Hopefully you’ve been hard at work since reading last month’s column at reevaluating the ways and means you are currently publicizing your image to the world, striving for an honest, simple, straight-forward presentation. Below you’ll find the rest of the list of right and wrong ways to present yourself, based on real-life examples. Don’t worry. Identifying details have been changed to protect those who hopefully have since learned better.
1. Claiming to be an exciting new young artist when you are neither young nor new.
Why it’s not OK: Unless you have an amazing plastic surgeon or are blessed with really spectacular genes, you won’t be fooling anyone by describing your 30- or 40-something self as a young artist. You will appear pathetic at worst and self-deluded at best. If the age on your driver’s license excludes you from YAP auditions, you can’t really call yourself a young artist. And if you’ve been kicking around the business for years trying for your big break, you are hardly a newcomer. While we’re talking about it, update your headshot, please. If the big ’80s hair doesn’t give you away, the fact that the person in the photo looks more like your child than you will.
When it is OK: Your age is no one’s business but your own, and there’s nothing wrong with letting people believe what they will about that silly number. And when discovered, everyone becomes an “overnight sensation” after they’ve spent years building their careers. So you needn’t publicize your age—and, by all means, look as young as you can for as long as you can (which really means looking good for your age, whatever it may be). Just don’t try to “pass” by wearing an unnatural hair color or clothing that’s age inappropriate or by describing yourself as a kid in your publicity materials.
A better solution: Own who you are. Yes, there are many advantages for the young in our business, but if your life took you down different paths during those years . . . well, you’ve been finding your own way all this time, so you might as well continue. Work with what you’ve got, put it in the best possible light without hype or exaggeration, and then make sure that you’re applying for auditions that are on par with your experience level. Sometimes you just have to climb the stairs one step at a time.
2. Over-designed website and publicity materials—the discount store approach to marketing yourself as a singer.
Why it’s not OK: Open your favorite newspaper and check out the ads for your local discount department store and a local high-end jeweler. Notice any differences? One ad is going to be stuffed full of photos, bright colors, big headlines, and lots of exclamation points. The other will likely feature a single, eye-catching graphic—cool, clean colors and simple text. One screams “Cheap!” and the other whispers “Elegant.” Which one of those do you want to be?
Websites with complex flash presentations, music that plays automatically, slideshows, animations, too much text, showy headlines, and other “bells and whistles” are the equivalent of that discount store ad. They become tiresome very quickly and obscure the information the visitor is really looking for. The same is true of nonstandard materials printed on fancy papers with too many graphics, tucked in expensive custom folders.
Your professional website is also not the place to showcase your personal photos or blog.
When it is OK: Hey, everybody likes sparkle and toys. Just save it for your personal site, and don’t link your personal, for-fun space with your professional site.
A better solution: Keep your website clean, sophisticated, and easy to navigate. The same should be true of your publicity materials. It’s fine to take a lighthearted tone, if that’s who you are as a performer. But remember that classical singing is irrevocably linked with, at a minimum, a soupçon of elegance. So if you have a personal blog, a Facebook or MySpace profile, or a personal website, keep it completely separate from your professional singing activities and resources.
3. The “throw everything out there and see what sticks” method of marketing.
Why it’s not OK: Classical singing is a pretty genre-specific market, especially if you are an opera singer. Where opera is concerned, your concert work with orchestras and major recitals are interesting footnotes—but your local-level recital work, your cabaret, your voice studio, your classical music humor act, your school shows for the kiddies, your wedding singer business, your lead singer status for Patty and the Purple People Eaters oldies cover band, and your church job are liabilities and should not be featured. This is generally true of all non-genre-specific work, especially the higher you climb on the career ladder. Keep your website and publicity materials specific to the work you’re seeking. The more “diluted” your site becomes, the less attention is focused on you, the singer. Any non-mainstage, solo work (with the exception of YAPs, if that’s where you are in your career) detracts from your image as a successful soloist, so play it safe and keep it separate.
When it is OK: You can list opera, concert, and recital work all on one performing website, but keep other types of singing and singing-related work separate. If your niche really is jack-of-all-musical-trades and you are not trying to get to the top of any particular pile, you can get away with having one site and one set of materials that cover it all. Also note that if you are just starting your opera career, you will need to list pretty much all the performing experience you’ve got, and then gradually prune the less relevant listings as you gain more impressive credits.
A better solution: Domain names are relatively inexpensive. You can have a single website with different domain names linked to specific pages. For example, you can have www.SuzySingerOpera.com, www.SuzySingerVoiceStudio.com, and www.SuzySingerWeddings.com. This way, your multiple musical personalities each have a proper home on the Web. There’s nothing shameful or “less than” about making your living from a variety of musical activities, but be organized about how you present them. Have a separate webpage or flyer for each.
4. Selling anything other than CDs of your singing on your website.
Why it’s not OK: Same principle as above: If it doesn’t add to the luster of your solo work, it detracts. Your singing site is not the place to advertise products or non-musical services. Frankly, it appears desperate and, well, tacky. If you are selling your CDs, be sure to have a separate page for them. Your home page should be selling nothing but you, the singer.
When it is OK: If your singing is a hobby rather than a career, you don’t need to be as concerned about presenting yourself professionally. Also, if you are well established in either career, you can get away with this. A prime example is tenor John McVeigh who, in addition to his very successful singing career, also designs high-end jewelry which is sold in galleries. Because he is a well-known singer and because his jewelry business is equally successful (and also a creative endeavor), the two businesses enhance rather than detract from each other. That being said, I’m sure he doesn’t introduce himself to general directors as “John McVeigh, tenor and jewelry designer.”
A better solution: If you can provide non-musical services and products, such as life coaching, massage therapy, or handmade cosmetics, you can include a note about this in your singing bio as an interesting aside. You can include links to your singing site on your non-singing pages. You can also mention it to colleagues and use your singing industry contacts to build your other business. Just hand them a business card and direct them to your business-specific website.
5. Claiming to sing everything from Cherubino to Turandot equally well.
Why it’s not OK: Regardless of how well you think you sing disparate roles, or how good they “feel” in your voice, the fact is that different roles were intended to be sung by different voices with a variety of attributes. Sure, there are Fach-busters out there, but most of their role-hopping has taken place over a period of years as their voices matured and changed. If you insist that you are all at once a Dramatic Lyric Helden-Soubrette Mezzo-Contralto or a Basso Cantante Counter-Tenorino di Grazia, what you are really saying to the panel is “I am a big mess who has no idea what I should be singing, but I’m likely to give you grief if you dare to suggest that I can’t do all those things equally well.” They are not going to want to mess with you, no matter how well you sing.
When it is OK: Young artists and college students often need time and experience to settle into their true Fachs, so it’s neither unusual nor detrimental to see some Fach-hopping choices on their repertoire lists. Don’t sweat it. Also, if you’re that jack-of-all-musical-trades mentioned earlier, and your arena is mainly performances you put together yourself or for fond local organizations, you can probably get away with singing whatever you like.
A better solution: If you’re trying for the big career, then focus, especially in the beginning. Later, when you have become all that and a cannoli, you can convince those who have been hiring you for Cherubino to give your Turandot a spin. And you can always sing the fun, “forbidden” stuff in concerts you mount yourself or in smaller venues away from the limelight.
Again, long story short: Simplicity, honesty, focus, and attention to detail will take you much further than complicated attempts at artifice. If you have to try too hard to come up with innovative ways to present yourself, chances are they don’t work for you. Start with what is simple and true. Focus on being your best self. Let your talent and hard work speak for themselves.
