Noah Stewart

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.

Presenter0:34

My castaway this week is the singer Noah Stewart. These days he's a hit in opera houses around the world, and his solo C D has topped the classical charts yet for a long time, in spite of his top flight musical training, the closest he managed to get to the stage was as a receptionist at Carnegie Hall.

Presenter0:53

He also earned a buck waiting tables and doing voiceovers for Sesame Street. His rich, clear, tenor tones are matched by the sort of good looks that would make a Hollywood movie star jealous.

Presenter1:04

So, what is it that keeps him grounded? Most likely the single mother who brought him up in Haarlem.

Presenter1:10

He says for me it was hard to be there, because I just didn't see many successful black men around.

Presenter1:17

There were just not many of us who made it out. So you did very much make it out, Noah Stewart. But but you do go back. Harlem is still home.

Noah Stewart1:25

Oh yeah. Mom is still there. Yeah. It's my home. My most of my stuff is still there.

Presenter1:26

Yeah.

Presenter1:29

You don't have your own apartment, then?

Noah Stewart1:30

No. No, I I'm I'm on the road. The last I would say three years or so have just been nonstop from uh living out of a suitcase really.

Presenter1:38

Right. So when you go home, you sleep in the same room you did when you were in ground

Noah Stewart1:40

I do. And in fact, a couple of years ago I was laying in bed and my sister and I we had bunk beds.

Presenter1:48

Hmm.

Noah Stewart1:48

And it dawned on me that I was still sleeping in the bottom bunk.

Noah Stewart1:53

It's kind of embarrassing, but it's it's kind of sweet at the same time. I'm I'm still sleeping in the same bed that I grew up in.

Presenter1:59

And you've said um I don't mind being called an opera singer, but I'd rather be called a singer.

Noah Stewart2:04

Yeah.

Presenter2:04

Yeah.

Noah Stewart2:06

Because there are many different genres of music that influenced me to become a singer. There was especially playing in my household, there was jazz, there was gospel, rhythm and blues, certainly, and then classical music came later. But um I chose classical music because I didn't see many young people singing classical music, especially people of color.

Presenter2:25

How do you think you're seen by the opera world, the opera establishment? What do you think their view of you is?

Noah Stewart2:30

I think that they they view me as kind of an interesting choice. But I've always been viewed that way. I mean I mean the first time I told my mom I wanted to become an opera singer, she said, A what? An opera singer, that's for older people, that's not really for young person. But I was drawn personally uh to the theatrical side of it.

Presenter2:48

Why didn't you go into acting? Was it simply because you knew you had this magnificent instrument of a voice that you wanted to use?

Noah Stewart2:53

Oh, I didn't. At the time I was heavy. I was a bigger kid and I didn't want to be pigeonholed into the comedic roles, to be perfectly honest. So I thought I'd choose an easier choice to be an opera singer, which is not really an easier choice.

Presenter3:09

When you say when you say you were heavy, I mean, I look at you now, you it's almost like sort of staring into the sun. You're so sort of blindingly perfect to look at. Well, you are. I need to tell people that'cause it's radio.

Noah Stewart3:09

Okay.

Speaker 33:15

No, no, no. I need to tell people that.

Noah Stewart3:17

Yeah.

Presenter3:19

I mean, how heavy were you? You look you are perfectly proportioned and perfectly built.

Noah Stewart3:23

Thank you, thank you very much. Well, when I was at Juilliard.

Noah Stewart3:26

I was going through kind of a tough time, and I was a heavy kid, and then there was a new gym that they just built. And I started going to the gym, and unlike my vocal lessons, I saw progress relatively quickly, and I became obsessed. And I lost about four stone in about six months. And my whole world really changed. People saw me in a different way, and I saw myself in a different way, but I still am quite shy as a person. I still very much feel like that chubby boy.

Speaker 33:27

Uh

Noah Stewart4:01

who was uh really a bookworm and and who really didn't like very much attention.

Presenter4:06

Okay, Mr. Shy Guy, then we've forced you into choosing eight pieces of music today to to define yourself and define your life. So tell me about the first one then. What are we going to hear?

Noah Stewart4:15

Sure, the first selection is is Mr Paganini, sung by the great Ella Fitzgerald. Ella is is one of my favorite artists, and I feel like she was put on the earth to sing. There are very few people that make me feel the way that Ella does when she sings. She takes me to a different place.

Speaker 34:34

Oh, Mr. Baganini.

