VOCAL COMPETITIONS FOR
"ELDERLY" CLASSICAL SINGERS

 CLICK HERE
for a list of competitions with no upper age restrictions.


For anyone who wonders whether their complaints about injustice ever fall on anything but deaf ears, the following was posted on The New Forum for Classical Singers on the morning of 21 February 2009 after a heated discussion triggered by the announcement of the Opera New Jersey Inaugural Voice Competition, which initially imposed strict age limits on its entrants. A huge thank you goes out to the artistic administration of Opera New Jersey for paying attention to our concerns, and acting so quickly to open up their competition to all qualified singers, regardless of age.
Dear Singers,

When we post on this forum, we like to monitor your answers and do our best to to learn from your comments and react accordingly when appropriate. In that vain, we thank you for voicing your concerns regarding age limits and competition date.

We have brought these concerns to the General and Artistic Director and have decided to alter the competition. It has always been our belief that everyone matures at their "own pace" and keeping with that belief - we have removed the upper age limit and moved the lower limit to 18.

To note: ONJ was reacting to the history of receiving 700+ summer applicants annually and by setting parameters making sure we could find the time to give every single applicant their due diligence - which unlike our summer applications, requires listening to audio samples. We will adjust our internal scheduling and be prepared should we receive an influx of interest from a now wider pool of singers.

About the date: there is one world class auditorium with superb acoustics in central New Jersey that we felt our semi-finalists deserved and that we wanted to use for this competition, Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University. That auditorium was unavailable to us with the exception of May 24th. In these economic times, we wanted to launch the competition as soon as possible to offer opportunity in the near term and not wait until autumn therefore May 24 was the best solution. We apologize if that limits some singers from applying and encourage you to apply next year!

Once again, if you have any questions- please don't hesitate to write to Competition@Opera-NJ.org or Info@Opera-NJ.org.

For those of you keeping up with the news from the opera field, you may not want to miss this article last week in NJ's largest paper, the Star Ledger about ONJ: http://www.nj.com/newark/index.ssf/2009/02/jersey_symphony_opera_nj_team.html

Best wishes!

Opera New Jersey Artistic Administration
There is a streak of ageism in the performing arts, and the classical vocal music industry is not untainted by it. According to the folks who run the majority of opera apprentice programs and vocal competitions, singers over age 35 might as well not bother trying to start a career at their "advanced age". Late bloomers are of absolutely no interest to the vast majority of those doing the hiring, awarding, and scholarship granting (this despite the fact more than a few of these industry magnates are themselves old enough to collect monthly Social Security cheques).

In any other industry, this kind of age discrimination would be deemed illegal (not to mention immoral), and those who practised it would be spending most of their money and time defending themselves against well-deserved lawsuits. But for some inexplicable reason, those in the performing arts get away scot free with shameless age discrimination. And all the singers who are its victims simply roll over and accept it without even a peep of protest.

I encourage all singers - not just those who have been arbitrarily "aged out" of the majority of opportunities for career-building - to consider systematically boycotting every competition, apprentice programme, summer opera programme, scholarship programme, etc., that imposes an upper age limit. Moreover, I encourage all singers to start an email and letter-writing campaign to the organisers of such programmes, politely asking them to explain and justify their age discrimination policies. A few letters to editors of publications such as Opera News and Gramophone couldn't hurt either. (And for those young singers whose ambition/hunger is greater than their sense of moral outrage, while you may not be willing to boycott the ageist programmes, at least consider adding your voice to the protests - hearing from those who don't have an immediate vested interest in changing age discrimination policies might sway the perpetrators more than hearing only from those who do.)

My hope is that if they hear from enough of us, the age discriminators will start to have second thoughts. And maybe (just maybe) they'll start to convert their industry into one that encourages and rewards all singers regardless of age, based purely on musical, technical, and artistic merit.

It's worth a try!

