There’s no doubt now that we’re in the depths of a serious and prolonged recession. With jobs being cut left and right, recent college grads going begging, and homeowners desperate to hang onto their homes hunting for extra income, the traditional job market is looking pretty dismal.
Talk to singers, though, and they’ll tell you that their economic situation is always tough. Used to coping with long stretches of under- or unemployment, stretching lean paychecks, and going without benefits, singers who have had to cultivate resilience and optimism on a daily basis may actually be at an advantage in the current economic climate.
Classical Singer spoke with three singers who are succeeding despite the trials and tribulations on Main Street and Wall Street. (“Success” was predefined by CS as surviving, if not thriving, financially as well as reaching individually determined artistic goals.) Although they come from various cities and describe their career approaches in different ways, they all share a can-do spirit vital to making it in our field along with an ability to creatively diversify their offerings as musicians.
Here are a few snapshots of recession-busting singers and their approach to success.
The Entrepreneur: Linden Christ—Chicago, Illinois
lindenchrist@gmail.com
With her cheery smile and friendly, focused-on-others manner, soprano Linden Christ cuts through economic rainclouds like a ray of sunshine. Christ complements her sincerely sunny demeanor with an astute approach to self-promotion and opportunity that keeps her busy with work from morning ‘til night.
“The recession has not affected my work and, in fact, I seem to be offered more singing and work opportunities,” she said in an after-midnight e-mail. “I am happy to say that I have omitted all my jobs that are not related to music. . . . I am paying my bills and saving with my music income. The live music [entertainment] industry is even more crucial in difficult times as it offers an uplifting outlet for everyone.”
Describing herself as an entrepreneur, Christ works diverse gigs ranging from singing engagements as a concert soloist and opera performer, to teaching for Chicago Opera Theater in Chicago public schools, to doing liturgical work, to ushering at the Lyric Opera, to teaching privately. She is the founder and director of her own opera company—Opera Play-House Chicago. She is also the manager of Chicago Opera Theater’s partner schools program, a youth choir director, a singer at an Italian restaurant, and a performer for weddings and special events.
“I think it’s just being open for the unexpected,” Christ laughed during a quick phone call from the COT office. “Not limiting yourself is, I think, how I would put it. I am open to suggestions for where my resources will lead me. I try not to say ‘no’ and look for opportunities for where I can present myself. I always try to look for getting paid, too, but sometimes you might get more out of being heard in a particular venue.”
Christ explained her approach to the sometimes ticklish business of discussing one’s success without being a braggart, describing it as “sharing.”
“I think that’s what music is . . . so, as a performer, even in a normal setting, you can share music by talking about it: what your experiences are, what you do, where they can hear you, and if they have any connections where you could perform. It’s like I am giving of myself but it’s also, in a sneaky way, asking how they might help me. I have this gift, and how can they use it? It has to be a collaborative thing,” she added. “You have your network; they help you, you help them. If you can make it a win-win situation, it’s all for the best.”
Christ shared three tips on how to become a better entrepreneur:
• Having creative ideas “is the first step. I just think a lot, I have visions, and then I go with it. Wherever I go, just driving down a street, I’m looking out the window and thinking, ‘How can I reach out to this business and this venue?’ You have to know the audience so you can give them what they like.”
• Keep up with your networking. “Almost all of my jobs and opportunities have been with other people. Let others be involved in what you’re doing. It’s such a unique art form that other people like to be a part of it.”
• An attitude of openness and action. “I always keep my doors open to new ideas and opportunities and I never burn bridges. Naturally, the next step would be to pursue it. Pursue those ideas, pursue those connections, don’t just let it stop at your dream. Make it happen. Sometimes it’s better to do baby steps.”
The Collaborator: Sarah Mabary—Hattiesburg, Mississippi
mabarymezzo@yahoo.com
Gracious and gorgeous, southern mezzo-soprano Sarah Mabary is making a living doing what she loves best—singing and teaching.
“I don’t work at a day job anymore. I don’t do any secretarial anymore,” she said with a smile in her voice. “I pay all our bills, mortgage, utilities, credit cards. I pay all the bills. It’s been a really inspiring thing that even in this economy I can do this. I teach seven or eight students in Hattiesburg, and seven or eight students in Jackson. I am really grateful for all these opportunities.”
A full-time doctoral student at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mabary made a lot of her work happen by creating collaborative connections with fellow singers.
“I collaborate regularly in performance with many of the top artists who are in Mississippi,” she said during a spare moment between classes and rehearsals. “It just seems that by collaborating with other artists in rehearsals and performance . . . artistically and personally has led to more performing opportunities and more teaching opportunities,” she said.
