Opera Innovation’s James Mowdy joined Aural Compass Project’s“What’s the Tea with ACP” Facebook Live “NovelTEA” conversation with host and Virginia-based tenor Elliott Paige and YAC Tracker Founder and tenor Jordan Weatherston Pitts. (August 30, 2020) CLICK image to watch!
(Santa Fe, NM) - Opera Innovation’s James Mowdy was a featured guest on Aural Compass Project’s 30AUG Facebook Live, joining host and tenor Elliott Paige and YAC Tracker founder and tenor Jordan Weatherston Pitts for a conversation on “the NovelTEA of…innovative ideas in opera.” Host Elliott moderated a far-reaching, in-depth discussion powered by a series of questions developed pre-show, the group exploring Jordan and James’ respective projects, as well as everyone’s thoughts on the future of opera in a new normal. A wonderful opportunity to share bold and exciting predictions and prognostications for the business of opera .
From James:
It was great to introduce the Opera Innovation concept, my BSPOKE Brand Consultancy initiative; I’d long wanted to have conversations focused on the business of opera and how the art form could not only find common threads but also meaningfully engage individuals and businesses outside the opera ecosystem. Given that, the opportunity to join “What’s the Tea” with Elliott and Jordan was an honor and definitely in my wheelhouse!
My Bay Area and Silicon Valley experience with small biz and startup culture has always been the filter through which I see opera. It was a delight to share my particular journey, which began with famed countertenor Brian Asawa, a friend for 25 years who became a BSPOKE client in 2014. This led to company-wide brand storytelling for The Santa Fe Opera in 2015, collaborating with the company’s public relations, marketing and Apprentice programs, respectively. Once equipped with opera world experience, my love for the art form began appearing in my own, independent BSPOKE projects, such as #Operatawk live conversations on Periscope and #bspokeofficehours interviews on Instagram Live. These experiences ultimately led to the launch of Opera Innovation - business of opera conversations based upon unique contributor storytelling while receiving pro bono BSPOKE content marketing and public relations attention. Thus far, the ability to raise profile for a variety of individuals and small businesses in and outside of opera has been gratifying, an organic growth success.
Elliott’s “What’s the Tea with ACP” format is centered around a theme and moderated Q&A powered by previously submitted guest questions; our conversation’s “NovelTEA” theme spoke to innovation and the novelty of new ideas, so it felt right time, right place for all of us! Both gentlemen are so thoughtful, sharp and forward-thinking, an absolute delight to discuss an array of topics with them.
Before we jump into Jordan Weatherston Pitts’s questions, a little background from the ACP promo:
“We are excited to introduce tenor Jordan Weatherston Pitts! Jordan made his principal artist debut to critical acclaim as the young queen Renata in Iain Bell and Mark Campbell’s world premiere of Stonewall with New York City Opera and continues an active performance schedule of romantic and lyric repertoire. His most recent roles include Roméo in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette with the Hawaii Opera Theatre, The Magician (Nika Magadoff) in Menotti’s The Consul with Opera Saratoga, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Achille in La Belle Helene, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Alfredo in La Traviata, Younger Thompson in Tom Cipullo's Glory Denied, Pinkerton in Madama Buterfly, and MacDuff in Verdi's Macbeth. In 2018 Jordan was both a Studio Artist with Opera Saratoga’s Young Artist Program as well as an Orvis Studio Young Artist with the @hawaiioperatheatre. Jordan is a community leader and advocate for young artists globally.”
Jordan’s questions are quite literally sourced from his own experience as an artist, as well as the founder of YAC Tracker, an important social media-based tool as community with a bright digital future. Jordan’s questions and my bullet point responses follow, but watch our video for the best essence and captured nuances of our conversation:
How will COVID-19 affect young artist programs moving forward in the future - will they be more transparent/less? What could be the long term effects?
Safety considerations are now 100 percent paramount
How to make the YAP experience safe & secure across the board?
New policies and procedures and perhaps restructuring of what the YAP actually looks like
Digital / video element i.e. auditions, livestreams will become permanent
Shoutout to Ted Pickell (Pick-ell) and Jóhann Schram’s Conduit Studios Media, creating high-quality, multi-camera artist videos i.e. could their video and digital work become the opera industry standard?
Transparency 100 percent required. There is a much higher NO BS attitude rising now that the meteor of corona and BLM have hit the earth. In terms of applications, process, experience and the expectations from young singers. It could become a buyer's market. If there are no singers, there are no programs. It's a very interesting moment, I think that this could actually happen. Companies will need to step up their game and perhaps start to court singers more than before, similar to how tech companies scout the best programmers, engineers and so forth
The power of leverage - blocks of artist and opera professionals uniting, creating leverage within the industry
Survival of the fittest. Not all will survive, especially smaller programs who depend so heavily on young artists programs to fuel their full season
How might the young artist program grow and evolve to become more of a real “job” and less of an unpaid internship? How will infrastructure need to change to support young artists in their early stages of career?
My previous answers apply but also...
More value add from companies. If they cannot necessarily pay artists more, there should be more assistance offered. Cite Santa Fe Opera examples, as well as pro bono Brand Therapy
So, generally speaking, more hands-on to help and connect artists to their future managers, artistic directors, conductors, et al. Leveraging their pre-existing networks for the benefit of their young singers - could and should become standardized across the young artist experience. Alumni Association model!
