The Death and Rebirth of Classical Singing

The world needs all its flowers, just as they are, and even though they bloom for only the briefest of moments, which we call a lifetime.  It is our job to find out one by one and collectively what kind of flowers we are, and to share our unique beauty with the world in the precious time that we have, and to leave the children and grandchildren a legacy of wisdom and compassion embodied in the way we live, in our institutions, and in our honoring of our interconnectedness, at home and around the world.  Why not risk standing firmly for sanity in our lives and in our world, the inner and the outer a reflection of each other and of our genius as a species.

The creative and imaginative efforts and actions of every one of us count, and nothing less than the health of the world hangs in the balance. We could say that the world is literally and metaphorically dying for us as a species to come to our senses, and now is the time. Now is the time for us to wake up to the fullness of our beauty, to get on with and amplify the work of healing ourselves, our societies, and the planet, building on everything worthy that has come before and that is flowering now. No intention is too small and no effort insignificant. Every step along the way counts. And, as you will see, every single one of us counts.Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Coming to our Senses, Jon Kabat-Zinn, pg. 16

As I read Jon Kabat-Zinn, my passion for singing is rekindled.  My still small voice, so tentatively mouthing the truth in my experience that singing does matter, gets stronger.  Our field has lost its way.  Where once we may have sung for the glory of God we now sing for our own glory.  Where once we worshipped the composer’s music for its ability to lift us out of our suffering or to evoke our highest feelings, we now sing and train our singers to get the job or quit.

At the university we teach our aspiring professional singers technique and language, audition skills, and networking skills, we rarely, if ever

1. Give them a comprehensive history of singing that securely sets us into a context or lineage in our field; and

2. Give them a strong sense of meaning in what they are sacrificing time and money and societal respect to do. 

I believe we do a good job in teaching our American singers how to make tone and to faithfully re-create a piece of music.  Our singers are technically and musically proficient to be sure.  But we fail to value the spark ourselves.  The spark of truth and beauty that is essential for our most gifted and talented singers to protect and to nurture in themselves.

No one is asking us to sing.  Our societies and communities value it enough to sponsor one or two arts organizations if there is an impassioned leader writing grants and moving mountains to present art.  But our societies do not see the true value in hearing the human voice live and well-trained and deeply rooted in the heart.  Our churches do understand, by and large, the value of music to uplift.  Churches remain one of the best sources of income for trained singers.  Churches and synagogues and temples insist on music at each and every event.  Even our sports teams insist on the national anthem sung to evoke a more meaningful experience than simple sport.  But today, our communities do not get together in the town square to discuss the issues of the day.  Our leaders do not routinely hear music to uplift and guide them in their leadership.  Our universities do not come together on a regular basis to sing an uplifting song, nor do they hire trained professional singers to do so, except at graduation.

So trained singers know to audition for church jobs to help get them through school.  They know that a few restaurants offer good tips for opera singers who also serve food.  They know that Jewish synagogues pay extremely well for high holy day singers and so covet those positions and hold on to them when they get them.  They know that some places will pay for a good national anthem.  They know that a few opera companies will pay a little for a leading role.  They know that local orchestras hire singers for single events and try to get on lists to be called for such events.  Meanwhile, singers keep paying to take lessons, coachings, and acting classes, to get degree after degree to prepare for their big break.  No one really knows what that big break will look like.  Perhaps they win a big competition or get a good contract with an opera company.  But, to my knowledge, none of them spend time listening to their own hearts and choosing their own repertoire and singing for the beauty of the poetry or for the magnificence of the vibrations of their own voice coursing through their bodies.  Practicing is usually a fearful thing.  Practicing usually is focused on whatever inadequacies one has to improve upon before the next audition.  Practicing is rarely singing.

If it is true that doctors and lawyers and community leaders are now meditating to get guidance from their own inner sources, and they are, perhaps singers could do the same.  Perhaps a course on sensational singing could be offered at our universities and opera training programs.  This would be a course on mindfulness, meditation, daily practice, discipline, and joy.

Our field is in distress.  There never seems to be enough money to keep an opera company going.  But money is not the main problem.  I believe it is that we have forsaken art for artifice.  On every level, we cling to old ways of presenting the classical repertoire.  None are more traditional than the universities that train the artists of the future.  But hear me now: the revolution is already here!  The Met is at the movies.  Operas are being played in pubs with piano.  Classical chamber music is going into listening rooms that also offer dinner and drinks.  YouTube is filled with more and more high-quality performances that we can get for free.  Classical performers are no longer only seen performing in tuxes and long dresses but sometimes are seen in jeans and T-shirts.  Media is mixed and has mingled with acoustic singing to make types of performance art never before seen.  Recording houses are no longer in charge nor are the large opera houses or recital halls.  Independent artists and opera companies are popping up everywhere and recording and promoting their own CDs and DVDs.  Our field is on the move.  It is growing radically and without any set prescription.  In fact, it is leaving behind the artifice and the rules learned in our training programs.

Some of the rules we know as sacred are falling out of favor much to the dismay of some of our most entrenched leaders in the field.  The following statements are not true anymore:

1. Recitals must be done in chronological order.

2. Recitals must be the capstone requirements of a BMVP/MMVP/DMAVP degree.

3. Recitals should not have any other media involved.

4. Recitals should not include costumes, staging, or acting.

5. Recording is for commercial singers but not classical singers.

6. Recording is somehow impure and below the dignity of a classical singer.

7. Recording is only for the huge stars that get paid to record.

8. Classical singers should not tour.  Each recital is only given once or twice.

9. An opera singer must stay within his or her fach’s repertoire.

10. Opera cannot be done in a pub.

11. Opera/good classical music cannot be done in a subway station.

12. People don’t like opera.

Well, you get the idea.  The revolution is here.  People are singing and wanting to sing for the love of it.  Young singers are finding relevance in the old music.

We are not training artists at the university.  We are training little technicians that have very low self-esteem due to the curriculum itself.  What I am offering is one solution for the hard-edged, artless, programs that train students for careers that simply are no longer there for them while ignoring the myriad possibilities of singing opportunities and meaningful experiences not only for the singers but for their audiences.  I would venture to guess that we have not even seen the most lucrative singing job for a classical singer yet because it has not yet been invented.  Money is only one symbol of value, granted, it is the one that allows for ease in being an artist.  Our new generation of Indy Classical Artists has many avenues to pursue some will be lucrative financially while others will be of value in other ways.  As we continue to train in the tradition of our teachers and master performers we must also be open to new manifestations in art and society.

As we systematically take the artifice out of our art form, authenticity replaces it.  In order to find our authenticity as artists, we need to get off the bizarre merry-go-round of degree-audition-audition-audition-pay more to sing-fail-go into computers.  The poor classical singer never gets to revel in her own glory.  She never gets to be the beauty she loves.

From the moment she auditions for a degree program at a university, until she sings the last note of her senior recital, the classical singer is never required to look inside. She is never encouraged to feel her emotions about a particular song or aria or opera role. She is told to write down her emotions in the third line of her study but not how to actually feel them. Depending upon the caliber of university, she is pressured to learn lots of music and perform for lots of people and improve technically at the same time leaving no time to feel anything. She often has to turn off her physical needs for sleep and good nutrition to comply with all the demands of a performance degree. And what we get at the end is a performer who is so detached from her own physical and emotional self that she can sing from dawn to dusk and never feel a thing. These are the successful ones.