CARLY KNASZAK
Assistant Reverb Editor
Fredonia is known for giving students the confidence to go out into the real world and go after their dream jobs. Students have heard of graduates who have worked with big television companies or are now living out those dreams from New York City to California.
Senior Nia Drummond, who majors in vocal performance, is on her way to stardom with her compelling voice.
But how many college students have their own business manager and will be on national television? Drummond will be performing the national anthem at the New York City’s 9/11 memorial service.
Throughout the years, the event has been broadcast live from CNN to BBC. Many guests attend this memorial service and some well known appearances will be made by Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“I was shocked when I found out,” remarked Drummond. “I really did not know what to do. I got the call from Kimberlee Wertz — she called me last year and actually got the call from the Young People’s Chorus and they were like, ‘Would you be free on September 11?’ I could not do it because I had other things going on.” Wertz is the music coordinator for the Sept. 11 program.
“This year they gave me more details and I just could not pass it down, especially since it was offered to me again. I was completely shocked and honored. In the past, I sang the national anthem, but I would do it with choruses. This is [my] second time doing it as a soloist and it just comes full-circle that I was there when 9/11 happened and I sang the national anthem in chorus as a kid, and now [I’m] singing it as a soloist, which is amazing.”
Singers usually find their managers through other managers but it just so happened that Drummond made friends with a girl who was double majoring in vocal performance and music industry and business administration. It was not until last year that senior Michelle Cope took the title as Drummond’s business manager.
“One day Nia was like, ‘I need manager’ and we just started having meetings and it has picked up more very recently,” Cope said.
Cope was one of the first to find out about Drummond’s exciting news.
“I remembered she called me and was like ‘So, I am doing this but Cleveland is that same night.’ I told her, ‘well you are not passing it up so let us figure it out,’” Cope said.
Drummond will be leaving New York City after the memorial to fly to Cleveland to sing with the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra as a soloist in “An Evening of Ella and Ellington.” Jefferson Westwood, Director of Rockefeller Arts Center came to her aid when they found out that Drummond needed to be in two different states in the same day.
“He paid for my plane ticket,” Drummond explained. “Plane tickets are not cheap. I am flying from Buffalo to New York the night before the 11th. Then on the 11th after the ceremony I am going from New York to Cleveland. The university paid for my flight from New York to Cleveland.”
Being a Brooklyn native, Drummond has early memories of the September 11 attacks in 2001. She was in the second grade at the time.
“We were in school. I lived in downtown [Brooklyn] which is not too far from Manhattan. We evacuated from school. Everyone from New York City was evacuated from school. I was in second grade and I left class — I lived right across the street from my school and I remember debris,” Drummond recalled. “Debris carried everywhere. I remember being very nervous. It was a very strange time. I did not really understand, but I knew I was very nervous. I have friends who lost their mothers and so many people passed away. It’s heartbreaking. I sang the national anthem in a chorus for the remembrance of 9/11 and it was open for the public.”
“The families there carried pictures of their loved ones that passed or signs and posters. You see them while singing the national anthem and it is just so heartbreaking. Even for me, who just started doing that at around 13 or 14 years old. Looking at that and singing as a kid chorister to these people is just totally heartbreaking.”
Singing seemed to be in Drummond’s blood as she grew up, but it did not come easily.
“Music is in my family. My grandmother sings occasionally, my father used to sing and my sister sings — she sang background for Mariah Carey,” Drummond explained. “I tried to emulate my sister: while she was practicing, I would come in and bang the keyboard and try to sing after her.”
Drummond also recalls her mom dragging her to chorus and how she hated it until she realized she had a gift. She has also received the Gordon Parks Centennial Scholarship Award, for which she was given $5000 and was asked to sing at a gala which featured stars like Josh Groban, Fab Five Freddy, Russell Simmons and Sarah Jessica Parker.
“I only heard that she sings jazz,” said with Shinobu Takagi, an assistant visiting professor of voice in the School of Music with whom Dummond is studying.
The first time Takagi heard Drummond sing was when Drummond was a freshman in college performing in a Christmas pops concert.
“She sounded like Ella Fitzgerald — I felt like that was Ella singing. I have always been a big fan of jazz singers; I was very impressed,” Takagi said.
Never one to brag, Drummond casually told Takagi she’d be missing class.
“I am very proud of her and all the students know and they are very proud of her too,” Takagi said.
Drummond has all the support from her fellow students and professors. She has said that she has had times that she did not want to sing anymore. But she has always stayed motivated by the positive comments people have given her.
“What keeps me motivated is what people tell me. Renee Fleming told me that opera needs me,” Drummond said. “Tony Bennett said that I sounded like Ella Fitzgerald. Stuff like that keeps me going. Sometimes you are in a rut in your life and you just do not want to do any more, but people who have been there and have gone through the process, they tell you that you have the juice. You just have to keep going; you cannot stop.”