An Artist Must Design Their Own Career

I was fortunate in my life to have a career performing in music. I did what most people do who want a career in music and that was to try and get to be a part of good organizations which would by my association with them increase my value as an artist because I could then place them on my resume and become known as a consistently hire-able singer of opera. Obviously, having proof that you can handle the role of being a lead soloist is an important piece of information for people who are doing the hiring.

However, that is only one part of a career and the other part is possibly if not probably more important.

Establishing Yourself as An Artist in Your Own Right

Aside from the “Resume building” part of a musical career is the “Artist building”  side of the coin. You may have little control over who hires you, but you can have complete control over what you want to do as an artist. Especially in the beginning, doing your own artistic work is probably even more important than doing your “Resume building” work, because that can take years to accomplish. Building yourself as an “Artist” is an everyday thing.

Building a Repertoire

It doesn’t really matter what kind of music you want to do, it only matters that you decide what you want or should do. This is a major decision and one to be considered fully.

Why?

Because, one of the worst decisions you can make is trying to do something you aren’t equipped to do and it can take on many different qualities. It is best, especially in the beginning, to do what most people would agree you can do and do that well, than it is to try something that you can’t “YET” do and struggle. In the beginning, being good at something is a good thing, so why be bad at something when you can be good at something else.

If your voice and personality grew up in a country music environment then that would be a good place to start. Susanne with a sweet voice and a cute hair do can get a long way doing the country style music she grew up with. Now, if she wants to become an operatic soprano, she can still do that, but that will take time, and in the meantime you lose a lot of time pounding your head against the wall trying to be something you are not “yet” while you could be doing something you are “now” and building a performance experience and an audience for yourself along the way.

Obviously, this is just an example, but here is the point.

While Susanne is busy studying to be an operatic soprano, she can still get hired to sing weddings, funerals, birthdays and events as a country style singer. She can put together shows that feature her as the artist and perform in different venues, who cares where? It is all a matter of building a performance habit and resume and becoming comfortable in your own skin in front of people and enjoying what you are doing instead of being worried about every eighth note in a phrase.

So, my advice to anyone starting out is to get a working repertoire of songs that you can use for different occasions and to become known as a good performer. Become an Artist in your own right. Susanne isn’t “Susanne of the Metropolitan Opera” she is just Susanne. But, in the beginning that is great.

Plus, after years of being “Susanne, the artist in her own right” she develops an audience and as she morphs into an operatic soprano she is automatically already a proven performer and pretty well known for her area. Then, the local opera company will want to hire you before you ever sing for them because you will bring patrons with you.

On top of all of this you are in control. Being in control is a huge advantage as a singer.

Lets face it, in just about any metropolitan area of any size there is probably enough work for a soloist to sing in weddings, funerals and events to earn a pretty good living. Lets say you earn $300 per wedding, do 4 a month and that is $1,200 dollars a month alone. Now, you aren’t singing outside of your wheelhouse, you aren’t learning new material, you go, you sing, you cash out. Add funerals, events and birthday parties to the mix and you could actually do quite well.

More importantly, you are marketing yourself in that area and your name grows and if you do quality work and are good to work with, you will be constantly busy.

So, the beginning of any career is working to establish yourself as an artist in your area and then spreading out from there. It is a strategic plan.

Singing in the chorus.

Everybody wants to be a star. Everybody wants to get started at the top. Everybody is out to impress everybody else and in the beginning it is possibly the saddest part of the business. Because if you think you have to start at the top in the beginning, the bottom is not far away.

You need people to tell you the truth. The number one question in building a career is “What is most important?” The answer is, “Everything.”

One common issue with singers is singing in the chorus. You want to be a soloist, so you don’t want to waste your precious voice in the chorus. However, if I had it to do all over again, I may just decide to go down that path. Why?

Because, I most probably could have been hired as a first tenor in the Metropolitan Opera House chorus as a beginner. What would that have meant to me?

Well, I would have been making a good living is one thing. The second thing I would be learning the entire repertoire with great coaching. I would have been working with the best in the world in terms of directors and conductors and my familiarity, while possibly not personal, with those people would make me much more comfortable with them “when the time came.” It also gives you an idea of what is important to an audience, what kind of singers are loved and those who have the door hit their butt on the way out and never come back. It puts you inside the business, and you get to know who is who and gives you an in with the movers and shakers in the business.

While you are in the chorus, you can work on yourself as a technical singer, which is very necessary if you want to survive it. You can save money and resources and plan your solo career launch well ahead of time using your own money and not struggling. Plus, you would have the resume that would get you a job anywhere on earth in just about any chorus from Sydney to Seattle, travelling west of course.

So, if you can work on all of these levels early, you are positioning yourself for success. Add to these factors, educating yourself at top institutions, doing workshops and masterclasses, doing apprenticeships and summer programs, all can set you up for a long musical career.

I guess what I am saying is that, while you are building your mansion, live in your cabin and make it a beautiful one. If you can have your own cabin, that is worth all of the world. If you are an “Artist” in your own right, then you have a “Cabin for Life”. The mansion may or may not come to you, but that cabin is built doing what you love and makes you happy.

As I write these pages, I wished someone had given me this type of advice. Who knows how different my life would be today.

One other thing. Relationships.

I heard an interview with a well known Baritone from the Met and he was quoting Toscanini in saying that first comes your private life and then your career and I don’t agree with it. They are both very important. If you think having a marriage is hard, try to have a career. A career is your career. It is your work. It is what you were sent to earth to do. Lose that and you lose yourself. Lose that and whoever is married to you doesn’t have you, they have a shell of a human being.

What should have the higher priority? I think the answer lies with the coal miner or the garbage man. Do they stop doing their work because of their families? No, the work because of their families. People in the arts often get the mistaken notion that it is an optional career path. It isn’t any less optional than the garbage man who is working to feed his family.

Try getting a job as a garbage man when your resume says you have a degree in Music…they won’t hire you. The idea you can do something else, while being a noble cause, is completely bogus. If a garbage man quits his job, his family doesn’t eat. If an opera singers stop singing, they don’t eat, and neither do their families. It causes more problems for a relationship if an artist doesn’t work, than it does when they work too much. It doesn’t mean that the career is more important than the relationship, it just means it is a part of that relationship and if those in the relationship are threatened by it, it is simply not going to work no matter what you do.

Make no mistake, the ability to sing makes you a special person. It sets you apart from the rest of society who have whatever opinion on the topic, whether it be to think it is a magical gift or a ridiculous hobby. It is something you can do that others can’t and when you can do it well, gives you a special place in the hearts of people.

A career in music, in singing, begins where you are right now. It is all about singing a song, a story about life and to help transport people above the noise of life. it is a worthy occupation and one to take seriously in every facet of life.

I think part of my contribution today is to help people become artists in their own right and to enjoy the process as well as the rewards.