Karen Lee Batten’s “Too Strong” — “Not giving up takes strength, and fighting for something is hard.”
Karen Lee Batten’s first distinctive musical memory came at the age of 4, when she memorized her father’s vocals as she watched him in concert. Inspired to develop her own voice, the British Columbia native of Abbotsford sang in choirs at the elementary and high school levels, and entered vocal competitions using Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” as her reliable favourite. These experiences marked the early foundation for the passionate vocal delivery and dynamic range that would later come to define her.
Your vocal delivery and range foundation came, in part, from being part of school choirs and entering vocal competitions. With the pandemic shuttering the doors of many schools indefinitely, where can young singers continue to develop their skills?
I think what is so cool about today’s era that was different from when I was in school (without aging myself — haha) is that there are SO many online outlets to learn from. When I was in school, there was no means of hopping online to watch a tutorial on how to play something or how to sing something. This is such an awesome…