Category: Career
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Interview: Jonathan Tunick, Broadway orchestrator and more
Jonathan Tunick is a show business legend: a composer/arranger/orchestrator/musical director for stage and screen; a collaborator with Stephen Sondheim, Placido Domingo, Barbra Streisand, and too many more to mention; and a winner of many awards. Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear from Mr. Tunick a few years ago, when he contributed some information …
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Responding to free or low-paying gigs
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in CareerHere are some sample scripts for phone calls or emails about “gigs” that pay nothing, or not enough.
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Students and paying gigs
Sometimes I get phone calls from people hoping to hire my students for gigs. I’m delighted when I can pass a professional opportunity on to a hardworking, high-achieving student, but often these calls are troubling. Obviously, the callers want students because they assume students will work cheaply. Lots of college students work for not much money, …
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Teaching multiple instruments: IDRS 2016 presentation
Lecture notes from a presentation on teaching multiple instruments, especially double reeds in a higher education setting, from the 2016 International Double Reed Society conference.
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Stuff bad music teachers say
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in CareerHave the courage, conscience, and dedication to pursue deeper, broader, and more accurate knowledge of the concepts you are teaching.
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Thoughts on musicians’ websites
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in CareerI first set up a personal website in about 2000 or 2001. There wasn’t much reason for me to do so—I was a college undergraduate, with virtually no worthwhile content to share. But it was a start, and fifteen or sixteen years later I have a few hundred blog posts and some other resources, plus a …
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Interview: Sarah Cosano, woodwind player and more
Sarah Cosano is a busy working woodwind player (among other things). I initially reached out to Sarah about doing an interview because I was interested in her experiences with playing on cruise ships, but it turns out her musical experiences are quite varied. In 2000, Sarah was an MTNA National Competition winner, a featured performer on the …
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Handout: Blogging to build your woodwind career
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in CareerI gave a presentation at last week’s Mid-South Flute Festival on blogging as a means for enhancing a performing/teaching career. The handout says “flute” on it, but I think the advice really is pretty generally applicable. Blogging to Build Your Flute Career (PDF)
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Interview: Sal Lozano, saxophone and woodwind artist
Lately I have been enjoying Sal Lozano‘s recent CD, Everything’s Gonna Be Great (available from CD Baby and iTunes). The album is 13 charts by Tom Kubis for 5-piece saxophone section with rhythm section, and Sal plays all five of the saxophone parts. It’s a lot of fun, Sal sounds great, and there’s an all-star …
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Death from exposure
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in CareerIt’s a fallacy for a prospective employer to offer you exposure and experience and networking instead of money, as if the alternative were gigs that paid money but didn’t offer those things. That simply isn’t the case: you get all those benefits from paid gigs, too, plus you get to pay your rent that month.