I gave a talk a couple of weeks ago that I'll share here - No Limits: How the Portfolio Career Expands Your Possibilities.
I also want to point out that if you don't know how to do a thing, there's almost certainly someone out there who DOES, and who can HELP you.
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I'm your host, Jennet Ingle. I love you all. Stay safe out there!
Canadian violinist Mary-Elizabeth Brown enjoys parallel careers as a performer, pedagogue, entrepreneur and researcher. In recent seasons, she has appeared as an invited soloist with orchestra more than forty times in Europe, Asia, North and South America, as well as numerous chamber music festivals. Her recording of the last 3 Mozart Violin Concerti for Mozart Effect recordings released worldwide in 2017.
In addition to a rich career as a soloist and concertmaster, she is a sought-after teacher, clinician, adjudicator and speaker in Canada and abroad. Since founding the AVIVA Virtual Young Artist Program (the first web-based pre-college music program in the world) she has touched lives around the world, teaching thousands of lessons to students on five continents via webcam, piloting projects aimed at accessibility, and training hundreds of teachers and creative entrepreneurs.
Mary-Elizabeth is widely recognized as a pioneer in the world of innovation in classical music and technology. She recently made international news from The Hong Kong Economic Times to NPR's Science Friday with her design for low-cost stringed instruments using 3D printers and plastic polymers.
I was wild about this conversation. I really appreciated Mary-Elizabeth’s wise take on the portfolio career, on keeping all of your various pots and streams managed, on how to cope with the messy middle parts of projects, and on how to keep growing as an artist and a human as you help others!
I know you will love hearing from her.
Find Mary-Elizabeth at her website, or at www.avivayoungartists.com, or www.printaviolin.com
Here are her upcoming programs:
LAUNCH! Is an 8-week, online streaming course on business basics and financial literacy that begins on March 27th. It’s a general overview of entrepreneurship skills and will give folks some starting points. There’s a private platform for peer feedback and discussion where I’ll certainly pop in and give my 2 cents worth! (But I won’t do any 1:1 coaching) You can find more info here: https://maryelizabethbrown.thinkific.com/courses/launch
To honour those who have expressed an interest in mentorship in recent months, I’ve made room to take on a handful of artist-teachers of any age, stage or location for a year of 1:1 and group mentoring specifically targeted at really developing the spectrum of entrepreneurial skills needed to run an effective and multifaceted creative career. We’ll start in mid-June and I’ll offer a hybrid program where we cover a different skill and topic each week through multimedia resources. In addition to those seminars, I’ll walk each step of the way with every mentee as we cycle through planning, alignment, implementation and assessment through a year of 1:1 coaching. You’ll find that one here: https://maryelizabethbrown.thinkific.com/courses/the-mentorship-year
Theme music and audio editing by DreamVance.
Or you could hop on a short call with me, Jennet, to brainstorm your next plan.
You can join my email list HERE, so you never miss an episode!
I'm your host, Jennet Ingle. I love you all. Stay safe out there!
Ashley Killam (she/her) has built a multifaceted career as a passionate entrepreneur, non-profit director, freelancer, trumpet player, advocate, and researcher. Killam is the founder of AK Artist Management and is on a lifelong mission to create a more inclusive artistic space.
A champion for creating change within musical programming, Killam launched the first-ever open-source resource for trumpet and brass music by marginalized composers. Since the fall of 2019, she has presented in-person and virtually over 130 times, on topics ranging from building a library of inclusive repertoire to starting a non-profit, commissioning music, and creating a non-traditional career path.
Having found a love in all things organization, Killam created AK Artist Management as a way to use these outreach and marketing skills to build and promote the professional careers of musicians. Killam has worked with powerhouse soloists like trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden, driven educators like hornist Amanda Collins, and groundbreaking chamber groups like Seraph Brass and Calypsus Brass, understanding the goals and needs of every individual and group. Her expertise ranges from booking performances and leading consortiums to website creation, building a brand, and PR work - Killam can do it all.
