Going For Broke
Dear CS: Thanks for your editorial (“Fixing What’s Broke,” April, 01), which, like so much of what you’ve been presenting in Classical Singer in the past three years, shines a bright light on some of the less-pleasant aspects of our “career.” I’m calling it a career in quotes because that is one of the main problems with our profession: it encourages us to sacrifice the other parts of life for the notion that our work is the most important part of the whole. While this may be true for some, for most of us there needs to be a balance.
Unfortunately, the “business” shames singers who strive to be whole people and live fully by having children, making special projects of unusual repertoire, starting their own companies, opting out of standard career paths, trying to keep sensible performance schedules, or otherwise attempting to take a sane approach to their lives and their singing.
It seems that singers start to fall by the roadside in their thirties, when they’ve had enough time in the business to be able to add up how many years they’ve temped, how many gigs they’ve had, how much those gigs have paid or cost them, how many other singers at their level there are in their Fach, how many years they’ve been single and how many years they have left to start families. It’s perfectly reasonable to do a reckoning. There are sacrifices that have to be made to attain a high level of art. And yet, are we attaining these high levels on the kind of gigs that we get? Are we sacrificing things that shouldn’t be sacrificed—friends, love, family—for experiences that are artistically unrewarding?
These are decisions everyone has to make for him or herself. But it must be noted that the business of singing seems to regard professional American singers as interchangeable cogs in a machine, which can be replaced (without a pension) when they are used up. The business does not encourage us to live life fully. This lack of support for the rest of life starves our art at its root, as art is nourished by the depth of our human experience.
We need to reclaim our art, even if that does not mean financial or visible public success. Montserrat Caballe is quoted in the book Diva as saying that she sings to raise the level of vibration in the world. In plain terms, that means we sing to bring light to darkness and joy to sorrow. We sing to transform and change. Market influences do not encourage these kinds of experiences, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to create, have, and deliver them. We need to find humane ways to sing and to express our talent, even if that flies in the face of the “business.” If we live by the terms of the business, we run the risk of doing damage to our lives and our art.
Thank you for continuing to ask the tough questions.
Sincerely,
-Julia Grella
Dear CS: I know exactly what you mean about bitter singers. I’ve often noticed how many, many people seem to be very bitter about something as beautiful as singing. I think that maybe the answer lies in how we are treated and how we treat each other. People often get so wrapped up in their own goals and desires that they forget that other people are in the same situation. We are all in this together. Don’t think that other people are always better off than you are; we all have the same problems! And isolating yourself by thinking you’re “the only one” creates a huge void between yourself and others for which many try to compensate by putting on false bravado or attitudes. Music is one of the world’s most beautiful gifts, and having a beautiful singing voice is like having a window into the soul of the world. It’s a risk, emotionally, to open yourself up and sing. Don’t be callous in dealing with this—just remember that since we’re at our most vulnerable while singing, we all need to be treated with care! If there were a little more consideration present in the music world, perhaps more people would realize what a gift it is to just be able to create music in the first place, regardless of one’s career status.
—Kathryn Zimmer
Kudos for CS
Dear CS: I have watched Classical Singer mature into an absolutely first-rate publication. Bravo! Singers have needed such information, job listings and encouragement since long before I started looking for singing employment 100 years ago. Keep up the great work. I am late in renewing because I am retired—sort of—and I thought I wouldn’t need you anymore. However, I may start teaching, in which case I must have CS available for my students.
—Charlotte Schaefer
Classical Singer is an excellent periodical with useful audition listings, informative articles and enlightening interviews. I look forward to every new issue. What a wonderful tool for emerging and established professionals across the country!
—Awet Andemicael
Lakewood, CA
