Letters to my Mentors 5. Oh, oh, oh... it's Magic.

Dear Mentor,

When I met you, I did not yet have any children.  I was working as your executive assistant in a large non-profit and your background as a titan of the financial world had preceded you.  Imagine my surprise when you called me into your office.

"Find out Tannen's Magic Shop's hours today.  I need to get some shopping done," you said.

My usual office demeanor cracked with this surprising request and the questions started rolling out.  "Are you a magician?" "When did you start doing magic?"  "Why would you be doing magic?"

You began doing magic tricks at your children's birthdays when they were very small.  There was a hiatus during their teenage and young adult years, but when the grandchildren arrived, you picked up where you left off, buying one to two magic tricks a year to add to your repertoire.

As for me?  I can now do a rope trick, cut a card into pieces and reassemble it and I am starting out with card tricks now.  I have some linking rings that absolutely blew the mind of the kids who were attending The Spud's and LHB's birthdays this year.

For at least a couple more years I will be happily performing these tricks, learning more and, hopefully, making memories for my children.

Sincerely,
Eapen

A Skiers Guide to Opera Singing 3. Share the Lift Nicely.

Skiers are stupid.  Take for example the risks of riding the Chair Lift:

• You get on a chair that floats through the air 50 feet above the ground
• You share that chair with a friend or a total stranger
• If you don't drop the bar, you could fall out
• If you drop the bar and your chair mate isn't noticing it, you could hit their head and make them fall out
• You have to disembark without killing the person sitting next to you
• You have to load and unload smoothly so that everyone on the chair lift can get up the mountain as efficiently as possible

Opera Singers are stupid.  Take for example the risks of being on stage in an opera:

• You stand on a stage in front of hundreds (or thousands) of people who are looking to be entertained
• You share that stage with a friend or total stranger
• If you don't act safely, you could fall off the set 
• If you act safely and professionally and your colleague is not aware, you could still end up injuring them or negatively affecting the performance
• You have to enter and exit the stage without ruining your colleagues work
• You have to enter and exit the stage to smoothly maintain the efficiency of telling the story

Do you see some similarities?  As I was sitting on the chair lift, I tried to think of the rules that we could apply that would mitigate the challenges for both a skier and a singer:

• Practice- the first time you get on the chair lift or rehearse a scene, it's likely going to be a mess.  Keep working at both and soon you will know how to share the chair lift or stage nicely with your friend.
• Be considerate to strangers.  Sometimes you board a chairlift or share the stage with a new person.  When you do, watch and listen to them and try to communicate as much as possible to make sure that you are both on the same page.  Find compromise and you can find success, even on your first trip on the stage or up the chair lift.
• Lower the bar according to plan.  Once you are sure that you are ready to go out on stage or are safely seated on the lift, lower the bar in coordination with your partner.  It makes for a smoother experience and no hurt feelings.
• Mind your boarding and disembarking.  Both Chairlifts and Stages require that you carefully walk off stage.  For chairlifts, you are throwing yourself down a 10 foot slide.  You have to clear the way for the people behind you.  On stage, you are walking from a brightly lit proscenium to a dark backstage.  There may be people behind you who need to get off the stage quickly.  Don't dilly dally.  You aren't the star of the show (even if you are the star of the show), you are just a piece of the puzzle and other people have to do their jobs.

Letters to my Mentors 4. When you screw up, Improvise.

Dear Mentors,

Back when I was a senior in undergrad, I was having a pretty bad year.  My young voice was still pretty unstable.  I pegged my heart on a couple of roles that I did not get because my voice was a mess.  I turned down opportunities because I had my heart set on roles that I did not get because my voice was really in a bad place.  It was a snowball of challenges that I made for myself.

About a quarter into the year, I realized that I had to make some sort of opportunity for myself.  Outside of my senior recital and required courses, I had absolutely no performing opportunities.  For a music performance major, that is a death knell.

I ended up collaborating with a young conductor to organize a production of Mozart's Requiem.  The vision was to have a student run, conducted and performed full production that would be performed on a weekend when high school seniors would be visiting.

And that is where you all came in.  When I conceived this project, I was feeling pretty bad about myself.  I didn't know what I was going to do with my voice and career and I had watched myself destroy my performance opportunities both by circumstance and action.
You all completely believed in this idea of making this performance.  You agreed to conduct the show.  You joined the chorus.  You played in the orchestra.  You agreed to be the organization sponsors.  You were my fraternity brothers who showed up to set up the room and listened to my fears and concerns in our weekly meetings.  And in the end, all of you combined your efforts to make this the highest attended concert at our school that year.  There were people sitting in the aisles.  The president of the college was in attendance, front and center.

I think that our group made an impact on those future college freshman and it was your generosity of time and talent that helped me turn around my attitude and think that maybe I could make a career in music.

Thank you for being there for me at one of the darkest moments of my career and helping give me the push to keep going.

And so, I am sharing this recording of the full performance.  It is far from perfect and the tenor soloist sounds like he is a very young tenor (pro-tip: it's me).  Besides that?  It is one of my proudest moments of my career, even all these days later.

Sincerely,
Eapen