Singer Sirgourney Tanner [Background Article 1]

Singer Sirgourney Tanner

Scurrying between downtown workers in lunch-hour traffic, Sirgourney Tanner hurries to her noon appointment after dealing with slow bus traffic.  Priding herself on being punctual, even for a quiet interview with no promise of publication, she apologetically arrives a little late and immediately seeks a quiet, warm refuge from the autumn breeze from the Lake.  Settling into Argo Tea with a light panini and medium chai tea, Sirgourney is ready to tell her story, hoping to inspire the artist in each of us.

Life is anything but ordinary for this 24-year-old singer, who began singing in her church choir at age 6.  After discovering Sirgourney singing along to the radio in the backseat of the car, Sirgourney’s mother Nadine Tanner knew she did not have an ordinary child.  “I knew she had a gift and I knew I had to do everything I could to help nurture that gift and sacrifice what I had so that she could pursue this God-given gift,” she says during a phone interview.

During the course of her vocal training, leading to her acceptance to college, Sirgourney was part of several choirs—All God’s Children (AGC), the Soul Children of Chicago, and the Community Renewal Choir—and vocal performance groups—Serenity and Essence of Praise—where she was able to travel internationally as young as the eight grade.

“I was just a lover of music, it was a part of me, so I knew that I wanted to study it to perfect it,” she says of her decision to pursue a degree in Vocal Performance.  During her senior year at Lawrence University, Sirgourney traveled with the Goodman Theatre on its international tour of “Joan Dark”, directed by Aida Karic, which premiered in Austria.

Performing regularly allowed Sirgourney to overcome her severe shyness—of which she reveals that when she started, she “used to make people turn around and close their eyes at the same time” before she would sing for them.  She now performs on one of the largest stages of her post-collegiate career as Jennifer Hudson’s background soprano.

“I got a call from a mentor of mine from [my church] First Church Deliverance, Fred Nelson III, saying he might have an opportunity for me.  He told me that J. Hud’s camp called and was looking for a soprano,” she recalls of that initial phone call.  Sirgourney had one rehearsal with the band—whom she says made her feel right at home from the start, including fellow background singer and American Idol season 3 alumnus George Huff—before flying to New York the next day to tape Good Morning America, her first performance as a background vocalist for Jennifer Hudson in the summer of 2011.

While Sirgourney enjoys traveling and performing across the nation—some of her favorites include the Essence Music Festival and the Taste of Chicago—she enjoys moments like these when she isn’t performing as much.  She is currently thinking about graduate school but is careful not to set herself up for one path, noting that she knows people who pursue degrees and later never puts them to use.
Sirgourney still has not decided what her next step is, but she knows she will work well with others.  “Aside from singing, my passion is helping people.  I love helping people in need, so I knew that whatever I did, it would have to deal with giving back, with helping people,” she says of her indecision to pick a concentration.  She hopes to one day perform her own music and open a performing arts school for underprivileged youth.

Her panini half-eaten and her tea barely touched, Sirgourney beams halfway into the conversation about inspiring artistry in others.  “You know when you have a gift. It’s effortless,” she says.  “It’s so cliché but so true: you have to follow your own journey,” rather than getting boggled down with the image others want to mold you into.  “Everybody’s story is different,” she says.  “Listen to your heart and let it guide you.”

Sirgourney Tanner (left) poses with Jennifer Hudson before a performance.

Sirgourney Tanner (far right) poses with Jennifer Hudson and other performers before the Essence Music Festival

Sirgourney Tanner (left) jokes around with George Huff (center) on stage.