Back in 2025....

I published some articles last year that I never wrote about on the blog. It's never too late!

• Three Opera Singers on How They Built Their Careers, SFCV, May, 2025. If you've been attending the opera in the Bay Area for any length of time, you know Alex Boyer, Chung-Wai Soong, and Leandra Ramm, even if you're not sure you do. They've all sung roles of varying sizes with local companies; Soong and Ramm are both active in pro choruses here, including working as extra chorus at SF Opera. Boyer went on a couple of times last year as Brandon Jovanovich's cover at the Met in Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick. 
• Walking with Sister Helen, Opera Now, October, 2025. I spoke with Susan Graham, Joyce Di Donato, Jamie Barton, and Patricia Racette, who've all sung Sister Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, and with Frederica von Stade, who created Mrs. Patrick De Rocher, the mother of the condemned man. It was a great honor to speak with these magnificent singers, all of whom I've admired over a long period.
• Second Acts: Musicians Leaving the Spotlight to Find Something New, SFCV, October, 2025. An article about three classical musicians who are no longer performing, for different reasons. Nicole Cash, former associate principal horn the San Francisco Symphony, became an audiobook narrator after focal dystonia meant she couldn't continue as a horn player. Tenor David Lomelí became a consultant to opera companies around the world after digestive issues affected his singing. Elizabeth Rowe, former principal flute of the Boston Symphony and a magnificent player, became a leadership and executive coach (the circumstances are too complicated to describe briefly). 

Musicians leave classical music at different times in their careers and for a wide variety of reasons. It is a very tough and competitive business and it is difficult to get a career going in such a competitive field. If you're curious about this subject, web search will turn up podcasts, personal testimonies, and articles about individuals musicians. Elizabeth Rowe's case is unusual in that she had the kind of position you can stay in for decades (the legendary Doriot Anthony Dwyer held the BSO principal flute chair for 38 years), but various circumstances led her to a career change.