It’s spring and rejection letters are in the air. Singers across the nation are camping out by phones and mailboxes, anxiously hoping for notifications so they know where they’ll be spending their summer and whether it will involve several weeks of fabulous intensive singing and study or months of day-job drudgery. Sadly, the programs don’t have room for everyone—but that doesn’t have to mean a summer without song. If you didn’t make the cut this year, or can’t go to a program for other reasons, you can still have a successful summer of singing.
Here’s a sample of a summer-long program that anyone can undertake to improve their singing and their career in time for the fall audition season. This summer, you’re going to spiff up your portfolio, your audition package, and your image. You’re going to learn new works, sing several concerts, complete at least one major project, fundraise, prepare for your fall audition season, and establish some valuable new contacts. This is a lot of work, but if you spend time on it every day, just as you would in a program, you will have a great deal to show for your “summer off.”
This month, we’ll discuss how to use the month of June to jumpstart your own, intensive, DIY summer. Look for parts 2 and 3 in the June and July issues of Classical Singer.
June 1-7: Ready . . .
This week is about preparation. Before you start any program, you need to make a time commitment and set deadlines. You also need have all your materials and equipment in place. Don’t be tempted to do this as you go along—take the time to get organized. (You might be surprised at how much work it can be.)
Assignment 1:
Contact some other local singers who may be in the same boat. See if you can get a few on board to do this program with you. Your goal is to form a dedicated group to study and perform together and share some of the organizational work. But if you have to go it alone, don’t worry! This will still work.
Assignment 2:
Sit down with your calendar or PDA and block out time every single day that you are going to spend on your summer singing project. Block out time for organizational work, career work, musical study, rehearsal, and lessons.
Select three potential performance dates towards the end of each month.
Select an August deadline for sending out audition packets.
Set weekly deadlines for each task.
It is essential that you commit to these deadlines in writing. You can change them if need be, but you must commit to them.
Assignment 3:
Choose your major musical project.
Role Study
Identify three roles or other works you want to be able to add to your résumé by the end of the summer. These should be core roles for your repertoire, things you are ready to sing and be hired for now. Choose a leading role, a comprimario role, and a “foot-in-the-door” role in your Fach.
If you are starting out or starting over, chances are no one is going to hire you straight off for a lead, or even a large comprimario. Therefore, it’s a great idea to punch up your résumé with roles that can get your foot in the door, that show your work ethic and what you can do on stage. Think along the lines of one of the nuns in Suor Angelica, the stevedores in Il tabarro, the myriad of small roles in La traviata or Rigoletto, or one of the suitors or wives in Merry Widow. Even if you don’t have much experience on your résumé, showing that you’re constantly working and have roles ready to go is worth something. And if you have small, useful roles already learned and memorized, that’s an additional incentive for an opera company to give you the break you need.
DIY opera
If you’ve been able to assemble a group, choose an opera role you’ve always wanted to learn. Pool your money for a coach/accompanist. Schedule regular meetings, and at the end of the summer, give a concert performance at someone’s church or a nursing home—or find a student director who’s dying for some experience and put on a bare bones staged production. You could even do an evening of scenes and choose an act from three different operas to mount. Treat it like a theater repertory company: you might star in one act, sing a comprimario role in another, and chorus in a third.
Major Recital/Recording
Now is the perfect time to get busy on a singing project you’ve been putting off. Look at your calendar for the fall and commit to a date for a performance or a recording. Sit down with your calendar for the summer and, working backwards, schedule dress rehearsals, practice sessions, and deadlines (including musical deadlines, dates by which a certain piece will be ready, and organizational deadlines).
Make appointments for lessons and coachings in advance. If your regular teacher and coach are going to be out of town, here’s your opportunity to work with new people (just as you’d be doing at a program). If there’s no one in town to work with, make plans to travel several times to some place where you can work with someone.
