Thank you ONJ Young Artists

Dear All ONJ Young Artists:

Thank you for all your hard work this summer. I know it's not over - not even close - but I wanted to take the time now to thank you for all your work. The principals appreciate your support at opera chorus, we also appreciate your scenes concerts for a chance to see you shine as soloists and relax and enjoy the show for a change.

I know you are doing a LOT, especially this week. Again I want you to know I appreciate your support in Carmina Burana. There are many moments where we soloists rely on you to help us sound good (my 'Wafna' is nothing without your 'Wafna!') I urge you to stay focussed and immersed in this piece when you're on the stage and in the precious time you have to prepare before the performance. When you are under a lot of pressure and stress and fatigue, your natural reaction is to disengage, to try to expend less energy. It's a survival mechanism, I'm sure. But I guarantee that if you dig deeper in this next Carmina rehearsal and performance you'll actually feel much better. Stress comes from daunting tasks not met, not the act of meeting them. If you force yourself to look out from the score - no matter how unfamiliar all those middle German Latin words are - and sing with all the rhythmic intensity and focus and emotional engagement you can, you'll feel better and less tired than you would if you try to "save yourself." (I'm not talking about saving your voice, that of course you need to do and we're all doing that.) Save your voice if you need, but give yourself.

Many of you recognize that in programs like the one you're in now you are paying your dues. While this is true, I will say that as you advance in your careers the amount of pressure you are under on any given day does not necessarily go down. We are always preparing the next show while performing the current show. I've been reading posts from Lawrence Brownlee. He's rehearsing one opera in Italy and performing another in a city 4 hours away. I remember hearing an interview with Oprah Winfrey. When she was shooting the film Beloved and her TV show at the same time, she would complain about going back and forth between the two sets and with good reason: those are two full-time jobs. But when she considered how hard life was for the characters in her story - based on a true story - she resolved never to complain about the workload.

So, maybe these words help. At the end of the day, I just want a really good chorus to back me up! Thanks again for all your hard work and break a leg!