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Combined page (2026-10-21). Original draft first (contains orphan fragments and a trailing Dream Jobs / Freddy Arsenault passage); 1 variant draft appended below under a “Variant:” heading — Faustian Bargains (the shorter, cleaner version). Edit down to one post before setting Ready to Publish.

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“Regardless of their origins, the qhapaq huchas were received in the capital with much celebration. Upon entering the city, [they] were taken to the main square, where the emperor was seated on his golden stool near the images of the major gods. The emperor greeted them, [and] made an offering of special chicha to the Sun. Rituals honoring the qhapaq huchascontinued for days and involved much feasting and drinking. At the end of a festival the Inkas dispatched as many as five hundred children [through] immolations carried out at Temple of the Sun.”

Thomas Besom in “Of Summits and Sacrifice: An Ethnohistoric Study of Inka Religious Practices.”

Unbelievable as it might sound, the children involved in the ritual qhapaq, often chosen from noble families, were treated with significant reverence before the ritual. Their sacrifice was perceived as a supreme honor. These ceremonies are interpreted as the Incas’ method of ensuring a favorable, enduring relationship with their gods.

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In “Debt Sentence,” Deep Tran introduces us to Freddy Arsenault, a once-hopeful actor who, in many respects, appears to be living his dream. His resume includes Broadway appearances and performances at San Diego’s Old Globe, Virginia’s American Shakespeare Center, and Manhattan Theatre Club—an enviable list of credits for any aspiring performer. Yet behind these accomplishments lies a sobering reality: he’s burdened with $165,000 of debt, the lingering result of his student loans at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Arsenault recalls the day he received his first Citibank bill after graduation. A monthly payment of $1,200 loomed. Panic set in. How could he possibly maintain a sustainable career under such a weight?

I’ve had voice students from all walks of life interested in everything from learning to match pitch to working on roles in professional settings. Teaching those lessons was my primary source of income for many years. They all paid the same rate, but some had bigger impact on my business. Singers with auditions in their future were reliable sources of income, and those cast in a lead roles or accepted into well-known collegiate programs were great for business and I would promote those successes. I’ve organized, and participated in numerous programs targeting career-minded singers because I knew those activities would be great sources of income. This isn’t a mystery. Thousands of programs like this are available as I discuss the lesson College Prep. Under different circumstances I’d probably working along the same lines today, but I won’t. So why the change of heart? Simple, privilege.

I started working on Singers at Play during Covid. We were living in a great, two-bedroom apartment, perfect up until the point where we both needed to work from home. Angela is a DC-based clinical psychologist whose hourly rate is almost quadruple mine. As the Covid crisis accelerated her clients wanted more time then ever, while mine (mostly professionals at the time) were struggling financially. Needless-to-say her work took precedence so I had plenty of time to think. It started with an intensive review of my work, previous writing and so forth with the goal of organizing the content I taught to almost every singer into lessons I could use in the studio once things got back to normal. One day, I stumbled across this quote:

“Upon reaching maturity the voices of castrati were typically resonant, strong, and often nimble with a number of them also achieving high cultural capital in the form of prestige, fame, wealth, and social mobility. By the late seventeenth century the distinct musical legacy they left had an importance that is hard to overestimate. It is no exaggeration to say that the entire classical foundation of virtuosic “bel canto” singing in the West owes its existence to the musical traditions and practices of castrati.”

Martha Feldman’s “Castrato, Reflections on Natures and Kinds

I know many voice teachers who brag about their Bel Canto-based pedigree and it occurred to me that they conveniently omit this particular element of that lineage. It wasn’t relevant to the task at hand so I chuckled condescendingly and filed it away.