30-year-old freshman finds opera career

Andy Lunsford found his voice in the basement of his Colorado home. Three years ago, he put on a CD he’d bought on a whim years ago from Target, “Lifescapes: Opera.”

It was the only opera music he owned. He enjoyed musicals growing up, but the only opera he’d heard was on spaghetti commercials. When he put on the CD, it was a blur of Italian noise.

“So I just tried to sing along,” he says. “I was just trying to imitate how an opera voice was high and loud.” He could do it.

The next day, he and his dad drove to a music store.

“Have you got any opera songs?” He asked the clerk.

“Do you mean arias?” The clerk corrected him. He walked away with Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma,” an opera song made popular by Luciano Pavarotti.

At home, Andy propped the sheet in front of his computer, looked up Pavarotti singing it on YouTube and followed along. Finger tracing the lines, he started to read the notes.

He hit all of them.

What happened next can only be described as remarkable.

Andy auditioned for a local performance of “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” where he met Amy Stuemky, a fellow singer who ran a boutique opera talent agency.

She was overwhelmed by the power of his voice. She explained that he could take the easy “pop” opera route and make a living with scattered gigs. Or, he could study the true art of opera and have a dif?? cult career with the pay-off of a trained, polished voice capable of performing in opera houses around the world.

Andy was up for the climb.

Amy began introducing him to opera singers in Colorado, who agreed to teach him. Eventually, he met Ken Cox, a famed bass and voice professor at the University of Denver.

The first time he heard Andy’s untrained voice, he heard a future. Ken says Andy has the comfort in high notes (the famed high C is a breeze) that made Pavarotti the best.

As a tenor, Andy’s high notes are his money notes. Tenors are most often the male leads in operas and the highest-paid stars. A graduate of IU’s master’s program in music, Cox helped Andy arrange an audition at his alma mater.

Andy flew to Bloomington and sang in front of professor Carol Vaness, a world-famous soprano. Andy stood before her with nothing to lose. After he sang, Carol picked up the phone and called the dean. Andy walked away with a full ride to one of the world’s most prestigious music schools.

He was ready, and his family supported him. He moved his wife and their two boys away from their extended family and the only home they had ever known in Colorado. In fall 2009, Andy became the oldest member of his class as a 30-year-old freshman.

Now, Andy has represented the school by singing across the country and starring in IU’s spring opera “Faust.”

“When I sing a high note, I just feel like I can breathe,” he says. “It’s as comfortable and as warm as taking a deep breath.”