One of the highlights of my summer is teaching the Art of Career Planning at the So Percussion Summer Institute, the wonderful program for budding percussionists founded by my buddies at So Percussion. In our session, I help these aspiring musicians to gain greater clarity on their career goals. And this year, one of our students surprised everyone by sharing …
Creative Careers Podcast for iCadenza: How to Leverage Happiness for Success
I am thrilled to be included in iCadenza’s most recent Creative Careers Podcast. In the Podcast, you will learn about my career path from law to career coaching and music entrepreneurship. I also discuss my method of coaching wherby I help students and clients discover their values, strengths and passions and learn how to put the pieces together in order …
Sō Percussion’s Model of Success: The Collaborative Entrepreneurial Ensemble
One of the highlights of my class at Yale is when I invite alumni from the School of Music to speak to the students about their experience. Since my class this semester is focused on collaboration, I was thrilled to invite Jason Treuting and Eric Beach, two of the four members of the percussion ensemble Sō Percussion. Jason Treuting is the longest standing …
So Percussion’s Vision and Mission Statements: How Successful Music Entrepreneurs Communicate Their Purpose and Value
Arts entrepreneurship is about creating value to society through innovative ideas, fueled by a vision for how to make the world a better place, as well as a mission of how to make that vision a reality. That’s why successful arts entrepreneurs know their vision and their mission. People are often confused about what constitute a vision and a mission. …
Career Planning for Music Entrepreneurs: Tapping Into Vision and Going for Plan A
The past two weeks, I have had a great time working with the future stars of concert music and talking a lot about how to create a successful career as a musician. First, I spent two days with the Fellows at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, located in the picture-perfect hills of Northwest Connecticut on a beautiful estate where the …
Engaging Today’s Audience: 3 Things That Can Make A Difference to Classical Music
One of the “buzzwords” in today’s classical music scene is audience engagement: how to create a meaningful experience in a live performance between the artist and the audience in order to attract new audiences to classical music, especially the elusive “young adult” audience. This is a challenge in the era of the Internet where people can access music anytime and anywhere. Therefore, it takes something special to get people to leave the comfort of their homes or unplug their earbuds and venture into the concert space in order to experience live music.
Herein lies the irony: as easy as it is to access music 24/7, it’s lonely out there on the Internet and today’s audiences crave special and unique experiences. Thus, today’s musicians have an opportunity to create that unique and special experience for today’s audiences.
Classical Musicians in the 21st Century: How They are Faring and How They Can Make It
I recently wrote about how musicians today are living in a world of opportunity where the many changes that our culture has experienced in the last 50 years has given rise to new possibilities.
As we gear up for the new academic year, this is a great time to check in on how musicians are faring in this new paradigm and what they can do to create sustainable careers. The short answer is that jobs do exist for musicians, both in traditional and new arenas. However, in order to create sustainable careers, today’s musicians are advised to take charge of their careers, master business and people skills and boldly adopt the entrepreneurial mindset in order to ride the wave of opportunity.
Let’s take a closer look.
The Great New World of Opportunity: Classical Music in the 21st Century
Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale School of Music about the state of classical music in the 21st century with a focus on the opportunities for today’s musicians to create successful careers. Yes, my friends, we are living in a world full of possibilities and great opportunities for classical musicians! So let’s look at what the nay-sayers are saying and then view our world through the lens of opportunity.
Making Musical Dreams a Reality: A Tale of 3 Concerts and a Poet
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.
Your Marketing Message: How to Telegraph the Emotional Benefits of Your Music
This week, I spent a lot of time in my car and therefore had a wonderful opportunity to listen to music. My selections ranged from a lecture series on late Beethoven Quartets to Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 8, to Steve Reich to Chopin Nocturnes and then to the Beethoven late quartets, particularly the Grosse Fugue. These choices depended on what mood I was in:
- Did I want to be stimulated or provoked or soothed?
- Did I want to relax and feel restored?
- Did I need something to contemplate or to help me ponder the meaning of life?
- And what about staying alert on a long drive?
Music is a powerful way of tapping into one’s emotions and that is why people love to listen to music.
Interestingly, my thoughts dovetailed perfectly with my most recent class at Yale on marketing for musicians. Admittedly a huge topic, marketing is essential in this day and age since most musicians just starting their careers are not likely to have the money to hire professional publicists or managers for marketing help.
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