Darren Keith Woods is fed up. The successful character tenor turned general director of Fort Worth Opera and the Seagle Music Colony is a well-known advocate for singers, often taking time from his busy schedule to offer advice or make a phone call on a singer’s behalf. His accessibility takes a toll, however, and recently, Woods decided to stop participating in one industry practice: After this season, he will no longer write letters of recommendation for young singers. Moreover, via a recent e-mail, he is encouraging his colleagues to stop asking for them. Woods has given Classical Singer permission to reprint the e-mail’s contents here.
“Dear Colleagues:
“First, you are getting this e-mail because I have been asked in the past week for a letter of recommendation for your company. If you are on this list in error, please let me know so I will stop writing letters to you.
“I have just completed over 60 letters of recommendation for singers that want to audition for your companies and it is not even the first of September. You are all my friends, but I am begging you to stop this archaic practice. It is a colossal waste of money in stationery and postage, a huge waste of paper, and in times when I have to raise 4 million dollars per year, a great waste of time.
“I love these young artists, and I want to help them, but after this season, I will not write any letters of recommendation for anyone. I simply don’t have the time. I would encourage you, if you see my name on a résumé and have a question about an artist, that you simply e-mail me and ask for my comments and impressions. It is easier and saves hundreds of trees.
“We have a major opera competition, a Young Artist Program, and I also run the Seagle Music Colony. We do not ask anyone for a letter of recommendation, and we still get fine singers who apply and whom we hire. Unless you all stop with the letters of rec (not to mention the crazy form that some have), the ones who suffer will be the singers—and they are the very people we are trying to find, help, and protect.
“Again, if you want to know about a singer, e-mail me. Since this is already in practice this year, I will complete the letters for singers I deem ready for your companies, but this will be the last year I will do so.
Sincerely,
Darren K. Woods”
Woods posted his e-mail on the New Forum for Classical Singers (www.nfcs.net), to an enthusiastic response from singers and at least one other opera administrator. Ron Land, assistant general director of Connecticut Grand Opera and Orchestra, said that he has written four letters in the past week for one singer alone. He, too, is happy to help young artists, but, he admits, “We all know how much attention is really paid to letters of recommendation. Just call me, or better yet, e-mail me. I am going to tell singers who use me on their résumés to include my e-mail address right on there, for the sake of convenience. Then everybody is happy and no trees die.” He added, “I’m with Darren, I am not going to write letters next season, either. Maybe if we all refuse to write them, our colleagues will stop requiring them.”
Singers have been responding enthusiastically to Woods’ suggestion. A young tenor at the young artist level (who preferred to remain anonymous) said, “More than once I have asked for letters of recommendation only to be told that while they would be happy to recommend me, they do not have the time to write or do not write such letters, and if I were to write something they would gladly sign it. I am certain my contacts are not the only people who do this. I don’t think this is exactly what the companies are hoping for when they ask for recommendations.”
Vivien Shotwell, a young mezzo who recently sang the title role in Giulio Cesare in Egitto with the Halifax Summer Opera Workshop, agrees.
“I usually decide not to apply to programs that request recommendation letters, just because it’s such a hassle and I hate to bother my former teachers, who are all hugely busy,” she says.
Shotwell is currently working on her master’s degree at the University of Iowa. “It’s also difficult because several of my potential recommenders live in either Canada or Europe and I have no convenient way to send them appropriate postage for their country. I wonder if companies ask for letters because they know it will automatically narrow down their application pool.”
That may be the case, but there’s no question that recommendations are a valuable commodity in the classical singing industry. A good word from a respected authority opens doors that might otherwise remain closed. In my consulting practice for young singers, I recommend using references in cover letters and occasionally have seen them listed on résumés. This seems a practical alternative to letters of recommendation.
Woods embraced this idea readily. “In the cover letter you could put: ‘Darren K. Woods and Ron Land have agreed to be my references for this audition request. You may reach them at the following e-mail addresses,’” Woods said. “I would so love that. I could type a quick three-sentence recommendation when, and only when, requested. Great idea!”
Change may be slow to come. Many companies, such as San Francisco’s Merola Program, Glimmerglass’ Young American Artists Program, Houston Grand Opera Studio, Des Moines Metro Opera, and others require letters of recommendation, some with very specific processes for collecting them. They may be reluctant or slow to change processes that have worked for them in the past. Until change comes, however, Woods believes singers should share responsibility for making the system work.
“Many (programs) from the list I submitted to have written back and say there is no letter of recommendation requirement—singers just assume there is one,” he says. “There were even a couple of companies who said [that] not only do they not require them, they don’t even read them when they are submitted. So, YAPers, do your research [and avoid creating unnecessary work for others].”
