I recently enjoyed listening to world-famous pianist Emanuel Ax on the NPR news quiz show “Wait . . . Wait Don’t Tell Me,” live from the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass. Peter Sagal, the show’s host, asked Ax about the career-launching results of winning high-profile piano competitions.
“I mean, so, in effect what you’re doing is you’re entering a lottery,” Ax said. “You’re hoping that you play well, you play your best on the day that you’re heard. And you’re hoping that the people who are judging will like what you do.” He went on to say that a competition should really be called a “lottery festival.”
The same could be said of vocal competitions. Often hundreds of singers vie for just a handful of prizes. Add into the mix the subjective nature of two or three judges with individual likes and dislikes evaluating all of those singers, and the chances of winning can feel about the same as winning the Powerball jackpot—which, according to Powerball.com, are roughly 1 in 175 million.
Jamie Barton, featured in this month’s cover story, beat the odds recently in one of the most prestigious vocal competitions in the business. After being chosen from more than 400 singers, Barton represented the United States as one of 20 finalists in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. Not only was she named “Singer of the World,” she also became just the second singer in the competition’s 30-year history to also take home the Song prize.
Barton may have beat the odds, but unlike those who play the lottery, she didn’t leave anything to chance. She credits much of her success to exceptionally fine teachers who gave her a foundation of solid vocal technique. Her teachers, in turn, speak of Barton’s abilities to not only put in the time and hard work, but also to openly accept constructive criticism and then make the necessary changes to improve. Barton approached the Singer of the World competition with this same careful preparation, which is now paying big dividends.
As Barton’s career attests, there are ways that singers can up their odds. Greg Waxberg shares singers’ stories of how mental preparation, especially when things don’t go as planned, can make all the difference (p. 16). Kathy Kuczka discusses the art of reauditioning and when and why you should or shouldn’t sing for the same company twice (p. 42). And Rachel Antman interviews singers who ultimately decided the musical odds were too great and are now finding creative fulfillment in new careers (p. 46).
Tragic tales abound of lottery winners mismanaging their winnings and ending up unhappy and broke. When handed a large sum of money in exchange for the simple act of buying a ticket, the winners missed the part of toiling, laboring, and earning their wage. In essence, they missed the necessary preparation to be good stewards of their reward.
There may be some truth to Ax’s comparison of lotteries and competitions, but where it matters most, they are, in reality, very different. Successful singers do not gamble with the future by leaving things to chance. But rather, like Barton, they focus on daily, diligent training. As Louis Pasteur said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”
