I had the pleasure of speaking with Elizabeth earlier in October, and I am thrilled to share a condensed version of our conversation, which left me optimistic and inspired. In this first part of the interview, we discuss the ways that the pandemic has impacted her attitude towards playing the flute and reaffirmed her belief in the importance of living a balanced life. She shares advice about coping with this time, as a human being and as a practicing musician, as well as a list of some of her favorite books, movies, and podcasts!

In the second part of the interview, available here, we delve more into her new projects, particularly the Facebook community Seeing Beyond the Notes and her coaching practice, discussing what’s driving her and giving her purpose.  

Like many musicians, Elizabeth’s approach to her instrument has fluctuated in the six months since the pandemic started. 

I spent periods of time not playing my flute, exploring what that would feel like. Part of me was leaning into the opportunities presented by this experience, and part of me was testing the fear factor of “what happens? How out of shape will I get? Will it be permanent?” 

Finding a way to relate her musical voice to the larger issues right now ultimately helped her reorient herself towards making music. For one of the BSO’s summer broadcasts in their “Tanglewood Presents” series, Elizabeth was thrilled to perform Allison Loggins-Hull’s piece for solo flute entitled “Homeland.” 

Like many of us, I’m deeply invested in the racial justice movement that’s happening across the country, and I’ve been thinking a lot about serious issues – issues much bigger than me or my flute playing. 

“Homeland” touches on important themes of identity and belonging. Performing it helped me find a way to connect my artistry to something that felt relevant and grounded in what’s happening today…and this helped me reconnect to my love of music. It reminded me of the ways in which music can be, and should always be, relevant to the real world. Since then, I have been able to make a renewed commitment to practicing daily and staying connected to that piece of myself. 

An encore presentation of her performance will be available online from November 12-19. 

Elizabeth admits that, like many of us, she has at times felt lost without having deadlines to drive her musical practice. For others struggling to find purpose in their playing without schedules or deadlines, she suggests trying to frame your practice to be more process oriented rather than outcome oriented. 

I’ve learned that when you pick up your instrument, it can be helpful to shift your mindset from the habitual “what must I accomplish today to meet an external deadline” towards “how do I make this process feel healthy,” or “how can I simply enjoy the music,” or “how can I take advantage of this time to go really slow, listen to my music making with fresh ears, and be fully present for that.” 

Rather than “I have a deadline, I have to get going” we can reorient ourselves towards the process itself. This shift can be hugely beneficial for when the world picks back up again, since this mindful approach to practicing is surprisingly efficient. So, if you just want to be practical about it, it’s a great approach to take no matter the circumstances. 

Shifting her mindset, while difficult, has helped her to see practicing not as a means to an end, but instead as time spent doing a thing that she loves. 

This time period has also given her clarity on the importance of nurturing one’s whole-self.

For many of us, this time has exposed the ways in which our lives aren’t as balanced as might be ideal. We each have so many elements that make us who we are – professional work, personal lives, relationships, other passions and hobbies. But musicians, for very good reasons, often allow our commitment to our profession–our aspirations and our genuine love of music – to occupy such a large portion of our identity that when it goes away, it leaves a huge void. 

Something I have been helping others with, and focusing on myself, is making sure that we are filling up all those other areas of our lives really well. This way, if any one aspect of our lives encounters an unexpected roadblock, we have those other parts of ourselves that are still thriving and can allow us to withstand whatever is disrupted elsewhere. We’re more resilient and not so dependent on any one part of our life to give us everything that we need.  

For Elizabeth, “filling other areas of her life” include her advocacy and coaching work, as well as making time for things she loves to do, including walking her dog and being outside, spending time (safely distanced) with friends, and unabashedly enjoying books, movies, and podcasts of all types. (Make sure you read to the end of this post to see a list of her favorites!)

In terms of navigating life as the pandemic goes on, Elizabeth reminds us that these are incredibly difficult and not normal times. 

Be kind to yourself – we have a tendency to be judgemental about our own response to this pandemic. 

