How 'The Voice' contestant found his real voice in St. Charles schools
Sitting in a music class at Haines Middle School in St. Charles, Jeffery Austin has come full circle. In a moment, the room will fill with young students peppering him with questions and surrounding him for a chance to get an autograph and a selfie. He's a budding star now, having made his debut performance on NBC's "The Voice" just two days earlier. But if the show is about Austin finding his voice as a performer, it was during his days in that same music room at Haines that he found his voice as a person.
Austin got his start as a performer when he decided to join his friends at Haines singing in the musical "Once On This Island." Hearing him sing, teacher Judy Lynn Mastalski knew she had to recruit him to be in the school choir. For one, he was a boy.
"It takes a lot for a boy to be in choir in middle school," Mastalski said. "They take a lot of heat from the other boys that may not be singers. But if I spot a boy in a school musical who isn't in choir, I figure he is OK with singing, being onstage, being themselves."
Austin sang at home. And he thought he was pretty good. He didn't mind performing, but he wasn't exactly a star right off the bat. He was lacking in that last trait Mastalski described; Austin wasn't quite comfortable being himself.
For one, in middle school, the death of his father when Austin was only 9 was still fresh. And there was another issue Austin was starting to come to terms with as well - he was gay. Joining chorus gave him a piece of his identity that he had not yet discovered until the moment Mastalski identified his talent.
"No one had ever validated me like that before," Austin said. "She saw that I was enjoying myself, and that I loved to perform. It built me up. I needed that push to get started."
By senior year at St. Charles North High School, Austin landed the role of Padre in the school's production of "Man of La Mancha." And he delivered a performance that had his music teachers pulling him aside afterward to tell him he had the kind of talent that gets professional recording deals.
"When I first started, I realized that when I stand in front of people it was completely different from when I would sing at home," Austin said. "A lot of it was because I was so scared and nervous about who I was as a person. Being secure with yourself has a lot to do with how well you do as a performer. You can't share a performance with someone if you don't know who you are as a person. At that point in high school, I finally didn't care what people thought of me."
Austin went on to college at Loyola University in Chicago and put his singing dreams in his back pocket in favor of a public relations degree. He was comfortable in his own skin, but he wasn't totally sold on his singing talent. He knew the odds of "making it" as a singer aren't great. And he didn't feel he would be a good teacher if a music degree didn't pan out into a performance career.
Just a few years into his job at Edelman Public Relations in New York, he decided to take a shot at a blind audition for "The Voice." Unlike most of the contestants, he has no band. He has no formal training other than what he received in middle school and high school. And that last time he performed for a large public audience before going on "The Voice" was in his senior year musical.
And yet, in Monday's episode, Gwen Stefani selected him for her team. She also selected Mount Prospect native Hanna Ashbrook.
On Wednesday, Austin told several classes of music students that not long ago he sat right where they were. They may not find they have the voices to be professional singers, but they can use their time at Haines Middle School to find a little piece of themselves, even if they have to take some heat from their peers while they do it.
"I was picked on for a lot of reasons," Austin told the students. "My (red) hair, singing in the choir. But they ultimately think I'm cool now. So it all paid off."