Is the score ALWAYS the final word?

Happy New Year! Whoever reads this, I hope you had a wonderful holiday season.

I am slowly crawling out of my post-Christmas hibernation. I was crazy busy through Christmas! I was in Baton Rouge until just days before Christmas, so coming home, I was in a crunch to get my house ready for Christmas. Two church services (a third was cancelled due to the very cold weather we got here in Nashville) Christmas Eve, another Christmas morning, and eight people at my house for Christmas dinner made for a very busy few days! I’m thankful to have had a week to rest, catch up, and enjoy the quiet that the week between Christmas and New Years often brings.

I have this question that’s been rolling around in my head for the past couple of months, and it all started in one of my coaching while I was preparing for Amahl. There are a couple of spots in that score that I believe don’t necessarily need to be sung exactly as notated by the composer. My coach - who is a top notch musician, and whose opinion I very much respect - believes otherwise.

Now, in each case, I could sing the spot exactly as notated, and I could also explain exactly why I felt the need to sing it differently. This was not a case of learning something incorrectly, or of being inexactness stemming from not paying attention to detail. I fully knew that if I got to Baton Rouge, and the composer or director asked me to sing it as written, that I could and would make the change.

I left my coaching that day with a question swirling around my brain: Is the score ALWAYS the final word? Is it my job as a singer to find the right inner dialogue, the dramatic reasoning that makes every note, word, and rhythm in the score work exactly as the composer wrote it? Or is it my job to serve the dramatic and musical intent of the piece as a whole, which could provide some….wiggle room for interpretation?

To be clear, this is NOT a discussion of who might be right or wrong, and I definitely don’t have a diffinitive answer that fits every case. I did put this question to some of my Amahl cast mates at breakfast one day, and one of them gave the best answer I could possibly think of:

“Yes.”

Yes, we, as singers DO need to serve the score as written by the composer. We should be able to find a dramatic reasoning, an inner dialogue, or whatever other tool we need to use to make the music make sense. For our own sake, our colleagues’ sakes, and for the sake of our audience, we need to find this reasoning, otherwise we are just making (hopefully) pretty sounds on a stage. Pretty sounds are great, but they are not, in and of themselves, music. And they are certainly not what invites an audience to invest their mental and emotional energy on a performance.

And yes, it is sometimes appropriate to make small adjustments when it serves the overall intent of the piece. This is the artistic part of singing. Music is more than black dots on a page, and if a small change helps to bring it to life for your audience, I say try it out. We frequently make decisions to change text that be offensive to today’s audience, and I think that flexibility is also available to other aspects of the score. That said, those changes should be made sparingly, and they should be a decision that you, as the performer, consciously and intentionally make. And you’d better be able to justify it, and also to change it back if a conductor or director tells you to.

In the case of Amahl, I wasn’t asked to go back to singing exactly as written. Thankfully, neither conductor and stage director even seemed to question the spots where I’d decided to sing things a little differently than notated by Mr. Menotti, but maybe that was because a) I didn’t ask permission, and b) because I was careful to sing in a way that served the drama that was happening onstage, and that was being cultivated by the whole artistic team.

So what do you think? I’d love to hear from others on this topic!

As far as what comes next, I have my first faculty concert February 9, and Jeffrey Wood (my collaborator) and I will be premiering his new pair of Psalm settings! I don’t think I need to explain why I am excited about this. I’ve loved singing Jeff’s music since I started singing it as a graduate student, so to have him write me a piece is just beyond.

I’m also teaming up with one of my singer friends to learn a new role. We’ll be keeping each other accountable as we both learn the role of Princess Eboli in Don Carlo. And as always, I’ve got a couple of auditions to prepare for.

All that said, here’s my to-do list for this week:

• Prepare my Don Carlo score and section it off into manageable chunks.

• Make a practice schedule for the week that includes what I need to learn for Eboli and my concert, and keep pace with it in my practicing

• Set up rehearsals for my faculty concert!

The Opposite of an Audition Horror Story

Clearly consistency has not been my strong suit when it comes to this blog. That’s not been the case at all when it comes to other areas of singing/career (practicing, sending emails, etc.), but nonetheless, I will try to do better, because that’s why this blog started in the first place right? To encourage constant improvement.

I’ll say, it’s been a fulfilling fall. I got to sing my first Elijah, I’ve sung some really great auditions, I’m learning a new-to-me role (coming up in December!), I’ve got a small but really great group of students at my university job. Life is good.

It’s funny…we all have some audition horror stories, but I had a new experience on a short two-audition trip last month that I feel like needs to be shared. The first one was one of those really satisfying auditions where all the pieces fall magically into place, and I sang probably one of the best auditions I’ve sung in my life. I sang my new Verdi aria, and when I reached the end, the AD said something to the effect of “Well that’s a hell of a way to start an audition!” After my second piece, he asked me to wrap things up with my pianist and, if I had a moment, to please stop in his office for a chat on the way out.

I’ll say, we had a great 15-minute conversation. He wanted to know about The Copper Queen I did back in June. He wanted to know about my background. He showed me pictures of the venue this opera company uses. As we were saying our goodbyes, he said “You know, I’m always glad to hear talent, and you are. I really appreciate you coming down here, and because of that, I want to help share your expense.” And he handed me a little bit of cash.

Now, this was not a large amount of money, but anyone in the know understands that between gas/airfare, accommodations, travel meals, etc., singers spend quite a bit of their hard earned money on auditions. Normally that cost is completely shouldered by the singers. Never in my life have I had a company offer any help, so this gesture absolutely FLOORED me, and I’m really glad I took the time to sing for this company!

