Romina Arena

Romina Arena
Background information
Born May 12, 1980
Origin Palermo, Sicily
Genres Pop classical crossover, operatic pop
Occupation(s) Singer, composer, actress, writer, music producer, music supervisor, dancer, screenwriter, author, voiceover and film producer
Years active 1984–present
Labels Design House/Toshiba-EMI, CP Productions/BMG, PC Music, Outback Records, NMG Records, Perseverance Records
Associated acts Ennio Morricone, Marcello Giordani, Rick Allison, Andrea Bocelli, Shinji Tanimura, Alessandro Safina, Al Martino, Brian Wilson, Il Divo, Jim Wilson, Eric Rigler and many others
Website www.rominaarena.com

Romina Arena (born May 12, 1980) is an Italian-American popera, operatic pop, pop classical crossover, rock Opera, and New Age singer-songwriter.

Biography

Romina Arena grew up in Palermo, Sicily and now lives in Los Angeles. She is the first known tenorette (female tenor) in the world to sing in a five octave range full register.[1][2] She has collectively sold over four million records worldwide.[3][4] By the age of four, Arena became an Italian Mouseketeer for the Italian version of Disney's Topolino.[5] She also performed as a classical ballerina in the major Italian Theatres at the age of seven. Her knowledge of 10 languages, including Italian, English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Greek, Bulgarian and Hebrew allowed her to open many doors to the international music market. When she was young, Arena was attacked at the backstage of a prime time television show in Sicily and her attacker severed her vocal cords with a pocket knife, leaving her comatose. Her physicians told her she would never sing again. However, she completely recovered over a three-year period. She fully regained her vocal abilities; a strange side effect of the attack was that she developed an extraordinary five-octave vocal range as a result of the trauma to her pharynx.[6]

An Academy Award-winning film producer is developing her life story into a major motion picture. Her book will also soon be available in stores. Arena is also a sought after inspirational and motivational speaker, a screenwriter, a philanthropist and humanitarian. Arena has received the Gold Orb Medal, presented to her by the Olympic Games of the Arts where she was equally awarded along with Hollywood legend Jane Russell, as well as Linda Gray, from Dallas. She has performed for Bo Derek, Paris Hilton, Fergie, Josh Duhamel, Betty White, Al Pacino, Oliver Stone, John Gray, Jack Canfield, Cheryl Ladd, U.S. President Bill Clinton, Pope John Paul II and many other popular figures. Arena was awarded with the Global Citizenship Award by the United Nations, in collaboration with Orphans International, The New York Times and Prince Albert of Monaco for her humanitarian support to the children of Haiti. She has appeared as the leading singer special guest on her first PBS TV special in the U.S., along with acclaimed pianist Jim Wilson. Arena is the recipient of the 2010 Tricolor Globe Award, the equivalent to the American Oscar in Italy, for best female Italian artist in the world and as a humanitarian.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13] In September 2010, Arena performed for over 300 million viewers on European Television Rai 1, Rai Italia, Rai Radio 1. Canale 5, a popular Italian network owned by Silvio Berlusconi, is preparing a TV special on her life and career with major Italian journalist Alberto D'Amico.

Arena is the recipient of the 2010 CSNA Award (Confederation of the Sicilians in North America), as the most successful Sicilian-Italian female Artist and Humanitarian in North America. She was awarded equally with Italian major actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta. The two stars have received also the famed 2010 PREMIO SICILIA, where Romina was awarded as the best selling recording artist in the world from Sicily.[14]

