the arts + community engagement+ career development
Often, I find myself buried in email with no end in site. I set aside time to dig out, only to be inundated by more emails. Email has been one of the biggest challenges to finding balance in my life. Here are some suggestions about how to handle your email: Tackle email after you get your …
For some reason, this week's playlist is decidedly American with a dash of protest tossed in. Ha! This week, I became especially infatuated by the work by Rzewski, titled "The People United." Listen to track 5 first, which is a powerful version of a crowd singing the piece, followed by the Theme and First Variation …
Continue reading "Long Tail Sessions, Vol. II–September 20, 2017"
This is me in fifth grade. At the age of 12, I remember my teachers telling me that if I continued to work, I could get a scholarship to study the instrument in college. Many began to tell me that I should pursue a career on the instrument. When I was barely in middle school, …
Continue reading "Broadening the definition of success for music students."
Last January, I wrote this post in response the inauguration of #45. The premise behind the post was simple: What small things can you do today to make a difference in the world? In January and February, our collective efforts played out on a daily basis, both on line and in person. Now, we are …
For most of my adult life, our political parties have been at such odds with each other that even simple legislation has become a challenge to pass. Political score keeping has become more important than the well being of the American people. This type of political paralysis often means that instead of our elected officials …
Continue reading "One thing Artists can do in response to the rescinding of the DACA program."
For decades, we have been told not to major in music. We've been told that there aren't any jobs, and the jobs that do exist have job satisfaction rates in the gutter. When are institutions of higher learning going to widen their definition of success when it comes to majoring in music? The path of …
“The most important investment you can make is in yourself.” -Warren Buffett Yesterday, I wrote this post about things to consider when taking out College loans. As Warren Buffett mentions in the quote above, I still believe that taking out a college loan is one of the best investments you can make for yourself. Now that …
This morning, I read this CNBC article, which discussed the fact that student loans have gone up over 150% in the last decade. The article states that "The average outstanding college loan balance is now $34,144, up 62 percent over the last 10 years." Like most college students, arts majors (music, drama, dance, visual arts) …
Last week, I wrote this post about ways to tip the scales towards programmatic excellence. Here are five reflections on how I set up programming at Colburn: Give your program time. I was fortunate to be given a year to identify the needs of the Los Angeles community and see how Colburn was best suited to help. Tip: Start …
Continue reading "How I Think about Programmatic Excellence at Colburn"
On the left is a photo of me at age three, on the right, my daughter at the same age. I loved the violin and had supportive parents to guide me. Both artists, they had the cultural affluence to make certain I practiced every day and they expected excellence from the start. Now, 37 years …
Continue reading "5 Tips for Tipping the Scales Towards Excellence"
Portfolio Career Defined A person engaged in a portfolio career doesn’t work for a single company, but rather gathers a “portfolio” of jobs around a common theme or skill set, and balances that portfolio much like an investor manages a bundle of stocks. —Charles Handy, organizational and management theorist Charles sums this up nicely, however …
An education rooted in specialization, a career rooted in context. If you’re like me, your journey through school and even the first few years out of college trained you to think narrowly and deeply about the type of work you’d like to pursue. Most schooling is rooted in specialization, which is fantastic. With that said, …
Continue reading "5 Steps To Help Solidify Your Career Path"
The nation's top arts organizations are increasingly thinking about how to better serve their community. At Colburn, we are in a unique position. Our mission is to provide music education at the highest level, but we are also a presenting organization, providing countless professional level performances for the greater Los Angeles Community. The Colburn Community …
Continue reading "8 Tips for a Successful Arts Based Community Engagement Program"
On January 20th, I wrote this post in response to the inauguration of our 45th President. Now six months in to his presidency, I feel compelled to share thoughts on what we—the electorate—should expect from our politicians. These writings represent my vision for the future rooted in empathy, compassion, and an attempt to close the political …
Continue reading "Thoughts on the National Endowment for the Arts"
Congratulations! You are months away from graduation and well on your way to the dream of starting your collegiate career or graduate work! You have received — or are about to receive — letters of acceptance, and now all you need to do is make that all important decision about where you will attend school in the fall. …
I read about #39 in history books. Though I have distinct memories from the 80's, #40 came and went in the fog of my preteen years. #41 taught me the power of patriotism, yellow ribbons, and pride in my country. #42 arrived during my coming of age years and helped me grow my progressive roots. I …
The arts live continuously, and they live literally by faith; their nature and their shapes and their uses survive unchanged in all that matters through times of interruption, diminishment, neglect; they outlive governments and creeds and societies, even the very civilizations that produced them. They cannot be destroyed altogether because they represent the substance …
Before declaring my major in college I remember losing what felt like weeks of sleep trying to decide if the path to become a music educator was right for me. Choosing the wrong path or worse, choosing the right path and ultimately not finding success in said path was all consuming. What I didn't know then was that the …
I love this post by Ivan Trevino. He raises questions many of us are asking at institutions of higher learning across the country. The arts entrepreneurship movement from the past few years has helped and many schools are working diligently behind the scenes to address the new needs of the 21st century artist, however, change is hard at the institutional level. While …
Continue reading "5 Ways College Students Can Jumpstart Their Career In The Arts"
Today's post comes from a question I recently received from a reader: Do you have any written tips or advice for how to live on a very small income when moving into a new city? This is an excellent question that many of us don't think about when moving to a new city in pursuit …
Continue reading "Advice on how Artists can live on a small income when moving to a new city."
We've all done it. We've taken that gig that seemed like a great idea six months ago. Now, we find ourselves sitting in traffic much like the photo above, wondering why we made the decision in the first place. Yesterday, I wrote this post about how artists could find balance using Pareto's Principle, also known …
This is a picture of me hiking with my daughter. I have the photo sitting on my desk as a reminder of why finding balance is so important. A question I often get as I advise artists goes something like this: As an artist, I'm finding it almost impossible to find a work/life balance. What …
Continue reading "Using the 80-20 rule to help Artists find balance."
