MONDAY BYTES – October 29, 2012
A few weeks back I sat in on a professional development session for grad students in an opera program: they were about thirty bright, talented and accomplished young singers.
One of the things the speaker did, as an icebreaker, was have everyone introduce himself: name, where you are from, and what you want to be doing one year from now.
Almost without exception, each singer said the same thing: they wanted to be accepted into a Young Artist Program.
And I sat there imagining all the OTHER young singers in grad voice departments in the entire country wanting the SAME THING.
Of course, we should want what we want, and strive for our goals, but this actually seems like a lack of imagination or perhaps some brainwashing is going on, if young signers all believe there’s just this one path—as if there’s only one flavor of ice cream—vanilla!
If everything we want rests on winning an audition that hundreds of others are competing for (whether this is for a young artist program, a solo competition, or an orchestral job), then we ultimately are allowing OTHERS to determine our future, what we contribute to the world, and our sense of our own worth.
For this week: How are YOU spelling success? What OTHER ways (outside of auditions for limited opportunities) can you imagine proceeding with your career that would yield you performance experience, contacts, income, and artistic challenge?
