Baritone With a Basketball: How Justin Austin Brings an Athlete's Mindset to Music
When Justin Austin isn't singing at the Metropolitan Opera, Kennedy Center, or Lincoln Center Theater, you're likely to find him shooting hoops on the basketball court. Sports have been a lifelong passion for the young baritone, but it's more than the game's physical benefits that keep him reaching for a basketball. To Austin, cultivating the mindset of an athlete has consistently helped him reach new heights as an artist.
"A basketball coach once told me that discipline means doing all the things that are hard and that you don't like to do, but doing them as if you love it," he says on the latest episode of the Classical Post podcast.
"That's helped me in my work ethic and my discipline within my musical career. When I encounter any kind of discomfort or difficulty learning my music or translating or memorizing, I just try to fall in love with the process, the repetition, dancing the words and the music. I find different creative ways to get the score in my body, so that it lives within me and comes out of me organically."
That approach to practice and role preparation has helped Austin land repeat engagements on some of classical music's biggest stages — including Carnegie Hall, where, on March 5, he's presenting a recital with pianist Howard Watkins. Part of Carnegie Hall's ongoing festival, Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice, this recital — titled "Don't Be Angry!" — presents music by five composers written over the course of a century, from selections from Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera to the New York premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's Marvin Gaye Songs, which Gordon composed for Austin.
In this episode, Austin and I talk more about his upcoming recital and how he hopes the program helps audience members become more comfortable with feelings of anger and hopelessness during turbulent times. Plus, he shares what it was like to return to the Metropolitan Opera stage after pandemic lockdowns, why opera singers should spend time honing their acting skills, and the OutKast album he would need with him if stranded on a desert island.
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