We were lucky to catch up with Nathan Granner recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Nathan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
I am an Opera Singer as my main career path. It’s not something one just chooses, it is usually a funnel of sorts. Starting as a child, I loved singing. I loved my kindergarten and first grade songs we learned at school. My father sang in the church choir, so I would hang out in the sanctuary listening to them while I played under the pews. I could hear his voice over the baritone section. I don’t remember what his voice sounds like anymore, but for a long time his sound rang in my ears, as a kind of talisman.
I joined the kids choir in that church when I was old enough, and my mission as I recall was to sing as loudly as possible. There was one girl with whom I would compete and I wondered if she turned out to be an opera singer as well. So, each year as I grew up (though I would take up and take on many other interests) I would always be in choir, or any kind of musical group. But – I never thought to be a true soloist until a young teacher showed up at my high school and sang in front of our choir. Her sound was so amazing. She just looked like a normal person, but the tone and volume and songs she sang just clicked for me. I began taking voice lessons from her and made that my major (as well as visual art) as my major in college.
I transferred to the UMKC Conservatory of Music in Kansas City and got my first opera job singing chorus at a summer stock opera festival in Utah. I lived in a house full of opera singers of all ages and skill levels that summer. Some of my colleagues were just starting out like me, others had sung all over the globe, meeting and singing with famous contemporary composers and regaling my ready-ears with story after story of what is was like to be in the profession of singing.
At one point we were messing around with the piano and at an impromptu moment, I sang for these career artists. I had a few ringing high notes and my goodness, after that they were all encouraging me to go into the discipline.
It wasn’t a hard decision then, but there were warnings, that the life of classical singing and opera was not easy. I cared not. I had already made “sacrifices,” so what were some more?
I was twenty-three.
Since then, the road has been long and has had massive challenges and even more sacrifices. But I look at that now in a more sanguine light, as (for the moment) things are going pretty well. Quite unexpectedly so, I have to admit.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
For those unfamiliar with my work, I’m Nathan Granner, an operatic tenor with a career spanning over three decades. As Gramophone magazine recently observed, my “bright tenor rings out…with an Italianate timbre.” My journey began on the stages of companies like the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Wolf Trap Opera, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis, where I honed my craft. But my path has led me beyond the traditional opera house, to concertizing, and onto the silver screen! I had the honor of portraying Korey Wise in Anthony Davis’s opera film The Central Park Five, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2020. I also starred as Mr. Chips in Gordon Getty’s opera film Goodbye, Mr. Chips. And for those who prefer their opera with a touch of adventure, I voiced Rob Hall in the animated film Everest. Whether I’m gracing the concert hall or captivating audiences on screen, I’ve had the privilege of performing a vast repertoire, from the lyrical gems of Classical operas like La Bohème and Tosca to the bold strokes of contemporary works like The Invention of Morel (by Stewart Copeland of The Police) and other operas you’ll probably unfortunately never see, for whatever reasons.
My journey has been anything but linear. It’s been a winding path with unexpected turns. After my conservatory training, I launched into the opera world, making my debut in 1998. Early successes hinted at a traditional career, but my innate curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit led me to explore the broader music industry.
This drive to create and innovate has been a defining characteristic of my career. In 2002, I became a founding member of The American Tenors, a crossover group that boldly blended opera with popular music. Our self-titled debut album even reached the top 5 on the Billboard Classical-Crossover charts, and our PBS special was a resounding success! This experience ignited my passion for producing and artistic direction.
Beyond performing, I’ve immersed myself in a multitude of creative endeavors. I’ve produced theatrical shows, conceived and executed large-scale art installations, and even founded several production companies, including A Lab Studios, which focuses on powerful storytelling through the lens of opera. My fascination with expanding artistic boundaries led me to explore the captivating world of throat singing after studying with a Tibetan monk! This eclectic mix of experiences has shaped me into a unique kind of artist, an ‘insider-outsider’ who thrives on pushing creative limits.
My entrepreneurial spirit has also manifested in the digital realm. I was instrumental in transforming Music Theatre Heritage from a long-standing radio program into a dynamic production company. And my passion for the arts led me to found KCMetropolis.org, an online arts journal that became a vital part of Kansas City’s cultural landscape for a decade.
And I’m proud to share that my passion for bridging art and technology was recognized when I won creative awards from Google and Mozilla for my work at a hackathon focused on developing innovative uses for gigabit networks. This experience solidified my belief that technology can be a powerful tool for artistic expression and audience engagement.