Speaker 34:40

Please play my rhapsody

Speaker 34:44

And if you cannot play it, won't you sing it?

Speaker 34:52

And if you can't sing it, you simply have to.

Speaker 35:06

Listen, Paganini, we breathlessly await.

Noah Stewart5:10

Wait.

Speaker 35:12

You're a masterful baton. Go on and swing it. And if you can't swing it, you'll simply have to be dead yada yada.

Presenter5:23

Use

Presenter5:32

That was Ella Fitzgerald and Mr. Paganini. So, this year you you completed your first solo tour around Britain. How did that go?

Noah Stewart5:39

Great, it was great, it was exciting, it was uh scary.

Noah Stewart5:46

But exciting. You know, one of my teachers always said he said, to sing tenor is like being in the circus. This d it's like doing a the high wire act and living off of the thrill that you're gonna make it. It's great.

Presenter5:59

The the critics trip over themselves to praise your performances. I'll give people a couple of quotes just to give them a taste. This man is capable of conquering anyone through sheer charisma alone. He is incandescent from the moment he steps on to the stage.

Presenter6:13

A lot of that, I guess, is about having the confidence to have stage presence, about occupying the stage. Where do you you know, as much as your vocal talents have been honed, where have you learned to occupy the stage and project your your presence on stage? Because that's a really difficult thing to do.

Noah Stewart6:30

Yeah, I think I it it kind of stems from my upbringing really. I would say, Ma, why did you name me Noah? and she said, Well, Noah was a great man. He was capable of great things and I always knew that I had a voice and I had something to say. It was something that I was taught.

Presenter6:51

And this idea there was a time in your life when you were you you did backing vocals for I saw a list, I don't know how Mariah Carey was on there. Who else was on the list?

Noah Stewart6:56

Yeah.

Noah Stewart7:00

Joe?

Presenter7:00

Cool.

Noah Stewart7:00

Yeah, they were big big pop stars. I mean the chance was there, but growing up, all my friends wanted to become pop singers.

Presenter7:08

Yeah, and w because you're of that generation, you're in your early thirties. So when you were a backing singer, didn't you ever think, I want to be the one up front on the concert stage and I want to be the the rock singer with everything that goes with that? It's very very seductive.

Noah Stewart7:11

So when

Noah Stewart7:20

I did. I did, but I didn't want to I didn't want to sing pop music. I remember that my first solo, in fact, I was singing Moon River at the World of Astoria, and it was, I think it was probably age, I want to say ten. And I remember feeling the light hit my face and the rush that I got in my body. And I didn't come in right at the start of the solo. In fact, the pianist had to play the intro a couple of times for me to come in, but I remember feeling the excitement of a live performance for the first time, and there was nothing like it. And although it was scary, I was drawn to it.

Presenter7:56

Is love

Noah Stewart7:56

I've

Presenter7:56

Performance on stage where you feel most at home.

Noah Stewart7:59

Yes. If I'm not performing, I'm not a happy person in a strange way. I'm most me because I feel like anything can happen. There's a certain energy that you feel when there are people in the room, and I throw energy into the audience, and they throw it back to me, and it is it's it's it's like a great tennis match.

Presenter8:20

Are you completely drained at the end of a performance? Do you have to almost literally go and lie down in a darkened room?

Noah Stewart8:25

It depends. If it's a concert, it's it's a high, really. I can't really go to bed after the concert. It takes me a couple of hours really to wind down. But I need to be surrounded by people.

Presenter8:36

Time for some more music, then, Noah. Next is what?

Noah Stewart8:39

Next is Aretha Franklin's Ain't No Way. Aretha started singing in the church, and that was really the first place where I really responded to music. My mom, she raised my sister and I both in the Baptist church, and she often tells the story that I had been more than one or two years old, and we went to the church one Sunday morning, and they played a fast upbeat song, and I would clap my hands and smile, and then the selection switched over to a more slow, solemn piece, and I immediately started to cry. And my mom would try to hush me because of the other visitors in the church. And the pastor said, No, no, let him cry. God is moving through him.

Speaker 39:28

Ain't no way.

Speaker 39:33

For me to love you

Speaker 39:39

If you want.

Speaker 39:54

For me to give you all you need

Speaker 310:00

If you won't let me give up

Speaker 310:12

Feel it.

Speaker 310:20

And that's the way it was a thing.

