Vocalist.org archive


From:  dorisopran@a...
dorisopran@a...
Date:  Sun Oct 8, 2000  11:25 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] Fudging One's Age


In a message dated 10/8/00 3:17:24 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
Diva1tenor@c... writes:

<< Has anyone here ever fudged their age for a competition? By how much
(months or years)? Did you get away with it? Did you get caught,
and what happened?
>>

I heard a number of years ago that it was quite common to choose as recent a
birth date as was credible and have a fake birth certificate done. I was
told there was a person in New York who did these documents especially for
singers. I never did it myself, but, I was sorely tempted. A well-known and
highly reputable coach told me about a woman auditioning a number of
consecutive years for a prestigious opera training program on the West coast
with which she (the coach) was involved. When the woman passed the cutoff
age, she came back as a "younger" hopeful, and the panel, who knew who she
was, accepted her that year. They admired her spunk, and I guess she was the
best in her category at that time.

I am a little surprised Judy and Mark jumped on you so fast. Maybe the
atmosphere has changed now that a number of competitions and programs (not
nearly enough IMHO) have extended their age limits by a few years and some
have done away with them entirely. Considering myself moral and ethical, I
recognize shades of gray in dishonesty rather than black or white. There are
lies and there are lies, but I don't hope to argue this point further. Age
limits for singing competitions and training programs are deplorable,
especially those that set lower limits for women than for men. If an
organization accepts public funding, they are breaking the law to
discriminate by age or gender or ..... (fill in the blanks.)

emusic.com