Jonathan Cilia Faro
In His Own Words
“I am Italian so for me food is a huge part of my life. Cooking, eating, sharing life over food. Imagine going back home after your chemo treatment [with] no dinner because even the idea of food, any smell of food makes you sick to your stomach to the point where you can’t imagine ever eating again. While you are sleeping all you can taste is bitterness in your mouth, it’s so intense that you cry. Everything about your life is bitter now.
This thing is a monster – it scares an adult man who once thought of himself as strong and brave. Waking up in the middle of the night alone and scared. You try to scream but your voice does not come out, you are feeling that you are losing your voice along with your dignity and your willpower… day by day you lose your self-confidence along with your actual real self. You feel like you are disappearing completely. All you know is pain and loss and mind-numbing fear.
You become a loser for all the people close to you because you are no longer “somebody”, and nobody encourages you, all this gets confirmed by vocal exercise failures when the voice does not do what it used to and the piano which was once your salvation and a place of joy becomes your enemy. Your mind has forgotten every note of every song, and your body just wants to give up and nothing goes right and you think it never will again. For a singer losing your voice is like for a runner losing a leg. For most of my life, my voice was all I had, all I could count on and what made me the person I thought I was and was meant to be.
You start to neglect your own personal care; your hair grows wild and your beard is a jungle and you let go. You start to focus on other things and soon you are away from music, working as a waiter in a restaurant and helping in the kitchen… You are slow and spend your life in a daze feeling like shit all the time both physically and emotionally.”
These startling words give us a little glimpse into the hell that tenor Jonathan Cilia Faro experienced when he was diagnosed with cancer at the age of twenty-five. Up until then, Jonathan had been well on his way to fulfilling his dream of becoming an international classical crossover singing star.
It was a nun who first discovered his voice and encouraged the potential she heard.
The rich distinctive voice of Luciano Pavarotti drifting through the Sicilian summer made a lasting impression on Jonathan and solidified his love for music.
Success, although not easy, came fairly quickly for Jonathan. He was signed to a recording contract at sixteen and sold over 100,000 copies of his first album, “Always Close to Me.”
Not content to develop his voice only, Jonathan has established himself as a talented pianist, songwriter – and those are just his musical talents. He has served in the army, studied theology and enjoys to cook and make his own wine.
However, when Jonathan was diagnosed with cancer his career came to an abrupt halt. With seemingly everything lost, it was the hardest battle that he’s yet had to fight. Through surgery and chemotherapy, Jonathan battled his way back. Coming out on the other side has completely changed him, not only as a singer but as a person.
His latest album, “From Now On” named after a track of the same title, puts on display a rich tenor voice ringing out with purpose. Singing mainly in his native Italian, Jonathan distinguishes himself not only as a solid singer with the potential of wide appeal but as an artist with a passion that is inspiring.
“Music is the most beautiful thing to ever happen in my life, music is true art,” Jonathan tells us. Despite everything he has gone through he says, “The music inside you never stops, it keeps playing inside you even when you stop hearing it for a while it’s still there. Every pain, every hardship can become a beautiful melody.”
“From Now On” is available to purchase now.