Presenter10:26

That was Aretha Franklin, and ain't no way. So, Noah Stewart, you were born in nineteen seventy eight in Harlem. Your mother had moved from New Orleans to New York in the sixties. What kind of woman was she and is she?

Noah Stewart10:38

She was and is one of the most driven women that I've ever met. She always tells the story that she left New Orleans on Friday, she arrived in New York on Saturday, she went looking for a job on Sunday and she started working on Monday. She just retired this year and she she worked for forty four years as a cashier at the food emporium.

Presenter10:54

Right.

Presenter11:00

And when she moved to New York, did she move there as a s a single mom? You already had a little sister? No, she she moved there by her

Noah Stewart11:07

herself because she just she had enough of the country.

Noah Stewart11:10

My whole family's from a little place called Napoleonville, Louisiana, which is in the middle of nowhere. And uh, she saw she saw New York City on the on the on the T on the T V and she wanted to move there. So it was a hundred

Presenter11:16

Okay.

Presenter11:22

Hundred and Forty Eighth Street in Harlem. Just paint me a picture of what life was like there growing up in the very early days. Yeah.

Noah Stewart11:28

It was like a family, really. I mean, Harlem was the first place where black people essentially made a community for themselves. But growing up in New York in the late 70s was also a dangerous place. It was coming out of a really dangerous time in terms of crack addiction. And I remember seeing vials of crack, empty vials, in different schoolyards. But my mom, she sheltered my sister and I really away from the negative pictures that were shown on TV. Because people always think, oh, Harlem was the most dangerous place. And it's.

Presenter11:36

Yeah.

Noah Stewart12:05

I think New York was dangerous, really.

Presenter12:07

So, how would she protect you?'Cause you know, kids want to go out and play in the street, they want to play in the schoolyard, yeah, you know.

Noah Stewart12:11

Yeah. Well, my my mom, because she was she worked forty plus hours a week, she enrolled me into school downtown near her job. In New York it's called zone schooling, where you require to go to school near your home. And my mom she saw the images of schools on on T V and we went to visit some of them and some some classrooms are in bathrooms. They didn't have books. It was overcrowding and not many teachers wanted to even to travel to these these neighborhoods. So she pulled some strings and she enrolled me in school downtown.

Presenter12:12

Well my

Presenter12:43

Now how did she pull the strings, though? I'm interested in that, because this was not a woman who was well socially placed. I mean, I I imagine she wasn't going for dinner round at the governor's any time soon.

Noah Stewart12:51

No, anytime you're going to go. No, my my mom, she always makes friends wherever she goes. She's like me, she's a very social person and people love talking to her, love being around her. And so she made many friends downtown and she used their address essentially. And that's how I was enrolled enrolled in those schools. And and I I stayed in schools downtown my whole life.

Presenter13:11

We should get your mum on this program, I think. Let's have some of your music. We're on your third disc of the morning. Noah, what are we going to hear?

Noah Stewart13:17

What are we gonna hear?

Presenter13:20

Why do you like that?

Noah Stewart13:21

Well, my mom's name is Patricia, and all of her friends call her Patty. And this song reminds me of Saturday mornings at my house. And each Saturday morning, we would wake up and we'd watch Soul Train, and we would put on the radio as loud as we could, and we would clean the house.

Noah Stewart13:42

When I hear this song, I just think of documenting the floor, cleaning the windows. It was a brilliant idea because my sister and I got sucked into it and uh fun for all.

Speaker 314:06

It's a kid I love to.

Speaker 314:10

Didn't it get

Speaker 314:14

Rosa Dumpalata!

Speaker 314:17

We are ready, Mama La.

Presenter14:23

That was Patty LaBelle and Lady Marmalade, and memories there for you now of Saturday morning cleaning with your mum. Where was your dad? Was he ever around?

Noah Stewart14:31

No. I never met my dad. My mom always tells the story that the day that she found out that she was pregnant with me was the day that he called and he said that he wasn't coming back.

Noah Stewart14:43

So it was the saddest but happiest day of her life, really.

Presenter14:47

W were the two related? Did he say I'm leaving because she was pregnant?

Noah Stewart14:50

No. In fact he said that he was leaving before she even told him. So theoretically he doesn't really know I exist.

Presenter14:56

Have you thought about tracing him, talking to him, finding out what he's like?

