Traditionally May has been the month Classical Singer looks at a singer, famous or otherwise, who is juggling a family and a singing career. This month is no different, as we spotlight Rosalind Plowright—a singer who has had amazing courage to go forward in building a world-class career despite quite a bit of shyness offstage. She enjoyed marvelous success until vocal problems caused her to not sing at her best and forced cancellations. The critics were cruel during this period, and she had to endure the pain of watching her first career decline. But her courage really showed as she found an amazing teacher in Germany who helped her rebuild her voice, and she has started a new world-class career as a mezzo! All of this has been done with a husband and two beautiful children. This is an inspiring story for any singer who has had to overcome difficulties.
The theme of this month’s editorial is “breaking away from the chorus.” Recently, I had a wonderful conversation with a great teacher who has done just that. Her journey started when she began to feel that she was leading singers down “a path to a black hole.” She felt that the opportunities for an opera career were so small that too many singers were left broken along the wayside. Even for those singers who got to the top, it seemed to ruin their lives. She’d had students “make it” and then have broken marriages or lead unhappy lives in other respects, and she felt responsible. As a result, she has taken her teaching in a whole new direction. Instead of encouraging singers to participate in cutthroat competition and driving ambition, she has worked hard to emphasize the joy of singing.
I feel that Classical Singer has a real obligation to singers in this regard. Over the years we have profiled many singers who are pointing the way—singers who are willing to share with other singers and give them advice on keeping their “other lives” balanced while keeping their musical lives going. We have also profiled singers who have made unhappy choices. I hope you have taken note of what these singers have learned.
CS works hard to point out the many, many avenues for success as a singer. As these pages attest month after month, success as globe-trotting world famous singers does not guarantee happiness. Singers have many options for plotting their own course and responding to their inner calling.
I love the article by Cindy Sadler and Milo Morris on how to write a business plan, which points out some of those options. It goes along well with a new favorite book, What Should I Do With My Life? The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question (Random House $24.95). It features interviews with many people who had tunnel vision toward a goal and then “broke away from the chorus to learn the sound of their own voice.” The author learned a lot about people and their life’s “callings” from interviewing 900 people. You’ll find 55 of them profiled in the book.
It’s little wonder that we shy away from asking ourselves what we really want to do with our lives. It’s a frightening question…it’s easier just to stay on the track that was laid out for us by teachers or very proud parents.
In What Should I Do With My Life? , you can read about how angry some people’s family members became when they made serious life changes to follow their true “calling.” Some simply stopped pursuing money as a goal in life. Some were on medication for depression before realizing that they needed to make a career change. So many singers I know are on medication or self-medicating with alcohol or worse. One has to wonder, aside from chemical imbalances which need treatment, do these singers who are in so much pain really need to re-think their career and life decisions? Sing, yes. But sing where?
Perhaps you are teaching when you need to be performing. Or you are performing when you need to be teaching. One person in the book decided, “I realized I had it in me to be successful. I was tired of struggling. So I decided to be successful. Why not? Why not me?”
One of my favorite stories was about the “imposter syndrome.” This caught my eye because Rosalind Plowright quotes Renée Fleming as having this exact syndrome! She often thinks someone will stand up in the audience and shout out “imposter!” (I heard her quoted on NPR saying this same thing.) Read Julia Meriwether’s story. She was a teacher who became a chemical engineer in a male-dominated field. She is now facing this syndrome and wondering if she made the right choice. Not all the stories are tied up in nice neat packages.
Po Bronson, the author, said that most of us don’t get an epiphany outlining our destinies—though one of his subjects did receive a letter from the Dalai Lama telling him he was the reincarnation of a great spiritual leader (!). Most of us get more of a whisper, a faint urge, and then it is up to us to do the discovering. But the important thing is to pay attention to how you are feeling. You have the talent to be a singer, or you wouldn’t be reading this. The question is, how are you going to use that talent? The possibilities are endless.
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CJ Williamson, Editor
cjw@classicalsinger.com
P.O. Box 95490
South Jordan, UT 84095
