<p>Over on the New Forum for Classical Singers there is a great thread on the reality of being a singer in today’s world.</p>
<p>It is the first listing on the Main forum called “Kind of a controversial subject”. If would put the link up, but I am not sure about the TOS rules on this.</p>
<p>I am surprised that this would be considered “controversial”. All you need to do is the math.
A few hundred voice programs producing a few thousand singers every year. D is out of grad and faced with auditions at YAPS, one of which had 1200 applicants. 1200 CD’s being sent in for 20 positions. She is working as a performer and a teacher and is able to make rent, but hardly much more. Of course she LOVES the holidays. Lots of gigs (3 Messiahs and a half dozen parties) She is tempted to take a non music full time position, but good luck asking them off for week at a time to pursue auditions. So that plan is on the back burner. This is why, though it’s a wonderful thing pursuing a passion, it is a not so wonderful thing incurring debt in that pursuit.</p>
<p>“Reality” should be a required subject for performance majors! The “life blood” of music schools is the soprano- there are thousands of them and the vast majority will never get into YAPs even if they manage to get into graduate school. In the past decade, programs have sprung up and expanded and now schools are filled with, quite frankly, students who would never have been admitted in the past and who don’t possess sufficient talent to make vocal performance a viable career. I fear that this has been the logical progression from the societal shift whereby it became enough to simply “attempt” or “participate”- every kid gets a trophy for registering for the soccer team because to declare “Winners” would make those who “lost” unhappy-the results of egalitarianism carried to extremes.
Of course, students benefit from proper training but one wishes that teachers and schools would help prepare kids for the realities of life and include seminars on money management and career options.
There have been other discussions here about the fact that some understand- or soon figure out-that they need to take an active role in creating performance opportunities and who realize the importance of networking, but there are great many more kids who were stars at home who then spend their college years waiting for the same accolades to be bestowed upon them. A lot of debt can be incurred before reality sets in.</p>
<p>Couldn’t agree more with Mezzo Mamma. I think that our society’s attitude that “Everyone can be a star” has done just as much bad as good. While I’m going to be auditioning for schools next year (although I’m not a soprano), I still think that schools should only select students that they believe in. While this does make the journey more difficult, it also makes the end that much sweeter. I’m well aware that I have a tough (but very fun) road ahead of me, but I don’t mind one bit.</p>
<p>Yet another reality check. The vast talent pool runs pretty deep. I disagree that many of those “other singers” got into programs without the requisite chops. We were discussing this at dinner with a relatively recent winner of the MONC auditions . As she said, " after that experience, I thought I would have it made." Even if you are the best student in your sterling studio, you are faced with an extraordinary amount of competition. Believe me these are not just kids who showed up and got a trophy. If you want to see what I mean, go to NYC or LA, participate in a few international competitions, or listen in on some high end YAP auditions. That being said—you just need to know that there are absolutely no guarentees, be constantly reviewing your own instrument, practicing harder, networking harder, possibly moving to a market where you can get work and reminding yourself that your educational expenses continue past grad school.</p>
<p>Forgot to add—this MONC audition winner I mentioned won the whole enchilada (not just regional). Just to put things in perspective.</p>
<p>@musica- I was referring to what has been happening in undergrad VP programs now. The level at international competitions and better YAP programs continues to be high. Those students know what they have to do and work hard, but it’s startling to see how unprepared a great many of the younger ones are now when they enter undergrad programs. They just don’t understand that there are a lot of others in their class who were very successful at home and can’t understand why they aren’t accorded the same worshipful treatment at school. And let’s not even talk about how poorly prepared they are academically. And then there are the voice teachers who tell their students to “just take a D” in a course such as a language because “those don’t matter”’; who needs to be held responsible when these young people graduate and don’t get into grad school, or get into not-so-good programs and then can’t move on from there? The situation is even worse in Musical Theatre where the number of programs of questionable quality has exploded, spilling graduates into a job market that does not exist.<br>
Instrumentalists are better prepared for what comes next and they have options. Go and talk to VP majors, even at top programs and find out how many have never seen a live opera or who haven’t even attended a couple of HD broadcasts. They have no clue what they are singing about and can’t name an opera house other than the Met. Is there a violinist in a conservatory who knows nothing about standard orchestral rep? I maintain that schools are not doing all that they could, or should, to prepare voice students for what lies ahead.</p>
