Dear Erda:
I will be sending various opera companies demo CDs from past recitals, and I was wondering how I should choose the pieces. Here are some of my questions:
• How many total pieces should I have?
• Should they be highlights of songs, or entire songs?
• Should they be a mixture of arias and art songs, or just arias?
• Should I put the strongest songs at the beginning?
• Is it OK to have applause in the background (since the pieces are recordings of recitals)?
• Should every language be represented?
• Should they be grouped by composer (even if it’s a mixture of arias and art songs)?
Since I’m new to this part of “marketing,” I would appreciate any input that you may have.
—Young Singer
Dear Young Singer:
It’s great that you have recordings of your recitals. Live recordings, if they are high quality, are much more impressive than studio demos, especially if they are with orchestra (and those are not always easy to come by).
Now, to address your questions, including one you didn’t ask. But first, let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time, as I returned to an opera company for which I had sung many times, my regular dresser greeted me with great enthusiasm. She was excited because she had received, as a Christmas gift from her sister, a bunch of CDs, and one of these CDs, she said, was mine.
There’s only one little problem: I do not have a commercial CD on the market.
What my dresser had was one of my demo CDs, which her sister had found in a bargain bin in a used record shop in another city, a city with an opera company, an opera company to which I had sent, unsolicited, my demo.
Based, not exclusively, on this experience, I do not advise sending unsolicited CDs to opera companies. You can send them to managers or to oratorio/concert venues, but most opera companies do not have the personnel or the time to review your CD, unless they have asked for it. (When they ask, it’s usually because they are considering you for something specific and want to hear certain things). You can send it anyway, but nine out of 10 of the CDs you send are going to end up in the trash, or gathering dust on a shelf in someone’s office—or in a used record store, if the Fates have a repetitive sense of humor.
There’s an easy way to avoid wasting money on CDs and postage. Simply include a line in your cover letter saying that you have a current demo CD that is available on request and have enclosed a self-addressed, stamped postcard, which the company can drop in the mail to you so you’ll know to send it.
On to the questions. Remember, what you are developing here is not a recital. It is a marketing device. Keep in mind what you are trying to accomplish with this tool. You are trying to show that you sing certain roles beautifully, artistically, passionately, and engagingly. If your selections don’t do that, don’t include them.
Don’t include anything that shows mistakes or weaknesses. Don’t hope they won’t notice, or that they will take your youth and inexperience into account. Don’t include anything recorded with poor sound quality. A demo CD may be the first time a prospective employer hears your voice—and you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.
For that reason, whether it’s a CD or a live audition, always, always, always present your very best piece first. You needn’t group the selections other than that—language, composer, and so forth don’t matter. Your demo CD should contain, at most, three to five selections. If the company doesn’t hear what they want, they can always ask.
It’s fine to have some applause, but fade it out in one or two seconds. Prospective employers want to hear your singing, not long ovations that drag on, taking up their time.
In deciding which selections to include, you must consider where you are sending the demo. If you are marketing to an opera company, your demo should include opera arias only, from roles that you might reasonably expect to be hired for right now. It’s not important to include five different languages, unless you do roles in five different languages. Also, consider what type of repertoire that particular company does. If they don’t do contemporary opera, don’t include a modern aria. If they do a lot of Baroque music and you sing Handel, make sure you have a Handel aria on that CD. Also, you probably shouldn’t include more than one esoteric piece.
If you are sending a CD to a manager or concert venue, it’s fine to include a mixture of opera arias, oratorio arias, and songs. Managers may try to market you for concert work as well as opera, and many symphonies do opera in concert. However, make sure most of the songs you include are from works that are orchestrated. You’re more likely to get work singing an orchestrated song cycle with a symphony than you are to be hired, as an unknown, for a major market voice-and-piano song recital. You can however, have a separate disk of song recital material specifically for marketing to venues that book song recitals.
One other important little detail: Make sure you put your name and contact information on every part of the CD—the label, the jacket, everything. Make it easy for prospective employers to find you. You needn’t have a fancy jewel case with insert, but you should have a professional-looking printed label and sleeve. You can buy basic label-maker software and labels at Best Buy, CompUSA, or any store that sells printers. Printable cardboard sleeves are available at various online stores; you can also buy clear plastic ones. The technology is easy to use, so there’s no excuse for sending out handwritten labels.
Demo CDs, like your resume and bio, are fluid documents. They should reflect you at your best; they should be current; and they should be tailored to the venue you’re approaching. They’re also a tool that can help convince potential employers to give you a chance, so make sure they sound (and look) as perfect as you can make them.
