Great Performances: The lesson we can learn from the life of Ryan Smith (1976 — 2008) Tenor

8 Aug
2010


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I watched a doc­u­men­tary last night that really touched me so I had to share it with you. It was PBS’ Great Performances at The Met: The Audition.

Singing hope­fuls audi­tioned in 2007 for The Metropolitan Opera’s (Yes, I said opera and I don’t mean the web browser so just hang tight there’s a great story to this) National Council for an oppor­tu­nity to win $15,000, per­form on The Metropolitan Opera’s stage and launch what they hope to be long careers as opera singers.

As I watched with my chil­dren we cheered for one singer through­out who really cap­ti­vated us with his pow­er­ful voice, pas­sion for music, and wit. It was 30-​year-​old Ryan Smith.

In an inter­view Ryan talked about giv­ing up on singing for sev­eral years. He said his rea­sons were that he ran out of money. So much so that at one point mar­shals showed up at his door with a sum­mons because of credit card debt. He had to file for bank­ruptcy.

After going through those chal­lenges, he decided he would give singing one more shot. Two more years of his life. If he failed he would go back to school and pur­sue his doc­tor­ate in another field.

He didn’t need to. He was one of five final­ist to win The Mets pres­ti­gious grand prize and made his debut as a tenor on The Met’s stage. He was well on his way.

My fam­ily and I cheered for him and made plans to try to see him per­form live. Unfortunately we will never have that chance because at the end of the doc­u­men­tary we read that it was ded­i­cated to his mem­ory.

In 2008, just one year after his opera debut, Ryan Smith was diag­nosed with Cancer and died at the age of 31.

Lesson for us: Ryan Smith didn’t know he had such a short time left to live. He was happy and full of life. He had over­come a huge obsta­cle and got to expe­ri­ence what his dream was before his death.

What his story should inspire us to do is to sim­ply live, be happy, and pur­sue what’s impor­tant while we can. The are no guar­an­tees in life. While I know this is a somber thought it is a real­is­tic one.

How will you make your mark? We don’t have to do what Ryan Smith did, but how will we use the pre­cious time that we have?

The bril­liant Ryan Smith at The Metropolitan Opera in 2007

Thanks for read­ing,

Literary Nobody
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Toya Bryant has written 184 article(s) for this site

Toya Bryant aka Literary Nobody is a Freelance Writer/Blogger who promotes positive thinking and actions within the community and the family. She also writes about the positives and negatives of technology, internet security and social media.

  • » Killing me softly with his song: The life and death of Bassist Dewey Tucker Tales of a Literary Nobody

    […] [Translate] I found this post very hard to write. I don’t think that other than the story of Opera tenor Ryan Smith have I been so affected by the story of a musi­cian that sadly I was only intro­duced to after […]

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    […] This post was men­tioned on Twitter by Literary Nobody, Amaru. Amaru said: RT @LiteraryNobody: Great Performances: The les­son we can learn from the life of Ryan Smith (1976−2008) http://​bit​.ly/​c​o​M​Yks […]

  • http://misssld2u.blogspot.com/ Miss Sara

    You’re right… THAT is real­ity. Life is short, some­times shorter than we antic­i­pated for this very rea­son, we need to pur­sue our LIFE w/​every­thing we have… (we need to live, not merely exist) so that we can accom­plish our goals and leave our mark as Ryan did. ;-) Thanks for shar­ing!

  • http://misssld2u.blogspot.com/ Miss Sara

    You’re right… THAT is real­ity. Life is short, some­times shorter than we antic­i­pated for this very rea­son, we need to pur­sue our LIFE w/​every­thing we have… (we need to live, not merely exist) so that we can accom­plish our goals and leave our mark as Ryan did. ;-) Thanks for shar­ing!

  • http://geekgirlwife.com/ Serenity, The Geek.Girl.Wife

    Wow — thank you for shar­ing this. It really puts things in per­spec­tive, def­i­nitely. What na amaz­ing and inspir­ing, if sad, story.

  • http://twitter.com/geekgirlwife Geek.Girl.Wife

    Thank you for shar­ing this inspir­ing, if tragic, story. This man was an inspi­ra­tion to us all.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    Thank you for the read. His story really touched and aspired me. Helped me to really put in per­spec­tive how short life is and we need to work at our pas­sions.

  • Skylark

    A friend and I watched the same doc­u­men­tary last night. We were enthralled by Ryan’s singing and cheered for him above all the oth­ers. In addi­tion to his beau­ti­ful voice, his singing showed a matu­rity of expres­sion and com­pas­sion beyond his years. I loved his sim­ple “Mama, I won.” as he called his mother on his cell phone after the com­pe­ti­tion. As you, we had hoped to hear him live and were shocked to see the “in memo­riam” at the end. What an exam­ple of fol­low­ing your dreams!! May we all have the courage and trust to do the same.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    Thank you for the com­ment Skylark. It has been a cou­ple months since my fam­ily and I saw the show and he still impacts us. He seemed to be such a hum­ble man who just loved music. I loved his “Mama I won” too. We were in tears when we found out he had died. What a tragic end to a beau­ti­ful suc­cess story. Glad we still have his music to remem­ber him by.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    Visited your site http://​fsarts​.org/ by the way. Love what you do. Thank you for keep­ing the arts in the fore­front espe­cially where it mat­ters most-​with our chil­dren.

  • Christa

    Thanks for this post. It just made it clear again what’s impor­tant in life. I have so many friends who have ideas about what they “really” want to do with their lives: “I’ll write that novel when I’m retired.” “I’ll record another CD when I have more money.” “I’ll spend time with my mother/​husband/​children when this “impor­tant” job is fin­ished.” Well, that “I will” or “I shall” may never come, guys! Do it now. Make time every day, even if it’s just half an hour, for that one thing that’s really impor­tant, that gives your life mean­ing. Thanks for shar­ing.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    I agree Christa. I think we take for granted the impor­tant things but we really need to keep in per­spec­tive like he did. His singing was impor­tant to him and he used his time to fur­ther that. We have to use our time so wisely. I really loved his story. Thanks for the great com­ment. (Sorry about the late reply ..I was away)

  • http://genericwpthemes.com WP Themes

    Nice brief and this fill some­one in on helped me alot in my col­lege assigne­ment. Gratefulness you on your infor­ma­tion.

  • Paul Smith

    Hello Toya … I am Ryan’s father. Thank you for the trib­ute to my son. I see that he has been an inspi­ra­tion to you as he was to us through­out his bril­liant and chal­leng­ing life.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    I am so hon­ored by you read­ing my post about Ryan. He did touch my fam­ily and I very much and even inspired me to pur­sue with all my energy what I love and not to give up. He was extra­or­di­nar­ily tal­ented and I am so happy to have wit­nessed such a pos­i­tive time in his life. I extend to you and your fam­ily my sin­cer­est con­do­lences at the loss of such a spe­cial per­son.

  • Syliast

    I just watched the PBS doc­u­men­tary on the opera finals. I also found myself cheer­ing for Ryan Smith and was sad to read that he died. He is a les­son to us all. No mat­ter how bad things are, con­tinue to live life, do those you want and aspire to bring some­thing pos­i­tive into oth­ers life. I found this site while want­ing to know more abouth this young man and what else he had done before his life. Thank you for this arti­cle.

  • http://www.literarynobody.com/ Literary Nobody

    Thank you so much for the com­ment Syliast. Ryan’s story really is so inspir­ing to so many peo­ple. Every time the doc­u­men­tary airs I get a flood of vis­its from peo­ple want­ing to know more about him. I am so glad I am able to share my per­spec­tive on how his life effected me.

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