Hi Cindy,
I am a 26-year-old singer who has just completed her master’s degree. My husband and I got pregnant unexpectedly, and we don’t want our kids to be too far apart, so I will probably not be able to start my career until after the “magical” age of 30. By that time, I will be too old to start with YAPs, as I was planning on doing. I will still be taking voice lessons and continuing my language and other studies during that time, and short summer programs may be an option during the hiatus, but what options or avenues can you suggest when I am ready and able to jump back into the professional world as a serious opera singer?
Any thoughts you have on the subject would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
—Great Expectations
Dear Great,
Congratulations on your wonderful news. A lot of women choose to have their children close together these days, so you’re in good company!
Life happens. People have kids, spouses get jobs in remote cities, and relatives become ill and need care. Any number of things prevents singers from starting careers, or interrupts careers in progress. Sometimes, these people are successful in getting their singing careers started up again—but there’s no question that a big break makes it much, much more difficult. How you use your time during that break can make a big difference in how easy it is to get started again.
That said, allow me to correct a misperception: 30 isn’t “dirty,” and apprenticeships aren’t out of the question after that age. A number of Young Artist Programs accept singers over 30. Often it’s the bigger programs, such as San Francisco or Lyric Opera of Chicago Center for American Artists, but some of the smaller ones, such as Des Moines Metro Opera and Sarasota, have no age limit. But make no mistake: no matter how much you keep up your studies, taking a four-year break during these very important career-development years is going to be a major hurdle to overcome when you are ready to get back into the game.
It would be one thing if you were already established. It would still be a great difficulty, but at least you would have contacts and previous experience to build on. Having just graduated, you probably don’t have a great deal of performing experience. The next four years should be the time when you are building your résumé, through small main-stage roles and/or apprenticeships.
Producing an opera is so expensive that opera companies are understandably quite reluctant to take a chance on casting an unknown, especially one with little or no professional performing experience who hasn’t worked in a long time. One of the first things they look for on a résumé is progress: bigger and better roles at bigger and better companies over time. Furthermore, if you are in a heavily populated Fach, you’ll be handicapping yourself while your direct competition gains experience and contacts. I’m sorry not to have better news for you, but in my opinion, waiting four years to get started in the industry would be seriously damaging to your career.
If you are serious about having both family and an opera career, my very best advice is to find a way to do some auditioning and performing during this time, even if you have to do it with your babies on your hip. Other singers manage, and you can too.
I just spent the summer singing at Des Moines Metro Opera. It was a real family affair. Eric Fennell and Talise Trevigne, Tamino and Pamina respectively, had their toddlers with them. (Eric’s wife was there; Talise hired a local nanny until her mom could come help.) John Osborn, singing the Duke, had his 5-year-old daughter with him. We were rolling in kids!
Back in my apprentice days, I remember Renée Fleming having a nanny wait in her dressing room with her baby during performances at Chicago Lyric Opera. Baritone Jeff Mattsey traveled with his whole family, which included two or three small girls. Many times I ran into soprano Cynthia Clayton and her husband, baritone Hector Vasquez, taking turns minding the kids in the hallway while the other one ran in to sing his or her audition.
Managing your singing career with a baby on board is challenging, but not impossible or even uncommon. It takes a lot of planning, but so does anything involving children. However, if you are bound and determined to lay out for four years, here’s what I suggest you do.
1. Identify the most frequently produced operas
(check http://operaworld.com/cornerstones/). Learn and maintain all your roles in those operas. If at all possible, work on them with prominent coach/conductors.
2. Perfect your vocal technique.
3. Practice auditioning. Sing in front of people as much as you can.
4. Hone your audition arias with a dramatic coach as well as a musical one.
5. Keep on top of what’s going on in the industry.
6. Find some way to do some performances every year, even if they are just recitals.
7. Do every competition you can manage. They don’t take much time, and being pregnant or having small kids in tow shouldn’t interfere most of the time. Competitions will give you something to put on your résumé during this down time.
8. Make a commercial CD or two.
9. Make friends with composers who need singers willing to premiere or workshop their pieces for little or no pay. The payoff is good publicity, perhaps a review, an occasional recording, contacts, and a credit for your résumé.
10. Go to every live performance you can, and schmooze. Get to know the influential people in your town’s classical music circle. Make sure they all know you sing.
11. Keep yourself looking fit and polished.
12. Work hard to make sure people don’t forget who you are. Stay in touch with any contacts you have already made, and make sure they know that even though you aren’t performing right now, you are still in the game. Work especially hard to make big-name contacts who will be willing to recommend you.
