This month we asked our bloggers to respond to the following question:

When have you used your ingenuity, creativity, and willpower to create an opportunity that is in line with your values? What role did your mindset/the mental game play in accomplishing this? What advice can you give to musicians to forge ahead and open doors for themselves?

I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t aspire to greatness. Think about it, do you know anyone who wakes up in the morning and tries to figure out how to be terrible at life? I certainly have never met anyone like that. I have met a lot of people who wake up every day trying to be great at life and get frustrated because things don’t seem to be going their way. So it seems to me that the fundamental problem most of us face is how to navigate the ups and downs, the acceptance and rejection of everyday life. How do we combat this idea that we are helpless in our lives, and how can we make a door where there wasn’t one before? Joseph Campbell says “You follow your bliss and doors will open where doors did not exist or do not open for others.”

So how do you follow your bliss? I believe the first step in this process is to recognize your intuition. Webster’s defines intuition as “the power or faculty of gaining direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference.” To me, intuition is that voice deep within my spirit that guides me to greatness. What are my hopes and dreams? Ask yourself, “What do I REALLY want?” I guarantee that your intuition will tell you EXACTLY what you want. But it’s not enough to recognize that you have a deep seeded desire, you have to verbalize this desire. The very first lesson in Bootcamp was to write down my dreams and write a vision for my life. This was an exercise in recognizing and verbalizing my intuition.

So what then? I know as well as the next person that writing my hopes and dreams down on a piece of paper doesn’t make them materialize in my life. One must take ACTION. This is the part of the process I find the hardest. I can’t tell you how many times I have sat at the computer pining over whether or not to submit for an audition. I sit there as my inner critic lists all the reasons why I don’t deserve this opportunity, “I’m not ready, the last time I sang that piece I messed up the ending, my French diction is terrible, everyone else is going to be so much better than me…” My dear friend John Dapolito is always saying “You are not your inner monologue. Take the actions you wish. Say ‘yes’ to every moment. Why compromise your existence on a feeling in a moment?” Action is created by saying ‘yes’.

So now I’ve said ‘yes.’ Now the panic really sets in. Now I have to show up to that audition and face my fear of rejection. Did you know that Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper job because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas”? Did you know that Albert Einstein was expelled from school because he was too slow? Thomas Edison was told by his teachers that he was “too stupid to learn anything”. Luciano Pavarotti didn’t read music. Steven Spielberg was rejected from USC’s School of Theater, Film and Television three times. Imagine if these people had let rejection determine their course in life. I have a feeling these people kept showing up and saying ‘yes’ because they were following their bliss.

- Amanda McAllister

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This month we asked our bloggers to respond to the following question:

When have you used your ingenuity, creativity, and willpower to create an opportunity that is in line with your values? What role did your mindset/the mental game play in accomplishing this? What advice can you give to musicians to forge ahead and open doors for themselves

One of my favorite lines from the movie The Sound of Music is, “Where God closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.”  I’m a soprano. While in school in NY, I realized the odds were against me.  I’d attend auditions listing 248 sopranos, 23 mezzos, 7 tenors, 18 baritones, and a bass-maybe.  What that meant to me was I needed to do something differently. I needed to find a window, not to jump out of, but to climb through.

I worked for the outreach department of Manhattan School of Music while I was in school.  I taught 3^rd graders in Harlem and the Bronx about opera.  But I received the better education from them. For some of these kids, my visits were some of the most stable moments in their lives. Through this experience I realized that everyone needs some sort of creative outlet.  Their needs gave me the determination to do something, someday, to bring the arts into communities and homes.

Over the past few years, I’ve been developing a few different projects that work toward this end.  The first is for communities around the nation.  It’s called ANTHEM. It is a musical dramatization of the night Francis Scott Key penned the lyrics to what later became our national anthem.  The story unfolds through letters written to and from soldiers during times of war. This show is highly portable, with a small cast and it is a beautifully written, moving piece. My goal is to perform ANTHEM at the Coolidge Auditorium in the Library of Congress in September of 2014.  The two hundred year anniversary of the poem’s birth.

Another project I’ve been developing is a TV show about opera for kids.  One of the things I love about Los Angeles, is that if you come here with a great idea and a lot of enthusiasm, you can find people who are willing to give you and your idea a chance. Right now my producer is fundraising to film the pilot. If you know anyone interested in supporting kids classical music education, do send them my way! I firmly believe we’re moving along because, as Victor Hugo said, “nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.”  Not only will this show give kids the chance to learn about music before they have preconceived ideas about classical tunes, it maintains an outlet for their own creativity to flourish all the while providing performance opportunities to, say, a soprano or two who are ready for the challenges this cross medium platform offers.