Interestingly, the second audition on that trip was very friendly (there is some overlap in staff with Marble City Opera, who I sang for in June), but I didn’t feel the audition went particularly well. I was a little surprised (but very pleased!) when they offered me a role! I’ll be singing The Mother in Amahl for Opéra Louisiane this December, and I couldn’t be more pleased.

So I’ve been stuffing Amahl into my brain since I wrapped things up with Elijah, and cheering my students on in their progress (seriously, they've all been crushing it this fall), and pestering more companies about auditions. Oh, and I’m headed to Knoxville and back tomorrow for a voice lesson. As I said…life is good.

Ok, here’s my to-do list for the next week:

• I’ve got the notes and rhythms learned, so I’m planning memorize the first 33 pages of Amahl (basically, the first half of the opera)

• I need to set up a few coaching to work Amahl also!

• Work on getting some regional auditions set up around my time in Baton Rouge

• Prepare for an upcoming audition

• And, oh yeah…I still have a faculty recital set for the beginning of February that I should practice for!

Till next time!

Room for growth

I’ll admit, my three hours per day is coming in fits and starts.

I’m certainly not perfect, but I will always be pushing myself to be better than I was yesterday, so I’m going to say the last two weeks leaves room for growth. Not that I did nothing - that’s not the case at all, but was I focused on music three hours a day? Maybe for four of the 10 days in question.

Here’s what I did do:

• I made my practice plan for Elijah, and I’ve mostly stuck to it. As promised, I’m sharing a picture of said schedule above!

• I’ve been spending quite a bit of time transferring markings sent by the conductor into my score. These will make the rehearsal process much easier, and because there are a lot of markings to transfer, I definitely didn’t want to leave these to the last minute. It’s also easier to learn the specified articulations, etc. as I go rather than trying to add them in later.

• I recorded new audition videos! They are edited and posted on my Youtube channel, and I’ve linked a few of them in the media page here on my website.

• I started reading The Science of Storytelling. Stay tuned for my thoughts on this.

I always learn something (often its several somethings) when I’m tackling a new piece. Back in the spring when I was singing The Copper Queen, it was the art of vocal pacing. With Elijah, it’s singing in the lower part of my range for an extended period of time without pressing, or trying to manufacture the sound as I think it should be. Truth be told, the mezzo solos in Elijah sit in a part of my voice that I’ve always struggled with. Not because I can’t sing that low, but because it’s not where my voice naturally wants to sit.

That said, being a singer means continually being given new toys to play with, and I’m finding that if I just sing the dang music with my own dang voice - without trying to sound like a dang contralto - the music sings just fine. Without major effort on my part.

Basically, I just need to remember to do all the things I regularly tell my students to do (Don’t press…let your air do the work….keep the “point” on the voice and just sing the way you speak). What a comfort it is to know that I actually do know what I’m talking about!

Alright, here is my to-do list for this week:

• Keep up with my three-hours-a-day of music work. I’m going to be setting a timer to hold myself accountable to this.

• Keep going with my learning for Elijah - I’ve got three more weeks!

• Keep reading The Science of Storytelling

• Spend some time emailing companies this week (my admin time was spent transferring markings last week), and also catch up on some bookkeeping.

• I also need to reach out to my teacher and set up a lesson!

Return from Summer Break

Ok, so clearly I gave myself a bit of a summer break.

I did practice most days, but there wasn’t much of anything to report back. I took the time to enjoy some quiet, to play in my garden, and just to rest. As you can see in the picture above, I’ve had some summery visitors!

Onward.

I’ve officially survived the first week of classes at my university job. Honestly, the long summer break was good for me. It let me rest, and remember that I actually do like to teach. Unfortunately, while I started with a full teaching load, my studio has shrunk to just over half-capacity. Remembering that I’m missing all the income I was getting from the high school last year, this is not great news for my finances.

Thankfully, I have some great friends who’ve patiently talked through a few ideas with me. I’ve almost got this figured out. Stay tuned for more about this!

I’ve had a couple of very quiet days while staying at a friend’s house taking care of her sick pup while she’s out of town, which has given me some brain space to do a little goal setting and planning.

I’ve gotten away from my 3 hours/day of music the last couple of months, and while I needed the break, I feel like it’s time to get back to it. That said, I’m going to plan to split those three hours across administrative tasks, reading/language learning, and practicing. I’m thinking 45 min each of admin and reading/languages, and 1.5 hours of actual practicing. I’m spitballing here. I may get into it and change things around to better suit my needs.

I’ve also got some new music to learn. I’ll be singing my first Elijah this fall, and I’m super excited about it! This piece has been on my wishlist for some time, so I was really pumped when an offer showed up in my email a couple of weeks ago.

On top of that, remember the concert I was supposed to sing in June that I had to cancel due to illness? My collaborator and I are scheduled to perform it as a faculty concert in February. We are adding another set of songs though, so I have to learn them!

So now that I’ve outlined some long term goals, here’s what I’m thinking for the coming week:

• Starting Monday (because I believe in weekends), spend at least 3 hours per day during the week on music, divided as described above. Get on with emailing arts organizations during admin time!

• Get hold of an Elijah score (I’ve ordered one, but it’s not here yet. Thankfully I can borrow one from my church choir’s library until it arrives) tomorrow. Plan out the learning for this, and get to work! I’ll be posting my learning plan for accountability.

• Pull my binder for my faculty concert, add in the new piece. Plan out the learning/practicing (I’ll post this too) and get cracking!

• Oh, and I need to record new audition videos this week! This was supposed to happen last week, but we had to postpone because I hurt my back (womp, womp).

Cancelled Concerts and a Funny Story

It’s good to be home!

