WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO REACH THE TOP?

As a musical theater performer, my dream has always been Broadway.  As a chorister and Artistic Director, my dream has been to catch the attention of major composers and perform/record at the level of the original recordings of popular choral works.  As a musician it has been to perform at a level where the audience forgets the act of my playing the music, and gets lost in the sounds and musical landscapes being created in their ear and head.  To play the biggest concert halls, the biggest theaters, to perform the most famous composers, to shake hands with the height of the craft: is that what it means to reach the top?

Or is reaching the top something different?

What if reaching the top meant performing at OUR height.  What if reaching the top meant creating art at the best of our ability.  What if it meant using the talents and gifts we have been entrusted with to produce work that shows the best of what we can do.  Despite the audience number, despite the venue, despite the culturally perceived level of the production: what if that was reaching the top?

Over the past several years, opportunities have come my way that have taken my career as a singer and performer to the next level.  I had the opportunity to record the role of Jean Valjean for the Les Miserables Student Edition reference recording for Musical Theatre International.  I then had the opportunity to record the role of Quasimodo for the Disney and MTI reference recording of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Through these projects, I got to meet and get to know several people within the Broadway community including conductors and Disney Theatrical employees.  These people where so kind and encouraging to me, and connected me to several casting agents in the top Broadway casting offices in NYC.  Through those meetings I was asked to attend a callback for a lead role in the longest running show in Broadway history (and my personal favorite), and attend an audition for a lead role in the latest smash hit by Disney Theatrical.  -Mind officially blown-

But what now…?  It has been a year.  No new leads.  No new audition invites.  Probably not the end of the road, but what if it is?  Did I peak at 33?  Have I reached the top of my career already, and in such a quick upswing, and then immediately fall? Or should I be looking at this through a different lens?

Perhaps we should be looking at it this way: Take the opportunities that you are given, that you work hard to get, that fall into your lap.  Take those opportunities and do the best you possibly can.  Strive to be better than you think you can be.  Always grow.  Always shoot for the stars.  But take it one thing at a time.  Maybe reaching for the top should be seen through an event by event basis.  Not seen through celebrity, or income, or status.  But be the best you can be in the moment you are in: in the audition room, in the living room while singing for your family, on the Broadway stage, for five people or ten thousand people.  Reach the top in that performance.  Goals are great.  Strive for where you want to be.  But don’t take your worth as a performer from the location or the salary.  As long as you are performing to the best of the gifts you have, you have reached the top!