Singers Fees

Some are able to get a grant or award designed for this
> juncture at a young singer's career when the choice between feeding the
> family and
> pursuing the career become serious issues. Sometimes important talent drops
> out at this point. The Richard Tucker Award and the Beverly Sills award come
> to mind as representatives of these kinds of awards to particularly promising
> young professionals.

Precisely. It always blows my mind when the naming of the Beverly Sills Award
recipient (which has been given 3 times so far, to Nathan Gunn, Joyce Di
Donato, and Matthew Polenzani) elicits an outcry here of "But they already have
it made! why can't it be given to a deserving beginner??" These are precisely
the people, those who have shown they can deliver on their promise, who are now
at a stage where a monetary award like this can go far to offset the debt
they've been building up for years, and actually allow them some time
relatively free of financial apprehension. Even those who "have it made" can be
living surprisingly close to the edge for a long time. All those "little"
expenses add up hugely.

And some of them aren't even so little. Imagine paying for a month's lodging in
NYC or London, if you're doing a run of an opera there and don't live in that
city. As John said, we're not talking 5-star hotels, but you can't really stay
at Motel 6 either. (And all the while, your expenses for your home-at-home
continue.)

Jon Alan Conrad