Meet Alex Cheng, pictured in the photo above, and learn about his amazing story from rediscovering his love of vocal performance, recovering from vocal injury, and finding the courage to pursue his dream of being an artist through HVS Conservatory. Below is a transcript of his interview answers.
What first inspired you to pursue vocal performance?
Growing up, I always loved singing.
It was one of the first things that I remember just doing because I loved it. I would go around the house singing Lion King, or whatever other song was running through my head, and I didn’t really think about it. You know, as a lot of kids do, we just run around singing and screaming and just being expressive. But as I got older, my love for singing kind of fell to the wayside a little bit. I started to think of myself more as a student and as an athlete. I didn’t think that being a singer was something that could actually be successful at so I just didn’t pursue it. I thought, you know what, let me invest in things that I can really, you know, maybe make a living at.
That led me to going to Cal Poly San Louis Obispo where I majored in aerospace engineering, and man, I was so unhappy doing aerospace engineering. I could just tell in my heart that I wasn’t on the path that was true to myself. So I ended up dropping out in my third year. It was a very big decision. A lot of people questioned me, including my family, but they were supportive in the end. When I dropped out, that was in 2020, and that’s also the time that COVID happened. While we were all locked away in quarantine, I had some time to self-reflect and think, “What do I really, truly want to do with my life?” I thought back, “What did I enjoy when I was a little kid? Singing.”
I started taking online vocal lessons from various teachers that I found on the internet.
At the time I was also coaching volleyball—that was another one of my passions, and coaching volleyball took me to Los Angeles where I would be screaming and coaching kids in a very loud gym all throughout the day, but still trying to improve my singing at night. I would be getting hoarse throughout the day and then pushing my voice, thrashing my voice so hard at night, just trying to get better and all of that led me to hemorrhaging my vocal cords which was a very painful experience.
I wasn’t allowed to speak for two weeks.
I thought I was going to have to get surgery, and I still went to work. I still coached kids and used body language, facial expressions, and Google Voice translator to try and coach as best as I could—which taught me a lot about how being a good communicator isn’t just in the voice. It’s everything else that you do. It’s your vibe, it’s your presence—that’s a different point, but when I hemorrhaged my voice I thought to myself, “Okay, if I want to be a great singer, I just need to find the best vocal coach that I can possibly find.”
How did you end up choosing HVS Conservatory?
A little Google search led me to Adreana Gonzalez, the founder of Hollywood Vocal Studios Conservatory. When I first started taking lessons with her, I remember she was just working on rehabbing my voice back from injury, but at the time she also was promoting and starting the conservatory. I remember walking into her studio in Santa Monica and seeing this beautiful flyer for the conservatory.
Songwriting, performance, wellness, branding—all these amazing things on the flyer and just thinking to myself, “Wow, I wish that I could do something like that, but nah I probably can’t that’s not me”—that was just the doubting voice in my head right, but I asked her, I said, “Hey, I’m interested in this,” and she just looked at me with such conviction and clarity, and she just told me, “You know if this is something that you want to do, just apply. Just do it.”
And that’s exactly what I did, and now two years down the road looking back at that moment, I am so thankful to her for giving me some of that confidence and for really encouraging me on my dream. That’s what I would say for anyone [reading] this is. If you’re interested in the conservatory or if you’re interested in being a singer, performer, or artist, you can absolutely do that. You just got to take one step at a time and really believe in yourself.
How has your vocal technique evolved since joining the program, and what aspects of your voice have you seen the most improvement in?
Just the attitude and the mentality towards my instrument has been the thing that has changed the most from having vocal lessons week after week after week. I would notice that some things in my technique were getting better. For example, my placement—placing the sound just right, staying free, not letting the extrinsic muscles get involved and connecting the vocal cords. That would be getting better week by week, but my mindset towards my voice was not one of love.
It was always a striving process. It was always, “I don’t like my voice now, so I need my voice to become something else,” and I will say this is the greatest lesson that I’ve learned from my time at the conservatory is that the attitude and the relationship with your voice is the most important thing. It doesn’t matter how good you sound—if you don’t believe that you’re sounding good, it’s not going to make a difference.
It's all happening—what's in your mind, what's in your heart, how are you connecting on a soul level, on an emotional level—to the way that you're singing.
So yes, my technique has evolved very much so, but I think the greatest lesson that I’ve learned is just to take care of the voice, love the voice, allow your voice time to rest, allow your voice time to recover. It’s a very strong instrument, but it can also be a fragile instrument. It takes a very fine balance of lifestyle habits, of managing stress levels, of getting enough sleep. It takes a lot of dedication and so I will say that that is the biggest thing that I learned about vocal techniques since I’ve been at HVSC.
At HVS Conservatory, you can develop the necessary tools to succeed in the music industry. Based in Los Angeles, our faculty of music industry expert and mentors help to coach aspiring artists by passing on real-world training from their personal experiences alongside necessary musical training, including courses in songwriting and performance. Check out our schedule of masterclasses and free community events, including acoustic sessions, seasonal open house events, and artist showcases.