What inspired me so much about this conversation is Ashley’s can-do attitude, and her obvious love of the work she’s doing. She’s found a way she likes to work, things she likes doing, and has created a way to get paid doing them! This is the very essence of the portfolio career, right? It’s not giving up on music and defeatedly crawling into an arts admin space, it’s ADDING something she loves to something else she loves and making a career out of it. I really loved hearing her energy around both the DOING of her job and the LEARNING of her job. Being willing to not know but to try anyway, being able to trust yourself and your smart organized brain to figure it out - this is brilliant stuff and I know you will love this episode.
Find Ashley on her website, or follow her on facebook or instagram- @ashleykillam and @ak.artistmanagement.
Theme music and audio editing by DreamVance.
You can join my email list HERE, so you never miss an episode!
Or you could hop on a short call with me to brainstorm your next plan.
I'm your host, Jennet Ingle. I love you all. Stay safe out there!
Recently I've started sharing little short stories and advices and ideas on social media each week. I think they might be enjoyable, and I hope they might be helpful!
This week: If you have a new idea, a project, an entrepreneurial spark? JUST START.
Make sure you SUBSCRIBE to Crushing Classical, and maybe even leave a nice review!
You can join my email list HERE, so you never miss an episode!
Or you could hop on a short call with me to brainstorm your next plan.
I'm your host, Jennet Ingle. I love you all. Stay safe out there!
Today you’ll hear my interview with JooWan Kim, Composer/Artistic Director of Ensemble Mik Nawooj. You’re going to want to check this ensemble out at their website - I can’t tear myself away from their songs and videos.
Led by composer/pianist, JooWan Kim, Hip Hop Orchestra Ensemble Mik Nawooj (EMN) creates Metamusic by sampling principles of Hip-Hop and Classical. Executed with resident MCs, a lyric soprano, woodwinds, French horn, strings, piano, and drums, the music is rigorous, nuanced, accessible, and free from the dogmas of Western European concert music aesthetic. The result is seamless tête-à-tête with "textures swimming through the sound...like the world's fastest ping-pong game" (Pitchfork) and is considered the "cutting edge of hip-hop" (Huffington Post).
After a successful performance of a novelty piece which featured an MC and chamber ensemble while JooWan Kim was completing his master’s degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the MC at the time suggested they make an album together. Six months later and writing about an hour of music, Kim had a profound shift in the direction of his writing. He felt that he found a way out of the stifling contemporary concert music aesthetic in this new way of composition. JooWan crystallized his ideas into Method Sampling, a principle of borrowing or sampling of rationales from related as well as unrelated fields, then reframing them into one's own system.
In 2010, JooWan Kim recruited his best friend from college, Christopher Nicholas, to push the project forward in a serious way. Since then, EMN attracted some of the most excellent classical musicians and MCs in the SF Bay Area while gaining national attention from outlets such as ESPN, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, NPR, Pitchfork, Upworthy, NowThis, and more.
Follow JooWan and Ensemble Mik Nawooj at their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Theme music and audio editing by DreamVance.
You can join my email list HERE, so you never miss an episode!
Or you could hop on a short call with me to brainstorm your next plan.
I'm your host, Jennet Ingle. I love you all. Stay safe out there!
Y'all, it's been ONE YEAR since I published my book!
I'm STILL the happiest musician.
Today I'm sharing a little bookiversary celebration and a reading from the introduction: The Party Game!
Make sure you SUBSCRIBE to Crushing Classical, and maybe even leave a nice review!
You can join my email list HERE, so you never miss an episode!
Or you could hop on a short call with me to brainstorm your next plan.
I'm your host, Jennet Ingle. I love you all. Stay safe out there!
