Professional Career Tips for the Classical Musician

So you have survived the first two or three years of music school and you think you are ready for the professional music world. Whether you decide to continue your studies at the graduate level or decide to enter the music biz, you should begin to put together your music portfolio now.

Portfolio? Yes, you should start putting together your portfolio now. In other words, keep copies of notable programs and concerts, recordings, any press, awards, grants, and achievements that you can later show to potential employers. Yes, employers. Music, like any other occupation, is a business, and having all of your achievements in one simple portfolio (or computer folder) will help you in the future. You also want to create a curriculum vitae, which is a mega resume' that details everything you have ever done ever in music. Mine is over fifteen pages long, yours will probably be at least several pages. Talk this over with your professor. At the least, you will need it for graduate school if you choose that route.

Finally, you need to be the best, yes the best at what you do in your department at your music school. Why? Although the statistics aren't out, I can guarantee you that between the economy busting, music jobs being scarce, professional ensembles closing their doors, and even music professor jobs barely paying the bills, there are more Julliard and music school graduates flipping burgers than playing professionally. Am I discouraging you? No, not at all. Just realize that for you to survive as a musician, you will need to be the best, and that starts at your music school, and by practicing and practicing some more.

One professor gave me this interesting nugget, "Somewhere, somebody is practicing."

In other words, if you are only practicing enough to get by and earn the grade, then you will most likely find yourself working at Walmart when you graduate. Practice time (or composition time) differs according to your instrument or voice, but on average, an instrumentalist should practice at least twenty hours a week. Vocalists practice less to save their voice. If you are unlucky enough to be a pianist or violinist, the practice time increases to four to six hours a day, every day.

A final bit of advice: Know thyself.

After burning out my junior year, I had decided that a double major in composition and percussion performance was to much and I would have to choose. The next year I started taking film and new media courses and dropped my percussion courses. For my masters, I earned a degree in Music Technology, where I combined my love of composition with computer music, video, and animation.

I found that the combination of skills - music, graphic design, teaching, writing, and video - have given me an amazing number of opportunities. Though I have been a percussionist for twenty years, my playing is now confined to composing on my Malletkat and electronic drum set and occasionally playing for church. Do I regret the thousands of hours spent honing my skills as a concert percussionist? No. I do not. My lifestyle choices have allowed me to become a successful composer while balancing the bills and my family.

But I had to choose. Choosing to drop my love of percussion was difficult, but I could no longer survive performing in dozens of concerts each year, playing in several ensembles, keeping my academic scholarships and getting recitals ready while I also wrote dozens of new works each year.

Know yourself. Know when you are close to burning out. Know when you need to sleep, study, practice, or just sit down with a couple of pizzas and your closest friends. Know when you need to make the tough decisions. Know what is important.

Then you know that you will succeed.