<p>Apparently we read different things into that NFCS thread. Correct me if I am wrong but it seems to me you see the controversy is that there are too many unprepared singers (?) while I just seem to think there are too many prepared and talented singers contending for a shrinking number of jobs. In every field there are both good and bad educational choices. In general language study is abysmal in the US and intensive language study has been the reason D chose a large university setting. Strangely enough I don’t think we’ve really ever encountered students who have never been to a live opera, but that might be a regional thing. We’ve had young singers stay at the house (crashing on our couch for Los Angeles auditions) and whether they are from Curtis, Yale, IU, or ASU, they all seem pretty sophisticated and erudite.</p>
<p>The same thing applies across the board, without writing several pages and put people to sleep, there are far too many kids going into music as a whole with their eyes half closed. Music schools are turning out 15,000 kids a year supposedly and even if some of those are academic types, it is far too many. Given the level of competition among the really high level music students out there, the kids who have gone to top tier schools and such, the kids who get into the lower tier programs who otherwise could not get into NEC, etc, are going to face little chance when they face the competition, no matter how hard they work (obviously, some kids who go to less known programs may be good enough to get in, but go to other programs because of financial issues and find a good teacher and can make it…but because it is a less name school, they also might have a lot of students well below that level, who honestly don’t stand a chance). Obviously, it depends on how far away from the top level someone is, someone may get rejected from the top programs but be at that level, but because of a flood of applicants they simply lost out (maybe no teachers had slots, or had the slots already filled, etc)… but I also know kids personally who got into the second and third tier schools because they weren’t at the top level and quite honestly, no matter how hard they work, how much they love it, are too far behind, starting too late, to catch up…</p>
<p>I think the reasons kids like that go into music is because they never had their eyes opened, they were the big fish in the small pond who was in all region, all state, and thinks that means they will be a hotshot player, and the problem is their teacher and people around them didn’t know any better to tell them to be realistic, or start looking st what high level performing means these days. Even so called professionals who teach can be disconnected from the level of competition out there. I also suspect music schools themselves at the lower tiers need bodies to fill spots and pay tuitions, so they sell the dream to be able to do that. </p>
<p>Even among kids who get into the high level programs have their delusions, many of them IME don’t have a clue about the reality of the life of a working musician, they believe going to a top school will mean success, and more then a few of them, especially in things like piano or strings, have had very little exposure to ensemble playing (orchestral or chamber), and a lot of them don’t routinely listen to music or go to concerts and as a result don’t know the level out there or IMO really understand the music they are playing, yet they can get into a top level program because they play incredibly well technically…</p>
<p>I will add that conservatories are spending more and more time making sure the kids know the reality of the business, about the declining orchestra jobs, the changes in the recording industry and so forth, which is a good thing, but I think this needs to be pushed further down, and also maybe evaluating kids applying to music schools for multiple factors, not just high level technical skill; it would be more like academic admissions, where things like grades and SAT scores are important, but they look for other things as well in having a ‘good’ candidate:)</p>
<p>Rather long, but to the point (from:auditioningforcollege.com)</p>
<p>"Anna Ntrebko is a beautiful woman. She is a successful operatic superstar. She sings in the world’s greatest opera houses, wears fine jewels, beautiful gowns, and dines at some of the finest restaurants. But to get to that point there is an entire, long, grueling process that most aspiring singers have no idea even exists. This post is to help open your eyes to the struggles you never hear about. There is a great book for musical theatre students called Making it on Broadway that tells the same type of stories to aspiring MTs, but I have never seen an accurate book on career development for opera singers, so here is the cold, hard, dirty truth about the climb to the top. Yes, some people are talented and/or lucky enough to never experience this, but many more are not that lucky.</p>
<p>Step #1: Bachelor Degree The Bachelor degree is step#1. In all reality, it is often the equivalent of a high school diploma for the opera singer. Without it, its hard to get started, but with it by itself, its not really anything special.</p>
<p>Step #2: Graduate School</p>
<p>Grad school is where the real development happens for most voice majors. With general education requirements out of the way, the singer can spend more time focusing on their singing and since their voice is more mature they can usually finally start making progress in some of those difficult technical areas. Some have a graduate assistantship which gives them full tuition and sometimes a small salary of $3,000-9,000 a year to teach assist with a course, teach non-major lessons, or assist with office work.</p>
<p>Step #3: Choose A, B, or C</p>
<p>A) Performance Certificate/Artist Diploma – Many students choose to continue college study in a certificate or diploma program. These programs do not lead to an official degree, but instead give the student an opportunity to stay in school and study performance related courses only. These programs usually run 1-3 years.</p>
