We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cristina Fontanelli. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cristina below.

Alright, Cristina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

My “day job” is as an award-winning operatically trained singer/actor/TV host. My “heart” are the concert events I produce thru my non-profit organization The Cristina Fontanelli Foundation.org. I have produced a show called “Christmas in Italy®” for 20 years that preserves the great songs of Italy and Christmas and helps people feel the joy of Christmas Italian style! Hundreds of children/youth have been given the opportunity of performing in this show on major NYC stages including at the world’s top music venue, Carnegie Hall. 10% of the proceeds are donated to children’s causes including St. Jude’s, Food pantries, Wounded Warriors, etc.
There are other productions giving young performers opportunities that I have produced: The Great International Songbook and Opera & Broadway of the Hamptons.
These productions preserve the world’s great music. The Arts are so important. I dedicate much of my time/life to elevating society through this music, which is scientifically proven to heal many of the ills of society and illnesses in the human body and soul.

Cristina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I always had a “calling” to be in show business and, indeed, due to my perservence thru the years, I certainly did! I have performed all over the world! I have even sung in Africa! Many countries such as Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Italy, as well as all over the United States including in Hollywood CA and at Carnegie Hall. I have hosted for PBS television for many specials including the Andrea Bocelli famous concert in Central Park! I bring joy to families by singing their favorite songs. They tell me my music and work is very uplifting. I guess the critics agree as I have been called a “Vocal genius” in the press and that my acting is “brilliant”. I also became a producer of musical concerts, even at Carnegie Hall, that give children/youth performance opportunities. It is wonderful to have creative control over projects and that has satisfied the intellectual/business side of my brain which has been hugely fulfilling.

As a young child I was always fascinated by Hollywood movies watching the great musicals and actors constantly and I was always singing – walking around my house singing to the flowers, to the trees and the birds. I “produced”, even as child” shows in my neighborhood – hung blankets for curtains, made paper tickets, choreographed the “dancers” in my basement, performed as the emcee and the main talent, just like I do now! LOL!

I wanted to be an actress as a child after seeing the film “Gone With the Wind”. It takes place right before, during the Civil War and the reconstruction after that terrible war There is a very dramatic moment in the film where the heroine, Scarlett O’Hara, pulls a rotten carrot from the ground because she is starving. She realizes it is completely rotten, and declares “As God is my witness, if I have to beg, steal, I will NEVER go hungry again.” BINGO! A lightbulb went off in my head and I decided right there on the spot that i wanted to be an actress, actor as they now say. I went home and ordered all the Shakespeare plays and began acting in front of the mirror or anywhere I could. I graduated from the very prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NY. My journey led me to the opera – becuase i had a great voice, one could sing, one could act in the opera – and, since I love to eat and opera singers can be a bit chubby, I could eat the lasagna too! And my singing/operatic career journey began in earnest.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, singing is as organic as breathing. Being an artist has allowed me freedom of mind, of personality, of nature and the joy and fulfillment of using your time, your thoughts and creativity toward my passion to bring Light into the world. I tried, as a young woman to have a “day job” to pay for my voice lessons. I worked as a legal secretary. The job taught me to be out and about in the world, show up on time, be disciplined, work hard, dress nicely, all good things. But, ultimately, I could not bear being confined and “renting out” my time and thought processes in an exchange for a salary. I was one of the creatives that absolutely had to do my art. It was the only way I could survive. I withered in any other type of environment. That driving force gave me the determination to stay on my career path despite all odds.

Another and equally important reward of following the career path I have chosen is that I love people. Because of singing all over the world and all over the United States, on TV, radio, etc. is that I have met so many WONDERFUL people thru the years. So many have become my friends. And now, thru Social Media, there are so many who I have never met in person, but that write to me such wonderful warm messages of appreciation and love – these people are such blessings in my life.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

There have been particularly difficult times in my personal life that I had to put aside in order to walk onto the stage and perform. I lost the man i loved to a brain tumor and my first major concert after his death, for example, I was literally crying backstage – but I still managed to pull myself together, walk onto that stage and sing for my beloved audience. I have never given up – in an industry that is brutal at times, difficult to hang on, i kept going, through all the obstacles. It takes great resilience to pick oneself up over and over again. I once had an inspiration to do a musical journey of my life onstage and after having attended and loved the show, a fan likened my life story to a prize fighter who has been knocked down, but gets up over and over to fight again and (hopefully) win. That has been my career journey as well the career journey of many artists. One must be resilient enough to get back into the ring.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cristinafontanelli.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cristinafontanelli/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cristinafontanelli/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-fontanelli%C2%AE-1035a416/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/crismfontanelli?lang=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CristinaFontanelliOfficial
• Other: https://www.thecristinafontanellifoundation.org/

Image Credits
Rob Klein Photography