“I’m going to be a singer,” Barbara Mantini announced to her kindergarten teacher on the day she brought a 45 rpm single record to her class for show and tell. Since that day, her passion for music and dedication to her craft has never wavered, accomplishing a professional career as a vocalist, producer, actor and vocal coach that spans over 30 years. She has spent 20 years touring Canada and the United States with her sisters Sandra and Ann, as part of the singing trio aptly-named The Mantini Sisters. When she’s not performing, she’s a professor in the Acting for Film & Television program at Niagara College where she’s teaching the next generation of actors.
As a vocalist, Mantini is classically-trained as a soprano and covers several genres, most recently focusing on building her jazz repertoire. With all that she’s accomplished in her music career, releasing her own album by the time she turned 60 was a goal she had yet to accomplish. 2020 will prove to be a milestone year for Mantini – her first solo jazz album “Maybe Someday” is set to launch on March 27, and she will celebrate her 60th birthday at the end of the year.
Jazz trio performance with Barbara Mantini
Even with all her experience in the industry, she still considers herself a student of music and looks for ways to continuously improve as a singer. She is working towards her Associate diploma with the Royal Conservatory of Toronto (ARCT), studying classical music. Outside of the classroom, she is taking a more hands-on approach to cultivating her talent. Cue the jazz music.
Jazz is quite the opposite of the classical and musical theatre songs Mantini typically performs. “There’s more freedom with jazz, you can improvise and try something different, be creative. With classical music, it is what it is. You rehearse and perform it exactly how it’s written,” Mantini described.
She has been performing with jazz musician Randy Stirtzinger and trying her hand at improvisation and scatting. Stirtzinger has composed many jazz songs of his own with melodies, but no lyrics. After listening to his collection of songs, Mantini found a new challenge to take on in her music career: writing songs. She reached out to Stirtzinger to get his permission to try writing lyrics to a few of his songs.
The only way Mantini could learn song writing was to jump right in. She spent days listening to a melody repeatedly, just waiting for inspiration to strike. Then one day, it did. The first song she wrote was “Completely”, a ballad inspired by her husband.
Barbara Mantini performing in the Podium Concert Productions’ Broadway musical called Nine – In Concert.
From there, the inspiration kept flowing and she wrote lyrics for five of the 12 tracks on the album. “The whole process was such a joy to experience, everything seemed to fall into place very easily,” she said. Mantini wanted the vibe of the album to feel like a live performance. “I wasn’t looking for perfect, I wanted authentic.” To pull this off, they recorded songs all the way through, then Mantini chose the take she wanted to use, rather than recording small bits at a time in order to piece together the song in post-production.
With the album complete, the countdown to the album launch has begun. Mantini has released two singles from the track on Spotify: “Maybe Someday” and “Not So Fast“. She will be releasing one more single on March 6 called “Loving You in Three Quarter Time”, before the release of the full album. To celebrate, there will be a CD Release Celebration on March 28 at Cat’s Caboose. Mantini and the other musicians featured on her CD will perform their songs from 3 to 4 p.m.
This project has been a labour of love for Mantini and has allowed her to tap into a different side of her musical abilities. From this experience, there is one lesson that she has taken and shared with her students at NC: it’s never too late to try something new and fulfill your dreams.
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