Can recent music graduates realistically aspire to teaching at the college level? College teaching is an aspiration of many music students. While these jobs, especially tenure-track positions, may seem out of reach, it is still possible for recent graduates with masters degrees to compete successfully for these jobs. Recently, Professor Robert Van Sice, the renowned head of the percussion studio at …
Networking and the Growth Mindset: How Music Entrepreneurs Can Learn to Love Networking
Summer is a great time to network! Chances are that you are touring, at a festival or engaged in a new teaching or performance venues where you are likely to be meeting a lot of new people. Yet for so many people, networking brings up a lot of negativity. I have heard the following: Networking feels sleazy activity but musicians have to …
How Music Entrepreneurs Stay Positive: 4 Mindset Strategies to Help Through Tough Times
My coaching groups at Yale are going strong! Students appreciate having a confidential forum where they can share successes and challenges with a trusted group of peers and learn new strategies for creating sustainable careers. With the semester winding down in a few weeks, our students, especially those who are graduating, are finding it a challenge to keep their spirits up …
How To Jumpstart Your Career Satisfaction: Take the Career Assessment
Happy New Year! I hope that you enjoyed the holiday season and are looking forward to great things in the coming year! I am not big on New Year’s resolutions since it’s too easy to set yourself up for failure by reaching for unrealistic goals. Instead, I encourage people to reflect on the important areas of their lives and assess …
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 …
Know Your Purpose and Share Your Vision: How Music Entrepreneurs Find Their Collaborators
Classical music faces a lot of challenges today and my goal in teaching and working with musicians is to help them find their place in the world of music and contribute something valuable and innovative. This fall, I began teaching a new class at Yale, entitled “Collaboration, Entrepreneurship and Innovation”. The premise of the course is that today’s artists need …
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. …
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The Art of Collaboration: Top 10 Skills for Creative Success
This semester, I am teaching a new course at the Yale School of Music using the collaborative project as the vehicle through which to teach arts entrepreneurship and innovation. Arts entrepreneurship involves coming up with innovative ideas that create value to society and actualizing those ideas. Collaboration is more than teamwork, where there is a leader to set the agenda and …
Mock Auditions at the Yale School of Music: A Rich Growth Experience for Music Entrepreneurs
Last week, students at the Yale School of Music were treated to an extraordinary experience: mock orchestral auditions with a panel of 3 world-class musicians: Maestro Peter Oundjian, Music Director of Toronto Symphony and former first violin of the Tokyo String Quartet, and two professors from the Yale School of Music, William Purvis (French Horn) and Robert Van Sice (Percussion). Nine brave student …
The Power of Vulnerability: How Music Entrepreneurs Experience Deeper Connections and Authentic Success
Now into their second year, my coaching groups at the Yale School of Music have provided a powerful measure of support to our budding artists as they forge the joys and the uncertainties of the artistic path. This year, our coaching groups were much more free form than last year. Students shared their challenges and successes and we improvised our topics …