Azara

Born in Chicago and growing up in the suburbs of Detroit, this young lady began singing at a very early age. She was not raised singing in church, nor was her talent showcased and developed performing at talent shows, etc, at a young age, however, this undiscovered secret was a musical timebomb waiting to explode!

Musical greats such as Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Sade were her vocal trainers throughout her very young years, as she would pop their latest tapes into the tape player and imitate them as best she could. Concepts such as vocal control, vibrato use, dynamics, and tone quality were learned via this method. By constantly imitating Mariah Carey, her vocal range was increased phenomenally at a young age. Still yet, noone knew! So tick, tick, tick, went the musical timebomb as the years rolled by. Her first performance was not until 7th grade, at 12 years old, in a school talent show, where she recieved her first standing ovation from a crowd of over 200! From this moment on, she was confident that music was her destiny.

At this age, she also began to enter another area of music: music production. Using a computer program called MStudio, a MIDI composing program she "borrowed" from her father, she began to create music. From there, she began songwriting. She would write lyrics and arrange how her vocals would go around her beats all on paper. And for about 2 years, this is all she could do, though she wanted to record it so she wouldn't have to sing it every time she wanted to hear the songs.

It was not until her father gave her a new computer complete with a microphone that she was able to record her own music. A freshman in high school, she began with a Windows program called Sound Recorder. By the time senior year rolled around, she was multi-track recording, effects processing, eq-ing, and more with multiple programs. She was by far ahead of the many, yet still a quietest kept secret.

In high school, she began to be recognized as a phenomenal singer. As a freshman, she recieved a spot in one of the top choirs at LHS, in which freshman were not even supposed to be able to join! A classical choir, this group performed in numerous places in the USA, such as New Orleans, New York, and Boston. The skills she learned in this choir and others, such as stage presence, sightreading, and also directing, were kept with her to this day. However, with strict parents unsupportive of music as a career, she seldom had opportunity to showcase her talent outside of school. Most opportunities that were presented to her were quickly turned down by her parents because they wanted her to be a doctor, not a musician, and therefore, this was a slight hinderance to her artist development process. It did not stop her though!

Being a sharp student with good grades in high school, she was able to continue on to attend Michigan State University as a pre-med major (though music was her love) and ended up switching to mechanical engineering (as her father suggested) and finally, after grades suffering enormously from lack of interest and finances depleting, she came back home to attend community college.