Investigating Performance Career Making and Career Transition through the Lens of Australia's Elite Classical Singers
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Brown, Andrew R
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Bridgstock, Ruth S
Baker, Sarah L
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Abstract
Creative careers in the performing arts follow a somewhat unique trajectory that is driven by specific skill demands and market conditions. This thesis investigates the careers of Australian classical singers through a qualitative interview-based study and analysis. The thesis outlines a trajectory of singers’ careers as they have become evident in the experiences of professional singers.
Interviews with 13 retired professional classical singers were undertaken. Career theories and empirical studies from elite dance and sportsperson were interrogated to provide a basis for a qualitative examination of performance careers. Building on this, an analysis of the singers’ experiences of their professional life was undertaken. Implications arising were related to career models from the film industry, to discourses from cultural economics and sociology, to music training concepts and to the latest research on entrepreneurial approaches to working in the creative arts. The result was the identification of a distinct career trajectory for professional classical singers comprising several stages.
The career stages proposed are: (1) pre-career; (2) breaking in; (3) the peak career; (4) denouement; (5) moving on. Other findings include that creativity and identity are tightly intertwined for the professional singers in the study, and when seeking new directions following the denouement stage, the majority of the singers attempted to remain attached to an artistic field even when they accepted that their time as a professional singer had passed.
The thesis highlights that creative careers are difficult to sustain and that the fragility of the creative career, once realised, can have very real implications for the well-being of the creative professional. The research also revealed that career trajectories in professional singing follow a distinctive arc because of the way the work is creatively embodied. The findings suggest that career planning has often been inadequate in this industry and it is only in the consideration of the lifecycle of a creative performance career that the critical link between pre- and post-career stages can be made.
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Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
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Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Queensland Conservatorium
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The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise.
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Subject
Performance Career Making
Career Transition
Classical Singers
Creative careers
performing arts