Curriculum Vitae Du Jour

So, as I mentioned a VERY long time ago (March 2008, to be exact), I'd been feeling rather discontented with the whole opera chorus job and felt that perhaps, money and benefits notwithstanding, it was not a good fit for me. I had also begun to work with other groups and found that they were much more satisfying experiences. I just wanted to give a quick update on my professional status over the past couple of seasons, since I've been concentrating on my personal life so much here....

The year after I was bumped from tenure track and hired only as 'leave replacement', I was bumped yet again, back to extra chorus. It turned out that the tenure-track position had been eliminated entirely, and had been given to a bass-baritone instead.
Then, this year, the final insult....after twelve years, the chorus director saw fit not to hire me at all. In addition, I can't seem to get arrested by any of the local opera companies--and the irony is, I'm singing better than I ever have! Ah, the vagaries of the performer's life....I have to smile when I hear civilians speak of how awful it is to have no job security in this recession--welcome to my world!

Oddly enough, though, I've not been out of work all this time...although I haven't been doing much opera, choral and early music work has filled the opening left by SFO, and has been berry berry good to me. Instead of opera chorus, I've been blessed to be hired with AVE, American Bach Soloists, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and Philharmonia Baroque (my latest conquest) as a core member, as well as for solo work with Soli Deo Gloria, Marin Oratorio Society, and possibly (I'm waiting to hear back) San Francisco Choral Society, not to mention a church job at St. Dominic's* . Let's see....better pay...more personal satisfaction....a few rehearsals as opposed to weeks of them...no makeup, staging, or costumes to deal with....and much much more stable personalities to boot....I ask you, what's not to like? I think my dissatisfaction may have been specifically with opera, not with singing in general. If I can find more solo work that pays well, and continue to have the luck to be able to sing with the groups I mentioned before, I could be pretty happy with my place in the singing world.



*Yea, even though said church job forces me to be in the same room on a regular basis with the ex-boyfriend....remember him? The universe DOES have a rather sick sense of humor, does it not?

It made me smile.

My neighbors across the street have been spending time with all three of their grown children--two sons and a daughter--who are back home for a visit. The daughter, who is about my age, has a daughter of her own--a winsome five-year-old named Katja with long brown hair and squirrel-bright eyes. When I ran into them a week or so ago while walking my Boxer, Honey, Katja was a little intimidated at first (and I can well understand: it would be rather easy to be intimidated by a dog who can just about look you in the eye!) but soon became quite enchanted by Honey, stroking her soft flanks with both hands while I chatted with her mother and grandmother. In fact, the longer Honey let Katja pet her, the more relaxed and animated she became, informing me with a big smile that she had often seen Honey looking out the window at her from across the street.
"Yes, she does that a lot," I replied. "She likes to have something to look at."
When the conversation ended, we said goodbye, and I forgot all about it--until a couple of mornings ago, when I looked out my window and saw, in the window across the street, a little stuffed animal--looking right back at Honey!

I nearly fell over laughing.

I just wanted to share that with you--it really has nothing to do with singing, but I thought it was a sweet little story. :-)
RM

Errant thought on a lovely Summers' day after spending a day weeding...

There's nothing like having a garden to teach you two things: one, how lovely and delightful it is to create and control some small corner of your world.....and two-just how little control you REALLY have over it.