I’m not the most organized person in the world, but with Kevin and me working together, we do just fine. In the beginning, our parents helped us a lot. When Kevin went on the road, his mom took over paying all the bills and other tasks for him. Now we have our bank pay most of our bills automatically. When that doesn’t work, we arrange to pay ahead of time, because we’ve found that once we’re out on the road, we forget such essentials as rent!
Speaking of rent, we try to sublet our NY apartment, and so far we’ve done fairly well with that. Only once did someone—not a singer—trash our place. We’ve learned to sublet through recommendation only.
We each use one credit card for all purchases. That saves a lot of time when it’s time to do reconciliation.
Our system for organizing our lives both together and separately involves an 8-1/2” x 11” calendar, and a computer program called Sidekick. I write both our schedules on the paper version, and Kevin puts it all into the computer. The calendar is the same size as a score, so the size doesn’t bother me at all.
Sidekick is a program that lets you enter your entire address book, your appointments, birthdays, and other reminders. It even has alarms to remind you when something needs to be done. Kevin is more into this than I am, but it does help us a lot because no matter where we are in the world, we can check each other’s schedule.
The computer is a real lifesaver for keeping us organized and in touch on the road. We even bought a digital camera, which lets us see each other while we are online talking. It cost about $200, and doesn’t work perfectly, but it’s better than nothing!
We keep two separate accounts on AOL (America Online) so we can talk to each other at the same time. We chose AOL because it’s a more convenient service and it works almost anywhere we go—although Kevin is in a Toronto hotel right now that has some kind of digital phone system and he’s going crazy because he can’t sign on! All our parents are finally online, so it has made staying in touch so easy. My mom even has a fax, and we shoot things back and forth.
We tried using cell phones but found it was too expensive for where we were going to be working. In addition, when we were planning our year and saw Santa Fe and Toronto, we knew there was no cell phone service in either place. Kevin uses an 800 number from MCI Worldcom instead, which can switch to anywhere he’s staying.
I have a Quantex computer purchased just last March. Kevin uses a Dell, and a Canon BJC80 printer, which also functions as a scanner and is very reasonably priced. Our computers both have WinFax, a computer program that lets us send and receive faxes. When we’re on the road, we have to remember to pack one of those multi-outlet extension cords and a very long phone cord. No hotel seems to have enough outlets or long enough phone cords. It’s also helpful to call the hotel ahead.
I don’t keep a lot of paper documents at home; I let my manager read and keep reviews and old contracts. I do keep mementos such as recital programs and can’t seem to throw out old headshots!
Kevin is good about using business cards—in fact he makes them on the computer. I don’t really do much with them, although I should. Kevin also has a website, and we’re working on one for me as well. Although I have to say that having my life for view online makes me a little nervous, Kevin assures me that it is convenient and useful.
Organizing the mundane tasks of life is really hard when you are a traveling singer. For example, scheduling preventive healthcare appointments with my doctor is really hard because there is such a small window of time when I will be home. What I do now is e-mail my mom when I see a window of time coming up and she tries to set up appointments for me.
Singers really have to stay on top of everything, and I use e-mail to stay in touch with my manager. As I hear of job opportunities, schedule problems, or anything else, I jot them in an e-mail to him. He writes me back to let me know what action was taken. E-mail and faxes are great ways to keep your career moving while you’re out.
This season tenor Kevin Anderson has appeared in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s revised Mourning Becomes Electra. He will debut with Canadian Opera Company in The Golden Ass, and returns to Santa Fe Opera for Countess Maritza this season.
