More and more singers are realizing the importance of creating their own performance opportunities. One of the good things about early music is that it makes it easy for you to do just that: the repertoire before 1800 is chock full of chamber music for all different arrangements of voices and instruments. The various styles accommodate different types of singing and different sensibilities, from flamboyant Baroque cantatas to intimate medieval chant. The ensembles are usually small and highly portable to accommodate touring or performing in local venues.
Would you like to regularly perform interesting and challenging music, feel ownership over your music making, and maybe even make a living from it? Team up with another singer, grab someone who plays the lute, and go. It sure is easier than mounting a production of Aida. Running a group can bring its share of challenges, but singers who perform with early ensembles often find steady performance opportunities, artistic satisfaction, and even financial reward.
“We were surprised that you can sing medieval music and make a living,” says Marsha Genensky, one of the founders of Anonymous 4, the a cappella quartet that is probably one of the most well-known early music groups in modern history. While the international sensation that Anonymous 4 became may be an unusually successful example, it illustrates how membership in a group can be an important part of a singer’s career.
“Most singers in Blue Heron do make their living from music, and partly from singing in various groups,” says Scott Metcalfe, director of the Boston-based Blue Heron Renaissance Choir. A group can be the primary musical outlet for a singer, or simply a part of a multi-faceted career.
“It’s a great supplement to what we already do,” says Phoebe Jevtovic, a founding member of La Monica, the California-based Baroque chamber ensemble.
The recurring performance opportunities that come from being in a group leads to more exposure for individual members, which leads to more performing. Blue Heron, for example, shares some of its singers with Exsultemus, another period vocal ensemble in Boston. Drew Minter, a founding member of the medieval trio Trefoil, began studying the harp to contribute to the group, and is now starting to accompany himself on solo voice recitals.
But if you join or start an early music group does that mean that you will become exclusively an early music singer? “I don’t know what an early music singer is,” says Anne Azéma, artistic director of the Boston Camerata, one of America’s pioneering early music ensembles.
“Respect for the repertoire is at question here, and applying common sense ideas that spring from the music,” she goes on, noting that singers who are drawn to earlier
repertoire tend to be “very intelligent and can use their instruments to serve the music.” A singer who can perform styles as diverse as Mozart and Poulenc can also familiarize herself with historical styles. And while ensemble singing figures prominently in some early genres, most of the repertoire provides opportunities for singing solos, duets, and trios as well.
“Most of my singers go back and forth between singing with me and singing opera,” says Amelia LeClair of Capella Clausura, the Baroque chorus in Boston dedicated to performing works by women composers. “It’s a huge mistake to think that an early music voice is a little teeny tiny pipy thing. You have to be able to get the text across.”
Echoing the observations of many directors, Metcalfe adds, “Everyone in Blue Heron does a lot of early music, but we have hardly anyone who does only early music.”
Most groups combine local concerts, touring, and recordings to cultivate their audiences. A typical path is for a group to self produce concerts and perhaps also perform on local concert series at the beginning, then to pursue presenters regionally and beyond as they gain more experience. The amount of touring and its geographical scope can vary for each ensemble.
“For about 12 years this was more than a full time job,” says Genensky, speaking of the “happy vicious cycle” of touring, rehearsing, and recording that served as the work plan for Anonymous 4. Heavy touring is not always the best choice for some ensembles, especially larger groups or those that travel with instruments. “We’re a little too big for that to be practical,” says Metcalfe, adding, “I want to build something where I live.”
Groups that do not pursue national and international touring expand their audience by presenting concerts regionally, seeking out concerts within driving distance from their home base. If its repertoire is rather narrow, a group can invite guest artists and broaden their musical range to keep audiences engaged.
Although recordings are sometimes only profitable for “pocket change,” as Minter jokes, they play a role in every group’s development. Recordings serve as critical promotional tools to potential presenters and managers, and help to further engage audience members with the ensemble. And sometimes they can be a revenue source as well.
“We recouped our entire investment [for a self-produced recording] in one weekend,” says Jevtovic. “Selling CDs at our own concerts has been most profitable.”
Being part of a group also brings a number of challenges. Just as an individual singer must hone his skills, position himself in the market, and constantly promote himself, a group must do the same. “Being in an ensemble consists as much in making it go [business-wise] as it does musically,” says Genensky.
