Suppose you were given a choice between singing a lead role in the premiere of a brand new opera in a major american city, taking a three-month Young Artist contract with a highly respected American opera company (where you’d be doing a mainstage role), or taking a job as a full-time chorus member with another well-known and respected American opera company. Which would you choose?
How would you make the decision? What factors would you consider to help you assess which would be the better opportunity? Would you consider location? Would you automatically think that doing a mainstage role with a big-name company, even as an apprentice, would help you make important contacts with some of the movers and shakers in the business? Or would you think that originating a lead role in a brand new work would get you noticed by agents and directors?
Would you wonder which job would look better on your résumé? And what about the idea many have long held that taking a chorus job, regardless of the company, would limit your future possibilities of singing lead roles with major companies? Would you be afraid of that? Would you think that a chorus job is “second tier,” or that it consigns you to being in the background for the rest of your career?
Could you give up the excitement of traveling from place to place doing different lead roles? Or would you think, “Hmm, steady gig, pretty good pay, nice city, no travel, sleeping in a comfortable bed at night, good work schedule, and earn my living singing. Where do I sign up?”
Choosing to sing in the chorus presents a myriad of tough questions, questions that many singers contemplate at some point in their careers.
Chester Pidduck, a young lyric tenor with many great credits already on his résumé, was faced with such a dilemma. He had a highly coveted contract virtually in hand with one of the most respected Young Artist Programs in the country, plus a lead role lined up in the premiere of an exciting new work, when the offer of a full-time opera chorus position came knocking at his door. His choice? The chorus job.
Looking at Pidduck’s résumé, you might think this was an odd decision. After all, in just the last few years Pidduck sang four roles with Opera Colorado, two with Colorado Light Opera, originated the role of Simon Stimson in the world premiere of Ned Rorem’s Our Town while doing graduate work at Indiana University, and was a Young Artist with Glimmerglass Opera, Central City Opera, and Nashville Opera, among others. In addition, he’s been a soloist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Bach Society of St. Louis.
So why would a young singer who clearly seems to be on the path to a successful solo career take what seems like a left turn and accept a full-time position as an opera chorister? Yes, the job is with San Francisco Opera, but still, it begs the question.
Before revealing the answer, let me tell you a little more about Pidduck. One of the most refreshing things I discovered about him as we talked was his utter lack of ego about his singing career, perhaps because he’s something of an accidental singer.
Born in southeast Ontario and raised in St. Louis, Pidduck sang in the St. Louis Children’s Choir, the Cathedral Choir, his high school choir, and performed in high school musicals. By the time college rolled around, however, he wasn’t considering a career in music—but the college to which he applied was offering scholarships for voice majors, so, he figured, “Why not? Until I figure out what I want to do, I’ll be a voice major.”
After a junior year abroad in Spain, Pidduck switched his major to Spanish and minored in music. Upon graduating, he returned to Spain for a year, then came back to St. Louis and took an office job that capitalized on his Spanish-speaking skills—but singing beckoned.
“I enjoyed it, so I looked for a choir to sing with,” he said. “I knew I was good enough to sing in the professional choirs around town, so I decided to audition for a job as a paid section leader.” One thing followed the next and within a short time, Pidduck had four, steady, evening and weekend, paid singing jobs that, all told, netted him about $12,000 a year. (He kept his day job.)
After three years, Pidduck felt he had maxed out his singing opportunities in the St. Louis area, so he decided to go for a singing career. Graduate school at Indiana University was the logical next step.
Right from the start, however, Pidduck was skipping semesters for singing gigs. After only one semester in school, Sarasota Opera wanted Pidduck for its Young Artist Program. “Well, I could stay here in Indiana,” he thought, “or I could get paid to spend the winter in Florida.” So, off to Florida he went. Pidduck frequently missed school semesters because he was off doing Young Artist Programs, so earning his degree took a little longer than normal.
On the heels of receiving his master’s in vocal performance in 2007, Pidduck was hired as a Young Artist at Glimmerglass Opera, then went to Opera Colorado for its Young Artist Program, where he did outreach and covered the role of Nemorino in “Elixir.” “It was a perfect role for me, and I got one full performance.” From there he went to Colorado Light Opera to do Lt. Cable in South Pacific and the Padre in Man of La Mancha.
With this kind of momentum going in his singing career, why did Pidduck take the opera chorus job? Why didn’t he take the Young Artist contract with the guarantee of a mainstage role, or the lead role in the premiere of a new opera?
“Even though things had been moving up for me,” Pidduck explained, “I still didn’t have a solid career going, and I thought that though the apprenticeship would have been a big step, it still was just three months of guaranteed work. Maybe there would have been a better chance of more solo work beyond that, but so often people do a big Young Artist Program and still don’t have a decent career after that.
