arrow  Inspiring Change | Empowering Success  arrow
To find out more about coaching, contact us at astrid@astridbaumgardner.com
Sign up for email updates on how to achieve authentic success and get my free guide Top Ten Tips To Authentic Success!

Your email

 


Follow Astrid on

fb tweet linkdin

Horn Player and Manhattan School of Music Student

"[Career Planning for Music Entrepreneurs] was a fantastic workshop.  In many ways, I wish that the topics covered in your seminar were part of the core curriculum for conservatory training. For musicians, self-esteem is closely related to artistic success which is in turn deeply intertwined with successful artistic endeavors.  Goal-setting strategies, project planning, asking the key questions which help to unlock hidden information--- these are the skills necessary for building a platform of success. 

I thought your seminar was a fresh look at how artists, and specifically musicians can do this. I was particularly interested how you were able to blend aspects of the disciplined-black-and-white corporate world with the artistic needs of musicians. Your advice was direct and pertinent, without being harsh and cold. It created a sense of possibility and enablement, which surprisingly started an ebb and flow of ideas in my mind, even while you were speaking. I was compelled to start jotting down ideas as the seminar was going on.

I look forward to working with you in the future, this is exactly the kind of  devil's advocate, brain-picking, and support I need to see my upcoming projects into reality."

— John-Morgan B, New York, NY

legal analyst at major nyc financial institution


Where can I even begin to describe how much Astrid has helped me.  I met her when I was beginning my final semester of college.  I was unsure of what I wanted out of the next few years; she talked me through each thought I had until I knew exactly what I wanted. I was unsure of how to get what I wanted; she talked me through how to best present myself to potential employers and prepped me for every question I might be asked.  Because of my sessions with Astrid, I was able to walk into every interview prepared and confident.
 
By providing a calming, judgment-free environment for me to reflect on what my hopes and dreams were, Astrid allowed me to focus on my future in a way I had not been able to before.  It wasn’t always easy but she stuck with me until I knew exactly what I wanted for my future: two years from now, five years from now, ten years from now, and twenty years from now.  My goals may very well change, but because of the skills I have learned from Astrid I know I will be able to apply myself to recognize what I want and go after it.
 
Not only was she so instrumental in helping me discover a career path that worked for me, I left every meeting with her feeling more in control and more hopeful about my future; in short feeling much happier.  Astrid is a wonderful woman and every one she works with is the better for it – I know I am.

— Kate K., New York, NY


Composer

Astrid has turned around the way I look at my career in the most extraordinary way.  I used to think that the professional part of what I do was very separate from the creative and deeply personal aspects of being a composer.  Going after professional opportunities to get my music out there felt to me like a very daunting task--one that I found a little distasteful because it felt like "selling myself."  Astrid really helped me realize that building a career has to come from the most genuine part of myself--in the same way as building a piece.  With this understanding, the professional world looks much less scary to me now, and I'm able to reach out to my professional network with the courage of my conviction, and with the kind of personal investment and care that makes professional experiences deeply meaningful.  Career building is about believing in what you do, and its validity; it is about communication and courage.  It only works if it feels true to who you are.

With her supportive and positive attitude combined with her incredible sensitivity and intelligence, Astrid has created for me a wonderful safe space to discover how I want to develop my goals from the inside out.  I have found in her a true kindred spirit as well as a powerful ally and coach.  

—Hannah L,. New York, NY


 

 

publicist

  I chose to work with Astrid because of her background in both the arts and business worlds.  After our consultation meeting, it became clear to me that she works with her clients to help them achieve success that rings true for each individual, and doesn't just follow the same formula with everyone.  She is also a terrific listener and very easy to talk to.  There was nothing about the coaching process with Astrid that felt fake or empty -- we got down to nuts and bolts, and took a good look at the motivations behind my current habits as a means of changing those habits when necessary.  As a result of working with her, I have reached a new level of balance in my life, and I have more confidence than before about my business decisions.  Though it wasn't my main goal going into coaching, I also have found I am doing better financially than in the past.  I am now able to approach new situations and apply what I discovered with Astrid, so the benefits of coaching with her have extended beyond the time we were actively working together.  It was an invaluable experience.

— Christina J., Publicist, New York, NY

independent rabbi

I met Astrid as part of Piano Sonoma last year as I play classical piano and she opened her home up to a presentation of the week long event.  She was encouraging of me to participate even though I had just been widowed a year ago and going to California with a group of strangers to study and perform was a little out of my comfort zone.  I decided to do it and enjoyed her company and outstanding playing during that week. 
 
When I returned I seemed at sea as regards my career path.  My husband's death made me question my path as an independent rabbi which I had been practicing for 3 years after a 30 year business career.  I reached out to Astrid and decided to work with her as my coach.  She brought her own honest personal experiences as well as a wealth of experience in the world of business.  She also started with my emotional state and built on feelings of positivity.  Her approach was unique, refreshing and most valuable to me.  After three months I felt i had the clarity to continue with my spiritual occupation but only after exploring it and my talents with Astrid.
 
How lucky I was to have found her and work through my issues with her.

— Gloria M., independent Rabbi, New York, NY

Blog

  • Home
    Home This is where you can find all the blog posts throughout the site.
  • Login
    Login Login form

Making Musical Dreams a Reality: A Tale of 3 Concerts and a Poet

Posted by on in Astrid Blog
  • Font size: Larger Smaller
  • Hits: 2537
  • Subscribe to this entry
  • Print
  • PDF
This is a tale of one week in New York city involving 3 concerts, a 19th Century visionary poet and the importance of making dreams a reality. In today’s world where the paradigms of classical music are changing and we are experimenting with different models of success, these concerts make me feel a lot better about the state of our art.

Let’s start with the concerts.