It’s less than good that I came down sick just three days after arriving home! Womp womp…

Disappointingly, the timing of my malady meant that I had to cancel my concert on June 11. Thankfully, we had already planned to give a repeat performance as a faculty concert at APSU in February, so all the hard work and hours of rehearsing are not in vain.

Thankfully, whatever upper respiratory thing it was (all my covid tests came back negative), I was well enough to get back out and sing at the beginning of this past week, so I didn’t have to miss any more gigs or auditions!

Two outreach performances with Nashville Opera, and a quick trip to St. Louis for an audition (my first Verdi audition!) made for a busy week!

Fun story about my trip to St. Louis: the morning of my audition, I asked the hotel I stayed at if they had a room where I might be able to warm up. I explained what I do for a living, and that this activity is loud enough that I didn’t want to upset the other hotel guests by doing this in my room. They kindly obliged, and allowed me to use a conference room off the lobby. I probably sang for 30 minutes. I did not consider that the guests eating breakfast just outside the door might be able to hear me.

Slightly embarrassingly, I stepped out of the conference room to applause. Apparently one of the guests thought I was a recording until the staff told him there was a person singing in the other room. He told me, “I didn’t expect to get opera with my breakfast, but it was wonderful!”

Thankfully, my audition went as well as my warmup! It’s always a good feeling to be able to walk out of an audition room feeling like if you don’t get hired, it’s not your fault!

This week is another busy one! I’ve got an Opera on Tap show Thursday, and another gig with Nashville Opera on Saturday. I have to sing Rossini this week. Pray for me, ya’ll.

Here’s my to-do’s for the week:

1. Memorize the Rossini duet I have to sing on Saturday (I’ve sung it before, but I had the luxury of being able to use music last time!)

2. Email five organizations

3. Wrap up things with my p/t job at the Symphony by the end of the month

4. Move my body every day so my lungs feel normal again!

Opening Night Thoughts

June is a month of premiers for me! I’ve got two of them within the space of just a month, and a generally busy month of performing. I will not complain about this!

Tonight is the opening of the stage premier of The Copper Queen, and honestly, I’m over the moon to be a part of this show. This is a tough show - musically, emotionally, vocally - and the cast and production team has handled every twist and unexpected turn with all the care and grace I could possibly hope for.

I’ll admit, the role of Addison Moore took me a while to really enjoy singing. Not because of the vocal difficulties (and it is a tough role in that respect - Addison is a study in vocal pacing), but because her personality is so opposite from my own. I got started with staging rehearsals and realized I was going to have to squash all of my own instinctive body language. Addison is neither confident nor bold, and I’ve never had play a character who has made herself so intentionally small. Small is not a word I would use to describe myself, and I think most people who have spent time around me would agree with this. It was difficult to find empathy for Addison. THIS has been my biggest challenge with this role, and I’m really grateful to our stage director (who also happens to be the librettist) John De Los Santos for his guidance and behind-the-scenes insight into Addison.

It’s also been really interesting to see my cast mates grow into their roles. Many of these characters are difficult to sympathize with, and everyone has done the hard work it takes to play these characters in the most impactful ways. I am truly fortunate to sing with each of them!

I’ll head back to Nashville on Sunday, just in time to sing the final Beethoven 9 concert with the Nashville Symphony chorus. After seven years, I’m leaving my position as chorus librarian, and singing this piece about brotherly love seemed the only appropriate way to say farewell to that wonderful group of singers.

THEN, straight into rehearsals for my concert with Jeffrey Wood on June 11! We will be premiering his new setting of Psalm 130. In Hebrew. Pray for me ya’ll.

I'll say, this one feels very timely. Pianist/composer Jeffrey Wood and I have put together a concert that examines what happens to our faith (and I don’t just mean religious faith) in the face of human suffering. Night: Psalms and Canticles examines these challenges - progressing from a place of easy faith, through the silence and supposed indifference of God, to a more complex understanding of what it means to have faith.

Heavy, I know, but it feels especially important right now.

If you’d like to join us for this, in-person tickets can be found here. If June 11 is busy, or if you’re not near Nashville, you’ll be able to stream it June 22-July 3. I hope you’ll be able to join us!

Last week’s to-do’s are all done! My new Verdi aria is memorized, and I even sang it on a surprise audition this week! I’ll get another go at this on a short concert on June 12, and then I’ll sing it for another audition on June 17.

This week, I’m in performance mode, and then I’ll be switching gears to rehearsals and performance for the concert on June 11. Cheers!

Back again

Hello from Knoxville! It’s been a minute! Apologies for my long absence….except….no, I’m not sorry. I’ve been busy doing the things I missed so much during the peak of the pandemic.

First, a bit of catching up:

• My return from Spain dumped me straight into audition season. I recorded some new videos (I’m real proud of this one posted above!), made a trip to NYC, sang a few auditions, and then flew straight to South Carolina for my brother’s wedding.

• All the while, I was rehearsing and prepping for a New Year’s concert to be recorded the week after my return to Nashville.

• Christmas gigs were a thing this year!

• January marked the beginnings of my preparations for The Copper Queen (I’m in rehearsals for this right now!). Also for this concert I have coming up in June!

• My duties with Opera on Tap Nashville have resumed, as has my job with the Symphony.

• And during all of this, I had something like 20 private students across two different schools!

I will say, it’s been a fulfilling, but exhausting time. I’m relearning my limits and now that the school year is done, I’m doing a some reevaluating with regards to where I want to put my time and energy.

Frankly, 20 private students was WAY to much. I started feeling burnt out around Thanksgiving. December was a welcome break, but by March and April, I felt like I had nothing left to give. This took a toll on my teaching. It also took a toll on my life outside of teaching. I felt like I only had half a brain for the last couple months. Singing was my escape, but time and energy was in short supply, and there were many days when it was simply not possible.

