Growing up, Christa Navy spent hours listening to music and singing in the bedroom of her Huntington home. By high school, she was performing with the show choir at Cabell Midland High School and in school musicals. She even won the American Idol Experience singing competition at Disney World’s Hollywood Studios.
Through it all, she realized one thing: “Every time I stepped onto whatever stage it was, I left it feeling extremely joyful,” Navy said. “I knew that I had the power and the opportunity to affect people and to make them smile or laugh through my performance. I knew that was a feeling that I wanted to feel for the rest of my life.”
She chose Marshall University as the place to prepare for a career in music. “I knew that they had a great music program that many of my teachers had gone to as well,” Navy said. “… I had an opportunity to stay here, save money, and get a quality education, so why wouldn’t I do that?
“When I came to Marshall as a freshman, I was introduced to an entirely different musical culture than I was used to. Growing up, I had sung pop music and show tunes. Now, I was expected to sing in foreign languages and sing art songs and arias that I had never even heard before and mostly couldn’t pronounce. I was overwhelmed. But thankfully, I was surrounded by professors that wanted me to succeed.”
She plunged headfirst into two courses of study, earning both a Bachelor of Arts in music education in May 2017 and then a Bachelor of Fine Arts in vocal performance in December of 2017.
“I remember walking into my first official voice lesson and I looked at (Mrs. Mandy Bohm) and said, ‘I want to sing high,’” Navy said. “That was all that I wanted. Little did I know how high that would actually end up being. I got to work and dove into this new classical art form that was completely new to me, but I had the attitude that if I was going to be there, I wanted to learn and experience the most that I could.”
She performed with almost every ensemble on campus, traveled throughout the country and did a 10-day tour in Spain. She sang with the Marching Thunder, performed in Boca Raton and at President Jerome Gilbert’s investiture with the Wind Symphony.
“In summary, I did a lot, and I am immensely thankful for each and every one of those performance opportunities that I was given,” Navy said. “With that being said, none of it was easy. I knew that if I wanted to graduate on time then I needed to work hard. I overloaded on class hours every single semester.” One semester she took on 24 credit hours while continuing to work her restaurant job.
The music faculty made a tremendous difference. Navy said she owes gratitude to the late Dr. Larry Stickler, who taught her weekly voice lessons before he became ill. “He loved his students, and up until the few days before he passed away he was still teaching. I will never be able to thank him enough for that,” Navy said.
Dr. David Castleberry stepped in after that. “He took me under his wing immediately, and we got to work and picked up right where Dr. Stickler and I had left off,” Navy said. “[Dr. Castleberry] did a lot more than just teach me proper vocal technique. He counseled me and guided me on this path of becoming a professional musician, and he was there every step of the way.”
As graduation approached, she decided to pursue both a master’s and doctoral degree while also bolstering her performance experience. Before her senior year, she moved to Chicago for a month to perform The Crucible with Chicago Summer Opera. This past summer, she performed with the Lyric Opera Studio Weimar in Germany, taking the lead role of Rosalinde in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, a role and an opera that she quickly loved.
“I was presented with a score that was completely in German, and my character, Rosalinde, was in nearly every scene. On top of that, we were also presented with German spoken dialogue that we had to learn,” Navy said. “I remember I had my highlighter in hand going through the score highlighting everything I had to learn, and I became more and more overwhelmed as my nearly 150-page score was flooded with pink.”
As intimidating as that was – not to mention going to Germany by herself without a full grasp of the language — Navy embraced the challenge and had the experience of a lifetime. She met a fast friend from New Jersey in the town square, and made new friends from around the world among her fellow performers in the opera.
“I was surrounded by a group of 30 singers that were collectively from Italy, Serbia, France, the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Ukraine, Spain and the U.S.,” Navy said. “It was so incredible to be at this place together with so many different people from so many different cultures. It was life-changing.”
To prepare, they rehearsed from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day for three weeks. They performed the opera in Weimar and in three other venues in Germany. She received a glowing review from a critic there and had a chance to audition for German agents.
“Something that I truly enjoyed about this experience was the culture of the people in Europe,” Navy said. “These people truly enjoyed opera and music and art. We sang to sold-out audiences almost every night because they just loved it. It was such a great feeling to be surrounded by so much support.
“…I grew in so many ways during this program. Perhaps the most important thing that this trip did for me is it made me realize that I am strong and I am capable. Before this experience, I would have never thought that I would have the courage to venture to a foreign country all by myself, but now I know that I can. I have gained experience as a performer and I have also gained insight into how the German operatic system works. As this was my first operatic role in a foreign language, I also learned how to score-study and prep for a role.”
Since then, Navy has been putting her education degree to work while still performing. She teaches music at Cox Landing and Davis Creek elementary schools in Cabell County and is directing First Stage Theatre’s Production of “A Christmas Story,” which runs Nov. 30-Dec. 2 at Huntington High. She also appeared with the West Virginia Symphony Chorus in its performance of “Messiah” Nov. 4 in Charleston.
She’s excited about what the future holds and the opportunities that music can bring.
“I almost feel like a totally different person than I was several months ago, and I can’t wait to take everything that I have learned (in Germany) and use it for each future performance, audition and journey,” Navy said. “Who knows where I will end up next!”
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Photo: Christa Navy with a poster from her appearances in Germany last summer.