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From Banking To Broadway: Jessica Vosk Ditched Her Finance Career To Perform On The World’s Greatest Stages Including Carnegie Hall

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From Banking To Broadway: Jessica  Vosk Ditched Her Finance Career To Perform On The World’s Greatest Stages Including Carnegie Hall

On December 12 Broadway star Jessica Vosk will return to Carnegie Corridor to carry out Get Joyful: A Judy Garland Centennial Celebration.

Garland, who would have been 100 this yr made her Carnegie Corridor debut after almost 4 a long time into her profession. The present was so legendary, it’s thought-about to be probably the most memorable nights within the Carnegie Corridor’s historical past.

When a reside recording was launched a number of months after it gained 5 Grammys and was on the Billboard charts for 73 weeks. Garland turned the primary solo girl to win the coveted Album of the 12 months.

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On this tribute to the life and artistry of Garland, Vosk will carry out her traditional songbook amid uncommon efficiency footage of Garland herself. Vosk will sing alongside one other theater nice, Andy Karl, who has starred on Broadway in Groundhog Day, Rocky, Fairly Lady, Legally Blonde and On The Twentieth Century. Get Joyful additionally has a workforce of artistic heavy hitters. Written by Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins, the present is directed by Michael Arden with Mary-Mitchell Campbell as music director.

Vosk, whose credit embrace Elphaba in Depraved on Broadway, Joseph and the Superb Technicolor Dreamcoat, Fiddler on the Roof, Discovering Neverland and The Bridges of Madison County, was approached with this idea throughout the pandemic.

“It was arising on Judy’s one centesimal birthday and made me suppose, Wow. We misplaced this girl so early in her life, and but she’s been ever current since then. Like she by no means left us,” says Vosk of Garland who handed away eight years after her Carnegie Corridor live performance when she was 47. “How do I honor the reminiscence of this icon, who famously performed Carnegie corridor earlier than her dying, but hopefully breathe new life into her cannon of music? I like a tough process like that.”

Because the outdated joke goes, when the pedestrian approached a musician for instructions asking, “The way you get to Carnegie Corridor?” The musician replied “Apply. Apply. Apply.” In Vosk’s case, not solely was it apply that led her to Carnegie Corridor. She additionally bought there by means of Wall Road.

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Earlier than she even graduated from school Vosk took a job at a monetary agency in midtown Manhattan. “I began entry stage, had no clue what I used to be doing, however was given a dictionary of funding phrases, which I nonetheless have and a cubicle and advised what to do,” says Vosk. Whereas she had shoppers in all areas of finance and was climbing the ladder of success in that world she left behind her the piece of her that spent her childhood doing theater and singing.

“I principally killed the artistic elements of me. I left all of it behind. The theatre I did as a child, the singing classes, the numerous hours of apply,” says Vosk who equates her singing to respiration. “All gone.”

However slicing off that key a part of her manifested in anxiousness and finally full-blown panic assaults. “I knew I needed to repair it, and I made a decision to go away the job,” she says. “No security internet. Simply hope. I belief My intestine at all times, even to at the present time. And my intestine stated that if I did not go after my ardour, I’d remorse if for the remainder of my life.” Vosk was satisfied that even when she fell flat on her face which she nonetheless typically does she may say, ‘I took the prospect on myself. I’m so glad I did.”

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That threat on herself paid off. Seven years after leaving her finance job Vosk made her Broadway debut in The Bridges of Madison County in 2009. In 2018, after enjoying her on tour, she landed the function of Elphaba in Depraved on Broadway.

Vosk says that her dive and persistence saved her going. “I wakened for the cattle calls, I barely ever bought seen as a result of I didn’t have an fairness card,” she says. “I stayed up for the open mic nights the place I hoped somebody “necessary” would hear me. I believed that if I went By the sacrifice to stop a safe profession for this new one I’d higher present up . But it surely wasn’t fairly.”

Regardless of the exhaustion, sacrifice, despair and thickened pores and skin, she credit the expertise as important to her progress. “It’s all part of who I’m at the moment and why I’m right here,” says Vosk. “But it surely has taken rather a lot.”

Devoting a live performance to Judy Garland within the nice corridor the place she legendary performer made such a profound impression is especially significant. “To me, Judy was a creature of utter complexity. To loosely quote her, she sang about rainbows and she or he’d been trying to find rainbows for her complete life. It’s no secret that Judy had demons, however don’t all of us,” says Vosk who’s impressed by Garland’s unwavering spirit. “The resilience and tenacity of this girl to outlive in a enterprise since age 3 is unbelievable. A enterprise that was not type to girls, specifically. Exotically these two needed to run their very own present and be their very own boss.”

As Vosk sees it girls like Garland created the mould and opened the doorways for different girls like herself to run by way of. “She and numerous different girls are who I look as much as as I proceed to navigate my very own path,” says Vosk. “These items are scary to do. They’re lonely.”

