Opera Offstage

We’re excited to welcome Laura Brooks Rice to the podcast! Mezzo-soprano Laura Brooks Rice has won acclaim on the opera and concert stage for her rich, warm voice, musicality, charm and sensitive acting ability. A sought after voice teacher and masterclass instructor, Laura Brooks Rice’s private students are currently singing as regular principal artists in major opera houses across the globe. Tod...

Looking for apartment can be wildly stressful, and it only gets harder if you're a musician, and no one knows that more than we do right now, just weeks after our most recent moves. From budgeting to finding musician-friendly roommates to avoiding scams, it can be a lot to handle, so we put together this handy episode with all the advice and lessons we wished we had known before our move.   Follow...

Audition season can be hectic, stressful, and confusing. With all the mixed up deadlines, lack of guidance, and the joy that is trying to navigate YAP tracker, it's easy to see why. Today's episode is all about how to make Audition Season a little bit easier and a little less stressful. We'll talk you through how to design and prep for an audition season you can be proud of. SCYA audition list: YA...

Follow Us: Instagram Twitter Facebook Hosts: Jessie Michelle

We're back with another minisode! This week we have way too much fun reading 1 star reviews of famous opera houses from around the globe. The audacity and stupidity is baffling, but makes for some great laughs!   If you enjoyed this episode, you can unlock access to our full vault of minisodes on our Patreon for as little as $2 USD a month! New minisodes released every Thursday.   Join Here: Opera...

Tiffany Soricelli is back, this time addressing all your budgeting and saving questions!   Working in the gig economy means you're not getting a paycheck on a regular basis, and when you do get paid it's in a lump sum, which makes it tempting to go spend all that freshly earned money! Tiffany knows what this is like and since launching Virtuoso Advising and Virtuoso Asset Management, she makes it...

It's Back to School season!! New school supplies, class schedules, and a million upcoming auditions makes for an exciting yet hectic time!   If you're headed into another year of music school, we've rounded up our best tips for setting goals, organizing your schedule, brushing up your audition skills, and taking charge of your progress. We also share all of the things we wish we had known in schoo...

Being a classical musician is hard. In an industry that stresses performance practice, tradition, and an academic hierarchy that often creates conformity, it's easy to lose your sense of self as an artist. It's so important, especially as we head back into auditions and school, to take a step back and do some searching on who we are as artists and why we make music.   In this episode, we talk abou...

Happy Birthday Florence Foster Jenkins!   Today we are celebrating one of the most notorious sopranos in classical music.   This week, we discuss the highlights of her unorthodox career and how she pursued her love of music to the fullest. How does a woman who lacked any sense of pitch or rhythm go from performing small productions for her prominent social clubs to a sold out recital at Carnegie H...

If you ask a classical musician where the best operas are made, almost no one would say the US. The US is a major power house of entertainment in film, music, and theater, so why is American opera so unpopular, not only abroad but also in the US itself? Today we're diving into the how history and perception has shaped opera in America. We talk about our favorite American operas, whether or not Eng...

On June 9th, 2020, we released our first Issues In Opera episode covering the ugly truths of opera's long (and current) history with racism. Now over a year later, we're checking back in on the progress we've made, and all of the up's and down's we've had along the way.   In this episode we circle back to cover some of the incredible progress key members of the opera community have made in the pur...

Today we are so excited to get to interview Spencer Britten!   Chinese Canadian triple threat Spencer Britten is a multi-talented performer with the resume and sparkling personality to match. Spencer is currently a member of the International Opera Studio at Staatsoper Unter den Linden and has previously performed with Opéra de Montréal and in the Glimmerglass Festival. This year he will join Staa...

Now that things are opening up again and we're looking at a season of possible live auditions in other cities, we've got an important question to answer: How can I travel better and cheaper? Luckily, we have some tips and tricks to make your next audition trip cheaper and a whole lot less stressful. We cover how to find the best deals on flights and hotels, which airlines have the most hidden fees...

Happy Pride! The LGBTQ+ community has always been an integral part of the classical music community, and today we're celebrating by sharing some queer music history and figures you may not know yet! We also talk about an exciting new documentary celebrating the first transgender singer to sing a lead at a major opera house and some LGBTQ+ musical groups and societies you should know.  The Document...

We've all had good and bad days on stage, but some performances are truly and memorably horrendous. Today, you shared your best performance horror stories and that honestly put us on an emotional rollercoaster. From voice cracks and forgotten words to faulty music stands and broken noses, clearly we've all had some wildly bad luck on stage. So join us as we share your stories and ours in all their...

People often assume singers must like the sound of their own voice. After all we spend hours every week hearing ourselves sing, listening to recordings of ourselves, and have committed to hearing our own voice over and over again as a career. But the reality is that most singers have a lot of insecurities around the natural traits of their voice, whether its speedy vibrato, a naturally smaller voi...

Between the travel, audition fees, clothing, music, and ongoing education, music can be a very expensive career to pursue, which is why almost every musician has a second job that helps finance the first.  But finding jobs that pair well with pursuing music can be super tricky. You have to find a job that has major flexibility for you to travel for auditions and gigs, pays well enough to finance t...

The history of classical music is filled with some pretty crazy collaborations, but what about some of the more modern ones? How about a Bel Canto soprano and one of Rock and Roll's most famous front men? Or an opera composer an indie singer-songwriter? Or one of film's most famous composers re-orchestrating many of his works for a classical violinist? Join us as we explore some of classical music...

Oh, gap years. We love you and love to hate you. The world of academia tells us silly myths about gap years like “Taking a gap year means you don’t take your career seriously” or “Taking a gap year is just one step away from quitting music.” But is taking a gap year really as career-shattering as it seems? NOPE. Not even close. Here’s the thing. Sometimes you need to take a break from school. Ever...

April 30th is International Jazz Day, so today we're celebrating Jazz and all the ways it's contributed to classical music! We talk about some of our favorite artists, how being a jazz musician is different from being a classical musician, some wild moments from jazz history, and even a few jazz operas! So join us as we celebrate the unique and extraordinary style of Jazz. Follow Us: Instagram Twi...

Usually when you say the word artist, people picture someone free-spirited and intensely individualistic and for good reason, a lot of great art is based on innovation and freedom from convention. So why do we as classical musicians face such constant pressure to conform to standards that no longer suit us, our industry, or the modern world? Today we're talking about being yourself and breaking th...

From watching operas in pajamas, to practicing in our cars, to virtual audition catastrophes— making music during quarantine is WILD. This week we’re reading your quarantine performance stories and you guys DELIVERED. These stories are hilarious, unfortunate, and everything in between! If anything, listen to this episode to hear about the time Jessie split her pants.  We also share a major announc...

It's officially tax season! As musicians we receive tons of training and education, but unfortunately very little of it is usually in personal finance, so along with tax season usually come tons of questions for musicians. What should I do during the year to prepare for tax season? How do you file income from multiple states? What are qualified business expenses? Luckily we have some very qualifie...

Behind every great musician are a lot of really incredible teachers, but how do you find a good teacher? And what do you do if you realize your teacher just isn't the right teacher for you, because the only thing harder than finding the right teacher can be figuring out how to leave the wrong one. We're here to show you where you should be looking for your next teacher and how to make sure they re...

Everyone knows that classical music is filled with drama, but most of it is actually happening offstage. Today we're talking all about some of wildest unknown scandals in opera and orchestra. From the sugar baby who couldn't sing to fruit throwing audiences to the slap heard round the concert hall, there is a story in here for everyone. So join us as we take a peak into classical music's not so cl...