For the past six months, I have been studying the science of happiness in an amazing certificate program at the Happiness Studies Academy (HSA). The founder of the program is Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar. Tal is an internationally renowned teacher, best-selling author, and consultant in the fields of happiness and leadership who taught two of the most popular courses in Harvard’s …
How to Elevate Your Career: Create Your Leadership Support Team
After almost two years in a pandemic, how are you feeling about your career? You have probably spent a lot of time in remote meetings, working from home, and not being able to have live interactions with colleagues and professional contacts. It can feel frustrating and isolating. And it can lead to burnout. That’s why it helps to have your support …
Entrepreneurial Projects at the Yale School of Music: Exploring Through the Lens of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
My project-based class at the Yale School of Music explores how to generate innovative solutions to the problems facing classical music today. This year, our projects focused on how to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classical music field. In my first post on this class, I introduced the wonderful mix of students in my class who were eager …
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 …
7
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, …
Business Design Specialist
One of the first things I did in my career transition journey was sit down with Astrid and talk through the biggest possible professional goal I could think of. With her expert guidance and a few rounds of prodding to think BIGGER, this is what we came up with: “The purpose of my life is to be a conduit for the bold new, using my …
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
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 …