Getting Organized: As the opera season closes, you have a small window of time to fix your life’s infrastructure! That is why our focus this May is to help you get organized. This topic was prompted by a post on the Classical Singer Community online forum, asking how other singers are keeping up with all the tasks they have to do. The very overwhelmed singer was asking for help. Responses made it clear that he was not alone.
The responsibility for building a singing career used to be borne by a support team. Now, singers are finding they have to wear more and more hats in an increasingly competitive market. As you will see in this issue, some singers have even added the hat of general director, and are starting their own companies.
If you want to sing and have a life, the only answer is to become extremely organized. Lina Cotman reviews some electronic helpers, and Chris Winward opens her file cabinets, her computer, and her dayplanner, and introduces us to several experts who teach the Two-List System—which may be the best help of all.
We found a perfect family to highlight the topic of personal organization this month—Michele McBride and Boyd Schlaefer. The family lives in Connecticut, and both Michele and Boyd have teaching jobs—and yet both parents as well as their two children sing at New York City Opera. Another couple, Jami Rogers and Kevin Anderson, share their strategies for staying organized when they are on the road so often.
Health Insurance: I wanted to bring your attention to a new health insurance database specifically for performers, funded by the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) and implemented by the Actors Fund. Bill Ivey, Chairman of the NEA, wrote, “A profession in the arts, by its very nature, means erratic income, unsteady work, and no single employer. The question of obtaining affordable healthcare looms large, and can sometimes be very confusing and frustrating, especially if there is the question of a serious illness, such as AIDS. Thirty percent of artists have no health coverage, which is more than twice as high as the general population…. I’m delighted to announce a groundbreaking new database, developed to provide artists and arts organizations with the information necessary to make informed choices about individual and small business group health insurance options available in each state. The Actors’ Fund of America [has] launched the Artists’ Health Insurance Resource Center (AHIRC) website (www.actorsfund.org), which provides information on individual and group insurance…. AHIRC is also available at a toll free information line (1-800-798-8447), and by appointment at the Actors’ Fund Headquarters in New York City.” [Entire message can be viewed by going to NEA website at http://arts.endow.gov/learn/Ivey2.html.]
Singers Unions: Unions have brought about much-needed change in the world. How are unions affecting your career as a singer? CS is compiling opinions on the topic to find out what you think—choristers, soloists, and the unaffiliated singer.
Are you a member of AGMA, SAG, AFTRA, or one of the international unions for singers? If you are not a member of a singer union, what questions would you like answered? Would you like to join a union? If you would like to comment and/or change something, here is your chance to join forces with other singers and let your voice be heard—safely. You can write to us at P.O. Box 278, Maplewood, NJ 07040, fax: 973/378-2372, or e-mail at unioninfo@classicalsinger.net. Just let us know whether or not you would like your letter and/or name used in the actual issue. We are serious about protecting your privacy.
—CJ Williamson, Editor-In-Chief
