“Opera singers need a better (or a new) union.”

It’s a phrase that we know we’ve heard — or let’s be real, said ourselves– many times over the course of countless conversations about what’s f-ed up in our industry.

Insufficient (or no) wages.
Unsafe or unhealthy work environments.
Exploitative and abusive practices.
No health care.

Those are just the tip of the iceberg, and what is a lonely solo artist to do about huge, systemic problems?

Fortunately, we’re not alone in our concerns, and there are singers joining together to try and tackle these very issues. 

On this episode, we talk with three members of the AGMA Soloist Coalition: 

David Salsbery Fry, chair pro tem
Elisabeth Rosenberg, secretary pro tem
Abi Levis, co-vice chair, SCYA (Soloist Coalition Young Artists)

They share with us their mission to unite and support soloists, how they are working to find creative ways to improve our union, and how other singers (whether they are a part of AGMA or not) can get involved.

It’s a timely and inspiring conversation and we are excited to support their work!

About the Soloist Coalition

AGMA Soloist Coalition is an independent, grassroots movement of AGMA soloist members, working together to improve our union. The Coalition is not affiliated with or endorsed by AGMA. We unite to discuss common concerns, identify problems, and find beneficial solutions and collective strategies for action. Our main goal is to facilitate consensus. We do this with a commitment to engaging diverse thoughts, experiences, and ideas to move us and our union into the future.

The best way to be in touch with the Soloist Coalition is to write to sc@soloistcoalition.org and to follow them on social media. 

Facebook: agmasoloistcoalition
Instagram: agmasoloistcoalition
Twitter: AGMASoloists

About our Guests

David Salsbery Fry is a bass opera singer and a fierce believer in the labor movement and union democracy. David has received training from the Labor Notes Troublemakers School and the Organizing Institute of the AFL-CIO. He is currently enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, studying parliamentary procedure in order to qualify for membership in the National Association of Parliamentarians. In September, he will begin studies towards a Labor Leadership Skills Certificate at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He has written about the opera industry for Classical Singer, The Liberated Voice, Opera and Disability and is a featured contributor to Claudia Friedlander’s The Singer’s Audition & Career Handbook and James Harrington’s Building a Career in Opera from School to Stage: Operapreneurship. A fifteen-year member of the American Guild of Musical Artists, David was elected to the Board of Governors in 2017 and was a candidate for President of AGMA in 2019.

American soprano Elisabeth Rosenberg is earning a reputation as an exciting young dramatic soprano on the classical scene today. In the 2019/2020 season, Ms. Rosenberg was scheduled to appear Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra singing Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder prior to the pandemic of 2020. Elisabeth is a recent recipient of an Encouragement Grant from the New York Wagner Society and was awarded second place in the Mildred Miller Pittsburgh Festival Opera Competition.

In July 2019, Elisabeth made her debut with Pittsburgh Festival Opera singing the role of “Sieglinde” in The Valkyrie to great critical acclaim. Previously at Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Ms. Rosenberg performed excerpts from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Wesendonck Lieder as a featured artist with the Mastersinger’s Program lead by world-renowned dramatic soprano, Jane Eaglen. Ms. Rosenberg received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and her master’s degree from Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Abi Levis is a mezzo soprano specializing in the soprano part of that label. She has sung in a lot of buildings all over the world and won some fancy competitions. If you want to see those, they are listed on her website www.abigaillevis.com. She is an avid reader and married herself an accomplished author (David Treuer) who gave her three wonderful step kids, a dog, and a gecko. She gave him a cat. They all live in Southern California, Maine, and Minnesota. Her hobbies include travel, knitting, running, cooking, buying more books than she can possibly read, and being a neat freak. She loves beer, and should you decide to buy her one someday, she prefers malt over hops but hates Belgian styles. Follow her on Instagram and Ravelry @tessitourist.

As always, a big thank you goes to our Season 2 sponsors, The Sparkle Twins! Their custom face masks for singers are BACK IN STOCK, so be sure to order one today, and stay healthy in style!

We’re also incredibly grateful to our sponsors, The Opera Dolls! Opera Dolls are plush dolls that sing opera when you squeeze their bellies! If you’re tired of hearing wheels on the bus on repeat during this time at home, bring culture to your living room or online classroom and snag yourself an opera doll! Use the code OPERALIFE20 for 20% your order!

Thanks also to our affiliates at Singing Straw. The Singing Straw is an eco-friendly, helpful tool for your practice sessions. Use the code mysocalledoperalife10 for 10% off your order and to support the podcast!

Music
“Rainbows” and  “Basic Implosion”  by  Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/