Following up

I know I have touched on this subject before, but this is a bit of advice that I don't think can be overstated.  If you do an audition, and the person hearing you hands you their card, and says "please stay in touch with me, I would like to keep track of what you are doing", do it!!  I just got an update this past week from a young singer who did our Young Artist Auditions last year.  I didn't hire her, but told her I was interested in watching her progress, and she followed up - this person has now upped their chances of getting hired here because of that simple step.
You would be amazed (or perhaps not!) how many times I have told a singer to keep me apprised of what they are doing, and then they didn't - that is a missed opportunity!
Remember, this is one of the simple things you can do to give yourself an opportunity to get hired!

A really nice weekend of hearing singers!

I had the opportunity to hear over 60 aspiring high school singers over two days at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute this past weekend.  Then on Sunday, I got to hear some of the Young Artists at the Glimmerglass Festival.  It's exciting to hear young singers at varying degrees of their development.  It's especially invigorating to see and hear high school singers at the very beginning of their journey.  Another example of "it's the journey, not the destination!"

Thought for the day......

Why not you?

When I used to audition, this thought was almost never present in my head - "why not me?"  In fact, my thoughts were more along the lines of "they almost certainly won't pick me".  To some extent, this becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

I am not pretending that positive thinking will overcome marginal talent, lack of preparation, or sloppy execution.

What I am suggesting is that if you are a talented, well prepared young artist, your belief that you should have the position you are going after will transmit to the people hearing your audition.

Expanded notes from my Classical Singer presentation

Julie Baron at YAP tracker was nice enough to ask me to expand up on the outline that I used for my Classical Singer Convention presentation in June (I published those here).
YAP tracker is publishing the expanded version of those outlines on their site, and I am putting the link here, if you would like to check it out.

http://www.yaptracker.com/posts/bill-florescu-yap-tracker-auditions

reinforcement

I have been working on a "fleshing out" out of the outlines of my presentations that I did at the Classical Singer conference for YAP tracker (I will post them here as well).  As I was doing that, I was looking at some other notes of things that I have been writing about, and I was reminded anew about the whole "it's not the destination, it's the journey" thing.  Since I have now been doing this long enough now to have a healthy storehouse of retrospect, I will say that this is one of the most important things to remember as you approach your singing career.
Hanging in my office is a poster from my first professional opera job, which was Figaro in the Barber of Seville with the Springfield (Ohio) Civic Opera.  As I recall, I made $200 for 3 or 4 performances, and though I was thrilled at the opportunity, I am also fairly sure that I thought that this would be something that would fade in memory as I scaled much loftier operatic heights.
Well, you know what?  I have since had, and continue to have, some wonderful professional experiences, but that first experience is as vivid in my head today as when I did it.
Lesson here?  That seemingly insignificant concert, operatic performance, or other musical event that you are doing now, may be a very significant memory thirty years from now.....savor it!

How many languages do I need?

A question I receive a lot is - do I need to have the big four (Italian, German, French, English) plus perhaps another (i.e. Czech, Russian) for my audition list?

As with many of these types of questions, you may get different answers from different people, but for me the answer is - it depends.

Some fachs don't have obvious choices in certain languages for instance.  I think what is most important is having a list that shows you to the best advantage.  Obviously, you don't want to have a list with five Italian arias, or five English arias, but I have seen a list with something like 2 Italian, 2 French, and an English. 

I think a more important to remember is that regardless of language, your list should show musical, dramatic, and technical variety.

Summer is Planning time!

Now that my company, the Florentine Opera has moved its offices, I am able to get back to sharing thoughts about auditioning.
For those of you not busy in summer programs (and perhaps even if you are), this is a good time to get yourself organized for the autumn -  whether it is preparing roles or scenes you may be doing with a company, or preparing your audition materials for the fall/winter audition season.

Now that we are in the digital age, one does not have to prepare resumes and photos so far ahead of time, but it is still worthwhile to see if it might be time for a new publicity photo, and double check and update credits on your resume.

If you are going to have to submit mp3 files or cds/dvds in the fall, you should either consider doing a recording session this summer, or prepare the files if you have recently recorded material.  You never know when someone might ask for a recording with a short turn around time!

Wardrobe is another thing worth assessing - are your concert /audition clothes what they need to be, or do you need additions/subtractions, etc......the lull of summer is a good time to take care of that!

And finally, audition rep....have you been practicing/coaching it?  Are the new pieces you've added ready to go??  Now is the time to get that ready...The Fall will be here before you know it (hard to believe when most of us are "enjoying" temps around 100 degrees!)