Work/Life Balance for Busy Arts Professionals

Last week, I had the privilege of appearing on a panel at the Dallas Symphony’s Women in Classical Music Symposium. The Symposium is the brainchild of Kim Noltemy, the fabulous CEO of the Dallas Symphony. Over the course of four days, the Symposium features an amazing array of speakers discussing topics relevant to women in today’s classical music world. My …

Advancing Classical Music Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion: My Class at the Yale School of Music

Since 2015, I have been teaching a class on Creativity, Collaboration and Innovation at the Yale School of Music. The focus of my class is how to generate innovative solutions to the problems facing classical music today. The learning vehicle is the semester-long collaborative project. In the past, the projects focused on how to attract younger audiences to classical music, …

Arts Leadership in the Post-COVID World: Start with the Creative Success Mindset

We are finally reemerging from COVID isolation and the world of the arts is beginning to open up! The past year has seen tremendous change in our field. The pandemic shut down the ability to perform for live audiences. On top of that crisis, we had a collective reckoning with race. Moving forward, today’s arts leaders and professionals are facing …

What Kind of Creative Thinker Are You?

What kind of creative thinker are you? If that strikes you as an odd question, it stems from my belief that we all have the capacity to creative!  In fact, “creativity for all” is the underlying the message of my TEDx talk, Cracking the Code on Creativity:  The Secret to Full-Blast Living. Moreover, there are many different ways to be a …

Creativity and Entrepreneurship: Heart, Hustle and Humor

If you have ever wondered about creativity and entrepreneurship, I invite you to listen to Dr. Theresa Ashby interviewing me on her podcast, Heart, Hustle and Humor. Theresa is an entrepreneur whose company, Kaleidoscope Media Services is out to help 100,000 entrepreneurs grow their businesses through e-learning and on-line communities. Her podcast probes what entrepreneurs love doing, how they grow …

Building an Online Classroom Community: Top Strategies for Engaging Students on Zoom

Online classroom

Last week, I was honored to lead a discussion with Yale University faculty on how to build an online classroom community.  The discussion was sponsored by Yale’s Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. The Center provides a host of resources to students and faculty.  When Yale had to convert its classes to online learning last spring, the Center was instrumental …

Entrepreneurial Projects in the Time of COVID: Innovation at the Yale School of Music

The COVID pandemic has taken its toll on higher education, with many universities pivoting to the virtual realm.  Notwithstanding the challenges of on-line education, the students in my graduate seminar at the Yale School of Music successfully designed and executed four innovative entrepreneurial projects.  These projects addressed the problem of how to ensure the place of classical music in the …

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 …