Sylvia Fedrick (Photo courtesy of Sylvia Fedrick)

Sylvia Fedrick has spent years as a solo artist and is still working to reach to reach that next level.

The Chicago singer said she gets compliments on her singing ability, but because she doesn’t fit the mold of what producers and music companies want, she is on the outside looking in.

“When I was in my 30s, they said, ‘You can hold a note, but you’re old,’” Fedrick said. “They want 15- to 18-year-olds. They don’t want veterans. I’ve heard, ‘You should lose weight. You should get a weave.’ It’s all about image, not talent, but I am not going to give up.”

Fedrick will display her singing abilities as one of the featured artists in a gospel music concert at 12:15 p.m. Friday (Feb. 17) in the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium on the lower level of the Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State St., Chicago.

“Not too many people get invited to sing at the Harold Washington Library,” said Fedrick, who credits Sonja Perdue of the Black Business Network with making the connections that got her the gig.

Fedrick hopes the performance can springboard her to appearances at Taste of Chicago and Gospelfest.

Music and records have been part of Fedrick’s life ever since a little girl.

“I remember in Head Start, they had a reel-to-reel tape recorder and a mic,” Fredrick said. “My dad showed me how to hold the mic and recorded my nursery rhymes.”

She sang in choirs, and in the 1980s got work with a house rock band.

“We produced a single that was not Christian at all. It was a house tune, but it was vulgar,” Fedrick said. “It is not part of my repertoire now. People are like, ‘You were a freak and now you sing gospel?’”

A six-year marriage, in which her husband did not want her to perform, put her music career on hold. Once divorced, she got back into music with a Chicago church.

It was on a 1999 music ministry trip to Russia with that church where she got confirmation that music was meant to be a part of her life.

“I felt that God was speaking to me, saying ‘This is what you should be doing. This is what I want you to do,’”said the resident of Chicago’s Calumet Heights neighborhood.

Fedrick, who is a licensed insurance agent to pay the bills, is a cantor for Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph Parish, a Catholic church on Chicago’s Near North Side

“Just because you are black does not mean you need to sing in black churches,” Fedrick said. “If you are not a singer of traditional gospel, some people don’t feel you’re a singer.”

Fedrick, who used to sing the national anthem at DePaul University soccer and softball games, is looking to release her third CD later this year.

She is seeking sponsorships for the $20,000 needed to create a quality CD. Fedrick said being in a male-dominated industry leaves her feeling desperate at times, but falls back on her dad’s advice to her early in her music career. “You never have to have your clothes come off or be drugged” to get ahead in the business, he said.

“Women in this industry have it very tough,” Fedrick said. “Just because the industry is faith-based does not mean it is necessarily ethical. There are a lot of people who will try to pimp you and prostitute you.”

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— Chicago gospel artist says industry ‘all about image, not talent’ —