I kept thinking, “This must be a joke. Sean Connery, the actor, cannot be calling me right now.” That was really cool.
HPR: According to your website, you toured with La Boehme at the age of 10. What was that like?
CM: That was fantastic. That was one of my first experiences of Opera. I had seen them, but this was my first [experience] being on a stage and being in a production. It had a run of thirty performances around Britain [over the course of four or five months] and a really intense rehearsal schedule beforehand. I remember very distinctly the first time the chorus was together. I was sitting in the front row because I was very short (still am, unfortunately), and the sound coming behind me was unbelievable. The ground started shaking…. I having the full chorus behind me and looking out on the audience, but not actually being able to see them because the lights were so bright all you could see was black. That’s actually one of the things I love about the theater: knowing that the audience is there. That is one of the challenges: how do you connections with people you can’t see…. It was when I realized that music was a big part of my life.
HPR: When did you decide that you wanted to pursue music professionally?
CM: During the BBC Chorister competition there was this moment during my last song when I realized, “This is what I want to do. This what I want to have for the rest of my life, this feeling, right now.” It really fills you with awe because there is this sense of power because for a set period of time, you have a captive audience and your job is to bring them into your world. You have this space and time where they want to be communicated with, they want to listen, and they want to hear your interpretation of what you want to perform. That is not something you generally find.
HPR: What are your final thoughts on singing and on performance?
CM: I’m always aware of what a privilege it is to be a musician, and have the opportunity to voice my ideas, to use the pun. It’s a privilege to be able to do what I love, and to make other people happy… Especially [when] doing things like funerals or weddings, being a singer allows you to be a part of so many people’s lives in intimate ways, either in sharing someone’s love or sharing their grief. It really is a great privilege. Another joy of music and being a performer is that it is truly a universal mode of communication. For example, I was traveling in China several years ago and spontaneously performed in the main park in the city of Kunming and then was accompanied by a traditional Chinese instrumentalists, who just joined in! We were able to work with each other, improvising and creating a concert for the audience without actually speaking simply because we shared a love of music and could relate to each other that way. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life and really taught me how far good will and intent can take you.