When singers consider the tricky issue of balancing career and family, many questions arise. When is the right time to start a family? Should you home school your kids and allow them to travel with you? Should you hire a nanny? Can you pursue a full-time career, be a full-time parent, and be successful in both? Does being a spouse or parent make you a better artist, or does having children cause you to lose your competitive drive?
For our annual issue dedicated to the topic of family, I assigned several of our writers the task of interviewing singers in the midst of their careers for the answers to these questions.
Alex Fletcher sat down with three opera dads who have juggled career and family successfully for years. Baritones Rod Gilfry, Kyle Pfortmiller, and Mark Delavan offer their perspectives on how fatherhood has enhanced their abilities as artists. They also impart their words of wisdom, garnered from experience, on staying devoted to both family and career.
Managing career and family for opera moms brings a different set of challenges than for opera dads. Megan Gloss brings us the story of five sopranos and their very different choices. Robin Follman, at the age of 38, is just starting to think about beginning a family. Sari Gruber, Christine Goerke, and Jennifer Jones all had their first child in the last two years. Connie Barnett had her family at a time when it was taboo in this profession, and she lends her perspective on how things have changed over the years.
These women continue to pursue professional careers while enjoying motherhood—but this isn’t the path for everyone. Robin Wiper juggled full-time parenting and a career while singing roles at New York City Opera, the Met, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She ultimately decided that doing both wasn’t for her. She now enjoys her life as a stay-at-home mom, still teaching and singing, but on a much smaller scale.
Mezzo-soprano Shawn Jeffery also came to the realization in mid-career that being both singer and mom was not the life she wanted. She moved from New York City to the Connecticut suburbs with her husband. She has since started a part-time career in artist management and discusses how her new career allows her to stay focused on her top priorities: her husband and two sons.
William Bolcom and Joan Morris, featured in this month’s cover story, have successfully collaborated on and off the stage for 33 years. Having children wasn’t in the cards for these two, but both think of their students at the University of Michigan as their “children.” These marriage veterans share terrific advice for creating a happy marriage that will last.
As you read this issue, you may come to the same conclusion I did while preparing it: There are no right or wrong answers to the questions posed above. Each person must determine his or her own path. As the singers’ stories in this issue illustrate, the important thing is to create a life you love. A singing career won’t—can’t—last forever. Meaningful relationships, however, can and will.
