Soula Parassidis

Living Opera is a multidisciplinary platform that informs, equips, and empowers classical musicians with fundamental information about what it takes to build a successful career in the music industry. By creating various types of educational content - including online courses, YouTube videos, mini-tutorials, articles, and masterclasses - we fill in essential gaps of knowledge and serve our learners in a way that is effective, innovative, and fun.

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I founded Living Opera to provide an alternative option to enrolling in traditional degree programs, which can cost up to 50k per year in the USA. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States has over 3200 institutions offering programming in classical voice, producing tens of thousands of singers per year that will attempt to enter a workforce that is not only over saturated, but under funded. While classical music may seem like a niche field, the demand for this kind of content has been astonishing and our worldwide community now spans hundreds of students from over 20 countries and 5 continents, with new people engaging with the platform and our social media accounts every day. Because I am working around the world at institutions including Theater an der Wien, Berlin Philharmonie, Houston Grand Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, etc, I am, through Living Opera, in a unique position to share relevant experiences about our sector in real time, empowering students to make better choices in their academic and professional futures.

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Many students have said they learned more in 2 months of engaging with our platform than 4 years in the world’s top conservatories and they felt better prepared to enter the workforce after taking our courses and investing in our online classes. While it’s true that some artists can earn well over six figures as a classical musician, most aspiring singers will never see this kind of return on investment and end up carrying the burden of student loans, which affects their quality of life, and their ability to pivot into a new field. In contrast to the regular school model, Living Opera offers all our content for free, except for the flagship course, Beyond Your Big Break, and one-on-one mentoring sessions.

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Finally, while most degree programs and conservatories focus largely on the “craft” of music - that is, the ability to play an instrument or sing at a world class level - I have found that developing these skills alone leaves most artists feeling ill-equipped to develop a personal brand that will land them paid jobs post graduation.

 

Living Opera takes artists to the next level of development and educates them on relevant subjects beyond making music, including entrepreneurship, technology, creating multiple incomes streams, self- branding, and social advocacy. In the last year, Living Opera students have launched their own online businesses, built voice studios, written new music, and become active voices for marginalized groups within the classical music sector, like black and Latino artists. The work and community speaks for itself and I am excited for the next chapter of this dynamic project. Visit the Living Opera website by clicking this link.