<p>B) Doctorate – Many students continue on to get their Doctorate. Most have a graduate assistantship which gives them full tuition and a salary of $6,000-12,000 a year to teach a course, lessons, or assist with office work.</p>
<p>C) Start auditioning for the YAP circuit.</p>
<p>Step #4 – The YAP circuit</p>
<p>The YAP circuit is slang for a roughly tiered level of Young Artist Programs that student singers (age 21-35) move through as they attempt to pursue a professional career. Notice I said age 21-35 above? I literally mean you are sometimes a student until age 35. Below are the steps of the YAP circuit.</p>
<p>A) Pay-To-Sing – PTS programs require the singer to pay a fee to sing in a season of concerts and/or operas. Famous programs of this type include Brevard Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, and Opera in the Ozarks. The fee for these programs usually range from $2000-8000. Some of these programs give you the opportunity to sing in Europe, thus adding a European credit to your resume. Most singers do at least one of these, usually no more that three. Some are fortunate to get into one during undergrad, most do one in their masters.</p>
<p>B) non-union YAP – YAPs come in union and non-union form. In a non-union YAP, there are no minimum requirements for treatment, housing, or pay for the artist. Last time I checked, the worst paying YAPs were somewhere around $600 for 8 weeks, with housing and lunch provided. Performers in this YAP had one day off during the 8 week period and worked around 10-12 hours a day. The better paying are between $1500 and 2000 for 8 weeks, with one day off a week, but still the 10-12 hour work days. The better paying ones sometimes rely on home stays which means you will live in a spare room of a family who supports the opera. Sometimes the families ask you to help in the duties of the house or in some cases ask you to house sit while they are gone for the summer, taking care of the dogs, cats, garden, etc. In those cases, you are usually living a further distance from the rehearsal and performance spaces and will have to pay for your own gas as well as food. My farthest home stay was 30 minutes from the performance venue and 20 minutes from the rehearsal space. Even though these are not pay-to-sing, you will usually still need more money than you are getting paid to survive. Some of these take place during the academic school year, September to May, and consist of performing in K-12 schools as well as singing in the opera chorus and occasionally small roles at the opera company. These tend to pay slightly better.</p>
<p>C) Union YAPs – These are the highest level of the YAP circuit. Union gigs limit work hours per day to six. They require that your costume is cleaned on a regular basis. And they require that the company pay you a minimum fee that is usually better than the non-union rate. These tend to be somewhere in the $250-525 per week range. Many offer housing, although some of the better paying do not and you will have to make your own housing arrangements. Some of these programs also run during the academic school year and in those cases, since you are on a longer term contract, some will offer health insurance and other benefits. With the economic downturn, those benefits have in some cases been pulled back or completely eliminated.</p>
<p>Auditioning For YAPS</p>
<p>In the theatre world, a company is considered to be a scam if they charge you to audition. In any career field, it is considered illegal to ask your age or marital status. Equity (the professional theatre union) forbids companies from charging fees to audition. They also require companies to see repeat auditions by any Equity member who shows up at an audition. In theatre and dance, performers show up at the audition site the day of the audition and are seen in the order they arrive. In opera, none of these rules or procedures apply. Opera companies:</p>
<p>-Charge you an audition fee to audition (usually between $25 and $100 per company) and often require you to pay for your own accompanist, either bringing your own ($25-50) or paying for theirs ($20). Therefore, you need to budget $50-$150 for each audition.</p>
<p>-They regularly ask you for your age and sometimes marital status on applications. If you are too old by their standards, they will not grant you an audition AND they will keep your audition fee. So you need to plan on paying $25-100 in audition fees for auditions you will never be accepted for.</p>
<p>-If you sing for them once and they don’t like you, they will put you in a file to either never be seen again, or to not be seen again for a certain period of time. You will never know if this has happened to you and you will need to keep re-applying and paying the applicable audition fee to see they have changed their mind.</p>
<p>-They plan their audition dates in advance and you have to follow a series of deadlines for applications. Sometimes their deadlines and your trip planning deadlines will not line up and you will be left in a situation where you will need to decided whether or not to book a trip to NYC for auditions that you may or may not be granted. Because of this, most singers plan on picking a 1-4 week period to stay in NYC during audition season which runs for a 4-6 period in November and December.</p>
<p>Budgeting to find a gig</p>
<p>Because of all of the costs involved, you will need to budget for each year’s auditions. A sample budget may be:</p>
<p>-Fees $1,125 (15 auditions with combined fees of $75 each)</p>
<p>-Airfare $500</p>
<p>-Ground Transportation $200 ($85 city transport pass and $115 for taxis)</p>
<p>-Practice Rooms $150 (15 half hour slots to warm-up before your audition at $10 per half hour)</p>
<p>-Food $300 (Breakfast, lunch, and dinner over a two week period)</p>
<p>-Lodging not included. Most people sleep on a friends floor or couch during their visit.</p>