Past musical works

Arena is one of the first female pioneers of Popera/Operatic pop/Pop Classical Crossover, considered by the media as the "Queen of Popera".[15][16] She wrote lyrics and sang Adagio in G minor with the original Tomaso Albinoni's arrangement at the famous Sidney Opera House concert in 1994. In 2001, she covered the famous Japanese classic song "Subaru" originally written and recorded by Japanese star Shinji Tanimura and went to number No. 1 on the charts. Arena has become the trusted authority in the field of Popera and classical crossover.[17] She is developing several TV series and film projects she has written, pitched optioned and sold to major studios and networks in Hollywood. Over the years Arena has worked with a variety of major Grammy winning music producers including Bob Johnston, Chuck Howard, Christopher Page, Jamie Nakamura, Kevin Savigar, Peter Ciani, Mitchell Sigman from Berlin, Rudolf Schenker from Scorpions (band) and Beppe Cantarelli. She has collaborated and written songs with Freddy Curci, Lara Cody, Christopher Page, Kevin Savigar, Stacy Wiedleitz, Jamie Nakamura, Ennio Morricone, Rick Allison, Giovanni Lodigiani, Tom DeLuca, Jim Wilson, Bob Dellaposta, Luca Angelosanti, Francesco Morettini, and Beppe Cantarelli. She has also recorded under the names Romy Karen & Romina Notabartolo. In 2003, Arena contributed her first Rock Opera single "Satellite" (Recorded in English and Italian) as the theme song for Project Gotham Racing 2[18] a popular video game developed by Microsoft

Recent musical works

Arena is noted for a unique style of operatic pop, rock and classical crossover. As a singer/songwriter Arena's use of the new genre of music that mixes the older classical symphonies with the new fast beats, brings an outstanding combination of style and success to her career.[19] Oscar winning film composer Ennio Morricone has been Arena's mentor since she was twelve years old. In 2012, she became the first female Italian artist and songwriter to add Italian lyrics to Morricone's famous Once Upon A Time in America movie theme. The same year Morricone collaborated with Arena supporting her on the making of a new CD which includes a collection of all of his greatest movie scores reinterpreted by Arena's own voice and lyrics. The album is titled Morricone.Uncovered and was released on September 18, 2012, by Perseverance Records[20] In 2011 and 2012, Arena has written and produced songs for UK's Pop Classical Crossover soprano and finalist from Britain's Got Talent Hollie Steel and Opera/Pop Classical Crossover Tenor Marcello Giordani Arena is currently writing music for feature film soundtracks and national TV shows.

Live touring

Arena has performed and/or worked with Andrea Bocelli, Alessandro Safina, Lou Rawls, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Al Martino, Gladys Knight, The Platters, Eliot Sloan from Blessid Union of Souls, Eric Rigler pipes player from the famous music soundtracks of the movies Braveheart and Titanic 1997 film, and headlined on the Celine Dion stage[21] The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. She has performed several countries worldwide including Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, England, Portugal, Gibraltar, Casablanca, Netherlands, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, New Zealand and Fiji.

She performed many cities in the United States including Boston (Massachusetts), Chicago (Illinois), Cleveland (Ohio), Youngstown (Ohio), Canton (Ohio), Akron (Ohio), Columbus (Ohio), Cincinnati (Ohio), Traverse City (Michigan), New York City, Orlando (Florida), Ft. Lauderdale, (Florida), Miami, (Florida), San Antonio, (Texas), Riverside, California, Los Angeles (California), Amarillo, Texas, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Boise, Idaho, Denver, Colorado, Las Vegas (Nevada), Reno, Nevada, Washington (D.C.), and Vancouver (Canada).

She has performed in the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City in Rome, Italy, the White House in Washington, DC, Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver, The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, The Bellagio and Paris in Las Vegas, Italian Embassy, Washington, D.C. and the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California.

Discography

Author of books

In 2012, Arena signed a multiple book deal with Linden Publishing/ Quill Driver Books.[22] Her first book "Where Did They Film That? Italy"[23] will be released in 13 languages worldwide 2016.

Charity work

Arena has helped many major non-profit organizations over the past four years to raise over a million dollars from such organizations, including the American Red Cross[24] The Yellow Ribbon Group,[25] The Arts Olympus.[26] and Every Woman,[27]

References

External links