TAG: mission

Case Study of 4 Music Entrepreneurs: How do they do it and what keeps them going?

Many young musicians wonder how to go about creating a career in music.  They may have a general idea of what they want to do but they are not sure of the steps to take.  To help them see that it is indeed possible to create a successful career path in music,  I invited four recent alumni of the Yale School of Music (who graduated from YSM between 2004 and 2010) to talk to my students about their career paths and what they have learned about creating successful careers as musicians in today’s world. 

The panelists were:

Timo Andres: pianist/composer with a hit CD and an active freelance career as a pianist and composer;

Tina Hadari: violinist, member of the Haven String Quartet and founder of Music Haven, a non-profit in New Haven that provides tuition-free string instruction to underprivileged youth;

Paul Murphy: free-lance trumpeter and teaching artist with the NYPhilharmonic; and

Sam Quintal: violist and member of the Jasper String Quartet.

This wonderful group of artists showed my students that it is indeed possible to make one’s way in the world as a musician and that there are many different paths to creating career success.  Here are some of the top lessons that I gleaned from their remarks.  Next time, I will share my students’ observations.

The Power of Branding for Musicians: Connecting Your Purpose with Your Ideal Audience

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of presenting a workshop on Personal Branding for Composers in connection with the American Composers Orchestra’s Underwood New Music Readings and the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Readings.  The room was filled with both classical and jazz composers who were eager to learn how to get their music out there and create opportunities for themselves.  The magic of this workshop was an evolution from skepticism to embracing the power of a brand as a tool of helping composers to advance their careers by working smarter, not harder.

Creative Personal Branding – Find Your Brand in 4 Easy Steps

One of the most important tools for advancing your career is defining and using your personal brand.  A brand is your vision of who you are and what you do for your audiences.  It is a message that distinguishes you from your competition by expressing what makes you unique and memorable, so that your target audience connects with you emotionally and wants to work with you.
Defining your personal brand is simple using this four-step process: