Dr. Kristen Gunn

“First-time” experiences are hard to forget, whether they are passion, exhilaration, pain or inspiration. They linger in the body long after the initial event passes. For Dr. Kristen Johnson Gunn, an accomplished opera singer and assistant professor of voice at Mississippi College, all it takes is a scent of a special perfume, Dior’s Hypnotic Poison, to trigger memories of a life-changing event.

“I saw my first opera at Thalia Mara Hall in Jackson. Mississippi Opera put on Charles Gounod’s ‘Faust.’ I heard the soprano that night sing an aria entitled, ‘The Jewel Song,’ and I was mesmerized,” Kristen said. “I still remember the scent of perfume the woman in front of me was wearing. Whenever I smell that perfume, I always think of that experience.”

Most people don’t associate opera with Mississippi. Instead, the state is known for its blues, Elvis Presley and Faith Hill. Kristen is helping change that perception, spreading her love for classical music through performance and education.

“I fell in love with opera when I was about 15 or 16 years old. I was taking voice lessons with Dr. Bob Hermetz of Meridian, and he introduced me to recordings of Mirella Freni and Anna Moffo,” said the 33-year-old Meridian native. “I fell in love with how challenging the music was and how the sound required such full-bodied support. It takes over your entire being to sing that way, and that challenge intrigued me.”

Reliving that “first time” brings out the passion in Kristen’s speaking voice. It’s clear that she feels music, especially opera, in a way that vibrates and animates her, body and soul.

“Opera is an art form. It embraces every emotion — bravery, hate, happiness, loss, love — while featuring dance, visual art settings, costumes, dialogue and poetry. It’s artwork with many elements, but only one theme — emotion. Opera plays on extreme exaggeration. You could almost call it an overdose of emotion.

“When you sing opera, you become the character, whether you’re singing in English, Italian or whatever language,” she said. “The audience becomes so engrossed in whatever the character is going through, it doesn’t matter if they don’t understand the words. Through the singer, they understand the feeling, the emotion of that moment.”

Tippy Gardner, Mississippi Opera’s administrative director, is well-acquainted with Kristen.

“Kristen sings with a beautiful legato line, has a most pleasing timbre and is committed to her art,” Gardner said. “In her opera roles, she very successfully projects to the audience the character of the role she is singing, bringing the audience into the action on stage quite well.”

Her willingness to share emotion through song has taken Kristen to stages as far away as Italy and South Africa and as close as Thalia Mara Hall, Boston and New York’s Lincoln Center. She trains twice a year in New York City with Trish McCaffrey, an internationally known vocal technician, to keep her voice polished.

“Kristen has a remarkable voice with beautiful color, and she uses it exquisitely and artistically,” McCaffrey said during a stop as she was traveling from Israel. “Her technique allows her to cross over into musical theater or pop music or, equally as wonderful, doing Baroque music.”

Settings for Kristen’s performances range from close-up and intimate to large concert halls.

“I’ve been blessed with opportunities to perform on many, many stages,” Kristen said.

“One that was really special had a ‘Lady and Tramp’-like scene,” she said. As a student at Florida State University, she spent a month in Barga, Italy, about an hour from Florence.

“We were performing an outdoor concert in a piazza on a beautiful summer night. I was singing soprano in a duet with p an Australian tenor. The neighbors had hung homemade quilts from the windows in a show of support. When we finished performing ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ by Gaetano Donizetti, you could have heard a pin drop. Then they started shouting and cheering. It was magical!”

Kristen grew up singing in Meridian’s Highland Baptist Church. As a teen, she branched out to community theater, taking lessons to improve her voice — her “musical instrument” — and technique.

While other teen girls were singing “Candle in the Wind” or “You’re Still the One,” Kristen was immersing herself in “hits” of the 1500s and 1600s. “I bet I’m the only girl who missed her junior and senior banquets to sing chorus in Mozart’s Requiem.”

She enrolled at Mississippi College in 1999 with a music scholarship but no concrete plans for a voice-based career.

“I enjoyed math in high school, so I thought I might become a math teacher,” Kristen said. “Music was my passion, but being a teacher seemed more realistic. Being a professional singer was my dream, though.”

