I’ve been touring the world singing the music of Disney for many years. 2019 was a bit of a slow year, but 2020 had a ton of bookings stretched out from March through July. I was looking forward to and taking comfort in the prospect that I’d be on solid footing financially in 2020 as well as enjoying all the things I love about the work I do: travel, performing in front of thousands of people with castmates I love and with the world’s best symphony orchestras, meeting new friends, expanding my horizons… All of those bookings evaporated in a matter of 2 days due to the pandemic. All of the plans I had in motion ground to a halt and I found myself plunged into the first period of serious depression I’d ever experienced. It was an identity crisis of sorts as I slowly discovered that I base much of my self-worth around my ability to work as a singer. I haven’t been on stage in 4 months now, and I don’t know when it will happen again. I’m just trying to hold on to hope that it will be sooner than later in some capacity. In the meantime, I’m honing in on what makes me “me” when I don’t have a mic in my hand.

-Whitney Claire Kaufman