Chasing the Dream

By Crystal Schelle

One day before Gabby Tennor was barely ​​old enough for school, she was with her family listening to music.  

“When I started to sing, my mom was like, ‘Wow, you’re really good,’” says Gabby, now 10 years old. 

Recognizing that their daughter had talent, they found an agent and discussed getting her into acting. But Gabby’s mother, Barbara, says the agent also liked her voice and started looking for singing opportunities as well. Like most trying to break into such a competitive field, Gabby had to learn to deal with rejection. But she hung in and late last year got an opportunity most performers only dream about.  

Barbara says Gabby’s agent reached out to them about a role with the​ Metropolitan Opera. 

“I did not know anything about the Met Opera,” Barbara says. “I don’t know how big it is. I just said OK, and then here we are.” 

Gabby was cast as a young Jesus in the “El Niño​​” production at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the world’s biggest opera house. The show, which ran from April 23 through May 17, tells the story of the Nativity, along with reflections on the wonders and tribulations of motherhood itself. 

Barbara and her husband, Robert, say they don’t push their children into activities they don’t want to do and will often check-in with them to make sure they’re having fun and still enjoying it.  

“So, I said, ‘Let’s try it out, and see if you love it,’” Barbara says. 

Just auditioning for the role was difficult and expensive. It required staying a week in a hotel in New York City and paying for the other necessities during that time. Because Barbara is self-employed, she had to arrange for help with her business. But, in the end, she says, it was worth it. 

“They picked her out, and she loved it,” she says. 

Although Gabby’s part required more acting than singing, she enrolled in voice lessons. Auditions were in December 2023, and in February, Gabby was notified that she was selected for the cast. She says she wasn’t even sure what part she was playing, especially after a second costume fitting when she was put in different outfits.  

“Then I went back for my first rehearsal, and I realized that I was playing Jesus, which was great,” she says.  

Then came the juggling of schoolwork and rehearsals with a nearly 500-mile roundtrip drive.  

“She is so strong,” Barbara says. “I’d pick her up from school at about 1:30. We’d get something to eat, and then we’d drive to New York. We’d get to New York between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. So that’s a five- or six-hour drive. Then she gets on stage and gets dressed, and her show starts at 7 and goes on until 11. And then she has to do homework on the way. So, for me, she has graduated from being my little baby girl that I baby so much to, wow, this girl is stronger than I thought.” 

When she got on the Met Opera stage as Jesus, Gabby didn’t have to do a lot of the singing. It was more of an acting role. 

“I wasn’t nervous or anything,” Gabby says of performing on one of the world’s great opera stages. “It just felt normal to me.” 

She says it was worth doing homework in the car while her mom drove and taking naps when she could.  

“One time I had to go to rehearsals for five days straight,” Gabby says. “Then we got back, and they called me back for Friday. We didn’t go, and they called us for another rehearsal Monday. They can call you for a rehearsal at any time.” 

By opening night, Gabby’s extensive rehearsals had prepared her well. 

“It felt great to be on the stage in front of that many people, but I wasn’t nervous at all. When I got up there, I just felt like I was doing what God called me to do.” 

She has continued to audition for jobs, some of which she didn’t want because they were right after the opera performances and would have required more travel. At each step, Barbara says she and Robert make sure the jobs she is auditioning for are age-appropriate. 

“I love traveling because I got to miss school, but it was a lot for my mom because of all the driving. I love sleeping in the back of the car,” Gabby says.  

Barbara says she was “very blessed” because she was able to arrange her time around her home health business, GMG Health Care.  

As for what her future holds, Gabby says she prefers singing over acting. 

“With acting, I know I’m not going to do it for very long because acting isn’t what I actually want to do,” she says. “I’m thinking of stopping acting for now. But singing I could do forever. I could always sing to myself or sing in front of other people or sing at church, which is the best part about singing.” 

This fall though she’ll be focusing on being a fifth-grader at Grace Academy. Mom says she has some projects, including some voiceover acting, but she can’t talk about them yet. 

The phrase “learning experience” can be tossed around when participating in show business for the first time, but in this case, Gabby’s time was truly educational. 