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So what can folks anticipate to expertise at Get Joyful? “They may see historic moments Judy created, but in addition with an actual have a look at the life Judy led—good, dangerous, magical and all the pieces in between,” says Vosk. “And you then’ll additionally hear me belt my a** off.”

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Trump puts tariffs on hold: What he still plans to pass on Day 1

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Trump puts tariffs on hold: What he still plans to pass on Day 1

President Donald Trump has officially been sworn back into office for his second term on Monday, January 20. Trump has a slew of policies and executive orders he seeks to enact on his first day back in office following his inauguration ceremony. A hot talking point on the campaign trail and the time since his election victory, Trump announced his plans to put his tariff proposals on hold for now.

Yahoo Finance senior columnist Rick Newman and Washington correspondent Ben Werschkul join the show to discuss the executive actions Trump is still planning upon his return to the Oval Office.

Read up on Yahoo Finance’s Guide to Trump 2.0 and what the incoming administration still plans to pass.

Watch President Donald Trump’s 2025 Inauguration ceremony, while staying up to date with all the market news and economic data covered by Yahoo Finance.

This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

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IAEA Profile: Balancing Numbers and Dreams – A Career in Finance and Accounting

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IAEA Profile: Balancing Numbers and Dreams – A Career in Finance and Accounting

The IAEA profiles employees to provide insight into the variety of career paths that support the Agency’s mission of Atoms for Peace and Development and to inspire and encourage readers, particularly women, to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) or STEM-adjacent fields. Read more profiles of women at the IAEA.      

Hailing from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Carmen Kibonge has taken a path shaped by a passion for numbers, a supportive family and a commitment to make a difference, which eventually led her to the IAEA.  

Kibonge was raised in a family that encouraged educational aspirations for both girls and boys, which is not always the case in her central African home country, where economic constraints often lead families to prioritize the education of boys. “In my family, it was expected that a girl would go to school. I know I was privileged, and I really appreciated the access to education,” she reflects. She was also inspired by her mother, an HR manager who was one of the few women in her community to pursue higher education.  

From an early age, Kibonge was captivated by mathematics and loved “cracking numbers”. Because of her mental arithmetic skills, her nickname at school was Ordi, after the French word for computer. But maths was not part of her original career aspirations. When she contemplated her future, a desire to help others and the work of international organizations in low and middle income countries like her own led her to consider a career in medicine. Her dream of becoming a paediatrician, however, shifted when she was confronted with the sight of blood in biology class. Nevertheless, the seed of wanting to work internationally had been planted. “I wanted to help people, not just in my country, but globally,” she says.  

Kibonge decided to pursue higher education in Austria, motivated by stories from friends who had lived there, as well as her love of classical music. Following her passion for numbers, she enrolled at the University of Vienna to study business administration with a focus on finance and accounting. Meanwhile, she supported herself by giving maths lessons.  

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The move to Vienna was not without its challenges, as Kibonge had to first learn German before starting her degree programme. She dedicated the first two semesters to intensive language study. “Those early days in Vienna were really challenging, but I really put my mind to it,” she recalls. “If you really want something, you can manage it.” Living in the city of classical music had its upsides though, and she often attended performances at the opera and philharmonic, impressed by how accessible they were even for students of modest means.  

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South Korea braces for Trump’s policies with biggest-ever export finance support

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South Korea braces for Trump’s policies with biggest-ever export finance support

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea pledged on Monday a record amount of financing support for exporters to mitigate any negative impact from changes in U.S. trade policies as Donald Trump was poised to be sworn in for his second presidency.

The government plans to provide 360 trillion won ($247.74 billion) worth of policy financing to exporting companies through state-run banks and institutions this year, according to a statement released by the finance ministry.

“There are concerns that external uncertainty will be heightened under the incoming U.S. administration and adversely affect exports,” the ministry said.

The ministry said it would also boost insurance support to guard against foreign exchange volatility to 1.4 trillion won this year, from 1.2 trillion won last year, and spending on government projects, such as trade fairs and delegations, to 2.9 trillion won from 2.1 trillion won.

Sectors particularly under threat of new U.S. policies are semiconductors and rechargeable batteries, the ministry said, whereas defence, nuclear energy and shipbuilding sectors are seen as more promising because of room for cooperation with the United States.

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U.S. President-elect Trump, who takes office later on Monday, has pledged to impose stiff tariffs on major trading partners, such as Mexico, Canada and China, which are also expected to affect South Korean companies running factories in those countries.

Economists say there are worries that the Trump administration will introduce trade policies against South Korea too, after Asia’s fourth-largest economy earned a record-high surplus of $55.7 billion in trade with the U.S. in 2024, up 25.4% from 2023.

The Korea International Trade Association, South Korea’s biggest group of exporting companies, projects export growth to slow to 1.8% this year. Last year, South Korea’s exports rose 8.1% to a record high of $683.7 billion, as sales to the U.S. rose 10.4%.

($1 = 1,453.1500 won)

(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

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