As inflation rises, singers creatively compensate for increased costs while wages stagnate. Read on to learn how professionals at various stages are adjusting their mindsets and making choices that help them continue their artistic work in the face of financial challenges.
An article published in The New York Times on March 9th confirmed what we already knew and felt in our daily existence: for the first time in 40 years, Americans consider inflation one of their top concerns. The Consumer Price Index rose by 7.9% through February from a year ago, the fastest rate of annual inflation since 1982. According to CNBC, gas, groceries, and shelter were the biggest contributors to the price surges, while inflation-adjusted earnings declined 2.6% over the past year. At the time this article is being written, Russia’s attack on Ukraine is exacerbating pandemic inflation, which is expected to continue to rise.
In the opera industry, as performers’ employment is often temporary and uncertain, ensuring basic survival while building a career is currently an even more complex balancing act. Voice lessons, coachings, and audition/performance travel are main expense factors, not to mention scores, headshots, websites, hall rentals, fitness, and much more. Alertness and adaptability coupled with a willingness to expand into other fields have become essential.
Six singers and a vocal coach/artist program director share here how they have been navigating this difficult period of inflation.
Cris Frisco
Baritone Robert Balonek is grateful that, at least, lessons that usually cost about $100 to $150+ per hour haven’t changed in price. At the beginning of the pandemic, Balonek moved to California with his wife and their cat. Since his teachers and coaches were in New York, he continued his lessons via Zoom, using MIDI files in place of an accompanist and often opting for shorter sessions. Managing travel costs has been a savvy feat: when many were avoiding travel, Balonek found $100 flights across the country with the flexibility to switch dates without change fees, so he bought several tickets in advance. “Then, when I moved to California, I literally googled ‘classical music’ within a 50-mile radius and actually got a couple of gigs off of that, like a with Opera Modesto.”
During the lockdown summer, Balonek took a 500-hour software engineering immersive at General Assembly, a US-based global software engineering company, and now he supplements his income doing analytics for marketing companies and building websites. In California, he also drives for wine tours. Community plays an important role for him, and online groups, such as YAC (Young Artist Community) Tracker, can be very helpful. “Many of us are on email and text threads with each other, and I’m also friends with everyone at my agency, Randsman Artists. We share information about jobs and role openings and we recommend each other.”
Robert Balonek
To combat surging food costs, Balonek improved his cooking. When he stays in hotels for gigs, the included breakfasts prove valuable: “I’ve become the king of continental breakfasts. I have it and then pack a lunch for myself with breakfast stuff, which saves hundreds of dollars. I’ve also learned to grow things: I have, like a field of scallions right now!”
Leah Hawkins
For mezzo-soprano Eugenia Forteza, periods of inflation are not new: “I have a disclaimer: I grew up in hyperinflation times in Argentina, so this is not as shocking to me as it might be to those who are dealing with it for the first time.” She considers herself lucky to live in a rent-stabilized apartment in New York’s Washington Heights. To save on food, she and her husband travel to Long Island grocery stores where prices are lower. Also an actor, Forteza is grateful to have worked on the film Cabrini for most of last year: “That was a completely different world: everything was paid for, and I wasn’t spending any money. With singing auditions, I’ve been selective because they can cost you a fortune. At least some application fees have gone down.”
The pandemic gave Forteza time to expand her physical training, and she has been working online with The Musical Athlete, which she highly recommends. She also suggests using ClassPass, an app that works on a credit system and gives people access to book at various gyms, studios, salons, and spas. For online coachings, she has been using JamKazam, a platform that enables musicians to rehearse and perform together from remote locations without the sound lag that can happen on Zoom. A dynamic entrepreneur, Forteza founded and runs 360° of Opera, an online platform that promotes opera as well as a sense of community and opportunities for communication.
Mezzo-soprano Tesia Kwarteng is also a multidisciplinary artist. She covered the role of Ruby/Sinner Woman in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones at the Metropolitan Opera and tries to look on the positive side: “At least houses are back open, and people are returning to work.” While she lives in New York City, she just closed a show where she was driving to work every day, experiencing the “pain at the pump.” For now, she is thankful to have another contract coming up at the Met and not worry about getting to work from out of town.
“It’s certainly a precarious time but, as always, art is a balm that brings people relief.” Kwarteng feels for the young singers out there: “Already this career is like pushing a boulder up a hill. The pandemic thwarted that momentum—and if you were still in school, it’s almost like you’re at the bottom of the hill again trying to figure out which way to even push. But there is hope in community and in leaning on each other.”
