In preparation for this commemorative December issue, Editor Sara Thomas and I spent hours and hours looking through and cataloging every issue of Classical Singer and its predecessor, The New York Opera Newsletter. For me, as the daughter of Founder and Editor-in-Chief CJ Williamson/Carla Wood and Publisher David Wood, the task elicited profound memories—a few issues even provoked a tear or two. You see, Classical Singer is as much a part of my childhood as our family cat, our family vacations, and memories of Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The idea for this article in general was piqued when we came across the following anonymous letter to the editor in the May 1997 issue of The New York Opera Newsletter: “TNYON apparently believes that singers need to be online lest they forfeit important opportunities. While access to the Internet and the Web is a convenience, is entertaining, and can be a source of good information, it is hardly a necessity. The Internet should not be considered a definitive source for anything. In addition, most of us are channeling large amounts of money into our training. It is impractical to suggest that we keep our home computers upgraded with the latest versions of everything, or that we purchase a laptop to take on the road in order to ‘stay connected.’ Those of us who cannot make these investments do not want to feel that we are out of the loop simply because we’re not online.”
Perhaps I’m simply a child of the Technological Age, but suddenly it became so clear just how much we have become—for better or for worse—addicted to this technology that we now take for granted as a part of everyday life. I wonder how many people still feel as this singer-letter writer felt in 1997.
I still remember the days when TNYON was designed on a tiny yellowish-cream-colored Mac Classic. How amazing that little computer was in those days! (It later became my personal computer in high school, good really only for solitaire by that point.) E-mail was the new fad. I remember signing on to America Online sometimes every other minute because I couldn’t wait to hear that melodious, “You’ve got mail!” (The mere thought produces evocative images of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks.) It was such a wondrous idea—a piece of mail that could be sent instantly. Is it any real surprise that e-mail became the new medium of communication for businesses?
In the Feb. 1996 issue of TNYON, we printed this statement on the Staff Directory page: “Great News! TNYON now has an Internet mailbox! Your letters to the editor can now be sent to TNYON via e-mail! Get in touch with us at: nyoperanl@aol.com. Please note: This address is for letters only. We are not yet able to accept any correspondence about ads, subscriptions, or other concerns via e-mail.”
My parents started TNYON because my mother, a newly-relocated East Coast singer, could not find the most current information about auditions in New York City or anything else a singer needed to know to further a budding career. Without Google and the myriad of opera company websites we have today, this task would still be just about impossible.
Let’s take a look back and see just how far we’ve come, paying homage to just how far technology has brought us in the past 20 years.
Headshots
Have you had headshots taken in the last couple years? Most photographers now use digital cameras. Legendary New York photographer Devon Cass makes particular use of this asset. Because the photos are digital, he can show his subjects pictures of themselves right during the photo shoot. “Once a subject sees that she is really looking good, she starts to come alive even more,” says Cass. “I used to have to really direct my subjects, but now I can show them 10 to 20 pictures right during the shoot, and then they get inspired from that.”
Cass takes anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 shots during a photo shoot (certainly a lot more to choose from than the days of one-at-a-time rolls of film). Photographers have streamlined the whole process. Singers don’t have to wait nearly as long to see their proofs or make their choices. Cass burns high-resolution images to a CD that the singer can pick up the same day as the photo shoot. The singer e-mails Cass the number of the photo she has selected. Cass touches it up, and sends it off to the lab for the final prints.
Personal Websites—The New Business Card
I know that CS champions personal websites, but doesn’t it seem like anyone who’s anyone has a personal website? Something that used to be reserved only for huge stars, is now available to any singer at any point in his or her career. Many companies, Young Artist Programs, and competitions rely heavily on singer websites to give them an idea of a singer without requesting headshots and other paper products that were once a necessity.
I knew that personal websites were significant and aided a singer’s career a great deal, but it wasn’t until recently that I personally saw why everyone should have one. In my current position as artist logistics and operations coordinator of the Utah Symphony and Opera, I was asked to find a singer’s contact information so that the artistic director could offer her a contract for an upcoming concert. She had been recommended to us and had sung for us, but we didn’t have any of her materials, or perhaps they had been misplaced.
I turned to the Internet first, figuring that she would probably have a personal website, but to no avail! On the second page of my Google search, I found the university where she was adjunct faculty, but it gave no e-mail address. I called the phone number on the contact page for her, but reached a colleague who didn’t know her phone number or e-mail and was quite busy. I followed the suggestion to call the front desk of the music department, reached a voice mail, and left a detailed message. No call back. I tried again later—voice mail again. Sigh.