More recently I’ve begun collaborating with a harpist, Marielle McLaren.  We call ourselves; SHARP:  A Soprano & Harp duo.  We perform romantic, classical and modern pieces for your party or wedding, or holiday shin dig. I mean, who doesn’t want a beautiful harp and singer in their living room or out on the patio?

Remember: nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.  Find your window.

- Rachel Payne, Soprano

Visit Rachel’s Website

This month we asked our bloggers to respond to the following question: When have you used your ingenuity, creativity, and willpower to create an opportunity that is in line with your values? What role did your mindset/the mental game play in accomplishing this? What advice can you give to musicians to forge ahead and open doors for themselves?

It has been a very busy spring so far, and my husband and I always try to get away for a little break around April to recharge ‘the batteries’ so we can make it through the busy months of April, May and June. I had also been missing my sister who recently moved to Honolulu, so we decided to go visit her and her husband there for a few days. We called them to catch up and plan our time their together, and they mentioned that they had just been at a party with friends. My sister’s husband is also a musician and, after moving to Honolulu, he has gotten to know many people in the musical community there. I asked him if he knew anyone there at the Hawaii Opera Theatre, and he did. He put me in contact with him, and I was able to set up an audition during the time I was there.

So often I think to myself “how am I going to get auditions and be heard,” and sometimes the contacts to do so are right under my nose. It had never occurred to me to ask members of my own family to hook me up with a new contact. I think it is important in trying to open new doors for yourself to think about even the most obvious people in your life and who they might know. Often being introduced by a friend can be a very non-confrontational way to make new contacts, and the audition situation I got was very friendly and low pressure compared to some cattle calls we have all been a part of before. It’s fun to think about all the great people in my life and how they might want to help me out, because I know I would help them out as well.

- Karen Hogle Brown, Soprano

When I tell people that I’m an opera singer, they often gasp in surprise. That’s because most people don’t think opera is a real job. I might just as easily have said that I’m a dragon slayer or an alchemist.

And then, when I tell them that I don’t belong to a company, but travel around the world performing as a soloist at different venues, they get even more excited. Finally, they ask me if I’m famous, but they’re never disappointed when I admit that I’m not.

By this time, my new friends are usually grinning with guilty pleasure. This is because I’m breaking the rules. I am doing something that isn’t supposed to be possible. And that gives them permission to do something wild and crazy, too.

But the truth is that I need the same kind of inspiration, myself. When I get stuck, I need other people to show me how to be creative. I need help to “think outside the box” about my own life.

For example, I used to feel overwhelmed about networking. Because I studied music in Europe, I was worried that I didn’t have enough contacts in the States. I had been told that you can’t get ahead in opera unless you know the “right” people.

When I went to bootcamp at iCadenza, I realized that all people are the “right” people! My international experience has given me an amazing circle of friends, and they are the best friends I could ever wish for. I want to help them with their projects as much as they want to help me with mine. With friends in forty countries around the globe, there isn’t much I can’t do.

Here are 3 things that I am doing differently in 2012:

1. Surprising Myself – Big goals come with big hurdles. But there’s no reason that the “jumping over hurdles” part has to be boring. When I encounter an obstacle, I look for the most interesting, the most unusual, and the most creative solution. The key is to try something new. Catch yourself by surprise.

2. Celebrating More – Musicians tend to be perfectionists. We have high standards. We are never completely satisfied with our own performance. But we can’t allow ourselves to obsess about mistakes, because that’s just sad. When we torture ourselves about some imperfection, we’re being ungrateful! This year, I’m going to spend more time being thankful for my music.

3. Singing “On Purpose” – We all have dreams that we want to fulfill. It’s fun to create a bucket list of life goals. But no experience or achievement can be truly fulfilling unless it connects us to our purpose in life. My mission is to communicate the wild joy that I feel in my body whenever I sing. As I fill up my calendar with auditions and performances, I am going to use that mission to make any hard decisions that might come up.

In my next post, I’ll let you know how I’m doing with my new approach. It takes a lot of energy to make progress on big goals. We all get stuck sometimes. But we usually have more freedom than we think.

Live outside the box.

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So what am I doing differently since Bootcamp? I’m taking time to celebrate and be happy. I know it sounds cheesy and superfluous, but it is something that I’ve allowed myself to struggle with far too long. It is an interesting predicament to be an artist in the 21st century. We have so much information available to us, we are inundated all day every day with status updates, blogs, news, videos, voicemails, text messages, emails, tweets… you name it… we can have it… in an instant. Because we have access to so much information, it seems like the gold standard for success has become overnight achievement. And it seems more frequent that I hear a friend who I think has a lot of great things happening in their life lament on the lack of work available to them or the superfluous amount of rejection they feel coming their way.