“I learned a lot of new Spanish words. And I’ve also learned how to sing opera, which was great. And I’ve also learned how to open up to people a little bit easier because almost all the kids I was performing with were so outgoing. They weren’t shy at all.” 

An Extraordinary Journey 

For Gabby to have such an opportunity required an extraordinary journey on the part of her parents. Barbara and Robert each grew up in Ghana, a West African country of about 34 million, but it wouldn’t be until they were adults that they found each other on the other side of the world, where each was pursuing the American dream on their own. 

Barbara, 40, and her family emigrated to the U.S. when she was 12, while Robert, 47, came over roughly 19 years ago. And yet, somehow, decades later and 6,100 miles from their native country, the young couple met, fell in love, and were married 11 years ago.  

One of their shared aspirations was that they wanted the quintessential American dream, especially knowing their families sacrificed so much to get to the U.S. 

Through hard work and determination, they have accomplished that. They live in a beautiful home in a quiet subdivision near a good school for their daughters, Gabrielle, 10, and Gia, 5. Barbara owns her own healthcare company, and Robert works as ​an engineer for Comcast.  

Barbara says life could be challenging in Ghana. 

“There are times when you have to walk miles to get something to eat; or walk from school when your uncle forgets to pick you up. So (my daughters) have a very easy life. We tried to let them know that we worked hard to get here. So, you see this big house? It’s not because your parents are rich, right? It’s because your parents are hard workers.” 

Now the couple is instilling the things they learned growing up in Ghana in their daughters—a strong work ethic, faith, and humility—as they help the girls pursue their own dreams as well. 

The couple want their girls to know that life isn’t all roses and opera; things don’t come easy. 

“I feel like my parents sacrificed so much to come here just so we can have a better life,” Barbara said.  

Robert agreed, “I think there is a cultural difference in how kids are raised here compared to back home.” 

Religion plays a big part in the Tennor household. Barbara says they are a faithful family and attend Covenant Family Church in Frederick, where Gabby sings in the choir.  

Their belief in God comes from the way they were raised in Ghana and the things they were taught. “Respect, respecting elders, accountability, chores,” Barbara says. “Of course, religion, to each his own as to how other parents do it. Love. Family time. And just be you because you’re always going to be African. It doesn’t matter if you’re born here or not, know your roots and know that someone sacrificed for you to be here.” 

Robert was in his 20s when he made the trip to the United States. “They have this thing called the American lottery, and that visa is written.” He won a visa, and after a couple of years, he says, he could apply for citizenship. 

Both Barbara and Robert have passed the citizenship test to become Americans. 

“I worked hard for that,” Barbara says. She became a citizen before she and Robert even met.  

Robert had been in the country for 11 years before she encouraged him to take the test. She says because she had already been through it, she was able to help him study and go through the six months of preparing. The American citizenship test is notoriously hard, but Robert says with the sample questions he was supplied and studying, he was able to pass in 2012.  

“I think if you’re well prepared, you know, you can always get that (test),” he says. 

Robert recalls the day he took the oath as a citizen as “exciting.” 

“But when I finally went in that day to take the oath, that’s when I really thought about it. Because in the process, you know, it’s like, you’re denouncing where you came from,” he says, noting Ghana does not allow for dual citizenship. “So now I was standing there thinking about the stuff that he was saying. I’m like, ‘You know, you come from somewhere, and then now you’re gonna be somebody else…that was a tough process:” 

Barbara, too, called becoming a citizen an “exciting process.” 

“For any immigrant that comes in it is such an honor,” she says. “To stand up there and say ‘Finally, whatever I came here for, I got.’ And there are so many opportunities out there for scholarships…so there’s more opportunities in becoming an American citizen, as opposed to having just a green card.” 

Just like the previous generation’s sacrifices, Barbara and Robert hope their sacrifices and work on bettering themselves will impact their girls’ future. 

Robert says he wants them “to grow to be very responsible adults and like we say, Great, respectful. You know, grow up to be what they want to be and ​be ​humble; just enjoy life.” 

Barbara echoes her husband’s wishes. 

“My hope is for them to follow their heart and their gifts,” she says. “So, I’m praying that while they do this in a way, they’re paying for their college, so they know they had to work hard for it. We’re just praying that whatever it is God will use them.”