All this said, there are a few vocal competitions open to all qualified singers regardless of age. These competitions have no upper age limits (though some of them have lower age limits of 16 - which means Adelina Patti, who started singing professionally at 14, wouldn't have been able to enter; but let's take on reverse age discrimination after we tackle "upper age limit" ageism first). Some of these competitions do require entrants to have no professional representation or other hallmarks of a well-established career (such as a reviewed solo New York recital); others require exactly the opposite. In any case, based on their entry qualifications, these at least appear to be competitions with organisers who care about encouraging excellence among ALL singers, not just those under 35 (Or 32. Or 30).

If you know of any other "no upper age limit" contests, or if you notice that any of the information I've provided here is inaccurate, please email me with the relevant info at: singwiththespirit [at] yahoo [dot] com

The following short article may be of interest. It was written by Kim Whitman, Artistic Director of the Wolf Trap Opera Company, and published on the Company's blog on 29 October 2006:
THE YOUNG ARTIST DILEMMA

We have no age limits, but we are still a company for developing artists. Ah, you say, aren't we all perpetually learning and developing? Of course. So how to figure out whom we should serve? What is our demographic?

There's a sweet spot, right after you've pretty much absorbed and tolerated those half-dozen or so years of full-time introductory study, and before you fall into a career pattern. I'm going to take a real chance here, for I know I'll get hate mail. But here are a few descriptions of singers we feel we are not in a position to serve. Those who have already performed a series of supporting or leading roles in regional or national-level companies. Those who finished the intensive part of their training more than 3 years ago. Those who have embarked on successful careers outside of the U.S. and are looking for ways to jump-start their careers in the states. If we existed simply to grant singing engagements to performers who desired (and deserved) them, we would be an entirely differerent sort of organization.

Can you be over 30 and apply successfully for our company? Unequivocally. Although our average age hangs around 26-27, each year since we've dropped the age limit, we've had at least one 30-something in the company. If you went to school in your early twenties, dropped out of the opera scene and returned a few years later, we're happy to consider you. Likewise if you change Fach or begin a new career in music much later than the traditional student. But in these cases, even more than usual, we're looking for momentum.

Over the last year or two, do the companies who have hired you, the roles you've been assigned and the awards you've won show that you're moving forward? If you're breaking back in, and you haven't sung a role in 3 years, that doesn't mean that we won't ever consider you. But if other applicants are showing a significantly higher degree of activity and recognition, you may get passed over. But by next year, if you persevere, yours could be one of the applications that rises to the top.

I know that most performers are loath to believe this about the beasts behind the table, but there are lots of us who are painfully empathetic. We know you work hard, that you've spent a lot of money in pursuit of something that calls out to you, and that you know you have something important to offer. I wish I could take every single one of the singers reduced to these pieces of paper called résumés and grant each one a satisfying career in music. I do, perhaps foolishly believe, that for those whom it matters in the right way, there always is a life in music.

You may also find the following article of interest:
Prize Song - Are singing competitions a way to the top?


"AGELESS" COMPETITIONS FOR CLASSICAL SINGERS
The sponsors of the following competitions have clearly stated that they impose no upper age limits (and in some cases no age limits at all) on competition entrants, at least for some categories or divisions within the overall competion.

COMPETITIONS THAT PUBLISH TOO LITTLE INFORMATION FOR
ME TO DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT THEY HAVE AGE RESTRICTIONS

COMPETITIONS ABOUT WHICH I AM SEEKING FURTHER INFORMATION

If you know whether these competitions are still active, and, if so, whether they have maximum age limits for entrants, please email me at: singwiththespirit [at] yahoo [dot] com

DISPELLING A MYTH: BBC CARDIFF SINGER OF THE WORLD COMPETITION

There is a persistent myth, perpetuated by a number of online directories to music competitions, that the the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition has no upper age limit. It may have been true at one time, but now it is patently false.

The announcement of the 2009 competition clearly states: "The competition is open to applications from singers at the start of their careers, aged between 18-36 on 1 June 2009."

I suspect that the myth arose from someone confusing the Cardiff Singer of the World competition with the Llangollen International Eisteddfod vocal competition, which indeed has no upper age limit.



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