Ormond Beach teen 'just thinks in song'
DEBORAH CIRCELLI
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
STAFF WRITER
 News-Journal/ JUSTIN YURKANIN Sheldon Hawthorne, 13, works with her voice coach, Jo Traywick, at Traywick’s home in Ormond Beach. Hawthorne will perform at a concert during Speed Weeks, and is already an accomplished singer-songwriter. |
 Hawthorne family
Sheldon Hawthorne sings at a recent Orlando Magic game. |
ORMOND BEACH — Sheldon Hawthorne sat mesmerized in front of the television as Audrey Hepburn sang in “My Fair Lady.”
When the movie ended, her mom recalls her daughter getting up and singing the songs verbatim — she was only 2.
At her 4th birthday party, which had a theme based on Madonna’s movie “Evita,” she sang “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.”
Visits to restaurants were entertaining for Jamie and Dr. Ken Hawthorne, an Ormond Beach orthopedic surgeon, as their firstborn would ask waitresses if they wanted to hear her sing.
“It was almost to the point where it was embarrassing, yet it was so darn cute,” her mom said.
Now at 13, the Ormond Beach Middle School eighth-grader has her own CD and last November sang to more than 15,000 people at an Orlando Magic basketball game.
Tuesday, Sheldon will perform at the Ford Race and Rock Fest along Beach Street in Daytona Beach, along with performers such as Eddie Money. She’ll sing from her CD “I Need to Hear It,” which she finished last year with help from former Backstreet Boys guitarist Billy Chapin.
Yet the straight-A student still says modestly, “It was so much more impressive when I was 11 and could say that I sang the opera in three languages.”
She now sings in four languages and is learning French.
For Sheldon, singing, playing the piano and writing songs is her way to express emotions and has always been “the backdrop of my life.” She wrote several songs for her CD. Inspirations for lyrics come from family, friends and experiences such as transitioning from elementary to middle school in “What’s Happening to Me.”
She said she’s never experienced stage fright. She finds performing exhilarating. “It’s what I live for.”
Her mom said the bigger the venue the better, adding “she just lets loose” with her booming voice.
But Sheldon is quick to point out that music doesn’t define who she is. In her bedroom in Ormond Beach, the National Junior Honor Society student has trophies for her grades, surfing, soccer and tennis.
“I always put academics first. It’s a big part of who I am,” Sheldon said.
A veteran of several plays, she was in her first production at age 6 for Seaside Music Theater after auditioning a song from “Phantom of the Opera.” Her father said he’s most proud of her being an excellent student, and he expects she’ll succeed at whatever she decides to do.
Songwriter and producer Billy Chapin, who runs CC Sound Recording Studio in New Smyrna Beach, was leery about taking on Sheldon after deciding he was done with the pop scene. But after listening to her in person, he changed his mind.
“She really is an amazing talent,” he said of her singing, writing and acting. “She has all the qualities to be able to succeed in the business.”
Her parents remember early on Sheldon carrying a microphone and karaoke machine throughout the house instead of a doll like her younger sister.
At 3, Sheldon sat on her private music teacher’s doorstep, singing “in her sweet little voice” a song she’d written herself, teacher Jo Traywick said.
Years later, she started going to Matt McKeown’s Sound Mind Studios in Holly Hill. One day, she asked McKeown to turn off his headphones when she sang Christina Aguilera’s “Come on Over Baby,” because the words were a bit risque for a 9-year-old. He decided to write a pop song more appropriate about girls and friends titled, “It’s a Girl Thing” with Sheldon adding some of her own words.
“She’s so driven,” said McKeown, referring to her learning to compose her own notes on sheet music. “She knows exactly what she wants to do. She knows she’s talented, but she’s not cocky.”
Ormond Beach Middle School principal Carl Persis, who also was Sheldon’s elementary principal, had her sing in the third grade to an Ocean Center crowd of educators and then at school events ever since. Assistant principal Edgar Scott said, “She doesn’t seek the accolades of a champion. She does it for the spirit of it.”
At a recent Hospice fundraiser, she played the piano and sang “A Song for K,” which she wrote about a different kind of hero, like the love and friendship of her sister, Kendall, 11, who the song is dedicated to.
Kendall, who Sheldon is sure to point out has trophies for gymnastics, and their 8-year-old brother, Dane, who has awards for karate, thinks it’s “pretty cool” to have a special song in her name. Sheldon has performed it for breast cancer survivors and a church full of women on Mother’s Day.
“I love making other people happy with my music,” Sheldon said. “To be able to write a song that is so inspiring and touching as a present, is so amazing.”
On a recent afternoon, she plopped down her school bags and walked through the kitchen singing a Faith Hill song. Favorite artists vary from Elton John to Mariah Carey. Sitting at the computer, she started singing into the monitor. With a few clicks of the mouse, she developed a song adding guitar and drums.
“I have tons of songs and chords in my head,” she said.
Like only a little brother can, Dane later imitated his sister’s voice while walking to his room. He says listening to her “every single day, over and over” can get annoying.
Her mom added, “she just thinks in song.”
While Sheldon’s dream is to become a singer/songwriter/actress or basically a “Big Star” as a song on her CD indicates, her immediate goals are getting into the International Baccalaureate program at Spruce Creek High School, performing in high school musicals and singing in the school’s jazz band.
And she adds, “Even if I become a journalist or an investment banker or an orthopedic surgeon, I’ll always have music and songwriting in my life.”
On Stage
Sheldon Hawthorne, 13, will perform songs from her CD, “I Need To Hear It,” from 3:45 to 4 p.m. Tuesday at the Ford Race and Rock Fest along Beach Street in downtown Daytona Beach. For more information on Race and Rock Fest performances, go to www.racerockfest.com. For info on Hawthorne’s music, go to www.sheldonhawthorne.com.