This prompted me to look at my life and circumstances and wonder if I, too, am missing opportunities to celebrate my own successes. How about that job we finally book after months of auditioning, practicing, and whining about not getting any work. How many times do we decide that “This is the job that’s really going get me out of my rut and get me noticed. Now EVERYONE is going to know how great I am!”, only to have our fantasy destroyed by everyone else on the project who doesn’t live up to our expectations? Why is it so often in the midst of successes we seem to be able to more easily identify with failures?

That’s when it hit me. This struggle is about my desire for completion as if it’s some race that needs to be won and people who win faster than others get some sort of super prize of fulfillment. Why is it I don’t acknowledge my successes unless I feel like I really deserve to feel good about them? This feeling that I might cash in too early on happiness and contentment and it won’t be there for me when I finally need it. And when I put it like that, I realize the absurdity of using fantasies and external validation to determine my level of happiness.

So what am I doing? I’m taking time to write down small victories and really giving myself permission to celebrate them. I’m also placing less pressure on myself to ‘hurry up and be really successful already’. I am reminding myself that I am EXACTLY where I need to be to learn and grow. I know that if I don’t take the time to be happy and celebrate now, that I will never take the time to do it. I’m trying to learn to trust that working SMARTER (happier) is better than working harder. It’s not easy, and I’m not always successful. But I am finding that each day is a little bit happier, and for that I am grateful.

“Art is the set of wings to carry you out of your own entanglement” Joseph Campbell

- Amanda McAllister

My mother used to tell me I was beautiful.  She’d go on and on about how classic my features are and that one day, my beauty would be appreciated by everyone.  Only a few minutes after such complements she’d proceed to tell me that if only I were a little skinnier or got my nose fixed, I could be just about perfect.  My mother is a wonderful, loving person, but because I never knew what the comment of the day, hour, or minute would be, I learned from a really young age to not think too much about the nice things, or the mean things she would say. Because most of the time, she was just making conversation.  Most often, her words had very little to do with me.

Because of this relationship, it takes quite a bit to offend me.  I’ve heard it all. Well, not all of it, but enough to let things that don’t matter, go. I’ve tried to adopt this idea to, “Live my life independent of the smiles, and careless of the frowns of men.” A tough thing, when we see so much of what we lack around us everyday. There are billboards dotting highways for the Lapband, tabloid articles about how to keep your man, and storefront windows boasting the newest must have’s in fashion.  There are so many things I am apparently missing in my life, and clearly, if I am to be a full human being, ought to acquire.

If I were to believe all of these things; the signs, the tell-alls and must have’s and dare I add the vocal competition results, it would be very easy to forget that I am something completely separate from what is around me.  It is the difference between self image, and self worth. How easily we confuse the two.  What I see vs. what I am. Accomplishment only has as much merit as I give it. If it defines me, I will be tossed with every bad review, or callous remark, every complement or monetary reward.

I am a woman.  I am a performer.  I am a person on this journey of life with each of you.

- Rachel Payne

The theme for this month is “Things I’m doing differently.” We asked our Bootcamp Bloggers what new career choices they are making in 2012, and what is inspiring this change in behavior.

Since completing iCadenza Career Bootcamp in 2011, I have really tried to let the process of self promotion sink into my daily life as I try to change my habits so that the energy I spend is compact and as efficient as possible. Who needs to obsess over their career every second of every day? Well, me, but that can also be counterproductive and create barriers.

The biggest change I have made since bootcamp has been in my everyday thought process, and I have learned to be conscious of is all the barriers and resistance that I encounter on a daily basis. I realized that I encounter all kinds of resistance in forms that I didn’t recognize as such. Being able to see those barriers for what they are has helped me to make more rational decisions and keep some crazy feelings under control.

I had always viewed myself as a consummate professional – I view myself as always prepared/on-time/pleasant to work with/great musician, etc. However, reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield opened my eyes a great deal to the ‘professional’ mind set that I feel I had neglected to address. In his book, he describes all the possible road-blocks one can set up, mostly unconsciously, to stop us from reaching our goals. He goes on further to describe how a ‘professional’ would handle this situation, and how an ‘amateur’ would as well.

It is so easy for me to go to dark places on a bad singing day. Echos of “I’m just not good enough”, or “no matter what I do, I’ll never succeed in this” run amuck through my brain, sometimes on a daily basis. Pressfield describes this thinking as ‘amateur’. He further described that a ‘professional’ would ask themselves questions, such as “what can I learn from what happened today” and “how am I going to go about addressing this problem?” Just the other day, I was having difficulty in my practice. I was unsure of many things from whether my diction was clear enough, or if my sound was focused enough. My normal reaction in my head is to say, “You call yourself a singer? You should know exactly how to place this passage by now! You’ve only been practicing for 20 years.” I let those thoughts linger for just a moment, and then picked up the phone and made an appointment for a coaching. I realized that I’m probably being hypersensitive, and having an outside ear will be able to rationally tell me whether or not I need to change something, or if things are fine.

