Ten years ago, Steve and I finished our master’s degrees at the Eastman School of Music and set out to build careers in music.
We decided to make a move that was less common in our field at the time: Instead of heading to a big city with lots of opportunities to begin a freelance career, we moved to a small town in rural Massachusetts.
That became the impetus for everything that followed.
I always knew I wanted to be a freelancer. I liked the variety of doing different kinds of work: teaching, accompanying, writing, creating, designing.
But I didn’t really know what it meant (from a practical standpoint) to be a music entrepreneur (musicpreneur for short) until I was in grad school.
As a musicpreneur, you wear two hats:
You’re the CEO — the money person, the one making big decisions about your brand and values and the work you’ll do, the one paying quarterly taxes and reading about SEO and conversion rates.
And you’re the artist — the creative one, the dreamer, the idea person, the one seeking inspiration and doing the work, the one learning the music and planning the lessons and exploring the bounds of creativity.
8 a.m. theory classes, 1-credit ensembles, concerts, performances, listening exams, and 10 p.m. practice sessions.
Ah, music school.
I’ve spent my fair share of time in music school: from my undergraduate degree in Piano and Organ Performance to a Master’s and Ph.D. in Music Education, I think it all adds up to 10 years (but who’s really counting?).
And yet, despite all that schooling (and all those recitals and term papers), there were still many things I didn’t know when I started building my career; things I had to figure out on my own and learn with time and practical experience.
