Whether one should return to school for a graduate degree is a complicated question. And for the older singer who has been away from studies for years—or decades—this question has additional complications. To what extent are age and experience assets when auditioning for degree programs and when competing for jobs once the degree is earned? Is it possible to unlearn years of old technique and habits—or to remember enough of the material from those undergrad days to perform well in the required coursework? Is it really worth it? From my own experience and that of the singers I spoke with, the answer is a definite “It depends.”
I didn’t always plan on returning for a doctorate in music. I was making a living with part-time and adjunct faculty positions, steady church work, oratorio and opera gigs, and a bit of writing. After attending a graduate-level fiction writing workshop in 2006, I began devoting more time to my career as a writer. I knew I wanted to go back to school someday, but couldn’t decide between a DMA in music and an MFA in creative writing. My 30s went by while I dithered. I knew I wasn’t entirely happy where I was—though I enjoyed my various jobs, I wasn’t feeling particularly challenged and didn’t see much opportunity for further development.
Why go back for a doctorate in music? When considering the possibility several years before, I had been told by a voice department chair (who had not heard me sing), “You’re a soprano, so of course you won’t get any money.” In my 30s and early 40s I had begun to combine my work in writing, music, and directing, doing cross-disciplinary work with actors and dancers and incorporating improvisation. If I enrolled in a music degree, would they expect me to narrow my broad focus or put me into some cookie cutter, opera singer mold? The difficulty of obtaining a full-time position even with a doctorate was another strike against going back. What if I were to invest all that time, energy, and money and end up right back where I was?
Ultimately, as time went by and I realized I was ready for some kind of change, going back to school for music seemed more and more appealing. I looked at everything I was doing and saw that what I loved the most was teaching voice. How could I develop as a voice teacher and be the best teacher I could possibly be? By furthering my own technique and continuing my education.
What if I didn’t get a full-time faculty position at the end of this? I knew I was ready to return to school when I decided that this possibility wasn’t a deal breaker. Even if I returned to a variety of part-time jobs, I would have put in the time and energy to make myself the best I could possibly be. My education would inform everything I would go on to do and give me the tools to carve out a further niche for myself as a performer and educator. Could I do this without the doctorate? Maybe. But I have learned from experience that I work best in a structured setting with deadlines. The money would be the biggest issue, but I did not plan to enroll in any degree program without a full scholarship and teaching assistantship.
So there I was, 44 years old, auditioning for doctoral programs and feeling that I must surely be at a disadvantage competing with younger singers. To my surprise, I was offered two generous assistantships, which I attribute to the experience I had gained since receiving my masters. In retrospect, it makes sense: I had 15 years’ experience teaching voice at the college level, two years teaching a college writing class, experience with stage direction, libretto writing, performing, and other life experiences that made me a good candidate despite being a lyric soprano—which, I feared, made me redundant the moment I showed up.
After completing my first year as a DMA student at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, I can firmly say that I made the right choice. The issue of whether to go back to school as an older singer, however, is a complicated one, with many factors to be taken into consideration, and every singer will have a different perspective.
Julie Lyn Barber, a soprano pursuing a doctorate at Ball State University, spent several years as a singer, actor, playwright, and voice teacher before returning to school. Barber, who has recently finished her coursework, has greatly enjoyed her studies. Among other positives, she notes, “My college student status has allowed me to do competitions I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do otherwise. Winning or placing is also a great motivator and is helpful on a résumé that has a lot of time elapsed between degrees.” She credits her coursework for strengthening her as a performer as well as focusing on the practical aspects of “ . . . performing and collegiate-level teaching, including what you need to know about how to get and keep jobs in those arenas.”
What about the financial side of returning to school after spending time in the working world? “My husband and I do a lot of freelance work as careers, so I didn’t give up a paycheck,” says Barber. “I broke even or made some more with my assistantships.”
There are, however, sacrifices. “The main drain was time,” she says. “I saw my kids at breakfast and on the weekends, took them to a lot of recitals, did my homework after they were in bed or after evening classes until the wee hours at the library. I managed to maintain a 4.0 GPA and keep most of my other irons in the fire. I never saw T.V. and I put my playwriting on hold, though.” She credits having lots of family support for making her degree possible—her husband took care of domestic duties and his parents provided “superstar child care.”
“I think older singers may have a tendency to overthink and maybe overdo some of the academic work,” Barber cautions. “I had to learn to trust ‘good enough’ when there wasn’t time for perfection.”
While a doctoral student at Ball State, Barber has been a soloist with the BSU orchestra, performed opera roles, and won or received honorable mention in several competitions. She has also directed chamber operas and a 10-minute play, had some of her song compositions performed, and composed the score for a musical version of one of her plays.
Christine Thomas-O’Meally returned for a master’s degree in voice after a brief stint teaching general music and working at a variety of day jobs while continuing to sing small roles and chorus in opera. In her case, she had found a teacher she really liked after moving to Washington, D.C. When that teacher was hired at Peabody, she decided to enroll in the degree program to continue studying with her. “I found it exhilarating,” she says about returning to school. “Compared to working a full-time day job in an office plus singing with Washington Opera and other companies at night, grad school was a breeze. It felt like a vacation! (Except for the ‘I’m not earning any money’ part. That stunk.)”