I have found this change of thought process to be my biggest change in behavior since completing iCadenza bootcamp, and reading Pressfield’s book. As hard as I worked, and as much as I thought of myself as a ‘professional’, I was guilty of some rather ‘amateur’ behavior. I really try to address problems and frustrations by changing my inner monologue to include questions. “What do I need to make this work? What is standing in my way? What is the next step to achieving this goal? Instead of wasting precious time and energy on self pity, why not turn the outlook around to moving forward?”

I won’t say it has been easy, but I figure changing a thought pattern is one of the hardest habits to break. Together with awareness of the barriers, and practicing a more positive response to them, I am hoping that I can maintain a positive outlook and prevent some self-sabotage.

How great is your press kit? How great do you want it to be?

We are thrilled to announce a brand-new Editing Service here at iCadenza – writing and revisions for all your promotional materials. We are so blessed to have a true Press Materials Guru on our team, none other than Maria Elena Altany! Maria Elena handles promotional materials for the artists we manage over at Cadenza Artists, as well as our other clients, and everyone is just blown away by the way she can guide and capture the unique essence of the artist in the materials she crafts. Since we are now opening up this service to everyone, you have no excuse to lament the sorry state of your promotional materials – instead, work with Maria Elena on a revision or a complete overall and walk away with your Best Press Kit yet!

Here is a short interview with Maria Elena to learn about some pitfalls, tips, and best practices for polishing your materials on your own.

Name: Karen Hogle Brown

Instrument/voice type: Dramatic Coloratura

Where you might see me perform: Music Center of Los Angeles County with LA Opera, Walt Disney Concert Hall with LA Master Chorale and the LA Phil, several chamber concert programs around Los Angeles

Why I participated in the iCadenza Career-Launch Bootcamp: While I enjoy my career, I felt that I was in need of some new challenges and opportunities. Being unsure of how to obtain them, I felt the iCadenza bootcamp would help me define what I really wanted and how to get it.

My biggest transformations and takeaways from bootcamp: A PLAN!!! It was hard having a lot of ambition and drive, but no direction to focus it towards.  Going through bootcamp gave me several clear goals for both the near and far futures, helped me break them down, so now I know what I need to be working on every week to help make them happen.  In addition, it was helpful to remind myself that those goals can change, and need to be revisited regularly.

My goals for the next 6 months: Finish new demo materials, finish building website, launch new monthly blog, complete OperaWorks program, and gain auditions for appropriate opera companies.

You can expect me to blog about: Mostly, I plan to blog about how singing is related to or affects almost every aspect of my life.  I am also a voice teacher, so topics that have to do with integrating teaching with singing and the art of being a teaching artist hold great value to me.

My other hobbies and interests: Flute playing, dance, spending time with my husband Andy and my lab/terrier spunky mix, Bodie.

One thing you’d be surprised to learn about me: I was the drum major for my university’s marching band, and marched DCI top twelve.

Name: Lindsay Feldmeth

Instrument/voice type: dramatic soprano

Where you might see me perform: in and around Los Angeles, CA; upcoming performances in Salzburg, Austria

Why I participated in the iCadenza Career-Launch Bootcamp:

Because I did so much of my training in Europe, I don’t have as many contacts here in the U.S. My voice has been growing in exciting ways, and I really want to take my career to the next level, but I felt stymied by a lack of stage experience in my new (more dramatic) repertoire.

My biggest transformations and takeaways from bootcamp:
Bootcamp revolutionized my approach to artistic goals. I now feel more empowered about networking and more confident about using social media to promote my music. These new skills helped me get cast in one of my dream roles before the last day of bootcamp! My energy tripled when I designed my own mission statement. My singing has become more creative and even more joyful than before.

My goals for the next 6 months:
1. Release a new demo recording
2. Perform concerts in Los Angeles and Salzburg
3. Audition in at least 7 cities across Europe and the U.S.
4. Investigate the possibility of creating a music festival in Africa
5. Explore the world of music on my opera/travel blog!

You can expect me to blog about:
Europe, travel, opera, being an artist, “the singing life”

My other hobbies and interests: world travel, cycling, global service projects, history, modern and ancient languages, Christian life and spiritual growth

One thing you’d be surprised to learn about me: I recently signed up for an Irish
Dance class! Tons of fun.

Follow Lindsay on facebook and visit her blog, the Globetrotting Soprano!