1. The Concerts

In the past week or so in New York, I attended 3 concerts in 3 very different venues with 3 very different audiences.

The first was So Percussion’s International Night of Awesomeness at Le Poisson Rouge, the über-cool venue where music of all types including classical music is performed in a nightclub atmosphere, replete with table and bar seating, food and drinks and an easy interchange between audience and performers.  This particular event featured a marathon of 7 different percussion groups playing to a packed and cheering house of mostly young and enthusiastic fans who were transfixed by the variety and magic of the percussion music.

Next was Oceanic Verses, a multi-media folk opera which took place downtown at the Schimmel Center of Pace University as part of the River-to-River Festival.  This collaborative work involved the music of Paola Prestini, who blended antique Italian songs with her own compositions, using singers representing variety of styles (2 opera singers, an Italian folk singer and a jazz/pop artist together with a full chorus and a youth chorus), on top of which was layered a film. Produced by Beth Morrison, a champion of emerging composers and collaborators who, in the words of the Wall Street Journal, may be "the 21st century Diaghilev", the work attracted a mixed audience of the young and the less young who embraced this ambitious, sprawling work.

The next night, I was Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall for a  concert devoted to the works of Henri Dutilleux, the Inaugural Recipient of the Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music consisting of 2 parts: a $200,000 prize awarded every other year to a significant contemporary composer and in the intervening years, a $50,000 prize to an emerging composer. I was thrilled that a prominent philanthropist like Mrs. Kravis is demonstrating a serious commitment to new music, that an established music organization like the New York Philharmonic, with Maestro Alan Gilbert at the helm, is honoring new music and that audience enthusiastically embraced the wonderful performances.

 I was particularly taken with the last piece on the program, Dutilleux’ gorgeous cello concerto played by Yo-Yo Ma, entitled Tout un monde lointain.... (“A Whole Distant World...).  The words come from the 19th Century French poet Charles Baudelaire in his visionary work Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil).  Dutilleux. after composing the concerto, added quotations from Baudelaire to each of the 7 sections of the piece and at the concert, the words were projected onto the supertitle screen so that the audience could follow along. Imagine my surprise when the last section of the piece was accompanied by these words:

 “Hold onto your dreams:
Wise men have not such beautiful ones as do fools.”

What a fitting capstone to my rather amazing week of musical variety during which I went from hanging at LPR with a room full of percussion enthusiasts crowded into a nightclub to a mid-size downtown venue with a mixed-age audience to the formal and equally enthusiastic audience in Avery Fisher Hall.

2.  The Poem

These words come from the poem “La Voix” (The Voice) that charts the poet’s lifelong journey of and devotion to his creativity—often defying conventional wisdom.  These words reminded me of how important it is to dream the dream and defy the conventional wisdom.  My one quibble with Monsieur Baudelaire would be not to apologize for dreaming those dreams.  After all, you defied the 19th century conventions and we are still reading your poetry nearly 150 years after your death!  So who is the fool and who is the wise man in this equation?

Baudelaire’s ironic words tell me that the imperative of the creative impulse pushes the artist to keep dreaming his dream, no matter what.

3.  Making The Dreams Happen

Not only is it important to keep dreaming those dreams:   I would add that for today’s musicians, it is critical to devote oneself to making those dreams happen. Having a vision, believing in that vision and doing what it takes to make that vision a reality are at the heart of music entrepreneurship. Each of the three concerts that I attended this week bears out this proposition.

As my friends at So Percussion told the students at Yale when they visited us this spring, they defied the conventional wisdom when they created a percussion quartet in 1999 even though pretty much everyone told them that they were crazy.  And now, after years of hard work and single-minded devotion to making their ensemble a success, they are hotter than hot, with a loyal fan following and they are spawning the next generation of percussionists through their work at Bard and their Summer Institute.

Paola Prestini created Oceanic Verses through a collaborative process that started with a dream, growing from a workshop at Carnegie Hall in 2009 to the New York City Vox a year later to this full-scale version of her work. Teaming up with Beth Morrison and the many artistic collaborators, they too have worked tirelessly to realize a vision.

And now the Kravis Prize is rewarding contemporary composers, enabling today’s composers to make their dreams a reality.  What's more, Monsieur Dutilleux has donated the proceeds of his $200,000 prize to three younger composers, increasing the impact of this prize into the next generation of creators.

It's also most rewarding to see the variety in the audiences that are coming out for these events.  The dedication of the creative teams here is being rewarded.

I am feeling a lot better about the state of music today.

Trackback URL for this blog entry.
  • lion air

    Posted by lion air on Sunday, 06 January 2013
    Astrid Baumgardner | Making Musical Dreams a Reality: A Tale of 3 Concerts and a Poet - Blog ...
  • Velda Charters

    Posted by mba stands for on Wednesday, 05 September 2012
    Valentine Lavigna ...
  • Tosha Alen

    Posted by fighting force 2 on Wednesday, 29 August 2012
    Darron Banowski ...
  • social studies vocabulary

    Posted by study for ged on Tuesday, 28 August 2012
    adult bible study ...
  • Cristie Laboissonnier

    Posted by Pedro Gollehon on Monday, 27 August 2012
    Rudolf Landry ...
  • West Nile virus symptoms

    Posted by Hurricane on Friday, 24 August 2012
    Hurricane ...
  • special education

    Posted by education city on Thursday, 23 August 2012
    elementary education ...
  • scholarships for college

    Posted by colleges in california on Wednesday, 22 August 2012
    performing arts colleges ...
  • business analyst

    Posted by business tips on Tuesday, 21 August 2012
    cnn.com ...
  • early education

    Posted by jobs education on Monday, 20 August 2012
    preschool education ...
  • Lynna Gaddis

    Posted by Lorine Lue on Friday, 10 August 2012
    Bradly Benz ...