Everybody is going to experience this in their own way, and there’s not a right way to go about it. It’s important to guard against the self-judgement or the shame that can sometimes come with thoughts like “I’m not taking advantage of this time,” or “I haven’t found my calling,” or “I haven’t found that purpose,” or “I don’t know what is meaningful.” This is all okay and normal!

She guards against getting sucked into the feelings of “I should…” and places great importance on the distinction between observation and judgement in noticing our reactions to the pandemic. (To her, this is also a vital part of maintaining a healthy mindset as a musician, but more on that in part two of the interview…)

We can ask ourselves “are we observing, or are we judging?” The more we can practice observation, and release judgement, the better.  

For anyone struggling with finding a sense of purpose or energy, she adds that finding a fun way to recharge can be the most important thing you can do for yourself, even if it feels frivolous or irrelevant at the time. 

Many of us tend to think we can fix anything with sheer willpower and determination. But willpower and determination alone cannot fix the exhaustion caused by this pandemic and the isolation we’re experiencing. So we have to look for other ways to recharge our batteries. I highly recommend finding something joyful and even silly that you can do on a daily basis – playing with your dog, or singing in the shower, or telling knock-knock jokes to a kid. Sometimes we think that all that “silly stuff” isn’t meaningful, or isn’t connected to the “important” energy we need for “important” things. But taking time for that silly stuff recharges our batteries, and it’s often the most valuable tool we can offer ourselves when we’re depleted.

If you’re looking to explore new ideas, recharge, or just need a distraction, take a look at Elizabeth’s recommendations:

Books 

On mindset: Self-Compassion, the Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself by Kristin Neff, along with its really terrific companion workbook

Nonfiction/memoir: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Fiction: My Brilliant Friend and the other Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante

Podcasts 

On mindset: “Unlocking Us” with host Brene Brown

Nonfiction: “1619 “with host Nikole Hannah-Jones

For fun: “Dolly Parton’s America” with host Jad Abumrad

Movies 

Documentary: “13th” by director Ava DuVernay, exploring the history of racial inequality in the United States

For fun: Too many to name!  Everything from “Rear Window” to “Some Like it Hot” to “Clueless” to “Rocky” to “Moonstruck” to “The Wizard of Oz” to “Get Out” to “Black Panther” and the latest Wonder Woman movie…I love them all!

For more on Elizabeth and what’s driving her right now, check out Part 2 of this interview, sign up for her occasional newsletter, or visit her at www.iamelizabethrowe.com.

Elizabeth Rowe is the principal flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  She is a professional coach, a teacher, a social justice advocate, and a public speaker. After she took a stand to demand equal pay from her employer in 2018, The Boston Globe honored her as a Bostonian of the Year, calling “The Fighter.” Her ongoing commitment to opening up dialogue about complex subjects led to her TEDx talk, The Lonely Onlys, where she shared her personal story of learning to embrace the powers of imagination and vulnerability to create connection and community. Elizabeth’s coaching practice supports creative people of all types as they work to achieve their biggest vision for their personal and professional lives, while remaining true to themselves.

Andrea Beyer

Double Bassist Andrea Beyer is an avid performer, teacher and advocate for using music as a tool for social growth. As an orchestral musician, Andrea has performed in concerts at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, as well as national halls in Central and South America and Asia. A fellow at the New World Symphony from 2017-2020, she gained a passion for creative concert design when she conceived of and presented concerts geared towards new audiences, including “Face-off: Battle of the Instruments” and “Music from Beyond the Wall.” 

Outside of the orchestral world, Andrea is a passionate teacher and is on the faculty of Bass Works, a summer double bass program in Baltimore, Maryland. She is also the Public Relations Director and a Workshop Coordinator for the MusAid Organization, which supports music programs in under-resourced countries with volunteer music teaching workshops. Andrea holds a Bachelors Degree from Oberlin Conservatory where she studied with Thomas Sperl and a Masters Degree from Yale University where she studied with Don Palma.

