Jonathan Herman takes the stage

Jonathan Herman knows how to find a way. As a high school student at the Pine View School, Herman took his intense love of history and led an American Revolution re-enactment. Herman and his history club cohorts dressed in period costume and each day of the school week represented a year in the Revolutionary War. A battle and a filmed docudrama were just part of the high school experience for Herman. It was the next step in the historical experience after the previous year dividing the school into two sectors in order to recreate Berlin during the time of the Berlin Wall. 

Herman planned to take his love of history and story to college. But his life, like many of his favorite moments of history, didn't go as smoothly as planned. Herman, 20, was an AP scholar and had earned over a 4.0 grade point average during his time at Pine View. However, the Ivy League universities and other top-tiered colleges he applied to denied admission. And like many of the great men and women of history, Herman used his voice to find a way and enter the next chapter of his life.

Herman dived into his second love: music. Having played violin in his school's orchestra and learning to play guitar in high school, Herman learned the true power of his voice while learning chords on his guitar. "Playing the guitar is how I learned I had a voice," says Herman in his deep baritone voice. "Playing chords and learning guitar is boring, so after a while so you start singing in between." 

So after the post-grad setback, Herman focused on his music and his career. He loaded on music courses in 2012 at the State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota (as much as 30 credits in one semester) and continued lessons with his longtime voice teacher John Fiorito, a former lead baritone of the Metropolitan Opera. And just like the through all of his energy into transforming Pine View School into colonial America, Herman is now fully invested in becoming a professional musician. The first big step is a multi-genre exploration fittingly called "Across the Genres: An Exciting Musical Evening." Along with Herman's guitar, the young baritone will be joined by principal pianist for the Sarasota Orchestra Jonathan Spivey. Featuring music from opera, classical, Broadway, country and pop, the concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. May 16 at the Venice Performing Arts Center.

Herman talked about the concert and his entry into and love of music.

On his musical style:

"I go for beautiful. Everything has got to be beautiful, dramatic and epic. I’ve always been drawn to composers like Hans Zimmer and Jerry Goldsmith. The show is all types of genres. It’s sort of like a variety show without it being a variety show. Whatever sounds good, I like doing." 

On his love of history:

"I had applied to basically a lot of the Ivy League schools and Vanderbilt. Originally I was going into history. I was the co-director of the American Revolution simulation down at Pine View. This was a yearlong project by the history club at Pine View. The year before we had done a Berlin Wall simulation by dividing the school into two parts with butcher paper, graffiti and special passes. Basically it was two parts with a DVD that I thought up that it was a docudrama and we would teach people what happened from the first arrival on the continent until the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Each period of the class day would be a year in the war. I was one of the co-directors.

On his musical path and determination:

"Billy Joel has said, 'I’m either going to go to Columbia University or Columbia Records.' And in retrospect, that’s what I had in mind. Pine View was a great experience and so I wasn’t going to look for a giant college to attend.  I’ve always been an outside thinker. It’s not that I wouldn’t have enjoyed going to FSU or one of the state schools, but in this concept of safety, mid and reach schools, I went after the reach schools. I went for the higher risk and I’m a higher risk sort of guy. That’s what my performing instinct is about."

On his deep voice:

"My voice dropped around 14 and 15-years-old. It had been two to three years later and I had been doing a lot of singing. It wasn’t much of a leap before I realized that I could do this. When I had sung places, people didn’t expect the voice that came out of my mouth. That’s what helped me take that leap. I didn’t know how exactly how I was going to do it but I was going to go after it."

On his upcoming debut at the Venice Performing Arts Center:

"In essence, I want the show to be a show. It’s not a recital. I want people to be entertained and not think it’s just a series of songs. It’s designed and I’ve been thinking about this program for the last six months. That’s how much has actually gone into picking the songs. I think about which songs and in what order. It’s designed where it’s almost feeling like a cohesive story. I want the audience to feel like they're at an Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban or Michael Bublé concert."