Noah Stewart15:01

I did. Then I thought about it. I thought, you know, if I I d I really never missed something I didn't ha really have. I mean, he brought so much pain to my mom and my sister and he was not the nicest person. That was kind of clear because my sister would say, when I would get angry, she would say, Well, you're making you making when I would kind of get like a pouty face, she would say, You're you like your dad and I don't want to reopen those chapters to bring that hurt back into their lives.

Presenter15:29

Let's have some more music. We're we're on your um fourth disc of the day. Noah, what is it, and why have you chosen it?

Noah Stewart15:35

Yes, uh the fourth disc is Lane Team Price singing Vicidarte from Tosca by Puccini. I went to Luguari High School, which is the first performing arts high school in the country.

Presenter15:46

That's the Glee School.

Noah Stewart15:47

Yeah, the Glee School. Would d dance on tables. Yeah. And

Presenter15:48

Go.

Noah Stewart15:51

I remember the first time I saw Lean Team Price was on a laser disc. It was Verdi's Requiem. And she was, I saw her on the cover. And I thought, wow, she's gorgeous. And then she started to sing, and my jaw dropped to the floor because the sheer beauty of her voice bowled me over. So I just would go to school early and just sit there and just watch and listen to as many classical CDs as possible. Did you?

Presenter16:20

Did your friends think you were weird?

Noah Stewart16:22

They did. They did. They didn't think I was weird, but th they knew that I was slightly different and they would call me Opera Boy and and kind of tease me because I just knew what I wanted to do. And

Noah Stewart16:35

Years later, I got to meet Lane Team Price at a Tower Records opening, and I said, Miss Price, you've inspired me to become an opera singer. Do you have any words for me? And she said, Well, you must go to Juilliard because I went there and I had an audition coming up the next couple of weeks, so she gave me some pointers. And the last thing she said was, Noah, don't forget to give him hell. And so I like to think that I did.

Presenter17:46

Leontine Bryce singing Visedarte from Puccini's Tosca, and you said during that, Noah Stewart, that you can't teach that. You were sort of nodding your head and saying, You can't teach that.

Noah Stewart17:52

So they're all day.

Noah Stewart17:54

No, that was a gift given to her. It's just unbelievable to me. I'm I'm kind of dumbfounded each time I hear her.

Presenter17:59

And so she told you to give him hell. At your audition for the Juilliard Conservatory in New York, very eminent, the most eminent in America place to learn about classical music and to be coached. You won a full scholarship, so you obviously did give him hell. Yeah, I did. But it didn't all go smoothly. You didn't love your time there.

Noah Stewart18:01

Yeah.

Noah Stewart18:12

Yeah, dude.

Noah Stewart18:16

No, I was so appreciative and so grateful to go because essentially that was my only way out of New York City. But I think that they tried to control me to a certain degree in terms of expression and the structure, the structure environment in which it's there. I think it just didn't work for me. Being a singer, it takes time. And I think because my voice perhaps was not developed at the age of 18 years old, that I wasn't one of the chosen ones, people just didn't assume that I would have a career.

Presenter18:52

Speaking very honestly, did they think that was about your voice, or did they think that was about your background?

Noah Stewart18:57

I don't know, I can't say I can't say, but what I can say is there are there are not many tenors singing romantic literature who looked like me.

Presenter19:05

Looking like you being black.

Noah Stewart19:06

Being black, absolutely. And I think because my voice sounded not traditional, it was hard for people to place me in traditional roles.

Presenter19:16

We're going to go to your next choice. It's not music this time. Tell us what you've chosen.

Noah Stewart19:20

Yes, this my next selection is uh Bill Cosby's from his stand-up routine. It's entitled Noah.

Presenter19:26

Why do you like this?

Noah Stewart19:27

The site

Noah Stewart19:28

It was the first time where I really liked my name. Growing up in Harlem there were not many Noahs, and I was almost embarrassed at my name, and this was really the first time that I was I was proud and was happy to be be called Noah because Noah was a great person.

Speaker 419:47

Vuba, vuba, vuba.

Speaker 419:51

Noah

Speaker 419:54

Who is that?

Speaker 419:56

It's the Lord.

Speaker 419:58

Noah

Speaker 420:05

Right.

Speaker 420:13

Where I

Speaker 420:17

What do you want? I've been good.

Speaker 420:25

I want you to build an ark.

Speaker 420:32

Right.

Speaker 420:36

What's an art?

Presenter20:40

That was Bill Cosby and Noah. And indeed, aside from him making you laugh, he also lent you an extraordinary helping hand, Bill Cosby, at one point in your very early career. Te tell me about that.