Currently based in Austin, Texas, you can connect with Andrea at andreabeyerbass.com or find her on Instagram @wandering_bassline.

andreabeyerbass.com

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I arrived early for my first rehearsal with the Chicago Symphony in 2002. It was a strange time to start the job: June, the last two weeks of the season, with Music Director Daniel Barenboim on the podium. By that time of year, most orchestras have seen just about enough of their Music Directors, while the Music Directors themselves realize that the sand is running out of the hourglass: they’d better make their criticisms stick, or the orchestra is going to come back after the summer just as lousy as they were before!

The program that first week was a single piece, unfamiliar to most of us on stage. Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius had apparently been on Barenboim’s bucket list for quite some time, and this was his chance to cross it off. I wished for something less ambitious for my first week on the job. The second violin part didn’t make any more sense to me on stage at Orchestra Hall than it had in my new apartment the day before.

As I sat sawing away, concertmaster Robert Chen crossed the stage to welcome me to Chicago, or so I thought. A mentor of mine from my school days in Philadelphia, he was one of only a few familiar faces there. In fact, he was giving me fair warning: that I might be asked to sit on the first stand for the opening rehearsal!

“Wait…why?”

“Barenboim likes to see the new faces right away. It may happen, it may not. Don’t worry. Just be ready    for anything.”

I made a note not to worry, then began to worry about what anything might entail.

“Wait, doesn’t that mean sitting with—“

The principal of the section was about to retire. In fact, the orchestra had already held two auditions for his position, and he was to leave as soon as a successor was found. Since I had taken both of those auditions, and had not been offered his position, it was a reasonable assumption that some people on the audition committee weren’t big fans of my playing. Apparently he was one of them.

Robert interrupted, “He doesn’t like your playing. So what. Everyone doesn’t have to like you, Nathan. Get used to it!” He crossed back to first chair wearing a smile. I had no choice but to put one on as well.

As ten o’clock approached, and the empty seats filled in, I wondered whether I might be spared the extra scrutiny. But just before the hour, I saw the principal rise from his chair and walk directly back to me. He invited me to share a stand with him that morning.

The idea had obviously come from up above, but somewhere along the chain of communication, a link had been skipped. The assistant principal, whose seat I would be taking for the morning, was unaware of the game of musical chairs. As I approached, he looked at me as he might an encyclopedia salesman who had interrupted his dinner. We would have to patch things up later.

The principal turned out to be a perfect gentleman and a classy violinist. This was more or less the last hurrah for him, and he could have hazed me without repercussion. But instead he pointed out a few tricky spots and made sure I knew what line of the divisi to play. Did I sense, even in the grizzled veteran, apprehension at the prospect of reading this vast Elgar work under the baton of the music director?

A winning attitude

Then, in a rush, Barenboim strolled onto the podium, the tuning A sounded, and we were off! Although I had been a professional for two years, I had never played (not even as a substitute) with a giant symphony orchestra like Chicago. I experienced sensory overload: the mercurial conductor swaying above me, cryptic notes in front of me, unknown colleagues all around. My bones shook from the sound waves. At the biggest moments, of course, the famed Chicago brass supplied enough power to light the hall. But every section of the orchestra pulled its weight: each player was trained to produce maximum sonic energy without crossing the line that divided class from crass.

What surprised me most, once I got my head out of the music stand, was the attitude of my new colleagues. In my previous orchestral experience, as soon as two interlocking lines began to separate, there was a whiff of panic in the air. I might exchange fretful glances with those in my line of sight. But in Chicago, there was barely any acknowledgement of untidiness. Notes and rhythms flew in all directions, and it was a rare measure that was truly perfect in that reading. But it was clear to me that everyone on stage fully expected things to sound better at the next rehearsal, still better the one after that, and so on through the performances. I marveled at the collective confidence, while remaining terrified that I would be the one to step in a rhythmic trap!

