NAME: Tonya Graves

OCCUPATION: Singer and Actress

When I went to college to study communication in New York State many years ago, I never dreamed that I’d have a career as a singer and actress in Central Europe. But on my first night in Prague, I went to Agharta Jazz Club and met the acclaimed Czech blues guitarist Luboš Andršt. He invited me onstage to sing and I’ve been singing and acting ever since.

Singing and acting involve many of the same delivery skills that I used in my communication courses, particularly my introductory public speaking course. I have to overcome anxiety (also known as stage fright) sometimes in addition to building my confidence before a performance. I tend do that by paying attention to my breath and by imagining a receptive, engaged audience. Finally, as with giving a speech, I have to practice enough to feel confident and prepared, but not so much that my performance becomes mechanical or lifeless.

Blues, jazz, swing, funk, soul, dance, and pop music—I love them all! My first album was a lovely tossed salad of music. When I sing this variety in a given performance, I need to adjust my voice and facial expression to both the style and the lyrics so that my passion for the music comes across as appropriate and also conveys the emotional message I’m trying to send.

An effective performance depends on the situation, too. If I’m in front of a live audience, like in a jazz club, I’m very intent on establishing immediacy with the audience by making eye contact with real people (and, no, I don’t imagine them naked! That’s terrible advice!). This helps me feel more comfortable and also ensures that the patrons feel connected to the performance. On the other hand, when I’m in a recording studio, I imagine my audience and adjust my voice intensity to make up for the lack of personal contact. I imagine this is much like what today’s students do when they prepare to give a speech in an online course in which the “audience” is an iPhone camera. My delivery is even more complex when I create a music video, as in the single “39 Reasons” (check it out on YouTube); my orange dress and blue scarf were designed to move and “float,” accenting my thirty-nine reasons to sing the blues. Everything about my performance—from how I dress to how I prepare to how I deliver—is all part of delivering Tonya Graves to the world!