<p>TOTAL: $2,275 REMEMBER – You will have to do these auditions every year during your YAP years (age 21-35). Most people do not YAP for the full 14 years, but plan on 5-7 years of this phase. Also remember you will only be making $600-2000 for the gig once you get it. So you will already be working at a loss compared to what you spend on auditioning. Budgeting is absolutely essential in this phase.</p>
<p>Side Step (#4.5) Competitions</p>
<p>Some singers do well singing in competitions. It can be very lucrative with top prizes in the range of $10,000 per first place. Often one singer will win first, second, or third in every competition taking place during a season. Others spend tons on competition fees and never win or place. Some singers do very well in competitions and never work in opera, the opposite is also true. A good balance of both is often a good option for most singers.</p>
<p>Step #5: YAP TO SMALL ROLES</p>
<p>Your next step is from YAP programs to singing small roles. The easiest way to do this is to have done enough YAPs that people in the business know you and start recommending you for auditions or just giving you jobs. Many YAPs will also then invite you back to the program as a main stage artist 2-3 years after you’ve done their program (assuming you’ve done other and better things since your time with them). This is also not a money making phase, but things tend to be a little better since hopefully you can live with your parents or friends in-between and therefor bypass renting a place to live. This phase of your career is usually somewhere between 27-33 if you were an early bloomer on the YAP circuit. If you are a little behind, it may be the age 30-37 part of your career. Average fees are anyone’s guess in the current economy. But it is doubtful anyone could work for less than $500 a performance (assume 2-6 performances). Bigger companies may pay $1000 per performance (6-12 performances). You will also hopefully land a few concert gigs (oratorios, masses, pops concerts) with orchestra which tend to pay well for the time commitment. Usually you rehearse once or twice then perform earning $500-3000 per performance.</p>
<p>Step #6: SMALL ROLES TO AGENT</p>
<p>The next step in your evolution usually happens somewhere in your thirties depending on when you got started YAPing. In this phase, someone recommends you, or invites you to sing for an agent. Agents in opera are essential for making the leap from small roles to leading roles. An agent receives requests from orchestras and opera companies in the United States and abroad who are looking to hire singers. The agent then submits singers they think are a good fit, the company reviews the singers resumes, and then pick the ones that they would like to hear in person. For this part of the career, you must live in NYC (their are rare exceptions). You will usually have a part time job in the day or evening and go to auditions as your agent instructs you. You can also seek out auditions on your own. Then as you get a gig, you will leave town and your day job, do the performances, return and do it all again.</p>
<p>Step #7: Blossoming into a full career</p>
<p>If you are lucky each gig will lead to another bigger and better gig. Opera companies are arranged in level by their budget: A being the highest (Met, Chicago, San Francisco) and D being the lowest (Small town opera companies). You may start out singing supporting roles at B houses and leading roles at D and C houses, which eventually progress to lead roles at B houses. Or you may sing leads at D houses and work all the way up to leads at A houses. Every path is different and its very hard to predict. It is not unheard of for singers to never make it to A houses, or to make it there singing supporting roles and still have a day job on the side. In this phase, singers are usually on the road 6-10 months a year, often carrying their lives in their car and moving from hotel to hotel. At some point, many tire of the road life and move into teaching or some other aspect of the career, or a different career altogether. Some never tire of the life style and spend their entire career on the road. Europe at one point was a great option, but changes in the European Union have made it easier to hire an Italian to sing in Germany than an American. It used to be that singers from both countries were on an equal playing field in terms of hire-ability and due the better training system in the U.S., Americans would usually get the roles. That is no longer the case and you cannot plan on having a career in Europe like your parents or teacher did. That issue is beyond the scope of this article, but can be found in detail in various publications including Classical Singer magazine.</p>
<p>Summary</p>
<p>Pursuing an operatic career, in my opinion, is currently the most difficult of any of the possibilities for singers. Understanding your career prospects is an important step in planning which schools you audition for and deciding how much to take out in student loans. Hopefully this post will inspire you to do your own research and start forming your own game plan for your future."</p>
<p>Great posts, musica, thank you! I do have one thing to add regarding the Performance Certificate/Artist Diploma route though. While this is a great option for some who need more time, such as those with larger voices who haven’t “grown into” them yet, those who want to work on repertoire, coach roles, etc. there are also some major problems. Some of these programs are not of good, much less high caliber and are perpetuating the cycle of moving students “up the ladder” who have not a chance of success. They are admitting students who can not apply to graduate schools because they didn’t cut it as undergrads, either not doing well enough in the academic classes or not managing music theory.