Keep it clean

The following day, I moved back to my assigned seat near the back of the second violins. I began marking some fingerings in the toughest passages. Since I was sitting on the audience side, or the “outside” of the stand, my markings went above the notes. At least that’s how things had always worked…

As I put in my first set of numbers, my stand partner made a sound, a kind of groan cut short. I looked over, the point of my pencil still on the page. “Did you want my markings on the bottom instead?”

“We don’t mark fingerings here,” he said.

“Here, you mean at this spot?”

“I mean in this orchestra.” His face softened, and he added, “Sorry, you’re probably used to seeing them, right?”

I was indeed used to seeing fingerings as a matter of course. My mind was fairly blown.

“How do you play all this music then?”

My stand partner paused, as if he’d never considered the question before.

“Practice?” he suggested.

When you ask, be ready for the answer

Adjusting to life in the big symphony wasn’t my only concern that first week. There was a cloud looming over the Elgar: I was to play yet another audition for principal second violin that weekend. After twice failing to win that spot, I was determined to impress the committee this time. But it was not to be: after several performances of Gerontius, I was drained. I felt out of sorts the entire audition. Had I wanted the spot too much? Not enough? Had I peaked too soon, or not at all?

My performance was best summed up by Robert when I asked him for feedback the day afterward. “Which number were you? Hmm. I wrote down, ‘Sounded wiry.’ What violin were you playing?”

“The Strad.” At the time, one was on loan to me.

Robert responded with a line every violinist hopes to hear, but only if they’re playing a cheap factory violin: “How did you make it sound like that?”

The orchestral hamster wheel

And with that, the downtown season was over. In one week, the Chicago Symphony would move twenty-odd miles north, to its summer home at the Ravinia Festival. I used the free week to decompress: from moving to Chicago, meeting a hundred new colleagues, taking an audition. I should have set aside at least some of that time to fortify myself against the avalanche of music that was about to bury me.

I realized my mistake as soon as I arrived for the first Ravinia rehearsal: my folder bulged with parts for that week’s three full programs. From my school days, and even from my weeks so far in Chicago, I was accustomed to at least four rehearsals for a full orchestral concert. But looking at the Ravinia schedule, two was the maximum; one was more common. A single-rehearsal program is really just a read-through plus a concert. And in some cases, even the read-through was optional!

One performance that summer featured Gershwin’s suite from An American in Paris. I can’t recall the remainder of the program, but our conductor must have thought it very difficult since he left no time at all for the Gershwin. As the personnel manager strode onto stage, ending the rehearsal, I looked around, bewildered. Everyone was heading down to the locker rooms, but we hadn’t even looked at the Gershwin! Were we cutting it from the program?

I can’t bring to memory which conductor it was who was so discourteous to Gershwin, but I clearly remember someone in the locker room muttering, “The only downside to not rehearsing with him is that we won’t know how he’s going to screw it up in advance. Be ready for anything, I guess.”

There was that line again. I was still concerned, however. “I could have used at least a run-through. I’ve never played it before!” I cried, unaware that I had set myself up for the oldest joke in the orchestral book.

Five guys turned at once, shouting in unison, “You’ll love it!”

Just one of the guys

One program in particular seemed to go beyond the bounds of decency for a violinist: a first half consisting of two Strauss tone poems (to paraphrase Ulysses S. Grant, one was Don Juan and the other one wasn’t) and a second half of three Wagner overtures: Lohengrin, The Flying Dutchman, and Tannhauser.

The single rehearsal didn’t offer much comfort. Despite my meticulous preparation for this obvious killer program, notes seemed to fly out from underneath my fingers. Phrases bobbed and weaved while I tried to keep them centered in my sights. So I made it my mission that afternoon to be 100% ready for the evening show. In my zeal, however, I went overboard. I have a vague memory of heavy eyelids during the first half, then after an intermission coffee, a spent and shaky bow arm.

Descending to the men’s locker room, I heard the voice of David Taylor, one of the orchestra’s assistant concertmasters. A veteran of the Cleveland Orchestra before coming to Chicago, he had seen and heard it all. He was exhilarated rather than exhausted by the Strauss and Wagner. “Boy, that Tannhauser! What a monster! Can you remember the first time you saw that on the stand in front of you?”