Noah Stewart20:53

Yes, it was it was my first year. I just finished my first year at Juilliard. And many of my friends and colleagues were talking about Aspen. You have to go nowhere you go to Aspen, are you going to Aspen? I thought, What's Aspen? They said, Well, you know, Aspen is the Juilliard of the Summer.

Presenter21:00

Yeah.

Noah Stewart21:07

I auditioned and I got in and running home. I said, Ma, you never guessed what happened. I got into Aspen and she said, Okay, well, you know, how much is it? And I said, They're giving me a small scholarship, but the tuition is X amount of dollars. And she said, Well, I don't think you can go. And she saw the look on my face because I was really disappointed. And she noticed that Bill Cosby was to appear at the Blue Note of a famous jazz club down in the village. And so she wrote a letter and she dropped this letter down at the club. And she saw the doorman and she said, Is Mr. Cosby there? And he said, No, he's not there. And she said, Will you please do me a huge favor and give this to him? And a couple of weeks, not a month later, we received an envelope, and inside the envelope was a check. And that check enabled me to go to the Aspen Festival of Music. And it was the summer of my life. The space that I didn't find at Juilliard, I found at Aspen to really explore who I was as a person and also as a musician.

Presenter22:12

Have you ever had the chance to say personally thank one to one thank you for that to Paul Cosby? No.

Noah Stewart22:16

No, no. And I've I've written to his publicists. But w we we did send letters. We did send letters and we did send photographs of of my time in Aspen. And I would love to pay him back to say thank you.

Presenter22:29

So when you graduated, you left Juilliard, the the musical world did not open up and open its arms to you? What happened? You so you managed to work with unconventional companies, but but n none of the bigger companies, is that right?

Noah Stewart22:42

No, and it was in the beginning there was a little burst of buzz once I left Juilliard. People thought, wow, this is such a unique voice. And I started winning competitions. And then things started to dry up in terms of the success. And they said, well, yeah, I think you need more time. You're too young to sing leading roles. And I told my mom I would take a year off to study. And that year became three years. And I got a job as a carpenter's assistant. Talk about being called Noah. I worked at the Met gift shop selling CDs because I had a huge knowledge of classical music. I worked at Carnegie Hall as a receptionist because I just had this weird fantasy that perhaps someone would hear me humming or singing and see my credentials and say, wow, this guy really has talent to have gone to Juilliard. I also worked at restaurants. I worked as a cater waiter. I mean, I had many odd jobs.

Presenter23:37

We've got to fit the music in. So much more to hear about, and we will in just a moment, but for now, let's have your sixth choice of the morning. What's it going to be?

Noah Stewart23:44

Sure, the sixth choice is Lamento di Federico, or Federico's Lament by Chilea from the opera La Lesiana and the soloist is Meño Mino Gilli.

Speaker 324:18

No potato flat.

Speaker 324:36

Mm-hmm.

Presenter24:46

Bigna Mino Gili singing La Mento di Frederico from La Leisana by Francesco Ciglia. That was recorded in nineteen thirty six. So, Noah Stroke, we've heard about the hard times. Tell us about the good times. When did you get your big break?

Noah Stewart24:59

My big break came when I was an Adlerfellow, which was a young artist at the San Francisco Opera, and I was understudying the role of Verdi's McDuff, but I was also singing a small role of Malcolm.

Noah Stewart25:12

One of the performances, the lead tenor, got sick. And I got a knock on my door from the musical director asking me, No, are you prepared to go on and finish the opera? Not as Malcolm, but as Macduff. And I said, Yes. I didn't really have too much time to really think about anything. I just said yes. And they switched the shawls because we were matching in outfits, but we just are different tarts and different tarts. Yeah, and they made an announcement, and I went on and.

Speaker 325:24

Hmm.

Noah Stewart25:41

I I just remember walking on stage and the chorus they said, Noah, don't worry, we'll be with you and the conductor saying, Noah, I'll I'll follow you and I remember the singing and and finishing the aria and and hearing a huge ovation from the crowd. And

Noah Stewart25:57

I was thrilled. It was my big break because I felt like I proved to everyone that I belong here. This stage is mine.

Presenter26:06

And after that night, then, did the offers come flooding in? Were you suddenly recognized?

Noah Stewart26:10

Yeah. I got a couple of offers and my my career started, but but it wasn't it it didn't happen right away. I had one audition suit still. And I remember after an audition reaching in my pocket and pulling out my my my tickets that I would write uh different orders on.

