NYC Interviews

I had two interviews while on the NYC trip. They where both on the same day. The first one I had was with Patricia Sheridan. I knew Patricia originally from a summer program I attended last summer. I had gotten her card from her before I left the summer program, and just sent her an email asking to meet with her. She asked me to email her a week before again and I did. We ended up meeting at her studio apartment. When I arrived she had tea ready for us and it was a very casual setting. We began by catching up and saying what have been going on in our lives. I then asked her about being a voice teacher and how she came to doing that. She told me that she had a pretty diverse career in performing in different styles and groups. She was teaching while she was in school, and then when her teacher stopped she took on her teachers students. I asked her about her studio now and how she runs it. She has two studios, one in NYC and one back at her home. She then asked me about what my goals were, and I told her to learn as much as possible so I can take on as many opportunities as possible. She asked me why I was asking about teaching. I realized it was because I was afraid to put all of my eggs in one basket. She then told me to not worry about that for now because I need to concentrate on learning how to sing and perform. She said that teaching takes a lot out of you, and you won't have time to work on your own craft. I need to focus on singing right now. I then talked about graduate school and she gave me some names of people I should sing for. She told me that I need to go to NYC and she would give me a free lesson. I then had to leave for my next interview.

My next interview was with stage director Beth Greenburg. I also met her at the summer program.We set our meeting up using Facebook. She also told me to message her a week before the trip, and we ended up meeting at a coffee shop. On this interview I began by asking her about what brought her to becoming a stage director. She originally played an instrument, and really like the history of opera and theatre. I asked her how she goes about first staging an opera. She said she researches the history, the style, and the score a lot, then makes decisions based on that. I asked her about the different opportunities in NYC. She talked about how there is a lot of opportunities to work with composers and new music, and ways to get involved that way. She also said there are a lot of smaller opera companies in the area to get involved with, and gave me contact information. At the end of the interview she said if we do the trip again next year she would love to be more involved and get us more connections.

The next day, I  got a phone call from Patricia because she had gone to "Die Fledermaus" on the same night and wanted to talk to me about the production, and she also wanted to elaborate more on what she told me at the interview. She thought it was important for me to understand that I must focus on singing and performing.This was probably the most important thing for me to hear because it made me realize that that is what I truly need to focus on. She asked me "if you could do anything you wanted, there were no stings attached and you could for sure do it, what would it be" and I said perform. She told me that I need to go for it then. It's scary and exciting, but I know that that is what I need and want to do.

Kelly