We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maria Maxfield. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maria below.
Maria, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I remember hearing about professional opera singers when I was in college during my undergraduate degree. Even though I was majoring in voice at that point, I was still unsure about the major and what the best path for me would be both personally and professionally. I remember as I started to learn how a career like opera singing could work, an entire world opened up to me. It was a challenging thought process at first considering I had such a big learning curve ahead of me – I had only started studying opera as an undergraduate student and didn’t have any personal examples of family members or friends who were involved in music careers. Luckily thanks to my incredible first voice teacher, Dr. Jon Linford, as well as the mentorship of professional opera singer Kristine Ciesinski, who were both teaching at the school I was attending at the time, I began to envision a future career in opera. I was also very fortunate to begin teaching singers pretty early in my singing studies, and this led me to a lifetime of joy in teaching singing as well. Both of these career choices have been fulfilling and served me in complementary ways as I’ve worked to be dedicated and passionate about both opera singing and voice teaching. I also had the support of my family and friends as I decided to embark on this journey, and I think that was an essential component to feeling confident in moving forward with my goals. Above all though, I can’t say enough about teachers and mentors who take students under their wings. My life is what it is today because of the example and care of individuals who impacted me when I needed it most professionally.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I enjoy a versatile artistic career as an opera singer and voice educator. Currently I perform as an ensemble member with The Metropolitan Opera which I’ve done since 2018. In addition to my ensemble work, I recently premiered a leading role in the new opera, Letters You Will Not Get, with the American Opera Project in New York City. Other operatic performance highlights include Monica in The Medium with Opera Memphis, Zerlina in Opera Colorado’s production of Don Giovanni, Frasquita in Carmen with Opera Omaha, and Julie in Carousel with Union Avenue Opera in St. Louis. I was a participant of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist program, a member of Opera Omaha’s Voices in Residence program, the Gerdine Young Artist program at Opera Theatre of St. Louis and the renowned art song festival at the Ravinia Music Festival. In addition to my professional singing work, I also have over 10 years of professional teaching experience as a voice educator. I recently graduated with a doctorate from the University of Southern California-Thornton School of Music with an emphasis in Vocology and Opera Directing. I tailor my vocal instruction to each individual student through evidence based vocal pedagogy and my years of performance experience, and teach students both virtually and in person in NYC.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I know many artists and creatives answer this question differently. For some, the pull of the career is the change of pace and the excitement of spontaneity in different projects, as well as the ability to have a flexible schedule. While these things make this career enjoyable for me, my motivation has come from a desire to connect with others and aid in greater empathy and self reflection through story and art making. These things are fulfilled through the joy and challenges I get as a private teacher and director, as well as my work as a performer and singer in opera and concert. Making space for myself in this career and finding avenues that feel fulfilling and meaningful has been a year by year process of self discovery and introspection. While I enjoy being a soloist, it is less fulfilling and engaging for me than teaching and directing. It was difficult for me to pivot a few years ago when I started to discover this about myself, but I find the balance I have now in both performing and teaching to bring me a lot of joy in very specific and exciting ways. Of course there are many challenges to working as an artist and creative, especially in the US, but it is rewarding to reflect on the aspects that make this career meaningful and fulfilling.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I think many non-creatives misunderstand the financial side of this kind of an artistic career and tend to make sweeping generalizations about it. From my experience this is mostly in relation to the perception that the most valuable careers are the ones that produce the most capital. This is a completely misguided and incorrect way at building a thoughtful, supportive and productive community. As an artist, teacher, and performer, I’ve chosen to directly engage with this critically and this career is a conscious choice that reflects my personal value system. Working artists and creatives range financially from part time and low income salaries to the income of an upper middle class career path (of course there are the high financial earning artists, but a much smaller percentage of most working artists and creatives). The SAG-AFTRA strike is a current example of the struggle for creatives to make a living and feel supported financially by our society as they do so. Income inequality is a serious issue that needs to be combatted, especially as we continue to see an increase in these abuses of power. Specifically, the issue of healthcare, taxes, retirement and financial planning in non-traditional career paths directly attacks artists and creatives and others doing similar kinds of non-traditional work. The United States deliberately punishes artists and creatives by disincentivizing them through not viewing healthcare as a human right, and legislatively allowing companies and employers to absolve themselves of financial accountability regarding these workers. While many may argue that contract workers can account for this financially in each contract, and with each job, they probably have not personally tried to negotiate these things over and over again and felt the strain of doing this repeatedly.
To sum up my position on this, any time a person tries to demean and discourage the viability of an artistic career, I quickly reply with “Well then it looks like you don’t care whether you have art in your life or not. In that case, please don’t ever listen to music again, don’t watch any film or tv, take all the art off of your wall and never go to the concert or theater”. If a person is participating in the joys of art, they should be prepared to hold their society accountable in how they support these individuals financially.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mariasmaxfield.com/
- Instagram: @mariasmaxfield
- Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/735166021
Image Credits
Titilayo Ayangade @plantainplantpants Ken Howard @metopera