If you love working with singers and are both flexible and detail-oriented, there’s an amazing opportunity at Opera America for an Artistic Services Manager. Click here for the job description, and note that the application date is February 11, 2013 for best consideration.
Good luck!
The folks that I spend most of my days with are great examples of this word Humbition that’s been floating around. They’ve spent a lot of time and energy getting to the top of their field – they know a lot, have done a lot, but they are gracious when they’ve been struck with good fortune. I like this quote from IBM’s Jane Harper, via Portfolio Careers:
Humbition is one part humility and one part ambition. We notice that by far the lion’s share of world-changing luminaries are humble people. They focus on the work, not themselves. They seek success–they are ambitious–but they are humbled when it arrives. They know that much of that success was luck, timing, and a thousand factors out of their personal control. They feel lucky, not all powerful… So be ambitious. Be a leader. But do not belittle others in your pursuit of your ambitions. Raise them up instead.
And, from the Leading Blog –
Humility isn’t about the lack of ambition, but acknowledging the luck, the good fortune, and the contributions of others to your success. It is the humility that comes with a habit of respect for others. Stephen Hall calls it the “gift of perspective.” It is indeed. Humility is all about perspective.
But this might be my favorite depiction of ambition…and why the “hum” in humbition makes that last panel a good place to be. (thanks to Grant Snider for another great illustration!)
I’ve recently stumbled across three articles that are swimming around my head in a interesting manner.
This is the first. That’d be a heck of a pie chart! But now, as I look back at the ways in which I’ve spend the approximately 32,000 hours (!) I’ve likely worked, it’s still difficult to characterize much of what I’ve “done.” And, as I let this blog languish and stall on other, non-professional writing projects, I’m reminded that I need to work a few hours a week on the things that make my heart sing.
This is the second. I read it in the print edition, and found it fascinating, mostly because one of the traits they illustrate concerns living in the moment, not projecting…and it sounds a lot like mindfulness, doesn’t it? Here’s a quote:
“I think the problem is that people spend so much time worrying about what might happen, what might go wrong, that they completely lose sight of the present. They completely overlook the fact that, actually, right now, everything’s perfectly fine.
“So the trick, whenever possible, I propose, is to stop your brain from running on ahead of you.”
(Now, if you read that in Yoga Journal? O Magazine? It’d be easy to turn into a mantra of sorts. But the context makes it a bit stickier for me to wrap my head around, somehow.)
This is the third. There’s an clear analogy here for a performing career; the Eagle Scout level of preparedness needed, the brutal slog of little money and an expensive vocation, the uncertainty surrounding each occasion, the crazy desire to fly. The luck that accompanies the right day, the right waft of air, the right conditions for an epic flight.
Happy Monday, all. Hope the week is great.
It’s the beginning of December.
If you’re a singer, you’re likely in (or have recently been in) New York, at Nola or Opera America or any number of other venues. Your binder is organized and you’ve made sure that the accompanist can see the bass clef on the bottom stave clearly. Your résumés are proofed and copied and pristine. You have several versions of your rep list, for good days, ok days, and i-shoulda-maybe-cancelled days. You have an audition outfit that makes you feel sparkly and special. You have a pre-show ritual that allows you to perform (i.e. have a positive, expansive experience) rather than audition (i.e. be judged, which triggers the fight-or-flight response in even the best folks). You run into people you know and love, people you know and don’t love, people who are stronger at intimidating or distracting others in the hallway than at auditioning.
You also have ways in which you reward yourself for putting yourself out there, in the face of rejection, over and over and over again.
You’re looking for a job. Something that will pay you to do what you love. You’ve worked diligently, paid your dues. It’s time.
For some of you? It is, in fact, time! And you’ll wrap up the audition season with a contract or two, refreshed energy, renewed contacts…
For others? Talented, driven, dues-paying others? You could end up empty-handed.
This article is from the theater world, but it still applies. Consider this a gentle reminder that the whole process is mostly out of your hands. If you’re cool with that? I am your fan, and am in awe of your generosity, resilience and persistence.
If you’re not? Stay tuned, as we’ll have some more articles and profiles heading your way over the holidays and beyond!
If you’re interested in what I’ve been doing this fall, you can check out my colleague/friend/audition-tour-compadre’s writing here and here. And if you just need some inspiration? Check here and here and here
!
Well, the last few weeks have robbed me of brain cells. I wrote a little bit here about the struggle I’m having with listening and, well, doing anything else. Posting to resume over Thanksgiving, if not before.