13. When you’re ready to start auditioning and performing again, get those big-name contacts to start making phone calls and lending their names to your cover letters. Apply for everything—small house main-stage roles and Young Artist Programs.
Be prepared to encounter a lot of resistance to and criticism of your choice. It can be quite difficult to maintain people’s interest in your career when you are not actually performing or auditioning. You might even find that some teachers and coaches will not be interested in working with you because they don’t feel you are serious about having a career. You will vastly improve your chances, however, if you emerge from your hiatus with a secure, perfected technique, polished presentation, a number of appropriate roles ready to go, and loads of perseverance. Good luck!
—Cindy
Dear Erda,
Last year, I had a series of cancer treatments that kept me from auditioning, performing, or making contacts. Hopefully, by the start of the season, I can start auditioning again. However, my materials are so dated by now. How does one go about creating a new résumé or updating materials so that a gap isn’t there? It feels like a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” kind of situation.
Should a singer in pursuit of work tell about having had cancer? It’s a difficult task as it may raise an employer’s suspicions as to whether the singer should be considered—yet how do you fill in the blank space so that the cancer alarm doesn’t sound off when you had to miss a year of work? There must be other singers who’ve had cancer or other serious illnesses. How is it handled?
With best regards,
—Recovered and Ready
Dear R&R,
I’m so sorry to hear about your cancer and am glad you’re in remission and ready to perform again. It’s preferable not to go a whole year with no performing experience, but it’s not a fatal blow to your career, either.
In my work with private consultation clients, I’ve come to realize that when it comes to gaps, there’s never a “one-size-fits-all” fix. The best course of action depends on what kind of experience you already have, where you are in your career, and what you did during your break. On my request, you sent me a copy of your materials. Your current résumé suggests that you may be a singer who has been in the business for some time, had some success, but is not yet getting consistent opera work. You subsequently sent some backup information that shows your career is divided among concert, opera, and recital work, and that you have indeed been working for a number of years.
My first recommendation: Reformat your materials package. Multiple pages are cumbersome, rather than impressive. Your résumé and bio should take no more than a page apiece. You can do this easily, if you prune and organize the information to make the most important credits stand out.
Given the types of work you do, you should have different versions of your résumé for different auditions—one featuring your opera credits more if you are auditioning for stage work, another featuring concerts or recitals if you are approaching a symphony or chorus. Also, your materials give no dates for your stage work (almost always a red flag).
Remember, your résumé should make it very easy for potential employers to find out what they need to know to schedule you for an audition. A messy résumé is a timewaster for them, and a signal you aren’t as in-the-know as you might be.
As I mentioned above, opera companies want to see progress over time—bigger, better roles with bigger, better companies. You don’t have a great many stage credits, but you do have some nice ones. If you have been working fairly consistently over the last few years and only now are experiencing a gap, I don’t think a year off is such a big deal. Put the dates on your résumé to show what you did where and when, and show that you were working steadily. Then do your best to get some credits for the upcoming season. Highlight any upcoming engagements. Schedule a recital for yourself so you’ll at least have something to list, or see if you can use your contacts to get hired for a concert series. Just get something on there.
You can’t close a performance gap on your résumé if you didn’t do any performing during your time off. If you were able to continue your study and learn some new roles during your break from auditioning and performing, however, list them under “Roles in Repertoire” and include the name of the coach or teacher you worked them with, as well as the date. This will show that although you did no performing, you were still honing your skills. Opera companies often prefer to hire someone who already knows a role. Also, if you were working in a related field during that time, such as teaching voice or directing a choir, you might list that under a separate category to show that you were working in music during that period, even if you weren’t singing.
Don’t bring up the gap unless someone asks you. It’s unlikely, but if they do ask, be prepared with a brief, matter-of-fact statement: “I had a medical issue which has now been fully resolved, and I am back to full-time performing.” It would be surprising if anyone then pressed you for further details, but if they do, you needn’t lie; nor do you have to volunteer specifics. Simply say that you had some surgeries and were temporarily out of commission. You can easily demonstrate that you have no such problem now, and reassure them that you do not expect further difficulty. You don’t have to go into much detail; it is nobody’s business but your own. The only time I would be more forthcoming is if you expected your illness might have an impact on a performance you were already contracted to do.
All in all, I wouldn’t let it worry you too much. Ideally, you are ready to get out there and have a grand audition season. Make sure your repertoire is polished and fresh. Get in touch with all your old contacts and let them know you’re around and would like to sing for them. Be energetic and enthusiastic.
Most importantly, perform beautifully. That, above all, will banish other concerns.
Good luck for your season and again, congratulations on your recovery!
—Cindy
