THE CONSUMMATE ARTISTE
Rozlyn Sorrell finds her symphonic voice

by Kurt Dusterberg

For all of Rozlyn Sorrell's success, she's the last person who should be asked, “So what's your secret?”

Her resume is replete with singing, acting and teaching credentials, each a snippet from a career that speaks to the power of reinvention. Her business card identifies her line of work as “artiste.”

“I'm a performer and artist,” she says. “I do it all. I do whatever the job calls for.”

Sorrell remains a performer today, but most of her focus is on training others to sing. The Garner resident recently opened a local studio, where she quickly has attracted more than 25 students to learn the skills she has loved — and struggled with — for so many years.

“I know how to do it myself,” she says. “Communicating it is not as easy.”

A dramatic drive
Sorrell learned long ago that an extraordinary voice was not a free pass to success. On her first audition at age 10, she was asked to sing the national anthem.

“I didn't know it,” she says. “I just knew in my heart of hearts that I was supposed to sing. So I just kept doing it.”

So when the Brooklyn native graduated from Hunter College in New York, she had no master plan that would launch her into the music industry. She had majored in elementary education and theater, and common sense told her she eventually would find her way as a special education teacher.

But first, she wanted to scratch an itch.

“I thought, I've got to perform before I hit the job market” she remembers. “So I auditioned for a few things, and one of those things took me to Puerto Rico for six months. And I was offered money, so I never turned back.”

For years, Sorrell learned what so many performers know: that the highs and lows of the profession often come close together. When she move to Los Angeles in the late 1980s, she quickly landed with an agency and parlayed her first three auditions into TV appearances on “Matlock” and “Adam 12,” as well as in the movie, “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warrior.” In the popular Freddy Krueger horror series, she played a nurse.

“People are still recognizing me from that, because it's kind of a cult film,” she says. “And I still get checks from that.”

But Sorrell owed at least some of her early acting success to rejection. Her first major musical audition with a casting agent was a disaster.

“I had forgotten my accompaniment tracks, so he said, 'Just sing something a cappella.' So I sang, and he said, 'I thought you said you could sing.'”

At this point, Sorrell breaks into an uncontrollable laughter made possible by the passage of years. She's quick to note that the casting agent's comments caused her to refrain from singing for the next five years.

With acting to fall back on, she began padding her resume with national commercials, including those for Tide laundry detergent, McDonald's and Post Cereals. The work paid the bills, but “I knew in my heart of hearts that I was supposed to sing,” she says.

Lyrical lady
Finally, Sorrell returned to music, where her skills range from gospel to musical theater. As her reputation grew, she enjoyed occasional moments in the company of music legends, singing backup vocals at a Barbra Streisand political fundraiser, and later for Whitney Houston and CeCe Winans during a performance on VH1.

But six years ago, her priorities shifted. Her parents, both native North Carolinians, had retired to Garner, and the phone calls were not going well.

“My father was ailing in health, and I could hear 3,000 miles away that my mom was fatigued and needed some support,” she says.

Sorrell relocated to Garner, where she had to re-establish herself. The jobs were not as glamorous, and the financial rewards were modest. To make ends meet, she spent three years teaching at The Achievement School (now The Fletcher Academy) in Raleigh, a private school for students with learning disabilities. But all the while, she could hear the music calling. She walked away from the security of her teaching position.

“I just stepped out on the water,” she says. “And I've gotta tell you, I went under a few times. It was challenging because the money stopped. My best wasn't good enough.”

But soon enough, she was humming along. She worked her way on stage with the North Carolina Symphony, first as a pre-show performer for a few events at Cary's Koka Booth Amphitheatre.

“I let them know from day one, 'This is very nice, but my goal is to sing with the symphony,'” she says.

This year, for the second summer in a row, Sorrell has earned a spot as a featured performer, singing a solo and a duet. As her reputation has grown, so have her engagements. Her calendar includes both private and public concerts, as well as a singing ministry.

Sorrell's experience is proving to be a calling card these days. Her growing roster of voice students — from young teens to adults — has allowed her to open a studio, where her protégés can settle in by the piano and learn a bit of what Rozlyn Sorrell knows. And itÕs not always the sound of her six-octave range that is noteworthy.

“Even though they come to me for singing, what they really need is self confidence,” she says.

“I do a lot of talking. I dont care if (the sound) is not right. This is the perfect time to make a mistake — in front of me — so I can help you work it out”, she adds.

“Don't expect that just because you intellectually understand, your body is going to understand.”

Her words are tried and true. It's firsthand stuff, learned the hard way. And it rings with perfect pitch.

“Don't be so hard on yourself,” she tells them. “It takes time”

Kurt Dusterberg is a freelance writer based in Apex.

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