It could be argued that if students are willing to pay, then what’s the harm? It provides jobs and keeps students happy. But strangely, these kids still don’t see the light, they will stand firm and tell you that they’ re heading to the Met. Years of pre-conditioning by well meaning home town teachers and a higher education system that says one each student “must” have a role of x-y-or z difficulty before graduation, so they get it and off they go.
We know how difficult this career choice is, but a lot of these kids don’t know how to do the research to formulate a game plan and one has to wonder if they would even believe the numbers if they were put in front of them…</p>
<p>None of the above is written in stone. However D has three friends pursuing the Artists Diploma, one at Yale and the other two at the AVA. It is working out fantastically for them. Two already have management. I hardly think either one of these high caliber programs will take students unless they are eminently qualified. The programs are more appropriate to students who have had a successful experience in grad school. To whit, I think the most appropriate path for any student is a continual re evaluation from experts who are outside the students comfort zone.</p>
<p>This is a brilliant thread. There are way too many singers who decide to study classical voice in college based on the fact that they love to sing, had the leads in high school shows, and that their voice is better suited to classical music. And there are way too many parents who just go along with it because their “shining star has a passion to do something with their life.” Most don’t have any idea of the career path an “opera singer” takes. This thread should be read by ANY high schooler entertaining the idea of studying voice in college.</p>
<p>To be completely honest, I am not going to judge why someone else wants to study music or why some parents encourage that pursuit. Our family has seen students take some remarkable journeys. One of them got her undergrad with violin performance, discovered her voice and is doing quite well singing early music professionally. Another young man who was performing on “From the Top” in middle school, but discovered as an undergrad that science was his real love and is now a grad student at Cal Tech. The success they both attained was dependent on their own self realization and the ability to reinvent their own path. This is especially true for voice students. Not only does your voice change, but the economy and culture is in a constant state of flux. And yesterdays route to success is not necessarily today’s route.
The outline I posted above is just a very broad template, but it can be helpful in demonstrating how long and involved an education in voice can be. In short, that is why one should encourage VP students not to take on a great deal of debt.</p>
<p>I’m not a singer, don’t have a singer child, but after reading all of this, I believe that if I was a singer, I’d just audition for American Idol or one of those other TV shows and if I didn’t make it past the first couple of rounds, I’d just give it up and do something else.</p>
<p>I figure if I wasn’t good enough to compete against the general public, there’s no way I’d be good enough to compete against singers with graduate degrees and years of experiance auditioning.</p>
<p>Med school sounds waaay easier, and more financially rewarding than a classical vocalists career choice. Of course so does being a moving target at the firing range.</p>
<p>“i’m not a singer, don’t have a singer child, but after reading all of this, I believe that if I was a singer, I’d just audition for American Idol or one of those other TV shows and if I didn’t make it past the first couple of rounds, I’d just give it up and do something else.”</p>
<p>There is not a singer that doesn’t hear this at least once a year, usually from some well intentioned family member. Especially after Christmas dinner and Uncle Bill has had a few too many egg nogs!
It’s a whole different art form . And when musicians start using bad network television as their benchmark…well for many of us that would signify the end of Western Civilization. :)</p>
<p>But you are right. Med school is a lot easier.</p>
<p>And by the way, far be it from me to slam Network voice competitions. It’s an ill wind indeed that doesn’t blow someone some good. There is more than one way of making money in the business. Right now, I would say at least a quarter of D’s income is from coaching students for American Idol, the X Factor and Glee auditions. At least one of her kids made it on air.</p>
<p>musicamusica, how coincidental. My name is Bill, I just had a few too many egg nogs, and I just checked the news and it does look like Western Civilization is ending! </p>
<p>Now what did I do with that med school application, I know I have it here somewhere. </p>
<p>I never thought about it, but I can see how TV performing arts competitions and shows could definately help to increase interest in lessons.</p>
<p>ha! too good.</p>
<p>Get ready kids! Christmas is coming…and with it all kinds of “helpful advice”!</p>
<p>^^^lol!!!</p>