Hi all - Happy Spring!🌷
It's been a while since I've posted and I'm glad of that - I feel as though I've been really living the last few months and engaging in the sometimes less than glamorous work of experimenting and (metaphorically) chipping away at rocks (Stardew valley reference, anyone?!).
There have been some twists and turns of late - I lost my day job a couple months back in a layoff (ticking off that square on my millennial bingo card) and have found myself simultaneously excited and a little freaked out when looking towards the future. Overall, though, it's been an opportunity for me to take steps every day towards things and people that I value, something that feels priceless. I feel lucky to have the privilege and space and time to breathe before rushing on to the next thing. I also adopted a dog, Percy (short for Percival to match Mo(rgana) the cat) - he's a cuddle bug and the absolute best!
In April I participated in an online mixer hosted by Early Music America on "the Art of the Day Job," an article I wrote last fall about some of the hidden calculations and challenges behind the scenes of what it can take to make a career as an artist work. It was such a fun experience - while writing the article had been extremely fulfilling, I was so excited to have the chance to talk to others about the themes I had raised and to hear the perspectives of others. I increasingly feel that discussing these things in community with one another is the only chance we have at making progress in our field towards a more sustainable way of life - and the only chance we truly have at continuing to connect authentically with audiences and the communities we serve. I'm therefore very excited to share that I was selected as a presenter at EMA's upcoming summit in October 2025 where I will be presenting a deeper look at the themes covered in my article, including (I'm hoping) a look at the interconnected roles financial stability and mental health play in artists' abilities to 'stay in the game,' as well as how we can be more honest about the need to make different choices sometimes and look at artistic careers as longer term parts of a whole life rather than flashes in the pan or something that requires eternal, never ending sacrifices. I'll share more as the conference gets closer - but for now am simply extremely grateful for you and all in my community who have done so much to listen to and support me, as well as sharing your own experiences and vulnerabilities with me. Times are tough for the arts (and all of us), it's true, but it's also true that creative people and appreciators of all kinds have the unique opportunity to come together and envision what a better way forward could look like. I am also extremely grateful to EMA for their support and for providing me with a continued platform to dig deeper into these topics - please check them out and consider supporting their work!
That's all for now - for anyone not yet on the DC Singer Collective mailing list, I hope you'll consider signing up and/or checking out our upcoming June concerts. We're slowly but surely expanding our reach - if you'd like to buy myself and the other performers coffee (so to speak) we'd be very grateful! But above all I hope you'll attend a performance or tune into a livestream, either this month or in the future.
Here's to slowly sprouting plants 🌱
-Genevieve
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