Presenter26:28

From being a caterwaiter.

Noah Stewart26:28

From from being a caterwaiter.

Presenter26:30

You have played some very big romantic uh roles now, notably Romeo, you've played Alice.

Noah Stewart26:35

Yeah.

Presenter26:36

How is your romantic life offstage? You know, you go onstage and you emote in these grand pieces and we see you bearing your soul. Do do you have time for a real romantic life?

Noah Stewart26:42

Yeah.

Noah Stewart26:44

No, this sadly, no. But I I I I tell myself, these are these are the years if I just push myself these next five, maybe seven years or but I'm but I'm open I'm open to it, but it's really difficult to to maintain anything when when I'm I'm I'm flying to different countries. But I but I know it will come. I know it will come at the right time.

Presenter26:44

Yeah.

Presenter27:04

Who deals with all your fan mail?

Noah Stewart27:07

At the moment I do. I do what my manager does. I mean, every every every opera house I go to, there's a kind of a stack of there's a stack of mail there. How high is the stack of mail? It's not too high, but but but it's there but it but s more oftentimes than not, uh they're gifts, which I love. And I love peanut butter and I love crisps. So usually those are the things that are kind of they greet me at the door, which don't do any good to my waistline, but they make me smile and I and I love them no less.

Presenter27:35

But as we know, because you told me way back at the start of this, that you lost four stones, so how do and you don't have time, presumably now, to be going to the gym five, six times a week. How do you stay in tremendous shape?

Noah Stewart27:45

I run. I run. I started running about three years ago when I went to South Africa. I was doing Carmen there. I was singing the role of Jose. It's free, and I can clear my mind, and it's a great way to stay in shape.

Presenter27:53

Yeah.

Noah Stewart27:56

And it's

Presenter27:56

Or

Noah Stewart27:57

Kim

Presenter27:57

Right, let's

Noah Stewart27:57

But let's

Presenter27:58

Let's have disc seven then. What are we gonna hear?

Noah Stewart28:01

Disc 7 is The Thrill Is Gone by B.B. King. Every so often, my mom would take my sister and I to New Orleans, Louisiana, on the bus, and we would see my family. And jazz and blues was always playing in my Uncle Sonny's house, and it brings back a lot of fond memories of being home with my family.

Speaker 328:23

Really stone.

Speaker 328:27

The thrill is gone away.

Speaker 328:34

The three of us go!

Speaker 328:38

Freedom is gone away.

Speaker 328:44

You know you've done me wrong.

Speaker 328:48

And you'll be sorry some day.

Presenter28:53

That was B B King, and the thrill is gone. So, Noah Stewart, to go from working reception at Carnegie Hall to stepping on to the stage to sing at Carnegie Hall there can't be many people on earth who've made that journey. What did it feel like the first night?

Noah Stewart29:06

It felt odd. But it felt I was I felt so proud. I mean, my chest felt like a mile wide. It was Mozart's Requiem, and I sang out as as much as I could without upstaging the the soloists.

Noah Stewart29:20

But I felt

Noah Stewart29:22

As if

Noah Stewart29:24

you know, a couple of stories above the hall, I was working. I was answering phones. I mean, every performance I have, I'm so grateful because I know what it's like to serve people food, to show people watches, to I know what it's like on the other side of it.

Presenter29:39

Do you think, in a way, some of it for you, as well as all the work you've put in and all the work your mother put in, you know, helping you to realize your dreams, is.

Presenter29:47

In the end it comes down significantly to a matter of timing, you know, the that that audiences are ready for you now. You know, there is America with its first black president, and here is a man who can step on who happens to be black and who is as capable as any other great singer on earth might be.

Noah Stewart29:53

Absolutely.

Noah Stewart30:03

Absolutely. I'm not one of those people who lives in the past and says, you know, I could have been doing this role five years ago. I think I always had a good voice, but it's all about timing coordination.

Presenter30:13

And your mother who said to you when you said I I want to be an opera singer, she said you want a what?

Noah Stewart30:17

Yeah.

Presenter30:17

Does she come and watch you?

Noah Stewart30:19

She does. She came to see see me on tour here in London and she loved she loved every bit of it and it's almost as if she's not surprised. I would always ask her, when I was not successful, I would say, Ma, Do you think I'm I'm gonna be famous one day? and she would say, You're already famous and i i i it was those you know those talks at night that really gave me the courage and the strength to be better and to and to keep trying.