Kurt Ellenberger wrote a thoughtful article for the Huffington Post about the arts and higher education. In it, he talks about the ways in which college music programs prepare students for a field that is shrinking, and doing so using models that are based on the artistic realities of the 1950-70s. Key faculty are charged to recruit, to provide the economic engine that will power the educational train: but, with undergraduate degrees costing near 50k, graduate degrees close to if not more, it’s a lot to spend for a career with no clear path to employment at the end of the journey. I’d agree with him that we need to rework the system a bit.
I remember talking with one smart, savvy singer a few years ago…he was frustrated at the lack of a clear path, and remarked “My buddies who are going to law school know how long they’ll be in school, how much it’ll cost, what they can expect to earn when they get out. I’m going to have close to the same amount of training in my field as they will in theirs, but I may not even be able to make an honest living.”
He was frustrated, and rightly so. There are very few guarantees in our current economic climate, but among artists they number even fewer. One could place the blame on the academic institutions, for taking students who obviously couldn’t make the grade. But, as someone who auditions a fair number of undergraduate singers every year, I can say that the rates of change in a young voice can be both profound and quicksilver: even during the small window between their autumn audition and their arrival in late spring for rehearsals a Studio Artist can sound – for better or worse – like an entirely different animal.
So, how to reform this model that obviously doesn’t work? Mr. Ellenberger talks about diversifying: finding the things that make each program special and capitalizing on those key elements. You can likely pull the names of schools who have done this off of the top of your head: Berklee for jazz, Juilliard for classical music: Rice in Houston has a reputation for singers with strong technique, University of Maryland for skilled singing actors. (There are many more…but there are also many programs whose strengths are not clearly defined.)
I think it’s a step in the right direction. Rigorous coursework, one-on-one mentoring and quality performance opportunities are still the building blocks to strong, vibrant musicians, regardless of discipline. But I’d also, in this age of specialization, call for two other aspects that should be mandatory in that education:
Thoughts? Put on your arts education reformer’s cap, and tell me what you’d recommend.
I signed up for a daily email from Box of Crayons. Succinct, clean, I find them a great way to focus/aim my efforts for any given day. I kept this one, from a handful of days ago, starred in my inbox:
The most powerful coaching question in the world: “And what else?”
It not only teases out more from the person you’re coaching (the first thing they have to say is never the only thing), but it stops you from jumping in and offering solutions or advice before it’s welcome.
I have become infatuated with questions. I’m no longer so young as to feel that I have all of the answers, or so insecure that I sweat asking the wrong question… and I also no longer feel that need to fix things before I have all the information: I’m likely not the only person who has stepped in to solve a problem that wasn’t actually a problem.
I am delighted by the combination of a thoughtful question, some (direct, but not confrontational) eye contact, and silence. It’s a crucible for honest discussion.
I signed up for a daily newsletter from Box of Crayons, a firm based in Toronto who helps people and organizations get more creative and focus on doing great work, rather than simply good work. (I was drawn toward them when, at some point in the last few weeks, I realized that my job had morphed into a one-word position: “Emailer.” It’s temporary, I know, but the sheer volume of inbox madness that needed to be read/acted on/filed/archived/trashed was totally discouraging.)
This was today’s bit of wisdom:
Tom Peters once said a lunch spent alone is a lunch wasted. I’m not sure I totally agree (sometimes a little downtime is nice) but still – why not call up someone outside the usual gang and grab a bite to eat?
It’s a July Friday. For many folks, it’s the start of the weekend. Things are perhaps a little less intense than a usual workday…if you have an hour free, isn’t it the perfect time to call (or email…I suppose) someone that you want to know more about, or someone who might help you answer some of those lingering questions?
The definition of insanity (say it with me, kids) is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Why not take a tiny step outside that very comfortable box today?
Thanks to all of you who have been patient at the lack of profiles over the last month. It’ll likely be several more weeks until I’m back on schedule, but I do hope you’ll check back – I have some great folks who have shared their stories with me, and I can’t wait to get them to you! (And once I grow back some of these brain cells, I’ll be able to make them grammatically correct and everything! I promise.)
Once again, Jessica Nagy of Indexed has my number. We’re trying for a full run – the first since the dress rehearsal – of Don Giovanni tonight. Send some well-wishes to our very talented cast, crew and tech staff as we prepare to get this opera up on its feet!
Another little blog hiatus is looming, as we’re hosting 7 performances and a 2-day symposium over the next 10 days. I’m so proud of the work that’s been overflowing practice and rehearsal rooms, and of the people who are so generously entrenched with us. If you’re in the greater DC area, stop by sometime soon for some great singing!
Indirect Routes 