“Yeah, I can. It was twenty minutes ago!” I answered. I had won my first locker room laugh.

As I changed back to street clothes, I caught sight of the peculiar knob on the wall that controlled the volume of the stage monitors. It turned from 0 to 10. If you were fortunate enough to be “off” one of the pieces on a program (rarely a violinist’s lot), the monitors were your lifeline, for they allowed you to hear when you’d be needed back up on stage. A printed warning adorned the knob’s enclosure: “Volume must remain high”. Next to this, one of my colleagues (surely a beaten-down string player) had penciled in block letters, “I’m playing as loud as I can!!!”

Desperate times call for extraordinary overtime

The monitors carried messages from the personnel office in addition to music. There were of course the customary five-minute warnings before services and near the ends of breaks. Then there were the occasional surprises, such as the addition of overtime.

On this subject, Chicago had the most extraordinary rules. In fact, one category of overtime was known as “extraordinary overtime”! But that was only the most lucrative of the overtimes. There were also normal overtime, unscheduled overtime, and penultimate overtime. The crown jewel was extraordinary, and it was reserved for so-called “sacred” time periods such as the break between an afternoon rehearsal and evening concert. Like a nuclear weapon, it existed mainly as a deterrent. Should a conductor deploy the extraordinary option and incur its obscene costs, he would surely be blacklisted from future engagement with the orchestra. It was mutually assured destruction, in contract form.

At the time I was a member, the first five minutes of extraordinary overtime paid approximately $75 per player. The next five minutes doubled the pain: $150. The next five? You guessed it: $300 per player. Unfortunately for the players, the progression stopped there rather than continuing logarithmically until each musician could afford to hire his own conductor with acceptable time management skills!

Any time a conductor had bungled things so badly as to run out of time before running out of music, we would begin shooting glances at each other: will it happen? Extraordinary? Most of the time, of course, rehearsal would simply end, and we’d be left to live off our wits at that evening’s concert, as with American in Paris. But every once in a while, the stars would align, and the personnel manager would rush onto stage at the appointed time, not to dismiss us, but to solemnly intone: “There will now be five minutes of extraordinary overtime.”

So put yourself in the orchestra’s shoes for one fateful day just before I joined the Chicago Symphony. The conductor in this story is impossible for me to forget, but because of his heroic act I will withhold his name. The program was a relatively routine French concoction, ending with a piece as routine as it was popular: Ravel’s Bolero. If any piece can be said to be sight-readable (assuming that the component parts are in place, as they most definitely were in Chicago), it’s Bolero. Therefore it was no surprise when the conductor, as was his habit, ran out of time before rehearsing it. The usual glances were dispensed with; it was simply assumed that Ravel’s least favorite piece would get the slapdash evening reading to which it was accustomed.

But it was not to be. The personnel manager walked out with an air of uncertainty, and after a hushed conference with the maestro, announced: “There will now be twenty minutes of extraordinary overtime.” Audible gasps gave way to wheels turning inside each orchestra member’s head (keep in mind that before the smartphone era, math actually had to be done there or on paper): more than $800 per player, to rehearse Bolero. With a full orchestra on stage, it would cost Ravinia’s management close to 100 times that amount, on par with the conductor’s fee for the week!

Now, since overtime charges are sometimes deducted from those fees, my colleagues came up with an intriguing scenario: the conductor, ashamed of his own incompetence and realizing the superiority of the musicians surrounding him, had selflessly engineered a socialist redistribution of wealth. Through his Bolero scheme, Ravinia’s money went not to the top 1% but flowed instead to the other 99%. It was beautifully designed. But after that concert, the revolution was over. We (the workers) never controlled the means of production, as evidenced by all the Elliott Carter works we played in the ensuing seasons.