I’ve had a couple of weeks to rest (I feel like I could use a couple more) and reevaluate since the end of the school year. Here is what I know:

• I won’t be returning to the high school in the fall. I am so grateful that this opportunity came along when it did because it allowed me to completely refocus myself on music full time, but it was ultimately not a good fit. This will allow me to put my energy into teaching at the college in the fall, and to better control how much I am teaching.

• Ultimately, I want to be doing more singing than teaching. I know that teaching makes me a better singer (and vice versa), but I would like to find a different balance going forward.

• It’s time for me to bust butt and get more gigs!

That said, I’ve got a couple of auditions coming up, and I’ve made a list of organizations to contact and inquire about future opportunities. I’m working on some new rep. Since I’m also in the middle of rehearsals right now for The Copper Queen, I have a fair amount of downtime since most of our rehearsals take place in the evenings.

SO…..here are my goals for this week:

1. I need to write a good cover letter so I’m not trying to invent the wheel every time I email an organization with my materials.

2. I’m working on a new audition aria, and I want to get it memorized this week!

3. One of the pieces on my June 11 concert is in Hebrew, and another is in Aramaic. Eep! I’m fortunate that one of my kind hosts here in Knoxville teaches Hebrew and Biblical Studies at UT, and has offered to help me with these pieces!

4. I’m going to email an organization/day starting tomorrow!

Unpacking from Spain

I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog for the last few weeks - not because I’ve been neglecting my music, but because I’ve had so much to do, writing new posts has sort of taken a backseat to getting everything done! There are definitely worse problems to have. Spain was incredible, but the amount of work required to get myself ready to go, and to be absent from my normal daily life took my full attention.

So let’s unpack this a bit…

Traveling to a foreign country right now takes a fair amount of research to figure out what you need as far as health protocols (and associated documents). For Spain, it wasn’t too bad. I had to prove that I am fully vaccinated, and fill out a form to get a QR code to get into the country. Coming back to the US, I had to have a negative covid test within 72 hours of my flight home. There were also various contact tracing forms to fill out for my flights themselves, and while I was in Barcelona, masks were required indoors. I will say that, recognizing that everyone’s definition of safety at the moment is wildly varied, I never felt unsafe in my travels.

Before I left, I had to make sure I had a plan for making up the lessons I would miss for my university students. Thankfully, I was able to schedule all of these before I left, while my high school students were on fall break. I also had to fill out an absence request for my university job detailing why I would be gone, and how I would be making up the work I was missing. I also made sure my high school students knew I would be gone, and found a sub for the two Sundays I missed at my church job.

I also spent a LOT of time on Duolingo so I’d have at least a LITTLE bit of Spanish (this turned out to be really helpful).

And THEN we get to all of the practicing and general musical work for the competition itself.

So, you ask, how did the competition go?

I can honestly say that I sang the CRAP out of my first round aria. While there is certainly no such thing as a perfect performance, I definitely felt like this was one of the better performances I’ve given. After we got out of the room, my pianist (who i’ve been coaching with for several months) said “That’s the most expressive i’ve ever heard you sing.” High praise.

That said, I didn’t make it past the first round of the competition. There’s a lot to unpack around dealing with rejection as a singer, but honestly, I don’t feel bad. I did what I went there to do, and I’m proud of the performance I gave.

So what did I do for the remainder of my time in Barcelona? I took full advantage of my time to be a tourist! One of my good friends traveled with me for the first four days, and we ate, drank, and touristed our way through the city. We ate seafood paella and drank vermouth at the beach. We toured Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia cathedral. We shopped at open air markets and went to a flamenco show. After she went home, and after my part in the competition was over, I visited the Picasso Museum, shopped for fabric to bring home, and watched the final round of the competition at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

There’s a lot more to unpack from this trip that I’ll write about in coming weeks. For now, here’s my current to-do list!

• Nail down a pianist and a date for my next recital (coming in December!)

• There’s a few companies I need to email to either set up, or follow up, on auditions

• Make a practice plan for, and start learning the opera I’ll be singing in June (I’ll make an announcement once I have a contract signed!)

• Make a practice plan for, and start learning Charlotte in Werther (for my own enrichment)

• Make a plan for recording new audition videos

Doing the work

The last couple of weeks have felt frantically busy. I have the feeling the rest of the year is going to be that way.

On top of my regular teaching, I sang an audition, accepted a role (yup! But I can’t give any details until I have a contract!), sang the first of three run-out gigs with the opera here, and of course, I’ve been working hard on getting ready to go to Spain!

These really busy times are tiring, but I also find them very rewarding. ESPECIALLY after the previous nearly two years. I’m grateful to be doing the thing I love to do again.

Looking to the next couple of weeks, I have the other two run-out shows with the opera, a voice lesson, another audition, probably another coaching, LOTS of practicing….oh, and also teaching.

So here’s my to-do list for the week:

• Finish memorizing the rep for the two remaining concerts with the opera

• Figure out exactly what I want to work on in my lesson this weekend

• Polish up the rep for my audition in a couple of weeks - there is some cross-over with my rep for Spain here, but it’s not all the same

• Keep working on my rep for Spain!

Things to get excited about

Wow has it been a busy couple of weeks! My weekdays are suddenly full with students, and my weekends are filled with rehearsals, coachings, auditions, and gigs. What a contrast to three weeks ago! I will confess that I’m loving every minute of it.

Fun story from a recent audition - One of the things I’ve been working on lately is dramatic expression in my singing. I get compliments on my physical acting on the regular, but that wasn’t carrying over into my sound in the way I wanted. Well ladies and gentlemen, I feel like I really accomplished my goal (at least with that particular performance). I sang this piece as my opener, and apparently sang it with so much emotional conviction that one of the audition panelists was reduced to tears. Let me tell you…I left that audition room feeling like I WON.

I will admit, that aria is easy for me to sing with lots of emotion. My husband has done a few deployments in the Middle East, so those emotions are REAL. The challenge with that particular piece is to not let the emotions get out of control. I haven’t reached a final destination with this work yet, but you can bet I’ll be plugging away at it over the coming weeks….

BECAUSE…..

Next month, I’m headed to Spain! For the Montserrat Caballé International Singing Competition!!!!!

Needless to say, I’m VERY excited about this opportunity. This will be my first time singing in (or traveling to) Europe. I keep hearing that Barcelona is an amazing city, and I’m looking forward to seeing the sights as well as (hopefully) singing some auditions when I’m not singing for the competition.

So here’s my to-do’s for the week:

• I’ve got an audition on Monday, so I'll be double and triple-checking that the rep for that is in top shape.

• I’ve also got a few gigs coming up that I need to get music learned and memorized for. Definitely need to be well-prepared for a rehearsal this weekend.

• I’ll be continuing to work on singing expressively - ESPECIALLY for the pieces I’m taking to Spain!

• I’ve also got some reading to do in The Naked Voice - I’ll be discussing Part One with my students in just a couple of weeks!

Trying to stay on task

Ok, my best laid plans got a little derailed last (two) week(s). I’ve done a fair amount of administrative work, but not much of what I said I was going to do. Oops. Sometimes I’m not great at staying on task. I’m only human, after all.

So what DID I get done?

• I’ve got my rep chosen for my audition this weekend, and I’ve been practicing it.

• I’ve (finally…I hope) got all of my students - university and high school - scheduled for this fall.

• I did a full day at the high school last week talking to and singing for the kids. I sang the Habanera from Carmen SEVEN. TIMES. that day, and let me tell you…I got a lot of kinks worked out of that piece.

• I got my new office at the University set up, syllabi updated, and printed

• I started over reading The Naked Voice because it had been a minute, and I need to write discussion questions as I read.

• I drive to Knoxville and had a fantastic lesson with my teacher

• And I had a fantastic coaching last week on the Letter Aria from Werther

• I’ve also taken naps, read simply for pleasure, cooked, worked out whenever I wanted, and I’ve been sewing - a hobby I’ve talked about on at least one previous post

• Oh…and I’ve finally been catching up on my book keeping

So what’s in store for this week?

• Lessons for EVERYONE start this week. I’m teaching three FULL days this fall, which is a lot for me, but after the past year and a half, I’m feeling ready for it.

• I’ve got more practicing to do for my audition this weekend!

• I’ll keep reading The Naked Voice - I’ve got to at least be through Part I by September 21!

5 things I've learned from my "Muggle job"

Hi Friends! Its been a couple of weeks since I’ve managed a new post. Apologies for the wait, but I was determined to spend my first week sans “Muggle job” resting (or at least without a daily to-do list). Now that I’m a week removed, I thought I’d share a few things I’ve learned (or maybe been reminded of) that have been helpful to me as a singer.

1. There are a TON of skills we use (or should be using) as singers that easily are applicable to work outside of the musical realm.

   No really…we singers have to be organized, we have to plan out projects and hold ourselves and others accountable for getting tasks done (in the business world, they call this being a project manager), we often handle our own accounting and marketing. Social media management anyone?

   As teachers, we are responsible for guiding each individual student through their learning and growth process, making adjustments as necessary. We are responsible for this during the period of time these students are studying with us. I’ve learned in recent months that this is spectacularly close to being a product manager. The long-term planning we do as performing singers also applies here. The decisions we make about what rep to sing, which companies to audition for, how we want our careers to unfold….this is the very sort of creative planning a product manager does.

2. As singers, we can make use of the planning processes that are used in the business world.

   Not long after I started the tech job, the company I was working for hired a business coach to take us through the process of creating a 5-year plan for the business. We started by defining our mission as a company, our core values, our ideal client (demographics and psychographics). It was only after we’d done all of that that we started coming up with longterm goals and a plan to get us there. We mapped out revenue goals, client goals, and internal goals (like being able to attend certain conferences, and to have the resources to take everyone on a planning/team building retreat). As we were setting these goals, we were constantly looking back to our mission and our core values to make sure those goals fit into the initial groundwork we’d already laid out. We also made a plan to reach the goals we set with specific markers we needed to meet along the way.

   For example, in order to meet 5-year revenue goal we set, we determined the amount of growth we would need in 3 years, and in 1 year. For us, it meant that we determined the number of clients we would need at any given time at a certain amount of revenue. Then we figured out how to get those clients. This lead to things like a marketing plan, a client onboarding plan, a plan for what additional employees would need to be hired, and when.

   As singers, WE CAN DO THIS TOO! There is no reason we can’t decide on our own mission statement, core values (lifestyle values, musical values….the sky is the limit), or ideal clients. Most of us have this already in the form of a wishlist of organizations we’d like to perform with, but it can help to determine whether those organizations fit within our mission and core values. We can set 5-year goals and then figure out how to get there. This can give clarity and direction to our every day activities and keep us moving forward when things feel stalled out.

3. We can track our tasks like a development team.

   All those tasks that come from creating a 5-year plan can be tracked. Tech companies use software like Jira or Azure to do this, but it can be done in a simple spreadsheet, or in a notebook if that’s your preference. A large project like building an app (or the completion of a 5-year plan) creates a huge number of tasks. A development team will take the large-scale plan and break it down into small, manageable tasks called a backlog. Think of it as the master to-do list. Tasks are then pulled from the backlog to create a manageable list of tasks that can be completed in, say, a two week period. As tasks are completed, the backlog shrinks. This turns the large, overwhelming project into something that can be completed through daily tasks.

   Singers can totally do this too! This concepts simply helps you create daily movement toward your long term goals.

4. REMINDER: your audience includes non-musicians!

   Classical music (and opera especially) has gotten a bad rap. Somewhere along the way, it developed a reputation for being boring, stuffy, and exclusive (and not in a good way). It doesn’t matter how or why this happened. What matters is that we, as classical musicians, show the general public that classical music is not, in fact, stuffy, boring, or exclusive. One of the best ways I’ve found to do this? TALK ABOUT CLASSICAL MUSIC. To non-musicians. In a fun and accessible way.

   If you work in music 24/7 (and there’s nothing wrong with this if you do…I’m returning to this gratefully), it’s easy to end up with an insulated view of how the general public perceives classical music, and to only end up talking to the type of people who are already regular concert goers. But guess what?? That doesn’t help you build your audience. Typically if you are working in a non-musical job, you have access to a lot of people who are not musicians. Talking about the thing that you are passionate about is the best way to develop an audience.

5. I’m incredibly grateful to have had the experiences from the past year.

   Seriously. I was hired to be the executive assistant, but the beauty of working for a startup is that it’s nearly impossible to fall through the cracks. My CEO pushed me to learn new things and to find the role that fit me best, knowing that I likely wouldn’t be there forever. As a result, I moved through marketing, project management, and product management. I fully recognize this would not have been the case at most companies, particularly considering that I had no formal experience doing anything except as an executive assistant. Now, I get to try my hand at being an advisor (an interesting new challenge and one that will allow me to stay involved with the company without a daily commitment). All the while, my work family has surrounded me with encouragement and respect. How could I possibly not be grateful?

I’m declaring the next few weeks to be a planning period! Lessons will start for my adjunct job and the new teaching job the last week of August. I’ll still be practicing (you’ll see it on my to-do list), but I want to have my own 5-year plan mapped out by the time lessons start. Here’s my to-do list for the week:

• Identify my mission, core values, and ideal client.

• Make a good dent in The Naked Voice (my reading fell by the wayside as I was preparing my concert…oops…consider this my recommitment) and write discussion questions for each chapter.

• I have an audition on the 29th, and I need to decide what to sing, and practice said pieces!

• I’ll be learning Ernest Chausson’s “Chanson Perpétuelle” this week.

• Brainstorm rep for students

What’s on your to-do list this week??

Show me a sign

Let me preface this week’s post by saying that I firmly believe that God/The Universe/whatever you’d like to call it has a way of reminding you what you are actually supposed to be doing with your life. Things may adjust out of necessity, but they will get back on track when it’s time.

I got one of those reminders a couple of weeks ago in the form of an email from the choral director of a local high school looking for a private voice teacher to join the music staff in the fall.

I will admit that I sat with this for a while. I wasn’t sure I would be the right person for this. My adjunct position will ramp back up some in the fall. I have a few students that come to my house. I have my church job and gigs are starting to pick up again. My “muggle job” has been going really well, and promised to be the thing that would allow me to do more singing. It also turns out that I’m good at what I’ve been doing, which has obviously made the whole situation more enjoyable.

But it turns out that being good at something isn’t enough to make it a fulfilling thing to do every day. And trying to split my brain between music and a technology company has been a serious challenge that I’ve felt like has had an effect on my performance in both areas.

So figuring that it wouldn’t hurt anything, I agreed to an interview with the high school.

They called me 20 minutes after I got home and offered me the job.

So after a lot of thought, I decided to take it, and give my notice at my tech job. I’m really grateful that my CEO responded to the news by saying “I always knew this was coming…this is what you’re supposed to be doing!”

All that to say…this week, I’m wrapping up things with my “muggle job.”

Also, it’s concert week! We did our tech rehearsal Monday evening to test out the sound over live stream. If you haven’t already gotten your ticket, you can get one here!

So here’s my to-do list for the week:

• Wrap things up with my muggle job (I know it’s not music, but it gets me to the music!)

• Promote this week’s concert on social media

• Work out the final kinks from the concert music

• CONCERT ON SATURDAY!

To the coloratura woodshed...

Ok, I didn’t quite manage to get back in the swing of things right away after my last post. Turns out I returned from my vacation with a SUPER fun sinus infection that meant I had most of another week before I got back to singing, which meant that last week was mostly spent rehabbing my voice and getting it set back to normal function.

Let me tell you, I’m playing catch-up now! The first day I got really back to singing, I had a coaching to work on “Parto” from La clemenza di Tito (one of the pieces I’m singing on the concert in a couple of weeks), and I completely and utterly embarrassed myself. It’s a long aria, and there’s a section at the end with a bunch of coloratura that takes you through the upper passaggio and up to a high B flat, and we’ll keep it nice and say that after two weeks of not singing, that section was a complete train wreck.

Good thing I’m the type of person who takes events like that as fuel for the fire - they make me work harder because I HATE feeling incompetent.

So this week, I’ve been working my tail off to fix that section. I’ve practiced it in my regular practice, I’ve practiced it walking around my house, while doing laundry, and in my car. It’s almost there, but there’s still some work to be done before its ready for public consumption. That’s totally fine, and I have another coaching Thursday on the same piece that should help me work things out.

I should say that this type of practice is tedious! It’s not glamorous, or pretty. It’s just WORK. When I practice a section like the one in question, I do it slowly to make sure I learn the correct pitches. Then I gradually speed it up. When I find I can’t take it any faster, I start practicing in rhythm variations so I can practice at the tempo I need it to be (or, ideally, faster than I ultimately need it to be). This is something I learned to do as a cellist, but it works for voice as well! Basically, I’m varying the rhythm so that I have a longer note for my brain and body to catch up, but everything else is at tempo. Varying where the longer note is keeps me from forming a habit of slowing down in any particular place and keeps the brain working and engaged for learning!

Aside from woodshedding coloratura, I have work to do on the final duet for the concert. Just a couple of technical things to work out, and then getting it memorized. I’m planning to have that done by Monday.

While practicing is the main focus of the week, here’s the full to-do list:

• Get that coloratura section in Parto worked out and finish memorizing the aria

• Work out the technical glitches in the final duet and get it memorized

• Read the next chapter of The Naked Voice

• Promote the upcoming concert!

Back in the swing of things

I have a confession to make: I haven’t sung a note in over a week!

Last week, my husband and I made our first trip to visit my parents in a year and a half (thanks covid…). I think my brain needed the break, but I’m determined to get back in the saddle this week!

Since I took the week off last week, I don’t have much to report, so here’s my to-do list for the week:

• Get back to daily practicing!

• For the concert at the end of July, I want to get about half of it memorized this week. I’ll memorize all of the Mozart pieces this week (there are five of them, but one is already memorized!)

• Read the next chapter of The Artist’s Way`

• And for something a little different, I’m going to play with makeup looks for an artsy photoshoot happening later this week!

Mark your calendars!

I’ve purposely delayed my post this week, because….after last week’s teaser, I’m finally ready to announce that my dear friend Jessie Neilson and I, along with Horacio Guendulain at the piano, are doing a concert!

Jessie and I will be singing some of the best duets opera has to offer dealing with romance and betrayal. We’ll be pulling from operas like Cosí fan butte, La clemenza di Tito, and Anna Bolena for your listening pleasure, and Horacio will be adding a few pieces by composers like Balakirev and Rachmaninov.

Mark your calendars (or you can go ahead and purchase tickets here): July 31 at 7pm Central. We’ll be streaming the concert over SparrowLive, and we are also making arrangements for a small in-person audience. If you’re in Nashville and think you might want to attend in person, DON’T BUY YOUR TICKET YET! We’re still working out some details for that, but we’ll have info for you soon!

Are you excited yet? I know I am!

The latest project

I’ve been busily learning music this week…just not the music I originally planned! To be clear, I did work on the music from b minor Mass, and I’ve been consistently working on the piece for the memorial service (I’ve got ten more days), but I now also have a concert to learn!

I occasionally get together with one of my good friends, who is also a singer, to drink wine and sing whatever we happen to be working on at the moment. It’s nice to have a trusted set of ears, and it keeps us both accountable.

We had one of our singing dates on Friday last week, which turned into us reading through a bunch of duets (yes, we’re huge nerds…this is what we do for fun), and before we knew it, we had a concert planned!

Details will come once we actually get it up on the streaming service we are going to use, but I’m excited about this - we’ve got some great music planned, and it’s always a good day when I get to sing with good friends.

With regards to last week’s to-do’s, I’m not going to claim much. I’ve moved on to the next chapter of The Artist’s Way, and am trying to forget about how miserably I failed at reading deprivation (there are some things I’m just not willing to give up). I made good progress on the piece for the memorial service, and on the first of the Bach arias, but put it aside when rep for an actual concert was put in front of me. Did I do any bookkeeping? No I did not.

It’s a new week (well, midway through a new week), and I’m putting that behind me. Here are my to-do’s for this week:

• Make a practice plan for all this concert rep, and get to work!

• Catch up on the damn bookkeeping already

That’s it….I’m not promising anything else! What are you up to this week?

When the shoe (or the role) doesn't fit...

Hello! I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I certainly did my best to spend as much time outdoors as humanly possible tackling gardening projects galore.

But in between all the sunshine and gardening projects, I had a not-so-fun email to write.

A couple days after one of my recent auditions, I got an email from the company offering me a role in one of their productions. The initial email stated the role they were offering, and said there was an available stipend, but no details on what that stipend would BE, whether housing would be provided, or really, any other details I would need to make an informed decision.

The offered role is one that is outside of my Fach, but one that wouldn’t have done any damage, and that I thought would present some fun acting possibilities, so I wrote back and asked for details on pay, housing, rehearsal dates, etc.

….And then, I waited.

Three or four days later, I got a response with details that sounded mostly pretty good. Yes, housing would be provided. Rehearsal dates were workable.

The stipend though? It didn’t come close to covering the income I would have had to give up during the three weeks I would have had to be in their city.

So I wrote back, explained the situation, and asked for more money. I took into account the fact that this is a newer, smaller company that likely didn’t have a ton of resources. What I asked for covered lost teaching income and nothing else.

…And then, I waited again. I figured that maybe they went and talked to a donor or two to ask if someone could potentially cover the difference (at least, that’s what I would have done).

When I finally heard back nearly a week later, the response was not the one that I hoped for. They couldn’t raise the pay for me.

This was a bummer, for sure. After roughly a year and a half of very little singing, I would have loved to accept this contract. However the calculus didn’t work.

At this point in my career, I don’t feel the need to take work just “for the experience” anymore. My resume has enough activity on it that I don’t need to list work just to list it, and I DEFINITELY don’t need to list roles outside of my Fach to cause confusion. That means that if I’m going to sing a role outside of my Fach that I would never have the opportunity to sing again, I DEFINITELY need to get paid.