Music theory and technique appealed to Kristen’s math interests, incorporating numbers and formulas into the fundamentals of singing and performing. As she learned, she matured vocally and emotionally.

“If you sing to be the center of attention, you’re singing for the wrong reason,” Kristen said. “You have to be mature enough to express honest emotion to the nth degree.

Just like in life, you hit high notes and low notes.”

The best of both worlds — education and music — opened for Kristen in 2008 when she left Florida State University with a graduate degree in voice. She was offered the position of an assistant professor at Mississippi College, an opening that she calls “divine intervention.” She now teaches voice, opera and musical theater workshops, acting and repertoire while musically directing the college’s musical theater and operatic productions.

“I’m living my dream. Performing, teaching, family (marrying Drew Gunn in 2014) — I’ve got it all!”

McCaffrey said Kristen is able to use her instrument any way she wants.

“She could certainly have a big career if she wanted such a thing. However, she is sane enough to know that the life of a singer is very much like a gypsy, and she prefers to have a normal life, balancing it with singing and a husband and students that she loves. We respect her for that.”

Kristen said she tries to instill in her students an understanding that they must be vulnerable, to step outside of themselves for their audience.

“You can be a beautiful singer, but if you’re boring to watch, they won’t come hear you again,” Kristen said, juggling one-on-one time with students and rehearsals for MC’s “Die Fledermaus.”

Her love of music extends past the classroom. She is a frequent performer and board member with Mississippi Opera, the 10th oldest opera company in the United States.

“We are trying to introduce Mississippians to opera often with the help of music theater and jazz. If someone enjoys our cabaret series, they may say to themselves, ‘I really enjoyed that. Why don’t I try going to an opera production next?’ “ Performing live means no holds barred, Kristen said.

“I get to step outside of myself and connect with the audience. We’re sharing experiences through the music,” she said. “I want to be an example to my students. If they want to be successful musicians, they must be well-rounded. They can’t limit themselves if they want to be successful artists.”

Kristen also is a jazz vocalist with the Brick Street Jazz trio that includes MC faculty members James Sclater, Ben Williams and Michael Rushing.

“She’s great to work with as a musician because she’s so versatile. At just the right time she’ll switch from a low voice to this high belt that just soars over the band,” Williams said. “Her teaching is similar in that she’s not only a great teacher of 24 voice, but also knows how to interact with each student as an individual person. Whatever it is that she gets involved with, she puts everything she has towards it — and it shows!”

Today’s artists can’t deny that music is a business, Kristen said.

“It takes training and hard work. You will hear a lot of ‘no’s’ along with the ‘yesses.’ Reality shows such as ‘The Voice’ and ‘American Idol’ are hurting young singers, because they are led to believe they make it without lessons, without training. It takes discipline to be a musical entrepreneur. That’s what we do — we make our own opportunities.”

One of Kristen’s opportunities was last year’s National Association of Teachers of Singing competition in Boston.

After winning regional and state competitions, she advanced to the finals with her arias, walking away with sixth place at the national level.

When Kristen isn’t teaching, giving private lessons, rehearsing or performing, she enjoys the peace of quiet.

“I listen to silence in the car, often because I’m around music constantly and my ears need a break,” she said. “But when I don’t need silence, I like the Broadway channel on XM as well as the ’80s and ’90s channels. I most definitely sing along, especially if Whitney Houston comes on! It would probably be an opera aria or trying to belt out Whitney. Whitney Houston was — and still is — my favorite voice.”

Although Kristen tends to surround herself with classic tunes, she is open to all music styles and genres.

“I can find the ‘rock out’ element in a Mozart finale or a movement of Vivaldi’s four seasons just as easily as I can ‘rock out’ to any commercial band or artist,” she said. “I can connect to an opera aria and turn around and be mesmerized by the guitar prowess of Jonny Lang within the same hour.”

Appreciating all styles of music is imperative to being well-informed to be creative and influenced to make new styles, Kristen said.

“Music has a heartbeat that is in all styles. True, some people should stick to certain styles concerning their particular talents, but we should seek out opportunity to always hear different styles, and artists should always serve others with their talents.”

Susan O’Bryan Melanie Thortis

STORY Susan O’Bryan
PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis