Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music

394 Pages·2010·2.08 MB·English

by  Angela Myles Beeching

Praise for the fi rst edition of Beyond Talent
“Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music provides practical ad-
vice to budding musicians in an easy-to-follow format.”—Arts Management
“Real-life experience is refl ected here, not just from the author but from
the numerous examples provided by real musicians, from résumés and
Web pages to anecdotes and sample contract. . . . This book will help peo-
ple create more opportunities for themselves, and provide guidance for
people to shape their musical careers in more realistic and successful
ways.”—Jeffrey Snedeker, The Horn Call
“Beyond Talent is full of valuable information for students as well as pro-
fessionals . . . Many compliments to Angela Beeching and to Oxford Uni-
versity Press for publishing this fi ne book.”—Kathleen Chastain, Clinical
Assistant Professor of Flute and Wind Chamber Music, Oberlin Conserva-
tory of Music
“I recommend this book highly to anyone who wants to give a young artist
a fi ghting chance to build a career.”—Keith Hatschek, Director, Music
Management Program, Conservatory of Music, University of the Pacifi c
“This is a terrifi c book for college-age and other young musicians who are
serious about their careers. It is the best resource I’ve seen for young and
developing musicians!”—Harriet Schwartz, College of Fine Arts Career
Consultant, Carnegie Mellon University
“Beyond Talent supports the dream of a career in music while laying out
the nuts and bolts of what it takes to make that happen. That’s a delicate
line that we walk—how to support students’ passions and commitment
to music but also prepare them for the substantial non-musical elements
in career development. This book offers a refreshing and direct approach.”
—Janis Weller, Chair, Liberal Arts, McNally Smith College of Music
“The students were truly inspired by it . . . They told me on a regular basis
that it was one of the best books they had ever read. . . . I would highly rec-
ommend Beyond Talent to anyone teaching a course that deals with life in
the real world for music majors after they graduate.”—Diane Roscetti,
Professor of Music, California State University, Northridge
“The title of this book gives just a glimpse of the breadth of information
that is actually included. Author Angela Myles Beeching is director of the
Career Services Center at the New England Conservatory, and it is clear
that she draws from her personal experience advising hundreds of musi-
cians in all aspects of their careers. Although the book is written primarily
for musicians aspiring for full-time professional performing careers, the
chapters include practical tips and guidelines that can also be applied to
music teachers, composers, and freelancers. . . . This book could easily be
used as a textbook for a group of musicians to discuss, ponder, and cre-
atively experiment with promoting their own music making and creating
their own ‘career paths.’ ”—American Music Teacher
“Beyond Talent is a wonderfully helpful book for the professional future of
any young musician. Beeching writes clearly and comprehensively. Her
book is a must for the library of any professional musician.”—Robert Free-
man, former Dean, College of Fine Arts, the University of Texas at Austin
“Career specialists and students are hungry for this information. When it
is packaged as clearly, concisely, and entertainingly as this book is, it is
easy to imagine its addition to the shelves.”—Simone Himbeault Taylor,
Director, Career Center, University of Michigan
“An excellent manual for musicians at all levels. Full of practical advice
and important information, simply presented, easily understood and ready
to use.”—Janet Bookspan, Stage Director and Performance Coach
B E Y O N D
T A L E N T
Creating a Successful Career in Music
Second Edition
Angela Myles Beeching
1
2010
1
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further
Oxford University’s objective of excellence
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Copyright © 2010 by Angela Myles Beeching
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
www.oup.com
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beeching, Angela Myles.
Beyond talent : creating a successful career in music / by Angela Myles Beeching. — Rev. 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-19-538259-4
1. Music—Vocational guidance. I. Title.
ML3795.B42 2010
780.23—dc22 2009019134
Resources are available online at www.oup.com/us/beyondtalent
Oxford Web Music
For more information on Oxford Web Music, visit www.oxfordwebmusic.com
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Prelude to the
Second Edition
This expanded edition is packed with new musician profi les, fresh perspec-
tives, and updated, streamlined information. Special emphasis is placed on
music entrepreneurship, audience engagement, and the use of online tools.
To address these issues and more, this new edition of Beyond Talent offers
scores of new resources and ideas plus a comprehensive online companion
guide with video clips, articles, and hyperlinks connecting readers to a sam-
pling of the best online music resources; see http://www.oup.com/us/
beyondtalent.
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Preface
It takes morethan talent to succeed in music. Maybe it always has, but to-
day’s musicians need to be more creative than ever when it comes to their
careers, cultivating an entrepreneurial approach to connecting with audi-
ences and creating value in their communities. Musicians need to use the
full range of their skills in making a place for themselves in the changing
profession. This book is designed to show you how to take charge of your
future; it’s all about putting you in the driver’s seat.
As director of the Career Services Center at New England Conservatory,
one of the world’s top music schools, I’ve advised hundreds of talented music