But it’s not just about creating and building. I’m equally passionate about giving back. I’ve dedicated myself to supporting causes like Parkinson’s disease research, cancer research, and children’s health through my performances and philanthropic work.
What truly sets me apart is my unwavering dedication to artistic excellence and my relentless pursuit of innovation. I believe in the power of music to connect us all and inspire positive change. And those moments when I can use my voice and my creative endeavors to make a difference in the world? Those are the moments I hold most dear.
Ultimately, I see opera as an art form with immense potential to reach a broader, more diverse audience. I’m dedicated to using my voice, my entrepreneurial drive, and my passion for innovation to help opera and classical music thrive and evolve in the 21st century.”
Have you ever had to pivot?
The life of being an opera artist is fraught with challenges. From low pay, to grueling rehearsals to the agony of shoving hundreds of pages of music into one’s head, it involves so much resilience and hope and a dash of idiocy to be in the profession. Everyone, I acknowledge has challenges in their fields and disciplines, or course. Especially in today’s markets… For me, having a triumphant and early success did not mean a sustained career of fame and fortune.
I tend to mark careers as a spinning wheel. Sometimes you are up and sometimes your are rolled over!
While things were cool and I had a level of fame, the finances at times were crushing. Having recorded albums, I felt the sting of MP3 piracy firsthand. The year-by-year drip of sales falling off of physical media, the recession of 2008 was preceded by 65% loss of sales for physical albums, and even the saving grace of Spotify and iTunes left us with fractions of a cent on sales and spins.
On the production side, things also fell off. The music industry as a whole took a massive dive. Engagement fees dropped precipitously, companies shuttered, management firms closed and tightened their rosters. I was caught in all of it, even as my voice progressed to become stronger and my skills developed to be able to conquer more advanced music. I was soon left with whisps of a career.
But this is where my pugnaciousness comes in. I was never one to let anyone say no to what I have always done. SO I began to produce, collaborate and forge a way to wrest my career back from the precipice. Though struck with poverty, I never gave up, even when my spark for music was snuffed out. And indeed it was. The one thing that would never die or fail me became a weight and a prison.
What saved me was my midwestern practicality that said, you’ve invested hundreds if not millions of dollars into your career (even more true when you think about producers who dropped millions on shows and productions in which I was the leading man or lead singer/soloist). I was not able to accept that this investment into my artistry and myself was for nothing but a past-time to slough off – as a bad decision!
With that thought, a refusal to quit and a faith in myself, I continued on. I pivoted toward producing my own shows. I had always had an attraction to “how it was made” and finally took the steps and began to do the business of art, rather than simply be the talent.
I grabbed as many “how to” books as I could and read about every aspect of production, from using excel spreadsheets to renting venues, to getting funding, to marketing and pr and began to build my business.
Part of it was devising a way to keep my name/brand in view of folks that could hire me, but later, I actually became enamored with doing business itself. It is this melding of business and art that I now wield.
This coupling has further led me to develop a company named Curiyo Embedded, a new enterprise melding physical and digital music into a never-before-seen ecosystem.
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
One of my earliest successes was when a buddy and I formed an opera club while in school. We wanted to do a cool activity in the community and I thought, why don’t we go “Caroling for Cans?!” I had been reading a how-to book on PR and took the caroling idea, and adapted it with the lessons I learned from the book. I made a News Release for the first time and VOILA – It worked! In short-order I was interviewed for radio, newsprint AND TV. We collected an abundance of cans, as our opera teams scoured the city, first placing flyers on windshields in neighborhoods we were going to sing. It gave me an understanding of how powerful a memorable and effective idea can be. I mean, we were so young. Moreover… as an opera singer, at that time, your idea of marketing strategy was getting an expensive headshot and putting together a resume to send out. That was IT! No emails, not social media, no ad buys…
So when my business began to fail and my other friends were quitting during the recession and recently during Covid, I just put my head down and started coming up with cool ideas and things to DO.
This never-say-die attitude and idea to innovate, with basically no resources other than my mind and an internet connection has lead me to where I am today. So that (even though you may not have head of me or my work) has lead to increasing notoriety in my field, and is beginning to spill out into more general communities as a result.
Pivot enough and maybe, just mayyybe one will find themselves exactly where they need to be in their original field, plus advancing a few steps up the ladder.
On the wheel of the career-life, while yes you can/will get run over, you’ll find too, that you also can rise again.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ngranner.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathangranner/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NathanAGranner/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-granner/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@NathanAGranner
Image Credits
Kristen Loken – Sugar Daddy photo
Zach Mendes – Don Jose photo (the other yellow outfit)
all other photos are © nathangranner