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H. STEVEN SIMS
HE IS: The man keeping some of your favorite singers stage-ready. As director of the Chicago Institute for Voice Care, Sims, 43, is one of the laryngologists who Jennifer Hudson, the theater cast of The Color Purple, and many other performers with vocal problems turn to.
WHY MUSICIANS TRUST HIM: Because he’s one of them. Sims started singing in church at 5, was playing the piano at 8, and learned the trombone at 10 and the bassoon at 14. “I’m from a musical family,” he says. “My uncle [used to have a band] and my brother played saxophone. Family reunions were like concerts.”
HIS INSPIRATION: Sims was a high school student who split his free time between singing and volunteering at the local emergency room when he heard that Eurythmics’ Annie Lennox had undergone vocal cord surgery. “I thought, There are physicians who work on vocal cords?” he recalls. “I didn’t realize I could combine both worlds.”
THE RIGHT FIT: The Yale alum writes ballads and is working on an inspirational jazz album. But he doesn’t want to trade places with his famous patients. “I see what the industry can do to people,” Sims says. “I enjoy music, but when you make a living at it, things can become skewed.”
—Nicole Saunders
Photography by Tim Klein
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