Tenor Piotr Beczala is having a meaningful career, built over decades of consistent excellence that keeps him in high demand at the world’s most illustrious houses, as he continues to benefit greatly from the support of his wife, Katarzyna, who gave up her own successful career as a singer two decades ago to support and travel with him. But his career also stands on a foundation of respect and serious attention paid to the lineage of singers that preceded him. Perhaps it’s that awe for both the past and present that has helped Beczala find a remarkable sense of balance in his personal and professional life, all of which he discusses in this exclusive interview.
Sit down with a hot cocoa on a February day and read this true story of how a dedicated group of musicians saved the opera company they loved.
Even if you know your long-term goal is a career on the stage, taking a look at some other jobs in the music industry is never a bad idea, and an internship can be a great place to start.
One year ago this month, CS’s cover story featured Anne-Carolyn Bird and her husband, Matthew Burns, two singers on the road with their young family. This year, we catch up again with Bird to find out how her family’s changing needs led to an unexpected but perfect career change.
At last year’s Classical Singer Convention in Boston in May, I was assigned to work at the registration desk, checking singers and presenters in, giving them their convention packets and
Nary a singer loves to audition. And a Twitter account highlighting things “overheard” at auditions shows how they often bring out the worst in singers, even though every singer goes in hoping to show their best. Claudia Friedlander takes a look at this and other contradictions of the audition scene.
Forty years after her untimely death, we operaphiles are still being mesmerized by the voice of Maria Callas. Why, I pondered, would such a singer endure and evoke such emotion
| Blog-Monday Bytes, Networking | Happy 2017: January is conference time for many musicians and that means networking—for better or worse. If real-time networking makes your skin crawl, get 12 tips for making
This New Year gives us all a glorious opportunity to refocus on what’s essential. Recently I’ve allowed various distractions to take my eye off the ball in my personal and
Unsure of the next step in your training or what to do with the coming summer months? Find information on how to evaluate your needs and finances by taking a closer look at the different options available for summer programs and YAPS.
Twelve years ago pianist and coach Susan Morton decided to assemble an entire cast of singers to do an opera sing-through to help one of her students learn a role. That moment of inspiration has turned into a full-fledged program helping singers to achieve a more thorough and complete preparation.
Welcome to this year’s summer program issue! Each year, as I review programs (the exceptional ones, the mediocre ones, and the sometimes bad ones) and singers’ experiences (also exceptional, mediocre,