Thinking it through, it struck me that three or four years ago, I would have accepted the contract and danced a jig. Honestly, for a singer with less experience, this wouldn’t have been a terrible offer. Also, if this had been a role I was looking to sing - that I could try out in a lower stakes environment before taking it to a bigger house - I might still have accepted it. It just wasn’t the right offer for me, right now.

So between gardening projects, I sat down and did something I’d never done before. I wrote an email turning down a contract.

Some people will likely tell me I’m crazy. After all, the pandemic has had everything shut down for over a year. I was offered a contract almost as soon as things started opening back up and I turned it down.

But the way I figure, saying no to the opportunity that doesn’t fit is saying a preemptive “yes” the the one that does.

Also, #myvoiceismybusiness, and taking a contract that is off-brand AND doesn’t pay well is just not a good way to run a business.

So there you have it. Here’s my to-do list for this week:

• Continue working through The Artist’s Way. I’m on the week that requires reading deprivation. Anyone who knows me will understand that this is going to be VERY hard for me.

• I’ve started learning the piece for the memorial service in a couple of weeks. I’m also working on the arias from Bach’s b minor Mass. They’re really hard! I also need to know them.

• I’m going to actually do my bookkeeping this week. Yes, I procrastinated hard on that one…

What’s on your list this week?

On Monitezation

Last week was so busy I didn’t even get to check in here!

I was busy preparing for my concert last weekend. Last minute coachings, memorizing, promoting, and dealing with the logistics of hosting a concert in your front yard (all the while keeping up with students, muggle job, and home life).

I’m happy to report that the concert was a success. I’m really happy with the in-person and the online turnouts, and the response so far has been all positive. I do need to work on the monetization of these concerts going forward. I put my Venmo handle up in the event asking for tips and got….NOTHING.

To be clear, this is NOT a pity party. I’m looking at the facts to see if I can figure out a solution going forward.

I’m unsure if I didn’t put it in a prominent enough spot, or if people are simply out of the mindset of remembering that artists need dollars for their work. When I did this last August, people were surprisingly generous, but artist incomes and how they were effected by COVID was an active dialogue at the time. Less so now, but that doesn’t negate the need for it.

I’ll have to ponder how to handle this in the future. The reality is that putting on concerts costs money - there are operating costs for any business. Every business has losses at some point, so it’s not a huge big deal, but I’ll have to do something different in the future. As with other types of businesses, too many losses threatens the ability of said business to operate. Whether I am more vocal about asking for tips, charge a ticket fee, or some other option that I haven’t considered yet, I’ll have to experiment with other options so I can continue these events that people seem to truly enjoy.

I should say that I am not trying to get rich off of singing concerts in my front yard. The reality is that I look at it as a three-pronged benefit: I am providing a service to my community that seems to make people happy, I am giving myself a goal (see previous discussions about me being extremely goal oriented) that allows me to keep my performance skills sharp, and it can make some small amount of income for me. I got two out of three from this last concert, now I just need to figure out the third!

Now that the concert is done, I have some time to fill. Time to plan some new projects! Here is what’s on my to-do list for this week:

• Continue reading and working through the exercises in The Artist’s Way. I’ve been pretty good about doing my morning pages. Less so about completing the exercises and artist dates.

• Choose some new music to learn! I’ve got a running list of pieces I’d like to learn. I’m thinking about some Bach, Respighi, Spohr, or some more Donizetti.

• I have one hard deadline on the calendar, in that I’ve been asked to sing for the memorial service of a dear family friend. That’s in roughly three weeks, so I’ll start working on the music for that this week.

• In the less-than-fun department, I need to catch up on some bookkeeping! Blech…but necessary.

And in the realm of the universe taking care of you, let me just say that I got a Venmo payment from my concert literally as I was writing this post.

What are the ways you have monetized your creativity??

A new book, plus eating my words (just a little)

Well, I’ve gotten one of the things on my list from last week done….have I mentioned that I don’t really enjoy cleaning??

I’m happy with my progress on “O mio Fernando” - good thing, because I start coaching it tomorrow. My audition this coming weekend asked that everyone bring an Italian bel canto aria, so here I am, eating my veggies like a good singer.

Actually, I’ll eat my words a little and say I’m enjoying this aria more than I expected to. I guess I just had to dig into it to find the enjoyment. Often, I can immediately find enjoyment in whatever it is I’m singing, but occasionally, a piece grows on me.

Aside from memorizing all the things, I’m starting to read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I started working my way through this book a little over a year ago and got stalled out by my COVID-induced apathy. I’ve decided to give myself a restart on that. The Artist’s Way is a book, but it’s really a 12-week program designed to help unlock your creativity. I wouldn’t describe myself as a “blocked creative,” but there are time when I find that I censor myself more than I would like in situations where I need to be creative. To that end, I’ll be reading one chapter per week and working my way through the activities in the book, starting with “morning pages” (three pages of stream-of-consciousness brain dump) and a weekly “artist date” (basically an outing or activity you do by yourself that will feed your soul/give you inspiration). I’ve always heard that this book is amazing, but I’ll admit I often find mental exercises laid out in books like this to be hokey and unhelpful, so we’ll see how this goes. I figure if nothing else, writing about it on here will help me stick with it.

My to-do’s this week are sort of a continuation of last week:

• Smooth out the kinks in “O mio Fernando” and get it memorized

• Work on memorizing the two Carmen arias that I don’t already have memorized (these are for my concert on 5/22!)

• Get my concert announcement out into the world (aka on social media)

• Stop procrastinating and ACTUALLY FINISH cleaning the music room!

• Daily morning pages

• Artist date

• Audition on Saturday!