Mabary is a co-founder of the Mississippi Vocal Arts Ensemble. Other members of the group are tenor Marc Foster, soprano Maryann Kyle, and co-founder baritone James Martin.
“We have performed at museums, Mississippi Opera for one of their fundraisers, [and] the Junior Vicksburg Chamber Music Festival,” she said. “Since we were founded and through the end of this year, we’ll have done seven gigs. I think people really enjoy that, especially since there’s no other vocal chamber music in the state. I would definitely say that we have identified a niche. That collaboration has led to basically a studio of 15 and two (solo) performance opportunities just because of the fact that people had seen me with that ensemble.”
One of those performance opportunities is with Mississippi Opera. Mabary said she was offered her roles backstage during a performance by her chamber group.
“I had auditioned three times and not gotten hired,” she recalled. “I sang Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria rusticana last April, [and] in Suor Angelica, [I sang] two nuns’ parts: the Nursing Sister and the Monitor. I’m very thankful for the opportunity to sing with Mississippi Opera.”
Mabary suggested that singers take a page from her collaborative book by trying something new with others.
“Branch out into other aspects of music that you haven’t explored, whether it’s church work or concerts or vocal chamber music or your arts commission for your state,” she advised. “What opportunities are there out there that you haven’t explored because you were focused on one aspect of your career?” she added, referring to roles as just one potential part of a thriving career.
“Collaborations with people and other musicians of a very high level always inspire me to approach what I do with a renewed energy, commitment, [and]standard of excellence. Excellence is what people want to see onstage, hear in church. When you present something excellent that has come from a collaborative effort, people are willing to pay for it.”
Jason Plourde “Is Determined” in New York, New York
Jason Plourde is on Facebook.
You had better be determined if you expect to survive an economic downturn that makes jobs hard to find even for traditional workers—and, most of all, if you are going to try and make it as a singer in New York City. Baritone Jason Plourde described his approach to his career as boiling down to complete commitment.
“No matter how low I get, I push,” he said via e-mail, too busy (happily) during an unusual week of both gigging and temping to talk over the phone. “I feel like I’ve had plenty of chances to walk away from this career, and there were certainly plenty of times when I thought about it, but it’s what I want to do. I feel like all I’ve done lately is out of sheer determination to make this work.”
Like many N.Y. singers, Plourde relies on temping to keep him financially afloat. According to Plourde, that well is drying up due to the recession.
“I’ve had some weeks where maybe I worked a half day somewhere,” he said. “I would really like to work full-time as a temp, or otherwise, while I’m not singing.” Luckily for him, gigs are filling in the financial gaps for necessities, although Plourde is going without lessons right now and is not always able to take time off for auditions.
“It’s still a struggle since I’m young,” he said. “These gigs don’t pay overly large amounts of money and there definitely are large chunks of time between gigs—but because of them, I really haven’t had to deal with the true fear of ‘How am I going to pay my rent this month?’”
Some of those gigs are, according to Plourde, jobs that he would never have envisioned himself taking in the past
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“I just finished a gig where I was a bass ringer for a local college’s choir tour,” he said. “I was getting paid pretty decent money to spend a week in Florida with a very talented group of kids and sing. It’s not opera, it’s not what I want to do with the rest of my life, but it was fun and I wouldn’t be against doing more of that while I’m still trying to achieve a full-time solo career.”
Ironically, gigs that are closest to one’s ideal vision of career success don’t always pay well. “I’m currently doing a gig that will literally pay a few hundred dollars. Almost not enough to cover the cost to commute to rehearsals,” he said. So he’s treating it like an investment—one that won’t, unlike stocks and mortgages, lose its potential long-term value.
“I’m putting a great role on my résumé, one that I’m sure I’ll sing many times, for a company in the city where literally anyone could be in the audience. I guess it just all boils down to the fact that every chance to sing is a chance to sing and, especially now, if you get the chance to get paid to sing—take it.”
Plourde was cautiously optimistic in his assessment of his career while acknowledging the difficulties of making a living as a singer—especially when times are tough.
“I feel like I should say that I don’t really think I am achieving this at the moment, but I don’t think that that’s really true,” he mused. “Sure, my road to success isn’t going the way I had hoped, but I guess that never really happens. This is my path and I need to follow it. I have gigs. I keep singing and people keep hiring me. In that alone, I think I’m constantly moving closer to my professional goals. As long as I’m still singing and as long the quality of company that’s hiring me moves up, I think I’ll be on track.”
As these three singers demonstrate, there’s really no secret to success. The strategies they employ—collaboration, creative thinking, diversification—aren’t anything new. The real trick is keeping those positive behaviors going even when everything around you screams disaster—when ordinary challenges begin to look insurmountable.
Perhaps that’s when sheer determination enters the equation.
