Paulo Faustini is the grapest opera singer in Chestnut Hill

By LEN LEAR

Paulo Faustini, 40, was brought up to sing in church, almost from the day he was born. His late mother was a piano teacher and church musician, and his father is a retired Presbyterian minister and composer of church music. So it was no surprise when Paulo went off to Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., on a scholarship and earned a bachelor's degree in church music and a master's in voice performance and pedagogy.

But Faustini, who sings every Sunday at the 9 a.m. service and 11:15 a.m. service at the Church of St. Martin in the Fields in Chestnut Hill, also has grape expectations. In addition to his acknowledged musical talent (Paulo has sung at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and other major venues under the direction of some of the world's greatest conductors such as Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta and the late Leonard Bernstein), Faustini is just as passionate about his wine business, CIAO!

The company, run by Faustini and his partner, Lisa Smith, goes to people's homes or to BYOB restaurants to conduct wine tastings and wine education classes. For example, a recent event took place at a BYOB near South Street. There was a one-hour class from 6 to 7, and at 7 the 15 participants ordered dinner. During the first hour Paulo and Lisa offered five different wines for tasting and explained how to savor the intensity and complexity in the wines, swirling them around in the mouth with close-eyed concentration so that the wines make contact with all taste buds.

"I also want to explode some myths about wine," he tells them. "A big one is that you have to spend a lot of money to get good wine. Not true. Good wine is whatever you like. We need to get the snobbery out of wine and just enjoy it to the fullest. Good wine brings passion to life and involves the senses and the brain, as opposed to something that does not stimulate the brain, like beer."

Paulo's interest in wine was sparked by his time spent in Italy. For 13 years, starting in 1983, he spent five to six weeks every summer singing opera at the Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of Two Worlds) in Spoleto, Italy. For six of those years, he was the choir manager as well as an interpreter of Italian.

"One day I tasted a bottle of Brunello that was so wonderful it awakened my curiosity. I began to explore more wines and found that I never got bored. They are always interesting. There is so much detailed information involved, and I am a detail-oriented person. And there are always new wines to try.

"When you have a wonderful wine, life is good. It allows you to appreciate the life you have. It's even better to share a bottle of wine with the people you love, and it goes with great music. I am reflective, and I never felt intimidated by wine. Once you are in touch with it, nobody needs to tell you anything. Wines are good with the right situation and the right food, and you can drink many good wines for a reasonable sum of money. My palate is Old World Italian, which means I love subtle, elegant wines, not those that are in-your-face. Someday I'll have a wine cellar, but right now I only have six bottles of wine in my apartment. I think it's more exciting to get a bottle and drink it right away."

Faustini, who was born in Brazil and has two older brothers in New Jersey (they're musical but are not musicians), got a job in 1992 singing with the Opera Company of Philadelphia. He also spent time as a contract choral singer with the New York Choral Artists. After completing his master's degree, he began teaching private voice lessons to music majors at Westminster Choir College as an adjunct voice instructor. In 1994 he began his voice studio in South Philadelphia, and from then until 2000 he was musical director of the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia in center city.

In the fall of 2001 Ken Lovett, musical director at the Church of St. Martin in the Fields in Chestnut Hill, hired Paulo to sing every Sunday at both morning services and occasional solo work. "I knew St. Martin's had a fantastic musical program," explained Paulo, "so I immediately said yes."

In 2003 Paulo also performed two full recitals, about an hour-and-a-half each time of "Art Songs" in Italian, German, French and Portuguese, accompanied only by a piano. Many singers would not want to try such a recital because of the demands required by memorizing at least 25 songs in many languages with no costumes or makeup to hide behind. It is easy to make a mistake, and the audience can notice such mistakes right away.

"My voice is not as loud or big as some," explained Faustini, "so I do better in a small setting with Art Song repertoire, and the acoustics at St. Martin are great for this genre of classical music. My type of voice can bring out the subtleties and colors and be more expressive in that setting. Some big, loud voices are wonderful, but that's just not me. I'm more suited to church music because I can take the vibrato out of the voice and sing straight tone in an elegant way.

"You have to have the right technique to keep your voice healthy over the long haul. I had a coach in New York who gave me great advice. He said the technique I had been using was not bringing out what my voice was capable of. He had me go in the opposite direction, and it worked. Now I can sing for an entire morning, then teach lessons in the afternoon and then sing more. How long your voice lasts tells what kind of shape it's in.

"I may say to a student, 'Think bright; smile when you sing.' I may say to a second student, 'Think rounder and darker. Close the vowel.' It's very subjective. You eventually have to be in charge of your voice, though, and know what your unique voice is capable of doing As singers we can only count on muscle memory, and if you have not been practicing and having your voice settle into a technique, you can run into trouble.

"I sing five days a week, sometimes just for a couple of minutes, sometimes more, just to stay in good vocal shape. It's very important to practice in a systematic way when you are preparing for a recital. You must focus on the emotions and communicate what you are singing in addition to the technique. . . It's a major risk and very easy to screw up. . .

"I never set out to be an opera star. I was an introvert. I just wanted to sing in a good choir. I did not set out to be on the stage or in a theater, but now that it has happened, it has pushed me to open up as a person, as a singer and even spark an interest and passion for wines."

For more information about CIAO!, the wine business, visit foodwinespirit.com. For more information about Paulo's singing or teaching, call 267-259-0575 or visit paulofaustini.com