Jen Creed, of Erdenheim, the head of theater at Merion Mercy Academy, performs in cabaret monthly at L'Etage, 624 S. 6th St.

by Henrik Eger

Erdenheim resident Jen Creed, once a mathematician and former recruiter in the investment management industry, now sits on the Board of Directors of The Voice Foundation, teaches voice and serves as the head of theater at Merion Mercy Academy in Merion Station.

Above all, however, Jen is a popular singer with an unusually wide vocal range — singing as high as a lark and roaring as low as a lion. She is performing an equally diverse range of music: from classical to Broadway, from the sacred to standards, plus her own compositions.

Her numerous performances all over the U.S. and videos of her concerts on YouTube testify to her strength and popularity, even though few people may know about her struggles to overcome a dangerous vocal cord operation. Recently, she gave two sold-out performances at Act II Playhouse in Ambler and has been commissioned by L’Etage, a popular cabaret at 624 S. 6th St. in Queen Village, to perform a monthly solo show that celebrates a different theme each show. Recently we conducted the following interview with Jen:

Given your experience in the corporate world as a successful recruiter, why did you choose music as a career? 

You only have one life to live! I am a creative person. For me, it’s drudgery to do the same thing every day, waking up at the same time to the dreaded alarm and following the same routine. The corporate world truly almost killed my spirit, despite my career success. I’ve learned that just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you have to do it!

If you’re going to spend most of your life at work, shouldn’t work be connected to your soul? Then work and play are almost one in the same. Sure, it’s not all roses and drinking martinis all day long, but if you do what you’re passionate about, giving back to the world freely and generously with the gifts with which you’ve been given, the world will give back. To me that’s a life well lived.

How financially stable can a music career be vs. a career in finance?

Finance is probably the highest paying field out there, so it’s not really fair to compare. But I do make a living, and a good one, with a flexible lifestyle picking and choosing projects I want to work on. You have to be a well-rounded musician to make money, and it takes time. I teach voice out of my home studio and direct, produce and music-direct children’s and young adult theatrical productions.

I also serve as staff cantor at three Philadelphia churches, sing at over 50 wedding ceremonies each year and even sing the national anthem at races, charity events and sporting events. I also conceptualize and produce my own concerts and cabarets and write, publish and record my own music.

You were trained as a classical singer, and yet you sing everything from sacred music to Broadway, The Beatles and beyond. Tell us more about your musical and artistic evolution.

It was not specifically a conscious decision, as so many forms of music move me. I’ve been singing all types of music as long as I can remember. I was “discovered” at the age of 5 by my dance teacher. When she heard me sing, she set me up with my first voice teacher and nurtured my love for music and the stage by giving me opportunities to perform.

I sang in church and in musical productions all through elementary school and was fortunate to receive both academic and music scholarships to Gwynedd-Mercy Academy High School.

I never intended to go into music as a career. I was accepted into Ivy League and top-tier colleges to study psychology and math. But one day in April of my senior year of high school changed everything. The LaSalle High School College band came to play an assembly at my school. From the audience I watched and listened, and in that moment I knew that helping people through music was my life calling. Perhaps not so coincidentally, the band performed that same day at the school at which my mom taught, so she witnessed the same concert. After school, we both admitted that we were simultaneously struck by the same revelation: I was to major in music.

I accepted a full Archdiocesan scholarship to The Catholic University of America where I double majored in math and voice performance. My father, ever the pragmatist, “made me” double major in math so that I would have some job security.

Tell us about your musical studies.

A degree in voice performance traditionally means the study of classical music. I took several semesters of Italian, German and French to complement the Spanish and Latin that I had previously studied, and sang everything from art songs to arias to oratorios. While I was at Catholic, I also dabbled in my other love, musical theater. In my junior year, I was bouncing from show to show, operas to musicals and back again.

After you graduated from college, what did you do next?

It was natural for me to segue into musical theater. I lived in my hometown of Philadelphia for a time and then moved up to New York, where I was given work in national tours. But that life wasn’t what I thought it would be. You do a show, it runs for a few months, you’re constantly looking for the next thing … For me, it wasn’t a life conducive to “normalcy.” I didn’t think this particular life was the kind of life I wanted to sign up for.

You returned home to Philadelphia, and the vocal problems began.  

I decided to return to Philadelphia and began my quest to create my own kind of musical career here at home. But life had other plans for me. In 2003, I was given a role in a world premiere musical. However, I was getting chronic laryngitis and was diagnosed with bilateral polyps on my vocal cords. I took a break from singing, and after my surgeries, it took some years before I knew I could rebuild a music career.

After both polyps were removed, I was ordered not to speak for a full week to give the surgical site proper time to heal. It was difficult, but I was assured that it would be well worth it. If I didn’t obey, I may never be able to sing again. So I obeyed. But unfortunately, my vocal folds didn’t.

Subsequent rehabilitation and three additional surgeries were needed. I was unable to speak at great length, sing at the level I had or really do anything that brought me happiness except for crossword puzzles, which grew old quickly. My instrument and a huge chunk of my self-worth were gone. I felt very helpless and alone. I was determined, though, to not have this be the end of the real me — an energetic, passionate, vocal person. This article is reprinted, with permission, from DCMetroTheaterArts.

Read the entire interview at dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2016/02/17/an-interview-with-singer-jen-creed2/

-- To be continued