Presenter30:50

What do you think it was that gave your mother the strength and the courage to be better and keep trying?

Presenter30:55

Yeah.

Noah Stewart30:55

I think she comes from that generation where where you want better for your children. Because my mom did not have an easy life. She was one of seven children. They grew up very poor. I think she had maybe one dress. And so when things didn't work out well in terms of my dad and her, she she kind of felt a responsibility, I think, to provide.

Noah Stewart31:20

More for me, so I would have an easier time, really. And that's why she never complained, she never said no. Even still to this day, she's always like, Do you need anything? She's all mom is always there. Um, sometimes too much. But, um, I thank God for her because without her, I know I wouldn't be here.

Presenter31:41

Now the horror of this programme, you might have been having a nice time up until now, Noah, is that I'm about to cast you away to desert islands where you will be all alone. How are you going to co d are you good with your own company?

Noah Stewart31:47

Where you will

Noah Stewart31:53

The last three years I've been on my own mostly, so I've gotten used to it.

Presenter31:57

And are you a practical person? Could you fish? Could you build a shelter? Could you?

Noah Stewart32:01

Yeah, I can do I'll find a way.

Presenter32:03

Okay, glad to hear that.

Presenter32:05

That's happened.

Noah Stewart32:05

That's how it's

Noah Stewart32:06

Yeah.

Presenter32:07

Yeah, always the ark, of course. And you are a carpenter, as we know.

Noah Stewart32:08

And you are a carpenter, as we know.

Presenter32:10

Maybe unlikely. Um, your final piece of the day. What are we going to listen to?

Noah Stewart32:14

My final piece is Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cindy Lauper. And I chose this song because it reminds me of my sister Belinda, who I call BB. She would wear these kind of long tube dresses. We'd leave the house, she would go to work, I would go to school, and when my mom wasn't, my mom would kind of leave, there would become these short mini skirts.

Presenter32:36

Oh,'cause she could pull the room.

Noah Stewart32:37

Yeah, she can she can pull them up and um she had a way with with you know makeup and hair and it was almost like she was a celebrity. She would often mimic the styles of Cindy Lauper and Madonna and I would guess if anyone would be the singer it would be her because she was the kind of creative crazy one. But um who knew that I would I would be stuck with a with a mic in my hand.

Speaker 333:06

My mother says when you gonna live your life out

Speaker 333:11

Oh my winner, the fortunate one!

Speaker 333:15

Oh, they wanna have

Presenter33:29

That was Cindy Lauper and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and that was for your sister Bebe. Noah. I'm going to give you the books now. We give everybody the complete works of Shakespeare and the Bible, and you get to take another book in addition. What would you like to take?

Noah Stewart33:42

Yeah.

Noah Stewart33:42

I would take the joy of cooking.

Presenter33:44

Ah.

Noah Stewart33:45

Because I have a lot of favorite books, but I thought if I I can't just keep re rereading them over and I think I would get bored. But one of one of the hobbies that I have that developed being on the road is cooking. Each day or I would probably go through different options of of what I would love to eat and uh I'd love to take the toy of cooking with me.

Presenter34:02

Okay, that's yours. And we allow you a luxury as well, to make life just a little bit nicer on the island. What will your luxury be?

Noah Stewart34:09

A four kitchen.

Noah Stewart34:11

A full kitchen I was thinking about this. I would like a full kitchen, but I would need a plastic or glass shell around it, just in case um the waves come and and kind of crash against the

Presenter34:20

Now, I have to tell you, you are straying into territory where I'm almost, I don't think I can allow you that luxury. It's just too practical. The kitchen?

Noah Stewart34:23

Yeah.

Presenter34:28

It is really.

Presenter34:31

I don't know, is it?

Presenter34:33

A spa? Yes, you can have a spa.

Noah Stewart34:35

Okay, I'll do a spa I'll I'll the spa.

Presenter34:37

No therapists, but all the kids. Okay, you have to self uh treat. Okay, okay, that sounds great. Okay, that is yours. And if you had to save just one disc from the waves, which one would you save? It would be.

Noah Stewart34:39

Okay.

Noah Stewart34:49

Uh Vicidape, from Tosca, Leanching Price Singing.

Presenter34:52

Okay, as here as Noah Stewart, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discs.

Noah Stewart34:56

Thank you.

Presenter35:33

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website: bbc.co.uk slash radio four.