For soprano Leah Hawkins, inflation was an awakening and she started saving much more than before. “I was in this mindset where I didn’t think about the future as far as finances were concerned. Sometimes as an artist you just think about the here and now and needing to pay your current bills. But we of all people need to think ahead, 20 or 30 years. What kind of savings do we have? Do we have an IRA or investments? I was lax about how I handled my money, and now it’s clear that I can’t be that way.”
Eugenia Forteza
Living in New York City, the costs are higher, but the wages need to be proportionate, and sometimes there is no choice but to turn down offers. “If I am offered certain gigs, of course I would want to do them—but at a certain point, they’re not worth doing if the amount of money paid is too low. After I pay my manager and everything that’s involved, then I’d go home with only a third of the pay.” Coaching expenses haven’t affected Hawkins as much. She completed the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Program in 2020, and before it, she had done the Washington Opera Young Artists Program for three years: “After several years of coaching, I only do it when I absolutely need it now.”
Soprano Joanna Parisi is boldly forging a new path to realize her vision in bridging opera and technology. Currently, she attends Ada Developers Academy in Seattle, a selective school in software development, while also starting a master’s degree in computer science at the University of Pennsylvania. “My life experience in opera gives me a lot of clarity and traction about what to pursue in the arts, and there’s so much that can be done in technology. Then technology, most importantly, can come back and serve the arts.”
Frank Rosamond
Like Hawkins, Parisi believes that accepting less pay is not necessarily the best choice. She recently sang in a concert-form Andrea Chenier in Copenhagen. “I was very firm and clear in my expectations for the concert and the travel conditions. They were smart and kind enough to put the artists first and make financial adjustments in other ways. But even if you have to accept less pay, the standard should still be high.” The pandemic and the inflation have made Parisi recommit to that high artistic standard, and she has been taking voice lessons in New York with Michael Paul. “I was always a big believer in not going overboard in spending for voice lessons and coachings, but to have a self-directed discipline and study time. Of course, teachers deserve to be paid—inflation is affecting them as well.”
She believes this time is especially critical to invest in developing on various fronts. While it remains ideal to devote everything to the art form, being multifaceted is important and can enrich opera. “No one should be afraid to be bold and branch out, because it absolutely does not affect your worth as an artist.”
Joanna Parisi
Baritone Frank Rosamond holds two additional jobs: as office manager at a school and as a voice and piano teacher at a private music school. He is glad that his students continue to take lessons. However, he has had to reduce his own voice lessons to once every two or three weeks: “When you’re having to work two jobs to pay rent, gas, and utilities and put food on the table, it does diminish the amount of time for lessons. Also, finding a coach in a city like L.A., you’re probably looking at $75 an hour, and right now I don’t have the disposable income for it.” Some of his colleagues have opted for intensive training bursts: doing eight lessons with a teacher over a month, being on their own for a few months and then returning to the teacher.
Prior to moving to L.A., Rosemond worked with Knoxville Opera, and he is now trying to find his way by applying to Young Artist Programs and choruses, such as with the Los Angeles Opera, while also going to competitions like the Pasadena Vocal Competition. He stays in touch with his mentors and friends in the business and is grateful to have a supportive partner at home and two puppies. “I try to focus on staying happy in life. When I am happy in my general life, it’s a lot easier to stay optimistic in my artistic life.”
Tesia Kwarteng
Pianist, conductor, and vocal coach Cris Frisco speaks from the perspective of both coach and music director of the Opera Memphis Handorf Company Artist Program: “The spaces we rent cost more, and fewer people are traveling for coaching.” He works with singers via Zoom if necessary. “It has been really important to me to keep my own rate affordable for singers. I also hope people are taking advantage of the current available government support. New York opened up grants for artists [such as the $125 million initiative Creatives Rebuild New York].” Similar programs have been underway in San Francisco, St. Paul, Minnesota, and elsewhere throughout the country.
“Unfortunately, coming out of the pandemic, in our industry there’s not a ton of extra money for companies to increase artist fees commensurately with the increase in expenses,” says Frisco. “How we compensate young artists is always going to be a concern. As an industry we need to do better, to make sure that it’s possible for people who don’t already have wealth to be able to have a singing career.”
