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At 14, U.S. Singer Leaves Opera Behind for Pop Scene

Mon Apr 8, 4:08 PM ET

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

 

CLIFTON (Reuters) - In many ways, 14-year-old Taleen Kalbian is a typical American teen-ager. She likes to hang out with her friends, play soccer and spends hours watching MTV. Her language is spiced with words like "awesome" and she worships the Backstreet Boys (news - web sites).

 

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But this is no ordinary kid.

 

After Taleen finishes her homework and extracurricular activities, including tennis, dance and lacrosse, she spends at least two to three hours every day practicing her singing and writing her own music.

 

"To me, I don't really think of it as work," says the slim, brown-haired teen, a freshman at Flint Hill High School who is doing all she can to become a superstar entertainer like Britney Spears.

 

Beginning at the age of nine, Taleen has already performed in six operas at Washington's prestigious Kennedy Center, including an appearance on stage with Placido Domingo in the opera "Pagliaci," and twice sang for Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II during his historic visits to Jerusalem and Bethlehem in 2000.

 

When she was 12, she sang the national anthem at Washington's MCI Center before a Washington Wizards game. It was such a rousing performance that the crowd of 14,000 broke into spontaneous cheers while Taleen sang. Later the same year, she entertained a crowd of tourists at the White House.

 

These days, Taleen has been recording a patriotic medley of "God Bless America" and "America The Beautiful," which she will perform at the annual Arab American Institute Gala April 10, when Sting and Jordan's Queen Noor are due to be in the audience, along with U.S. lawmakers and other dignitaries.

 

You'd think she would be nervous, but Taleen does not suffer from stage fright.

 

A practiced and seasoned performer, this 14-year-old is literally transformed when she takes the stage. No more slouching or fiddling with her hair. She stands upright, moves with grace and poise, and belts out such a sweet soprano that audience members often complain of getting goosebumps.

 

CLASSICAL TRAINING

 

Although she values her classical voice training, Taleen has set her sights on a career as an rhythm and blues and pop singer.

 

"I'm on that track," says Taleen, rattling off the names of musical idols including Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera.

 

Taleen has already written at least three of her own songs, and recently got a chance to perform one for a music industry professional in Nashville, who told her he was impressed.

 

"That's big for someone so young, to have her songwriting validated," said Jim Halley, a long-time veteran of local television and children's programming who is now working with Taleen's parents to manage her career.

 

Taleen often dreams of moving to Los Angeles, but her parents, Sylva and Haig Kalbian, are putting on the brakes a bit to ensure that she finishes school and has time with her big sister Laurie, who will be heading off to college the year after next.

 

"We've made a conscious effort and a very important decision to keep her in school and to give her that grounding," says Sylva Kalbian, who runs a large business producing hand-painted tiles in Alexandria, Virginia. "We don't want to isolate her in any way."

 

Taleen says most of her good friends treat her just like everyone else, even though they sometimes see her featured on local television news programs or in The Washington Post.

 

"It's important to have a childhood -- have fun," said Taleen. "I can go to parties and still be a teen-ager. I think it's really important to have a balance in your life."

 

Sylva Kalbian, born in Jerusalem to a French mother and an Armenian father, came to the United States 15 years ago, where she established a business to hand paint tiles -- a trade that has been practiced by her family for five generations.

 

She knew early on that her younger daughter had exceptional talent. When Taleen was just two months old, Kalbian glanced at the rear view mirror and her infant daughter swaying her head in rhythm to the music. When she switched the station, Taleen changed her rhythm.

 

But there was no magic moment when she realized she had a budding star on her hands, says Kalbian. "It's just a process. You see that she wants to do this, and you hold your breath and try to give her as much support as possible."

 

SHOWED TALENT WHILE A TODDLER

 

When she was a toddler, Taleen, who also speaks Armenian and French, picked up anything that looked like a microphone and pretended to be a singer.

 

Then, one day when she was about six or seven years old, she saw a music video of Whitney Houston singing "I Want to Dance with Somebody" on VH1 and it suddenly clicked.

 

"I thought, I want to be her. She looked like she was having so much fun," Taleen remembers as she sits cross-legged in the family room of her new home in Virginia, a sprawling mansion with a water fountain gracing the front yard.

 

That same year, some neighborhood friends came over and together they staged an impromptu concert of Christmas songs, which the family naturally videotaped, she remembers.

 

"Really at the age of nine, when I started doing opera, that's when I realized, 'This is it. This is what I want to do'," Taleen says.

 

Now, well on the path to a career in music, Taleen realizes that it's not all fun and games after all. But she can't even imagine not succeeding.

 

Asked what career she might pursue if stardom proves elusive, Taleen says: "Anything basically in entertainment. I love to act, but ... I don't want to give up music because that's a part of me and really made me who I am.

 

"This is my dream. For it to come true would be the best thing in the world," she says, adding: "But I really don't want it to get to my head. I really don't like bragging and things like that."

 

Taleen also put an emphasis on charity: she sang the soundtrack for a national campaign to help children with cancer and works with the Washington area's Toys for Tots campaign.

 

Halley has been extraordinarily impressed with Taleen.

 

He first met the young performer three years ago at a Rotary Club meeting where her mother was speaking. When he asked her to sing something, she did so without a moment's hesitation. It was an aria.

 

"She goes through this clear shift, total focus. She had no fear," Halley remembers. "She bursts out with this opera in the middle of the restaurant, and of course everyone in the place was like, 'Huh?"'

 

After nine years of working with children in television, Halley thought he'd seen it all, but Taleen surprised him.

 

"It was amazing. All those years working with children, but every once in a while you just meet one who knocks you over -- and she was one of them!"

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