To: "VOCALIST" <vocalist>
Subject: Re: First Bad Review
Date sent: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 11:13:32 -0500
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Oh, Sara,

I know just how you feel. Everyone gets a bad review at least once in a
career. I can give you a piece of wisdom passed on to me by a conductor
friend, and some ideas from my own experience:

1. Bad mention is better than no mention. One measures the review by
column inches, not content. The more space it takes, the better. (This
from the conductor.)

2. This reviewer in particular shows his ignorance simply by his low
standards of use of language, not to mention his unsubstantiated claim.
Anyone who takes him seriously is just as ignorant and will have no impact
on your career.

3. I've gotten RAVE reviews in the New York Times. My career was not
advanced by them at all. My career has advanced (such as it is) by getting
good work and doing a good job, by working well with my colleagues and
getting rehired by the same presenters because they and the audiences like
my work.

Keep singing and don't let it bother you.