“It’s a tough business in the solo world, and the main thing for me is I’ve always just enjoyed singing. I never really felt that I have to be the star to be successful. I was drawn by the idea that I could actually make a living singing. I’m on stage every night with the most famous opera singers in the world, and that’s a rare thing.
“In this country there are just a few cities where you can make a decent living singing in the opera chorus, and San Francisco is one of them. I thought it might be nice to settle down in one place and know that I have a secure paycheck and health benefits, like the rest of the world, except I do it singing. So, it’s the best of both worlds for me. And—this is a big plus about working for San Francisco Opera—it’s a full-time regular chorus, but we work fewer months during the year [than other full-time chorus jobs]. For instance we started our rehearsals on April 1 and our last performance is [was] on Dec. 7, so that’s almost four months free. I can clearly do solo work in that time off, so it’s not a decision to completely give up a solo career.”
And, as Pidduck says, this is his first year with the company. So he feels, at this still early point in his singing life, that he doesn’t have to make a final decision about whether to go back to a full-time pursuit of a solo career or stay as a chorus member and pursue solo work in his months off. Right now he can enjoy the latter and see where it takes him.
“I figure there are still plenty of options for me either way,” he said. “But I am liking the job, and assuming they want me back next year, and unless some amazing solo opportunity comes up that I just can’t refuse, I think I’ll stick with this.”
From all indications, the company is taking note of Pidduck’s talent, too. Thus far, in his short time with the company, he has auditioned for four solo bit roles for tenors this past season—those that chorus members usually sing. Pidduck didn’t know if he had a chance as a first-year chorister, but promptly scored two of the four. This not only garnered him extra pay, but gave him two legitimate roles with San Francisco Opera to put on his résumé.
“Maybe that will continue in the next couple of years. Maybe it will even turn into some slightly bigger roles,” said Pidduck. “I wouldn’t expect to get a lead role, but maybe eventually I could sing small roles with the company.” Eventually is now, as a matter of fact. In our last e-mail exchange, Pidduck informed me that he will be the tenor soloist in San Francisco Symphony and Chorus’s 2009 presentation of Carmina burana.
When I remarked that this chorus job seemed, so far, not to be career limiting, Pidduck responded, “I would say it’s not. If I wanted to focus on a solo career, probably my smartest move would be to go to New York, and get an agent, and go all out for it. As a chorus member here, it means that for eight months out of the year, I can’t just run off to do solo work elsewhere. So, it’s a little limiting in that sense, but it’s definitely not limiting to the point that I can’t do both. It’s possible to do both, to have the full-time job in the opera chorus and pursue solo roles during our time off. There are many people in the chorus who do both. A lot are doing solo roles, mainly in the Bay Area, but it’s a good area. I’m starting to know the small opera companies here. They put on great productions, and there are plenty of companies to choose from to do lead roles on the side.”
So, what’s a typical workday like?
“Well, a typical day depends on what time of the year it is,” he said. “From April through the middle of June [2008] we didn’t do any staging. We just worked on music. We worked on the music of every opera we’re doing for the whole season. And we’d rehearse, say, 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on one opera. Then we always get an hour-and-a-half dinner break, and then we’d come back and rehearse from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on another opera. So basically we were just learning music for two-and-a-half months and then started staging rehearsals after that. Now, it’s a good mix. Like, this afternoon I’ll be at a music rehearsal from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and then tonight at 5 p.m. we have a staging rehearsal for another opera. So you’re jumping around from opera to opera a lot.”
Pidduck added that the chorus usually rehearses 25 to 30 hours per week, Tuesdays through Saturdays and sometimes Sundays. San Francisco is an AGMA house, so singers get paid overtime for any rehearsal time over 30 hours in a week. Not bad for a job that pays $56,000 a year as a starting salary.
Choristers can supplement that income with teaching. Many of Pidduck’s colleagues teach, but right now Pidduck is having fun getting to know the San Francisco Bay area in his spare time. Eventually, when he’s better known in the area, he hopes to hook into extra gigs, such as church work or other kinds of soloing, on the side.
For now, though, Pidduck is enjoying life as a professional chorister. At the time we spoke, he was rehearsing Simon Boccanegra with the company and finding it a worthwhile challenge.
“The staging is interesting,” he said. “My favorite part is when two other guys and I are front and center with a little stage fight. I have a sword, and I throw one of them down, and they throw me down. We get to work some stage combat. There are fights happening on the entire stage at that point, but they chose us to be sort of the star fight. The chorus doesn’t always get that kind of action. If you’re a lead you can almost expect a sword fight in every other opera. In chorus it’s often more standing and singing, but in this one we get to have some fun.”
Fun, indeed. Now there’s a job a singer could love.
