I have a friend, a singer colleague and a person I admire very much as an artist and a human being, who's father was in a motorcycle accident on Nov. 10th. Since then she's been at her day job as well as her musical performances with a smiling face, going back home to visit her father who's in a coma whenever she can. She also has a blog... but it's about her father's progress in his physical and mental capacities. Needless to say, reading about their family's struggles makes all of the trials and tribulations of being a "starving artist" seem utterly trivial.
The holiday isn't much of a holiday this year, since I have five opera scenes and three opera chorus to have memorized for Sarasota. But I am so grateful to have the work. As young singers it's difficult to find consistent work, with even the most talented people taking temp jobs to pay for rent and groceries between gigs. Sometimes (heck, MOST of the time) I find myself really frustrated with this fact, seeing friend of mine from high school settling into lucrative careers, getting married and having babies. But I get to make music and get paid for it... AND move to sunny places during the worst of the Chicago winter. Believe me, I'm not complaining.
Opera singers live something of a double life... one night being glamorously dressed in satin and pearls and singing for high society, the next day the same person is serving you coffee at Starbucks. It's a bizarre dicotamy, and sometimes depressing dealing with the crazy ups and downs. The only real consistency is the music. Mozart's music has always been musically perfect and will remain so after all the singers of today are gone. Puccini and Massenet will always tug on audience's heart strings. The music remains and if we can just enjoy it and be grateful for every time it puts food on the table, then that is enough. I write this because, after finishing my degree, I'm feeling a little lost... so I'm speaking to my own subconscious. The music provides the answers... the journey of being able to sing it perfectly is an endless one, but can always be rewarding every step of the way. "Success" by typical standards... money, fame, "bling"... fades. I am grateful to spend Christmas was my family (which will include playing some rock 'n' roll with my dad and brothers) as well as Verdi, Mascagni, Rossini, Ponchielli and Mozart.
I had a lovely customer service representative with GoDaddy.com finally help me figure out why my website wasn't working. So now, feel free to visit www.caitlinmckechney.com and enjoy the new look!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment