Energy Management During COVID: 3 Steps to Manage Your Stress

Stress and energy management during the COVID Pandemic are a challenge! We experience stress in many different ways.  It can arise from major life stressors like the COVID pandemic, the passing of a loved one or the loss of a job. Our daily encounters can also give rise to stress. These include feeling overwhelmed with too much to do, facing …

The Coronavirus Pandemic: 5 Questions to Stay Positive Through Challenging Times

The Coronavirus pandemic has dramatically changed to our lives.  Social distancing has become the new normal and much of our life is now spent on-line.  Those of us in the education sector are now teaching through Zoom. When Yale School of Music students returned to school last week, they found a very different world. Online teaching for performing artists is …

Authentic Personal Leadership for Arts Leaders: Goal-setting for Leadership Development

Once again, I had the privilege and pleasure to train the mid-career leaders selected for Opera America’s Leadership Intensive 2020. Our work together centers on authentic personal leadership to prepare the participants to step into larger leadership roles. Authentic Personal Leadership Development Curriculum My curriculum focused on how to develop the necessary qualities and skills for taking on larger leadership roles …

Innovative Entrepreneurial Projects: Engaging Today’s Audience Through Classical Music

The focus of this year’s Collaboration and Innovation class at the Yale School of Music was engaging audiences through classical music. We had three project groups exploring different ways to expand the classical music audience using different interactive strategies.  The culmination of these projects was our final class where each group presents its project.  Let’s see how each group tackled the …

Yale Daily News Article Featuring Creative Success Now

I am honored to be featured in January 20, 2020 Yale Daily News article about my new book “Creative Success Now: How Creatives Can Thrive in the 21st Century” You can learn about my message of creative empowerment for all creatives and how I came to write the book, as well as hear from students and colleagues with whom I have worked. …

Innovation and Feedback: An Essential Step for Entrepreneurial Projects

Why is feedback essential to innovation? Let’s examine how students in my Innovation and Collaboration class at the Yale School of Music are learning this lesson through their semester projects. When we last left the music entrepreneurs , the class had explored the needs of today’s audiences and zeroed in on the problem of how to make classical music more relevant …

Cultivate the Happiness Habit: Maximize Flow in Your Creative Career

Last week, I had the privilege of teaching at the Juilliard Lower Strings Seminar, taught by Astrid Schween, the fabulous cellist of the Juilliard Quartet. The  class provides strategies on how to succeed in the world of music.  My topic was how to cultivate the happiness habit and experience more flow in your creative career. Happiness Breeds Success I am …

Today’s Audience For Classical Music: How to Make Classical Music Relevant and Accessible

Every fall, I have the privilege of teaching a project-based seminar to a group of budding music entrepreneurs at the Yale School of Music. The class, Creating Value Through Innovative Collaborative Projects (Music 621a), addresses the problem of how to keep classical music alive and vital in our culture.  My goal is to equip my students with leadership and innovation …

How to Jumpstart Your Creative Career

If you are wondering how to translate your creativity into a career, be sure to read my article this week in forbes.com Use Your Creativity to Jump Start Your Next Career.  I am honored to be featured in forbes.com and am grateful to Robin Ryan, bestselling author, national speaker and America’s top job search expert who invited me to contribute to …