Every morning he wakes up looking up a verse for the day. Before every performance he prays and asks, “Jesus, meet me at the mic.” This is 10-year-old Julian Silva, Broadway’s Gavroche in Les Misérables‘ 2013 U.S. and Canada tour, with his first performance at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota, Fla., on Tuesday.
Julian began singing at age 3 and truly surprised his parents when he was imitating the opera quartet Il Divo at age 5. Two years later his parents enrolled him in voice lessons. Maria Silva, his mother, said about herself and her husband, “Neither one of us sings … so it’s a pure gift. … We got him singing lessons to find his own voice.”
Julian performed in local theater musicals, played in several productions and won Novemberfest Idol after four days of competing against contestants as old as 65. He played JoJo in Seussical the Musical at the Straz Center in Tampa, Fla., where one of the directors encouraged Julian to try out Broadway.
“So off we went to Broadway where Julian auditioned for Mary Poppins. Although he did not get the part, he got the attention of the casting director, who requested he audition for Les Mis,” stated Daniel Silva, Julian’s father.
In January, Julian was an acting finalist and the Overall Child Singer winner at the Actors, Models and Talent for Christ’s SHINE Convention, where he belted out “The Circle of Life” that wowed agents for 18 callbacks.
Daniel Silva said, “A few weeks after SHINE we received a call that they were casting Julian as Gavroche in the Broadway tour for Les Mis. This was all God’s timing because Julian matured and learned so much during SHINE.”
Julian says about his faith in God, “I am truly honored to be chosen and sent to GO and be the light [of] Christ.”
With such passion for singing, acting and being an ambassador for Christ, he will surely impress the audience during the tour when he sings “Do You Hear the People Sing?” and “Look Down,” two Gavroche songs in the popular 19th-century story.
With fatherly pride, Daniel Silva said, “He is having such great time and has been doing his best to share the gospel with his fellow cast members.”