A day or two later, this singer finally returned my call and I was able to get direct contact information for her and pass it along to the artistic director, who offered her the contract. I wondered to myself, however: How many times does this happen and not end well for the singer in question? Perhaps when the singer is not readily available, the person seeking to find that singer just moves on to someone who is more easily accessible?
Perhaps we are spoiled because we can answer most any question, or find a recipe—or anything we want to buy or research. We turn on the computer and have our answer 10 seconds later. With answers so readily available, it’s a wonder anyone would choose not to take advantage of it, especially when a personal website can have everything instantly at your fingertips: headshot, résumé, sound clips, etc.
As the CS AudComps coordinator (www.classicalsinger.com/convention/audcomps), I use an application option that is processed entirely via a singer’s personal website. We accomplish all the initial prescreening without a single piece of paper. All of our AudComps prescreening judges even do their evaluations online.
Universities are a great benchmark for where the future of online applications lies, given that their target application market is young, technologically savvy students. Halley Shefler is dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at the Boston Conservatory. Much of their application procedures are entirely online and Shefler foresees more technological advances in the future of admissions, including up-to-the-minute blogs, better online communications, virtual tours of campuses, and possibly, MP3 submissions for auditions.
Perhaps in the future, all application systems will move online: a paperless singer’s world.
Do-It-Yourself Materials
With all of the equipment advances, it certainly has become a “do-it-yourself” world. Even 10 years ago, the thought of orchestrating a professional-quality recording was nearly impossible without allocating thousands of dollars to such a project. In the May 1992 issue of TNYON, we featured an article on making demo cassette tapes. Can you imagine submitting a cassette tape to a competition or an audition nowadays? Why not just send an eight-track or vinyl? Very few companies or organizations would even consider the application.
Today every aspect of your career (except, perhaps, for high-quality headshot prints) is completely doable at home. With ever-more-sophisticated computer programs, designing a résumé with just the right touch and printing it out at home—or on your travel printer while you’re on a job—is a no-brainer. High-tech recording equipment has become affordable to the individual. You can use a Mini Disc recorder, and the music editing programs on your CD-burning laptop, and turn last night’s coaching or recital into a demo tape to mail out the next day. With your MP3 player, you can learn your roles while in the car or at the gym. With the cell phone, Blackberry, or hand-held computer combination of your choice, you can check your e-mail when you show up 15 minutes early for a coaching, instead of thumbing through a magazine you don’t care about (unless of course it’s Classical Singer—then you read it cover to cover).
It is easy, with the right equipment, to stay completely on top of your career, regardless of whether you’re on the road or on the subway. Can we even imagine life otherwise? I panic if I accidentally leave my cell phone at home when I run to the store, much less forget to bring my laptop when I’m going out of town (gasp!), and I’m not even a singer—unless guilt by association counts.
Opera Goes Global
Last year, the Met started broadcasting its operas live, in high-definition performance transmissions, to theaters across the country. This technology is bringing opera to a wider audience. For the 2006-07 season alone, the Met’s box offices reported 325,000 viewers. In an effort to attract even more people to opera in the 2007-08 season, the Met made a deal with EMI Classics to release five of the performances on DVD.
“With the expansion of our network of movie theaters around the world, we anticipate an audience of 1 million attendees in movie theaters next season for our HD transmissions,” says Met general manager Peter Gelb in a recent press release. “In the grand opera version of a movie rollout, we plan on subsequent releases in many other formats, including DVD, which is why we are very pleased with our new arrangements with EMI.”
Wendy Bryn Harmer is a young opera singer, who finished her residency in the Lindemann Young Artist Program at the Metropolitan Opera last summer. She is now on the Met’s regular artist roster. “People in Wisconsin can see a live event at the Met,” Harmer says. “I’m recognized by people who have only seen me on film!”
After this somewhat nostalgic look back on technology’s advances in the past 20 years, the thought occurs to me: What awaits us in the next 20 years? It’s difficult to imagine something else that could change the face of business and technology the way e-mail and the internet has (except maybe teleporters—why shouldn’t you be able to take an audition in Germany during your lunch break?), but whatever technological advances lie ahead, CS stands at the ready. And in the December 2027 issue of Classical Singer, see the article on how to schedule a teleportation audition tour . . .
