“The expression ‘When it rains, it pours,’ really feels applicable in an interesting way right now. In just the past six days, I have been approached by four different singers about advice on how to record an album. It’s exciting to see everyone’s independent spirit rising to the fore, and I wonder if this is perhaps a symptom of the lockdown…”

“During last night’s episode of Heard Over The Piano, Sasha Cooke spoke a bit about the singer’s stigma of being a ‘good musician’. While that initially sounds like a compliment, early on in her career she had the impression that many believe that ‘being a good musician’ was really a euphemism for ‘not a good singer’…”

“Yesterday, I received news of yet another cancelation. This set of concerts was to take place towards the end of May. While I was holding out hope that the world might be reopened enough for this set of concerts to continue forward in some fashion, I was not completely surprised when the orchestra finally made the decision…”

“Bridging the gap between being a student and a professional in the early 2000s, my view of what it was that I could do as a singer was quite narrow. I had been very lucky to follow a path that from all outside perspectives seemed pretty straightforward: go to college; land a spot in a prestigious, year-round young artist program; find a manager; begin your career. As a young singer, I was taught…”

“Yesterday I briefly mentioned that part of the goal of this exercise is to try and make my practice of writing more regular, as I attempt to push past the inner critics that paralyze me. It’s tempting to describe this phenomenon as ‘writer’s block’, but I’m not quite sure I am willing to dignify it with such iconic terminology. It feels more like paralysis than a block, and it never feels like I can’t write. It’s just too easy to find any excuse not to write…”

“When I began blogging back in May of 2006, the online landscape was a drastically different and perhaps simpler place. My life was in a simpler place, too. I was still relatively fresh out of a young artist program at the Houston Grand Opera, on the cusp of making my European operatic debut with Oper Frankfurt in a production of Mozart’s La finta semplice. At the beginnings of a professional career without the training wheels of an apprenticeship…”

…If we really want to effect lasting anti-racist change in the operatic industry and art form, we need to focus on systems – not people. Because of its reliance on external, industry-wide consultation, the situation at the Richard Tucker Music Foundation presents a unique opportunity to examine the systems that maintain the operatic White status quo….