Welcome to this year’s summer program issue! Each year, as I review programs (the exceptional ones, the mediocre ones, and the sometimes bad ones) and singers’ experiences (also exceptional, mediocre, and occasionally bad), I decide once again that having a positive experience at a summer program really comes down to one simple formula. Assess your own needs as a singer, then assess what a program has to offer. Match up as many of those as you can and you will significantly up your odds of getting what you want, need, and are paying for from a summer program.
Summer programs are also nicknamed “pay-to-sings.” And although often used negatively, as Christi Amonson clarifies in her column this month (p. 12), this isn’t actually a bad thing. “You pay tuition for college,” she writes, “why wouldn’t you invest in an opportunity for an intensive week or month of lessons and performing? Not only will you learn from new teachers and directors, you get to put aside all the other menial details of daily living for a short time to concentrate on what you love: opera!”
Once you recognize what you need from a program—learning a new role, singing with orchestra, furthering your vocal or language study, or putting yourself in a larger pond to see how you fare—then it’s time to evaluate programs. “Research, research, research,” writes Cindy Sadler in her column this month (p. 22). Sadler lays out three additional bullet points that singers often overlook for protecting yourself from a bad program—before it happens.
Some of that research you can begin right in this issue. The Summer Program 2016 Highlights (p. 54) is full of snapshots—in both pictures and written word—of various programs and what they offered last summer and will offer next. The 2017 Summer Program Directory (p. 50) gives you another quick glance at even more programs. Do they offer a role? Can you sing with orchestra? What’s the faculty-to-student ratio? And don’t forget that the online directories as well as the CS magazine online archives contain even more to inform your research.
But what happens if, for whatever reason, you find yourself at a program that isn’t meeting your needs or simply isn’t delivering on its promises? Sadler also addresses that sticky and difficult situation. She says to remember that you are the consumer who is paying for a product. And there are ways to respectfully hold programs accountable and stand up for yourself without burning bridges.
Determining needs as a singer is important in other areas as well. Sometimes it’s standing up for what’s right, for you and your fellow singers. Jessica Tobacman reports this month on four Young Artist Programs that ask for a singer’s height and weight on their application form (p. 44). Hear from two of these programs about why they included the question in the first place and from one that is removing it for the 2017 audition season. Why? Because singers made their objections known and this company listened.
Sometimes assessing needs means thinking beyond yourself to those of the audience, the composers, and the music. Renowned baritone Kim Josephson hadn’t really ever considered this until a chance encounter one winter night on a train through Switzerland. Read about his unforgettable experience that is still shaping how he views music some decades later (p. 62).
Getting the necessary education and training for a singing career requires a huge investment of time, energy, resources, and money. It is not for the faint of heart. Better understanding your own and others’ relevant needs is the first step. May this issue help you avoid the mediocre, shun the bad, and then find the exceptional ways to meet those needs.
