By Claire DiVizio (they/them), Soloist, Originally published in the Winter 2024 issue of AGMAzine
Hello! My name is Claire DiVizio, and I’m a member of the Midwest Area of AGMA. I’m a classically trained singer and have been working professionally as a singer, voice teacher, and stage director for over 10 years. Originally from Michigan, I now live in Chicago, and I’ve been a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus since 2016.
I’m also transgender. When I was first hired by the ensemble, I was placed in the Soprano 1 section, where I stayed for six years. But in early 2022, I finally began taking steps to start testosterone. As part of this process, I reached out to my AGMA reps with the Chorus, because I didn’t know what this would mean for my employment with the ensemble. I already knew I was planning to take a one-year leave of absence, which was guaranteed by my contract, but I didn’t know what would happen after that.
I had a great conversation with Scott Uddenberg, the ensemble union rep, and in addition to offering me his personal support, he assured me that the Union would make sure that the CSOA supported me through this process. I knew at the end of my leave I would have to re-audition with my new voice, and I also knew that most of what I was going to have to do to let my new voice settle was wait for nature to take its course. The process of going through a second vocal puberty is complicated, unpredictable, and highly individualized, so it’s impossible to guarantee conformity to a calendar. When I was preparing for my re-audition a year later, I reached out to Scott again, very worried, because while I was pretty sure I was settling into being a tenor, my voice still wasn’t entirely comfortable in a lot of the tenor audition excerpts. He told me to look at the bass excerpts, and if I could sing them, then I should do that instead– the goal was for me to feel like I was representing myself the best I could. After my audition, which went… fine, but not fabulous, he called me on the phone and congratulated me, and said that regardless of what feedback I received, he was going to fight for me. More amazingly, he said that in the last couple months, as they had been preparing for me to return, he had called several AGMA leaders, locally and nationally, to ask for advice and information on how other chapters were supporting singers like me. Apparently, there hadn’t ever been any other singers like me in any other union ensembles in the U.S. I was the first one.
As a trans person, and especially a non-binary trans person, I am used to there not being policies in place to support me. Most of the time that means that I have to just “deal with it,” accept that I’m going to be uncomfortable in certain situations, and not expect much. Frankly, that’s one of the reasons I have stepped away from seeking much work as a professional soloist (though it is worth noting that most of the work I’ve had in opera has not been union work). However, as a member of AGMA, the revelation that there wasn’t an existing policy to deal with my situation meant that the Union decided that my particular case was going to be used as a blueprint for a new policy to support trans singers in the future. My CSO AGMA reps were true to their word, and after being placed in the bass section in 2023 as a way to reacclimate to my voice without stress, I had another re-audition in the spring of 2024, after which I was placed in the tenor section, and returned to being a Regular member in good standing.
The process of transition as an adult is already terrifying, and is even more harrowing to consider as a classical singer, but thanks to Scott Uddenberg and AGMA, I was able to navigate this transition within my life and my profession, with the kind of workplace support that everyone deserves. I am proud to be a member of a union, and these last two years have given me a real, personal reason for that pride.