Great Expectations

In my opening statement, I mentioned the Eastman Institute for Music Leadership and all that I gained from my experience during my undergrad and masters as a part of that curriculum. I would also like to mention that a year after I finished my masters and upon living in New York City, I was on staff at the Manhattan School of Music as Program Associate in the departments of Orchestral Performance and Community Outreach from 2003-2004. My superior, Robert Smith (also an Eastman grad!) was committed to broadening the scope of education for the future orchestral musician. His concern (as well as my own) was that students were training musicians to simply win the audition -period. Though, as many panelists have pointed out and we know all too well, a huge task in and of itself. But without the management skills, the ability to address the audience, or even finding an ownership and meaning for the music being performed, the future orchestral musician seems less than prepared to enter the career.

I also agree with Samuel’s comment on how it would be beneficial for board members and management alike to see the orchestral musician in our day-to-day. Likewise, I think it would be enlightening for the orchestra personnel to have an understanding of what goes on behind the scenes to make the machine work – and this harkens back to what we’ve been suggesting at the educational level. My general approach to these issues has been one of common sense (whenever possible!). As a rule, however optimistic, I think that we could all think of the challenges we face as we would a relationship with a spouse or friend.

Without an appreciation for the other perspective, we create major obstacles for successful communication and compromise. Douglas Fisher adds that “students should be taught carefully about how to get along with fellow musicians on stage and how to stay on the good side of conductors. These skills are also critical in achieving tenure in an
orchestra”. This is the type of common sensibility I’m referring to. I’ve always strived to remain amicable throughout my musical endeavors, however enjoyable or frustrating, and keep a positive outlook – as it can be just as contagious as negativity. This concept is much more obvious to me now as a professional than it was as a student. I remember being reminded of this a few times during my studies by conductors who brought to us the realization that we could be sitting next to our stand-partners every day for 40 years!

On the subject of cultivating an optimistic atmosphere within your organization, I wanted to offer an experience I had in an orchestra I joined just after I left school. As a lower-budget organization, this small-town symphony had a balance of technically proficient players and those more amateur players who had been members since the birth of the organization. This combined with a somewhat tyrannical “old-school” conductor, it became a challenge to simply focus on making great music. I made a pact with myself that year that I would try to engage myself in other non-musical ways to create a more meaningful experience for myself and for the orchestra. I recruited a few other new members and we all agreed to meet a new audience member during each intermission and engage them in a conversation about the first half of the show and basically give them the “behind the scenes” story as musicians. This became a really fun ritual for us and we would meet back stage just before the second half to share our individual stories about our new audience friends. I would encourage anyone to try to this out – to be honest, all of us were really tentative about it at first, but after we realized how rewarding it was for both ourselves and the audience to make that kind of real connection, it became addictive!

I want to briefly add a comment/question about the change that occurs when your art becomes your job. I’ve had many conversations with musicians and artists alike who mostly agree that when you start getting paid to do what you enjoy doing, something changes. I’m sure this is true in most any profession to some degree. I would also like to add that I would never take for granted the fact that I get to practice my art and get paid – I truly count myself blessed to be able to call my art my profession. But, I believe that there is an idealist expectation that most of us had when we graduated college and started taking auditions – and then suddenly we’re playing Til Eulenspiegel for the 200th time and Beethoven 5 every year to make sure to keep a loyal audience. This of course, is just one side of the job, but I believe it’s one that, like playing educational concerts, is overlooked by most musicians coming into the field.