An investment in the time and resources necessary to manage the business aspects of the ensemble is necessary, either from the director or the members themselves. At the same time, having to be creative to establish yourself in the field is an important skill to master. Azéma notes that for any performer “it is impossible to not be involved with the business aspects of things. You always need to put your artistic ideas in perspective.”
Singers who take on the task of organizing a group can find that the focus on organizing and management skills can strengthen their own professionalism. For Jenifer Thyssen, who is establishing Amici da Lontano, a new ensemble based in Austin, directing a group “gives me more maturity when someone asks me to perform. It informs how I work with directors.”
To be successful, each enterprise needs a team of supporters. “You need to meet the great bookkeeper, the energetic board member, to be a salesman for the group, and others to volunteer for the group,” says Metcalfe.
Sometimes business responsibilities can stretch the resources of small groups. When Gwen Toth founded the New York-based Baroque chamber ensemble ARTEK in the 1980s, publicity involved mailing out press releases and printing simple flyers. Today, Toth says that confirming e-mail addresses and uploading information onto newspaper websites is more time-consuming than ever. Toth continues to be surprised at the demands new technology presents to performing artists.
“I really just want to be an interesting musician,” she says, “now I have to be an interesting blogger too?”
While entrepreneurial musicians have the advantage of being able to choose their collaborators, sometimes personalities and personal preferences can come at odds with the needs of the ensemble.
“I had to learn to be managerial, and to not hire friends,” says LeClair. “You have to constantly be aware of the good of the group, not just how one person feels.”
When touring, it can be difficult to “make great music and be on the road a lot and maintain family and friend relationships,” says Genensky adding that “it also takes a lot of work to get along when you’re literally in each other’s underwear!”
For collaborative projects, members might have different visions of the group’s direction. “Some want it to be intensely profitable, and some just want to do it for joy,” says Jevtovic. Some group founders do not receive compensation for their work, viewing it instead as a performance opportunity and a contribution to the scene.
Moreover, the repertoire itself can present its challenges to marketing. “When you’re doing rarely-performed music, it’s hard to get an audience in the door based on the composer’s name,” says LeClair. And every ensemble must confront the issue of growth and identity.
“It’s one thing to start a group,” says Azéma, “and another thing to sustain it. You need to have an artistic vision and the artists to grow that vision.” She also emphasizes the importance of collaborating with other ensembles.
One way to achieve growth is to broaden the scope of repertoire performed, whether it is additional historical styles or music from other periods. Expanding the range of music performed can also produce new and newly energized audiences. Anonymous 4 and the Boston Camerata incorporate early American music into their programs, Exsultemus recently added Baroque concerts to their repertoire, and Blue Heron has performed contemporary works.
Early music, and the artistic planning required by running a chamber music group, attracts performers interested in the “intellectual aspect of it,” notes Toth. For ensembles that work regularly without a conductor, “people feel more freedom, more investment in the music and in their performance of it,” says Shannon Canavin, founder and director of Exsultemus. A lot of work needs to happen “before it even reaches the rehearsal room, including library research and transcriptions,” says Genensky, describing an aspect of historical performance that can be energizing to some and daunting to others.
Regardless of the challenges that come with being part of a group, performers and directors agree that it is deeply musically satisfying. “There aren’t many opportunities to work with a group where everyone is at such a high level,” says Thyssen of her ensemble. Singing the delicate medieval French repertoire with Trefoil allows “me to work in a much more detailed way with other singers than singing opera arias,” says Minter. “For us it’s the most fun musical experience we all have, with the people and the music we love most,” says Jevtovic.
Perhaps most satisfying of all is the teamwork—both business and artistic—required by chamber music and the sense of being part of a musical community. “People coming up now can feel free to contact anyone in the early music world” to ask for advice, says Genensky. “The fact that you’re in an ensemble means that you’re not alone, and when you call someone for advice you’re not just promoting yourself.”
While the prospect of creating and managing a new enterprise may be intimidating at first, there are few other ways to ensure regular performance opportunities, choose the music you can best perform, and choose your favorite colleagues. At the same time, performing chamber music is a rare pleasure for most singers, who might only look to the 19th and 20th centuries for repertoire. But
the thousand years before 1800 hold a treasure trove of great music, with numerous arrangements of voices and instruments, just waiting to be brought to light.
