In our last post, we explored how the students in my collaborative project class at the Yale School of Music (“YSM”) identified their audiences and designed projects to meet the needs of their audience members. The next step was to test out and share prototypes of their projects with the intended audience members to see how well their projects met …
Innovation for Music Entrepreneurs: Get Creative with Implementation
One of the hallmarks of my class at the Yale School of Music, Creating Value Through Innovative Projects, is that students learn by taking action. My seminar’s focus is how to generate innovative solutions to the most pressing problems in classical music today. Over the course of the past semester, my students worked collaboratively on four different creative projects. Three …
Design Thinking for Music Entrepreneurs: Using Empathy to Connect with Audiences
This semester, I am teaching The Entrepreneurial Musician at the New School, Mannes College of Music, a required entrepreneurship course that helps master of music candidates to explore how to create meaningful and sustainable careers in the arts. Last week, we learned about design thinking, a 5-step human-centered design process whose aim is to design products and services that fulfill …
Emotional Intelligence for Music Entrepreneurs: Master Your Moods for Better Collaboration
If you were a fly on the wall in my Innovation and Collaboration class last semester at the Yale School of Music (as well as in my class coaching group this semester), you would hear students talking about being in the “red” or the “yellow” zone. What they are referring to is the Mood Meter, an app developed by the …
Conflict Resolution for Emotionally-Intelligent Musicians: How To Prepare for a Conflict Meeting
Working successfully with other musicians in an ensemble or another collaborative project involves not only an exquisite blend of musical styles and skills but also a high degree of emotional intelligence to manage the relationships with your fellow musicians. Inevitably, when creative people come together, there will be varying ideas on how to approach the music as well as how …
Conflict Management for Musicians and Arts Leaders: 4 Tools to Diffuse Conflict and Build Stronger Relationships
This week, I had the pleasure and privilege of working with the Fellows of Ensemble ACJW/The Academy, the preeminent teaching artist program and ensemble collective of young top-level musicians, on the fascinating topic of conflict management. Conflict is inherent in the work of musicians and arts leaders who are passionate and have strong ideas about and high standards of excellence …
Building Empathy: Lessons from the Heroically Thwarted Georgia School Shooting
In my most recent post on how to build emotional intelligence for musicians and arts leaders, I focused on how to develop empathy and 5 other strategies for social awareness. Empathy is particularly effective in creating a social bond because it enables you to understand what someone else is going through and see the other person as a fellow human …
Emotional Intelligence for Musicians and Arts Leaders Part III: How to Develop Empathy and 5 Other Strategies for Social Awareness
As a musician or arts leader, you have undoubtedly dealt with some “interesting” personalities in the course of your work! Inevitably in the course of putting together an artistic venture, people put forth strong ideas that might clash with your own. Have you ever stopped to think what might be going on with the other person that would lead him …