My Questions to Elliott and Jordan:
A question for you both. Perhaps beginning with the mission and vision of Aural Compass Projects, a socially-conscious performing arts collective, how might other small companies or even opera management firms (managers + rosters) begin to use their collective power as business leaders and artists to create real change within the opera industry and A-house companies i.e. the AGMA Soloist Coalition platform and objectives?
A question for Jordan. My understanding is that the Young Artist Community Tracker will have digital presence as a forum-based website. In my own career, I've relied on the Glassdoor website and app, specifically crowdsourced feedback on the interview process, leadership and the workplace experience, good and bad. Could the YAC Tracker could become the Glassdoor of Opera, something that currently doesn't exist? Mobile is everything, so are there plans for an app ? <-click to watch snippet
Some important takeaways from our 1 hour, 20 minute conversation:
How young artist programs must consider a new litmus test - not only how it “looks on paper,” but how if actually feels to work there, i.e. to experience and learn the craft from the young artist perspective. These brand experiences (my words) will define what actual, on-the-ground conditions are like and if they meet young artist needs i.e. livable (not minimum) wage, low-stress environment for high-stress demands, reflective of company’s brand values in every way;
Per Jordan, the digital streamlining of the young artist program application. How the pandemic clearly caught artists out, but how job security can be shored up to protect artists i.e. health, safety, benefits, housing. How the European young artist studio model works, what important takeaways are found there;
Per Elliott, how opera must begin rebranding itself - the experience, how it engages audiences and who those audiences are i.e. broader, younger, more diverse. Creating new marketing, audience, funding funnels, or just throwing all funnels out and redesigning the operatic audience experience from the ground up? Casting off the elite or elitist experience that many perceive to be the whole of opera and/or an experience that feels exclusionary to many, keeping newcomers away. Telling a story through song, just like pop or Broadway, perhaps newer, smaller and more nimble companies are best set up to accomplish;
How the dinosaurs of opera might not be able to outrun or outmaneuver our new normal as unified cries for an Opera 2.0 (per James) become louder and more defined;
Speaking to the closure of Columbia Artist Management, Inc., how CAMI is the canary in the coal mine for opera’s legacy brands (per James). How, due to COVID-19, the destruction of old artist management models is creating a new breed of artist manager entrepreneurs, more small, boutique operations and the totally self-managed artist (thanks to NYC-based arts consultant Cristin O’Keeffe for this reconnaissance and insight);
Various ways opera companies can “value-add” to the young artist experience right now, creating greater loyalty, connection and positive word of mouth in the marketplace;
Per Elliott and Jordan, a great exploration of high-value, local connections between artists, businesses and opera companies, especially since community-level initiatives require community-level hiring of local talent, now more than ever;
How opera must actively strive to move beyond its current elite space / positioning, creating new, more equitable business models that aren’t overly dependent upon donor and patron-based participation. Assertively building connections with investors outside opera (i.e. tech), finding common goals for collaboration and mutually beneficial ROI.
My sincerest thanks to Elliott Page and Aural Compass Projects Founder and Artistic Director Michael Lewis. It was an honor to join you, as well as Jordan - Opera Innovators across the board!
JM
CLICK TO WATCH “What’s The -TEA, Episode 7”
Elliott Paige, a tenor, has been praised for his "handsome and sweetly rounded tenor" (Judith Malafonte, Opera News). He was an Apprentice Artist with The Santa Fe Opera, where he sang the role of Parpignol in La Bohème while being in various choruses for the summer. Also at Santa Fe Opera, Mr. Paige covered Grand inquisitor and Baron in Candide. Prior to his arrival in Santa Fe, Elliott premiered Laura Kaminsky's world-premiere chamber opera Today It Rains with Opera Parallele in San Francisco as the "Quartet Tenor," while also covering the role of Aubrey, In past years, Elliott was an Apprentice Artist with Palm Beach Opera, where he covered Spoletta in Tosca, and Governor in Candide. He was also a Young Artist at The Glimmerglass Festival, where he performed as Nelson while covering Peter and Crab man in Porgy and Bess and as Giacomo de Wisants in The Siege of Calais. In addition to hosting “What’s The Tea with ACP,” Elliott began performing with Aural Compass Projects in 2020. | ElliottPaige.com
Tenor Jordan Weatherston Pitts has been recognized for his "heroic", "passionate" and "bewitching" performances both on the operatic stage, as well as in concert. He has been seen in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Classical Review, The Financial Times, Opera News, OperaWire, The Boston Globe, Early Music America Magazine, and The New York Times. He has made guest appearances on NPR, WQXR, New York 1, and ABC News as well as featured articles in The New Yorker Magazine and The London Times International. | jordanwpitts.com
Aural Compass Projects is a non-profit music organization founded in 2019 that is dedicated to performing new and less-performed works. We strive to foster and develop a solid moral compass which guides our work in advancing towards equality and better representation in the arts. We believe that following a strong code of ethics while cultivating a space for new music and music that has not had the opportunity of being fully appreciated is our duty as artistic ambassadors and is incredibly important for the collective growth of our community and world. Aural Compass Projects is the brainchild of CodyRay Caho and Michael Lewis. | AuralCompassProjects.org.