Placido Domingo

Placido Domingo is a classical music singer known world wide, who is recognized for being one of the greatest personalities in the opera world. He is the current director of two major companies: The Washington National Opera, and the LA Opera; and also enjoys a role of conductor.

Domingo was born in Spain, but after a tour through Mexico, his family decided to stay there and start their own business; which later own was able to paid for his performances. While getting small performances in different places of Mexico, he started to study piano and also give voice lessons in order to master his technique and skills.

His first debut as a tenor was in 1959 in Mexico City, and he played the big role of a character named Alfredo from a classical piece La Traviatta. That same year, he sang in the United States, and from there on, he became a member of Hebrew National Opera in Telaviv from 1962 to 1964. After his short life in the Hebrew National Opera Group, the jumped to the Metropolitan Opera, and stared singing all over the world. Recently, he celebrated his 40^th anniversary from his first debut. Some of the places he has performed include the Escala in Italy, and Verona.

As a singer, has performed in more than 134 opera roles. Domingo has 100 recordings of  himself singing, and as a conductor, he has participated in over 450 operas. In 1993 he introduced the international voice competition: Operalia.

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Domingo-Placido.htm

“Singing the Primal Mystery” (TED)

This post empathizes the positive aspects of a company named :(TED) Technology, Entertainment, Design. Sites like this connect and communicate variety of topics through videos, and it has been active since 1984. The way it works is by providing to the speakers with 18 minutes for them to expose and present his/her topic; this will give each speaker the opportunity to speak directly to a targeted audience, and develop communication skills inside the business world. Videos like this are very useful because they teach and present different themes through people’s experiences; in them, real people discuss their real experiences, ideas and views. Some of the positive advantages of using this type of media are: the increase the motivation to develop and grow inside a business field, development of communication skills in order to reach bigger audiences and express true opinion and perceptions, and the use of this tool without spending any money.

In my case, I decided to choose a speaker named Claron McFadden as well as her video: “Singing the Primal Mystery”, because it calls my attention and brings themes that in my opinion are very important for my career. Mrs. McFadden is a very influential person for me because of her image as an American soprano, her extraordinary music education, and also her extended experience in performing leading roles all around the world.

“Singing the Primal Mystery” is a video that discusses many interesting themes for singers; such us, the connection of the breathing and the voice. In the case of singers, this a very useful tool because it is important to learn how to breath and control the voice strength and color; this video is not only motivating to grow as singers, but also motivating in the sense of communicating knowledge. In the video by John Cage called: “Aria”, she performs very challenging piece, and put it on practice the main themes of her own video.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/claron_mcfadden_singing_the_primal_mystery.html

American Guild of Musical artists (AGMA)

AGMA (American Guild of Musical Artists) is a labor union that represents opera/ classical concert singers, personnel, dancers in professional opera companies, production and dance companies around the U.S. When you become an AGMA member, you get a union negotiation agreement, to in turn pursue their workplace concerns. If you are AGMA, allot of the larger opera companies will respect you more and recognize you more as a professional. AGMA can fight for your wages, hours, terms in contract, and reassure that you’re not overworked. In other words, AGMA does the “dirty work.” The music world can be tough; AGMA allows you the opportunity to have assistance and defense if and when necessary. Lets not forget that performing artists support themselves with the talent and skills they were born with. Like people say “their bread and butter.” AGMA is a small union yet unique in comparison to other entertainment unions. To the contrary of most unions, AGMA feels that the performer needs to perform as much as possible; therefore, giving the performer the opportunity to perform anywhere they choose without strict guidelines. Now you may ask yourself, how can I get AGMA?

You can call AGMA’s membership department at 1(800) 543- 2462. They will guide you to the application or you can download it through the website, www.Musicalartists.org. With AGMA you have a one-time fee of $500 that is tax- deductible, in addition a yearly fee of $78. The performer must receive a minimum income of $2000 and maintain his/her membership with AGMA for at least three years.

Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/american-guild-of-musical-artists,

http://www.musicalartists.org/