Thomas-O’Meally believes that the degree program gave her more confidence in herself about the technical issues of singing and validated the experience that she had gained in her years of performance. After receiving her degree, she operated a successful vocal studio for several years in Milwaukee. She recently returned to Baltimore and will be opening a private studio there in the fall, in addition to teaching at Howard Community College.
Other singers I spoke with discussed the challenges of returning to school, such as hoping for that full-time position but finding themselves still doing adjunct work several years after receiving the degree, taking longer than expected to finish coursework and dissertations or final projects, or feeling that memorization came easier when they were younger. A few singers became disillusioned partway through their studies and dropped out of their degree programs. Clearly, there are downsides to advanced study at any age, and the older student may face some additional challenges.
A voice professor I spoke with was willing to comment on some of the negatives about returning for his degree on the condition that he be identified as “Dr. X.” Though he gives high praise to his voice teacher, he says, “All of the coursework I took for my doctorate was essentially useless. Of course it earned me a DMA, but came with a $65K debt—a debt I may never live to pay off. As a student it was particularly hard, when having already been a professor for 10 years, to sit through poorly taught courses and then be made to do pedantic assignments that I knew would have no direct relevance or impact on my day-to-day work as a voice teacher.”
Dr. X admits that he went into the degree program with a “get in, get out” mentality, which may have colored his experience. He laments the fact that most of his courses were music history, theory, and analysis rather than things that would have actually helped him as a voice teacher, such as advanced vocal pedagogy.
“The irony of it all is that once I had the degree and got the tenure-track job, I quickly realized that once in academia no one (or few, at best) really cares that you have the degree,” he says. “Some might liken it to some perverse form of hazing everyone goes through in order to join the academic fraternity or, at best, the costly price one pays for their university country club membership. Another way some may see it is [as] a palpable division between teachers—those who have it and wear it like a purple heart and those who act too modest if not slightly embarrassed to have it, or that it was a consolation prize for not cutting it in the performance world.” Dr. X credits the degree with allowing him to compete for, and eventually get, a tenure-track teaching job and feels a huge sense of accomplishment from completing the degree. However, he rightly notes that it took a huge amount of sacrifice on his part.
After my own sacrifices of giving up my different jobs and moving two hours away from my husband, I thought that getting reaccustomed to academic coursework would be the most difficult part of returning to school. As it turned out, the intervening years and my professional experience as a writer have made me feel very comfortable writing papers, I wasn’t as rusty at music theory as I thought, and my years of performing experience and improvisation work have made me more fearless and less self-conscious as a performer than when I was younger.
The hardest thing for me was rethinking my entire vocal technique. It wasn’t that I was doing anything damaging to my voice, but in the words of my teacher, Cynthia Haymon-Coleman, I had been “using my voice like a pair of pliers.” She meant that I had figured out a means to accomplish any vocal task I was given, for which she commended me, but I had not been doing things the most efficient or the most beautiful way for my own voice. Instead, I had been reaching into my vocal toolbox and pulling out whatever came to hand to get the job done, without considering whether it was the best tool for that particular job.
When I was younger, I might have felt insulted by being asked to return to the 24 Italian Songs and Arias and rethink my entire technique. At this point in my life, I can recognize the benefit and am willing to put my voice in the hands of a teacher I trust. If I don’t make the most of my voice now, when will I ever get this opportunity again? That’s what I’m in school for—to learn and to be challenged.
Though every singer is different and experiences may vary widely, I’m glad I waited to return to school. When I was working on my MM at New England Conservatory, fresh out of undergraduate studies, I did what I was told to the best of my ability and worked on learning the opera roles I thought I was likely to perform. I didn’t think that hard about what I really wanted and, though I took vocal pedagogy, I had no idea how much I would love teaching. Now I have a better sense of my own unique skills and talents and I seek out opportunities to suit them, such as performing atonal songs in a new music concert and participating in a collective improvisation class with musicians and dancers.
I have designed a “cognate area” (minor) in theatre for which I am doing independent study projects under theatre department professors. This has included writing an opera libretto and directing a multidisciplinary performance project on the subject of Otherness. I found that I didn’t need to leave my other interests—writing and directing—at the door when signing up for a degree in performance and literature. I’ve learned that I enjoy writing academic papers when I am passionate about the subject, and I make sure to choose a subject that really interests me before I dive into writing.
Returning to school is not for everyone, but age may not be as big a factor as other concerns, such as the choice of the right institution, the willingness to leave behind the working world, the capacity to thrive in a structured environment, the maturity to be self-directed and, yes, the ability to deal with setbacks and disappointments. Sometimes I wonder, “Why didn’t I do this 10 years ago?” The truth of the matter is I wasn’t as motivated then. Motivation may be the single biggest factor. For the older singer who is truly motivated to learn, grow, and be a strong self-advocate, returning to school may be worth the wait.