Adrian Gordon is an internationally performed composer and seasoned music educator. He is the author of the book Note to Self; A Music Director’s Guide for Transitioning to a New School and Building a Thriving Music Program. Adrian wrote Note to Self because though his undergraduate and graduate programs were musically and pedagogically extensive, he never felt as though they touched on those hard-to-navigate areas of transitioning between jobs. Note to Self was written as a bridge for music educators who find themselves in similar situations.
Adrian currently serves as the Director of Orchestras at Providence Day School in Charlotte, NC. He believes in the power of music education in a child’s life and understands the necessity of having passionate, confident, and supported music teachers at the helm, promoting great musical experiences for students.
In addition to teaching, Mr. Gordon is an in-demand conductor and clinician. He is also a composer with Alfred Music as well as the founder of Leap Year Music Publishing, which publishes string music for elementary, middle, and high school ensembles. His compositions appear on the Florida, Texas, Maryland, and Georgia Orchestra Association Music Performance Assessment Lists. His compositions are distributed through JW Pepper and have been performed throughout the world. He takes pride in creating music that is fun and pedagogically sound at all levels.
Adrian received his B.A. in music from the University of Miami, and his master’s degree in music education at Florida International University. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, he currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina with his wife Kelly and their two sons.
Learn more at Adrian's website, Facebook, and Instagram.
Theme music and audio editing by Steve Ingle, as DreamVance.
You can join my email list HERE, so you never miss an episode!
Or you could hop on a short call with me to brainstorm your next plan.
I'm your host, Jennet Ingle. I love you all. Stay safe out there!
Recently I've started sharing little short stories and advice and ideas. I think they might be enjoyable, and I hope they might be helpful!
This week: It's a New Year! What does that mean for Crushing Classical?
Or: What it feels like to start a new thing and why you should too.
Make sure you SUBSCRIBE to Crushing Classical, and maybe even leave a nice review!
You can join my email list HERE, so you never miss an episode!
Or you could hop on a short call with me to brainstorm your next plan.
I'm your host, Jennet Ingle. I love you all. Stay safe out there!
Have you ever wondered what it really takes to have a career as an internationally touring soloist? Have you wondered if it is too late for YOU to create such a career? You will love hearing from my guest today, Mary Elizabeth Bowden: International Trumpet Soloist
Classical Trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden has built an in-demand career as a soloist, praised for her “splendid, brilliant” playing (Gramophone Magazine) and her “pure, refined, and warm” tone (American Record Guide). A Gold Medal Global Music Award Winner, Opus Klassik Nominee, and Yamaha Performing Artist, she has also worked to establish a new repertoire for the trumpet through creative, collaborative commissioning projects and award-winning albums.
Her current season includes no fewer than four world premiere concertos, including Clarice Assad’s new Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Jennifer Jolley's Concerto for Brass Quintet with Seraph Brass and the U.S. Army "Pershing's Own", Reena Esmail's Rosa de Sal for Trumpet and Orchestra with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Tyson Davis's Veiled Light with the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, which will be performed alongside her husband, trumpeter David Dash. She is the founder and performer in multiple chamber groups, including Seraph Brass, Dash Duo, and Chrysalis Chamber Players.
In today’s interview, we talked about her recent projects, and the importance of expanding and building representation in trumpet and brass repertoire. Mary built her career from scratch, and I know I was inspired by her path to success, her honesty about the behind the scenes work of it, and her journey of increased confidence in her playing and her career. I know you will enjoy this interview!
Mary's upcoming schedule: https://www.maryelizabethbowden.com/events
Connect with Mary at her Website, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, or YouTube.
Recently I've started sharing little short stories and advices and ideas on social media each week. I think they might be enjoyable, and I hope they might be helpful!
This week: What does it mean to be a leader in the orchestra? What does it mean in life?
Curious about The Invincible Oboist?
Make sure you SUBSCRIBE to Crushing Classical, and maybe even leave a nice review!
You can join my email list HERE, so you never miss an episode!
Or you could hop on a short call with me to brainstorm your next plan.
I'm your host, Jennet Ingle. I love you all. Stay safe out there!