August 09, 2008

Josh Groban - Early Life

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Joshua Winslow Groban (born February 27, 1981) is a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter. He has concentrated his career so far mostly in concert singing and recordings, although he has stated that he wishes to pursue musical theater in the future.


:: EARLY LIFE

Josh Groban was born in Los Angeles, California, to a Jewish–American father (a descendant of Polish and Russian immigrants) and a Norwegian–American mother. His father converted to Christianity upon marriage, and Groban was raised an Anglican–Episcopalian. His younger brother Christopher shares a birthday with him four years later.

Groban debuted as a singer in seventh grade, but soon put it on hold for a few years. "I enjoyed the arts aspects, but my grades were slipping. I didn't feel that I was getting enough creative input. So I went to Bridges Academy to get my grades up to straight A's." While at Bridges Academy, Groban took normal classes from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM, and then afterwards attended theater classes. In 1997 and 1998, Groban attended the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan, majoring in musical theater, which is also when he began taking voice lessons outside of school. "I started taking music lessons on the side. I was very much into musical theater. I had a pretty good baritone voice, so I began acting and singing in school productions".

In late 1998, the 17-year-old Groban was introduced by his vocal coach to Grammy-winning producer/arranger David Foster. Groban worked for Foster as a rehearsal singer on a series of high-profile events, including the 1999 Grammy Awards -- where, as a stand-in for Andrea Bocelli, he rehearsed Foster's "The Prayer" with CĂ©line Dion -- and the January 1999 inauguration of Gray Davis as governor of California.

Groban attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts as a theater major and graduated in 1999 and then attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, studying drama.


SOURCE : Wikipedia