students, alumni, staff, and faculty. In addition, I have worked with scores
of other professional musicians at national arts conferences and workshops.
I have counseled classical, jazz, world, and some pop musicians on a range
of career issues.
The work is fascinating: consulting with musicians on everything from
recording, commissioning, and online promotional projects to launching
performance series and new ensembles. I’ve advised musicians whose goals
were to become orchestral players, college music faculty, general managers
of opera companies, studio musicians, fi lm composers, and more.
In doing this work, I’ve found that even established artists fi nd it diffi -
cult to get practical information on the business side of the profession. Many
musicians need guidance on managing their careers, on how to promote
themselves and turn dreams into reality. Mostly, people need help thinking
through their goals and coming up with workable action plans. Unfortu-
nately, many musicians don’t get the advice and information they need to
succeed, and consequently, they fail to establish themselves professionally.
This doesn’t have to happen to you.
viii Preface
Is This Book for You?
(cid:88)
Are you curious about creating a niche for yourself in the music profession?
Are you interested in how other musicians have found their paths? Would
you like to set goals and accomplish them? If so, this book is for you.
Successful musicians tailor-make their own career paths, and these
paths typically require an entrepreneurial and individual approach. There’s
no one-size-fi ts-all formula for success: each musician makes his or her own
way. This book includes a wide range of ideas, suggestions, and examples to
help you create your own path to success.
What This Book Includes
(cid:88)
Drawing on my years of experience as a music career counselor, educator,
and cellist, this book offers concrete, detailed information to help musicians
make their way in the professional marketplace. It is seasoned with the ac-
cumulated wisdom of clients, colleagues, and mentors: the musicians, artist
managers, concert presenters, and music educators with whom I have con-
sulted over the years.
Each chapter contains background information, specifi c how-to direc-
tions, and real-life stories. All the examples are real, although in some cases
I’ve changed the names and a few of the details to safeguard people’s privacy.
There are exercises for creating long-term and short-term goals and sug-
gested practical steps for achieving them.
Some of the information and suggestions may be new to you. The more
familiar material may help you evaluate your strategies, or confi rm your
good habits. Some of the information may seem like rocket science, whereas
other sections cover commonsense approaches and good manners—the
kinds of things we can all use an occasional reminder about.
This book explains how to do the following:
• Find and create performance opportunities
• Produce professional-quality promotional materials
• Attract media attention to build your reputation and audience
• Raise funds for your music projects
• Enhance your performance work as needed with supplementary,
satisfying employment
• Design your own career success plan to reach your long-term goals
How Is This Book Organized?
(cid:88)
As much as possible, topics are presented in a fi rst-things-fi rst, step-by-step
basis. For instance, how to create promotional materials is discussed before
Preface ix
how to book performances. So, although chapters can certainly be read on
their own or out of order, the book is designed to take the reader through a
linear, career-mapping process. Taking the journey from chapter 1 to the
end should help you develop perspective and a more holistic approach to
advancing your career.
Where Do the Musician Examples Come From?
(cid:88)
This book is full of examples of real musicians solving real issues in their
careers. For the examples that come from confi dential career advising, I’ve
altered names but left the stories in tact. You will also fi nd other examples,
not requiring anonymity, in which musicians’ stories include their actual
names.
These “example” musicians work in a range of genres and serve to illus-
trate an array of career challenges and solutions. There is much that musi-
cians can learn from the innovation and creativity of artists outside their
genre, and often the best ideas are generated by examining an issue from al-
ternative vantage points.
Bonus Item: The Dirty Secret about Career Planning
(cid:88)
Before proceeding further, I want to come clean about a problem with the
concept of career planning. It’s a problem inherent to books such as this and
to the profession of career counseling. It’s blasphemous for me to admit, but
the real way people go through life is not with a handy map and directions.
They don’t usually set goals and plan carefully and work systematically to-
ward success. Why? Because there’s so much in life that we cannot control
and so much of our career direction depends on exploration. Life is fl uid,
and so are careers.
In reality, we go through life as though there were no path, as though we
were in a dense forest and simply making our way as best we can. An idea
leads to a conversation, a connection, a project, and through the course of
these projects our career path emerges. It’s often only in looking back over
years that we can fashion a story line out of our own history. In hindsight, we
can see how the projects connected, and how our goals and interests drove us
to various choices and opportunities. But in the present, the path is all too
often impossible to discern. It’s impossible to see clearly the cause and effect
of all the choices we make, small and large, each day. But our choices are the
essential “stuff” of which our projects, career paths, and lives are made.
Career counselors advocate making plans, writing down goals, explor-
ing opportunities, and taking practical steps toward completing projects. I
say and write these things and I believe them . . . to a degree.