CANBERRA singer Jared Newell is in the middle of a mammoth 22-city tour with The Ten Tenors, including at the Canberra Theatre later in July, when I catch up with him by phone to Brisbane.

He’s been with the group for 10 years, spending eight to nine months of every year on the road, touring more than 20 countries and performing more than 1,000 shows.

The son-in-law of legendary Canberra ballet teacher Lisa Clark, if Newell’s not travelling, he’s running his own thriving vocal teaching business out of her Hume studios.

He met his wife in Melbourne when they were singing together, but says the move to Canberra in 2019, in light of his travelling commission commitments, “just made sense… I love it, it’s been an interesting move for me”. 

Although normally he doesn’t have much time to work on local shows, covid stepped in when the tenors said “adios” to each other in Brazil on March 17 last year, meaning he was grounded for a time. He was cast in Canberra Philharmonic Society’s production of “Jersey Boys”, where he played the Four Seasons’ lead singer, Frankie Valli.

It was only the accident of covid, he says, that allowed him to play the role of Valli, as normally it would have been too much of a commitment, but it proved an irresistible opportunity.

“I thought to myself, ‘I’ll take the side benefits, though they had to bend the rules to let me play Frankie Valli, because I’m 6ft tall [Valli was 5ft 7in]”. 

But now that touring around the country has freed up – for most destinations – he’s on the road again. 

It’s the group’s 25th anniversary tour, with a hugely successful formula of a mixture of opera, light popular music, show tunes, Neapolitan folk music, the Beatles and a touch of Broadway.

The song list will feature all the favourites, including “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Hallelujah”, the “Pearl Fishers” duet, “Funiculì, Funiculà”, “Nessun Dorma” and, a highlight to Newell, “Bring Him Home” from “Les Miserables”. 

Although he’s now a successful singing teacher, Newell enjoyed limited voice training when he was young in Perth and often wishes he’d had more of it.

“I was in church choirs and musicals like ‘Oliver’, ‘My Fair Lady’, ‘Guys and Dolls’, ‘Sweet Charity’ and ‘Les Miserables’… I did get some classical training as a teacher and I was always surrounded by mentors giving me informal training,” he says.

“But it wasn’t until I was 20 that I thought, ‘this is my path’, and I didn’t really start singing properly until the age of 27.” 

It saddens him to think of young people turning 18 and starting to destroy their voices and says, “I was lucky, singing came to me at the right time”.

In 2008, a year after getting into professional productions of “Hair” and “Rent” in Perth, he moved to the University of Ballarat to study music theatre then on graduating in 2010, he was cast in the Australasian Premiere of “It’s Only Life”, before joining the Ten Tenors in 2011.

Running a singing school within a dance school is an eye-opener to him, because ballet and modern dance make very different demands than those for a singer and often performers these days need to do both, and maybe even act too.

“Ballet dancers may be looking after other parts of their bodies but a singing teacher tells you, ‘look after your voice’, he says.

He believes it’s possible to combine a professional life with teaching, and says that if students have competitions coming up, he’ll use FaceTime or other technologies to run their warm-ups and do breathing exercises with them – “I want to be there for them”.

“Every student I take on, I’ll let them know that as well as being a singing teacher I’m a performer,” Newell says.

“I see it as a benefit, I don’t mislead people… Every single one is happy and most are coming to see the show.”

The Ten Tenors, Canberra Theatre, 2pm and 7pm, Sunday, July 18, book here or 6275 2700.