Karena, I am one of those passionate amateurs of which you speak. Perhaps I have the ideal situation for such a creature: this town has only 40,000 people so there is not gigantic competition for gigs, if there is a need for a grown-up baritone I'm almost the only serious option.(Although what I actually sing tends to be bass and tenor repertoire!) Here are my opinions and experiences related to this subject: In a larger centre one would really need connections who not only know you personally but can place you and your voice is situations where only credit might acrue. In a place smaller than this one (which also boasts a fine music school) you would have to be very creative about making performing opportunities. Something 'clicked' when I was 39 (I'm now 44), after singing in choirs for years - and I started to get a lot of (quite local) offers to sing solos. Caveat: I very rarely get paid to sing. On the other hand I've sung twice in the last year with orchestras. I've so far not had *any* solo work outside of this one city in which I live! Ideally I'd like to be available for oratorio-type work, in a wider area, but I've no idea how to break into that world. If you are only 30 or so you probably haven't reached your vocal prime. If you have a voice that people like to listen to, I believe you could acheive any vocal goal you set yourself! I recently went to the Met's Ring cycle and the average age of the singers was about 50. They were very, very good. I have a day job, which has got more tiring that it used to be, now that I have two children, but I still manage to do maybe a dozen performances a year. john
At 05:07 PM 11/16/00 +0000, you wrote: ... > - I just want to DO MY ART! I want to be performing on >the highest artistic level I am capable of. > >I suppose this fits in with the "be a passionate amateur" scenario. . >that way, I get to focus on the art instead of having to worry about >where my next paycheck is coming from or when my next big break is >going to be. I can just ENJOY myself, heaven forbid. And I'll make >some extra money on the side. > >This has been really interesting. . everyone's input has started to >clarify things for me a lot. > >Thanks, >Karena (with a K) ... John Blyth Baritono robusto e lirico Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
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