Assignment 4:
Spend some time every day this week gathering the items and information you need for your summer-long singing self-improvement project. Here’s a preliminary checklist:
Calendar or PDA
Three-ring binder with index tabs and/or database program on your computer
Copies of your résumé, bio, cover letter, headshots, reviews, and production photos
Contact information for teachers, coach/accompanists, singers, and other contacts in the business
List of three new opera or oratorio roles, song cycles or sets, or major works with orchestra you want to learn
Music scores for the above
List of repertoire, including song literature, opera arias, and ensembles you have ready or could have ready to perform in public by the end of the month (it doesn’t matter how long or short this is)
Contact information for low-cost or free performance venues in your area
List of people who support your career, with contact information
List of local businesses that might be persuaded to support your career
List of local museums, art galleries, First Night (downtown revitalization programs), festivals, university summer kiddy music programs, nursing homes, retirement communities, vacation Bible schools, Mother’s Day Out programs, coffeehouses with open mics, libraries, concert series, churches, clubs, and organizations
Exercise equipment and clothing, gym membership, or enrollment in some type of exercise class
Phone numbers, policies, and prices of personal shopping services, makeup counters, and salons from the major department stores in your area (guys, you’re not off the hook!)
Wish list of companies you’d like to audition for in the fall, with complete contact information and audition requirements (check their websites)
Standing Assignment:
Fulfill your scheduled practice, lesson, and coaching times. Spend some time going over old repertoire that you could pull together for a performance later this month.
June 8-14: Set . . .
Assignment 5:
Spend one day this week organizing all the information you’ve gathered in your binder.
Set up tabs with the following categories:
Portfolio
Cover letters
Contacts—Singing Business
Contacts—Fans, Supporters, Patrons
Venues
Image
Auditions
Place the information you’ve gathered in the appropriate category. Voilà, it’s at your fingertips! You’ll refer to and add to this binder all summer. Of course, if you prefer, you can create computer databases to do the same. Just make sure they are easy to access and use.
Assignment 6:
Time to make phone calls. Many teachers and coaches don’t leave town for the entire summer, or at all. Find out who will be around that you would like to work with. Make appointments—at least one a week, if you can.
If you’ve been able to assemble a group of singers, now is the time to organize assignments for the summer. Each member of the group should take a turn at contacting master teachers or coaches to create your own series of masterclasses; as well as arranging for space and a pianist. Research fees first, appoint a group treasurer, and have members buy a subscription to the series so that you can pay the master teacher and the accompanist no matter what.
Other phone calls to make: the list of venues you compiled. Now is the time to set up as many concert dates as you think you can handle. Choose something simple for your first time out, a nursing home or church where a short Sunday afternoon program would be welcomed.
Your goal should be to perform a program at least once a month, or more, if you have the time. Remember, you can repeat programs at different venues. And of course, you may be able to charge admission—an added bonus.
Assignment 7:
If you’re doing a full-length opera, it’s time to make role assignments, set up a rehearsal schedule, and get cracking. Set your performance date and assign jobs: props master, publicist, house manager, wardrobe mistress, etc.
If you’ve chosen a recital/recording, investigate repertoire, sound engineers, recording sites, pianists, copyrights for your repertoire (it’d be nice if you were able to sell the recording at your concert), venue, and publicity.
If you’re going to concentrate on learning roles, you may be able to use parts of them on your concerts this summer. Target the arias and ensembles that will work best, and program them on specific concerts.
June 15-21: . . . Go!
You’ve spent the first two weeks laying a great deal of groundwork. Some of it will not be resolved during those two weeks, so stay on top of it. Meanwhile, now’s the time to start enjoying the fruits of your labor.
Assignment 8:
Hold your first masterclass.
Assignment 9:
Keep up your voice lessons, coachings, and rehearsal schedules.
June 21-30: Performance week
Hopefully, this week all your hard work will culminate in a performance. The location is not very important—just get up and sing in front of people. If the best you can organize on short notice is a family member’s living room, that’s OK. The important thing is to perform as much as possible this summer. One of the advantages of doing a summer program is the intensity. With performances scheduled close together and a lot of new repertoire to learn, you’re forced to think on your feet and challenge all your skills—just like you would as a busy professional singer. It’s exhausting, but also intoxicating; and you’ll be surprised at what you can do.
Remember, the first two weeks of this program—in which you’re doing the majority of the prep work—are the hardest. (You may want to start even earlier than June 1 to give yourself more time to get everything together.) You want to concentrate on study and performance.
Next month, we’ll step the performances up a notch and start work on your portfolio and audition package. We’ll also start discussing how you can turn your summer’s work into a fundraiser for your fall audition season.
