Ten Tenor travels with God

The Ten Tenors may have performed 135 shows in 24 weeks across 65 cities in the USA in the past two years, but despite this hectic schedule, Tenor Steve Sowden is striving to continue his journey with God among the fame and fortune.

The Ten Tenors have taken their music and powerful singing to London’s Royal Albert Hall, the Sydney Opera House, The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and Tchaikovsky Hall Moscow. Their ‘Best Of’ compilation Tenology went multi-platinum in Australia. 

Two years ago Melbourne-born, Brisbane-raised Steve Sowden joined the Aussie vocal ensemble that first formed in 1995.

The Ten Tenors have just released their latest album Nostalgica, a collection of classics from the 20th century, recorded during their seven-month tour of the US. It is the first Ten Tenors album for which Steve has recorded vocals.

At 25, Steve is thrilled to be touring the world but he has not lost touch with his roots.

Steve grew up going to church, brought along by his parents since birth.

“I feel so lucky to have that background,” Steve says.

“I went with them until I was 15. At that age you have to start making decisions for yourself and I no longer liked the church my parents went to. They had a good children’s and adults program but nothing much for teens.”

Steve joined Bridgeman Baptist Community Church in Bridgeman Downs located just north of Brisbane.

“I went along with my friend and found a lot more people my age there. I really started taking responsibility for own Christian walk, I got baptised and I still call it my home church,” Steve says.

The troubles of travel

Steve says being on the road so often means it can be hard to keep in touch with church, family and friends and he admits he has not been back to his home church since April.

“We are on the road for ten months of the year so I do lose track of a lot of friends and some people give up on calling and emailing after a time. But my dearest, closest friends are still there and I love to go back and visit,” he says.

“I really miss my church, my Bible study friends, my pastor and my very supportive fiancé.”

In April Steve got engaged to his girlfriend of six years, Katie, and the couple will marry in April 2009. Steve wears a ring on the ring finger of his left hand as a reminder of his engagement.

“Katie gave me this ring to keep me out of trouble. That’s what she said,” laughs Steve.

The couple met on the first day of university at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and were dating within a month.

“We have both done different jobs over the years and have spent a lot of time in a long distance relationship so it is very exciting to be getting married this April.”

Steve says he finds it hard to get to church services overseas with two Sunday performances being a standard arrangement for the Ten Tenors and with church services being incomprehensible when he is travelling in non-English-speaking countries. However, Steve says he tries to maintain a number of spiritual disciplines. 

“It is really important to keep up my own personal prayer time and devotions and I subscribe to a few different Christian podcasts on itunes. For me, listening to these talks is like getting half a church service so I am still learning and growing,” he says.

Many Sydney Anglicans are likely to be familiar with Steve’s choice of podcast.

“I subscribe to a podcast from Seattle. The guy is Mark Driscoll. He is very funny, candid and honest. I think he gets a bit of flack for that but he doesn’t pay any mind to his critics. I find I learn a lot but it is very entertaining too,” Steve says.

Violinist turns singer

Although musical from an early age, Steve was originally a violinist, playing it throughout primary and high school. It was only in his final year of high school that Steve developed his love for singing.

“I kept going with violin, but sensed it was not where my career would lie. I was not up to scratch to play in an orchestra, so I cut my losses, took up singing and never looked back,” Steve says.

Steve graduated with a Bachelor of Musical Theatre in 2004 and spent the next couple of years performing as a singer at kids shows around Australia and later on a contract with Disney in Tokyo.

“Then I was lucky enough to get this gig with the Ten Tenors for the past two years,” Steve says.

Steve joined the group just prior to the release of the last album Here’s to the Heroes.

“Nostalgica is my first album with the group which is a great thrill. I was so excited, the other day I took a photo of myself with the new album in Sanity,” he says.

“It’s very different from the previous ones. We went for something a bit lighter and jazzier. A lot are songs that people have requested over the years.”

The album contains 12 tracks and Steve’s favourites are ‘What a Wonderful World’ ‘Danny Boy’ and ‘Moon River’.

“It’s such a privilege to do what I love doing, singing for a living, travelling and seeing amazing countries and earning a good living doing it. It’s a real dream come true,” Steve says.

“If you told me six years ago when I started uni that this is where I would end up, I would not have believed you.”

The future

Steve says the Ten Tenors have not decided what the content of their next album will be but says it is possible a Christian song might appear in the mix.

“Operatic tenors tend to do a lot of spiritual and church music and we have not recorded anything like that in a while, so I will certainly throw in my opinion among the ideas floating around,” he says.

Regarding his own future Steve says working closely with a church may figure into his career path.

“I used to do the signing at my home church before I left for university and I would come back and do the Christmas in the Park event during my university holidays,” he says.

“I feel sometimes maybe my time with the Tenors is grooming me for something in the years to come. Getting married and starting a family in the next six or seven years means I will need to stop travelling and come home permanently. So maybe I am being prepared for a worship leader position. Who knows?”

A review of Nostalgica by The Ten Tenors will appear online this Thursday.