A more predictable rhythm

In my eight weeks at Ravinia that summer, I played twenty-four classical programs: the equivalent of some orchestra’s entire seasons, and more symphonic music than I had played in my entire life up to that point. Therefore the return to Orchestra Hall and the downtown season was most welcome: a ten-minute commute rather than an hour, actual practice rooms, and just one program a week.

Sometime during that first full season with the orchestra, I was featured on the cover of the program book, with a brief Q & A inside. Apparently, if I hadn’t been a violinist in the Chicago Symphony, I would have been a web designer! I was working on my website, natesviolin.com. Not much has changed, in the end.

A picture from my apartment that season sums things up nicely. For some reason I felt compelled to arrange a still-life of my main interests: my violin case, complete with metronome and tuner; my practice journal, with Parker fountain pen; and my 4×5 Wista field camera. In the background, you can see the enormous boxes that used to come with video and DVD-mastering software. Maybe things have changed after all: my metronome and tuner now reside on my smartphone; my journal is on my Mac; my 4×5 film sheets have been replaced by my digital SLR; and nobody buys giant software boxes anymore.

Just keep your balance

If I had to pick one moment from that first season in Chicago that will live forever in my memory, it would certainly be the first sounds I ever heard from Pinchas Zukerman. Barenboim was on the podium, and the two of them were both dressed in soccer apparel. Just as it was during my very first week, Elgar was on the program: the magnificent violin concerto, which puts unusual demands on the orchestra. The opening tutti is full-blooded and symphonic, and I had my hands full following its twists and turns. Therefore by the time it wound back to its original material, I was unprepared for the soloist’s entrance. Zukerman, at the peak of his powers and playing a gorgeous Guarneri del Gesu, was like a lion at ease. He roared without giving the slightest impression of effort. I stared open-mouthed, neglecting to come in with the section several bars later.

At that moment, I knew that as long as the Chicago Symphony was the place to hear violin playing on that level, Chicago was the place for me. The collective confidence of Barenboim and Zukerman can hardly be described: for the two of them, rehearsal was a distraction that could be dispensed with as long as the entire stage was on their wavelength. I needed to know how two artists could be so comfortable not only in their own performances, but in their collaboration, night after night. I looked up from my stand as often as I could get away from the notes.

I almost didn’t make it onto stage for the first performance of the Elgar. As it was the second half of the concert, and there was a substantial stage change during the intermission, we had to stay off stage until all was set under the lights. Once it was safe to take our seats, we began filing onto stage. Just before I passed through the narrow door, I tripped and nearly fell flat on my face (and, needless to say, the Strad). It was not a simple loss of coordination: something, or someone, had tripped me! I looked back, and there against the wall, mostly concealed in shadow, was Barenboim. His mischievous grin removed all doubt as to who had been the culprit. Be ready for anything.

Nathan Cole

Nathan Cole, First Associate Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is one of the world’s leading coaches for the violin audition repertoire. Previously a member of the Chicago Symphony and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, he has sat on audition committees for nearly every orchestral instrument. He has also performed as guest concertmaster for the orchestras of Houston, Minnesota, Oregon, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and Seattle.

Nathan’s passion is helping violinists reach their potential in the practice room, concert hall, and audition stage. Through one-on-one coaching, master classes, blog posts, and videos, he shares detailed knowledge that is typically taught only inside elite conservatories. His “New York Philharmonic Audition Challenge” invites violinists from all over the world to follow Nathan’s own audition preparation timeline. It has already been adapted for other instruments including flute and viola.

Born to professional flutists in Lexington, Kentucky, Nathan started violin at age four in a Suzuki program. He earned his Bachelor of Music at the Curtis Institute, where he spent less time practicing solo pieces than he should have, and more time rehearsing string quartets. His wife, Akiko Tarumoto, is Assistant Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

You can visit and write Nathan at www.natesviolin.com.

www.natesviolin.com

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If you missed it, be sure to check out Part I of her interview!

In this second part of a condensed version of our conversation, Elizabeth discusses how her desire to support musicians early in their careers and creative people of all fields and stages of life has driven her to explore some new outlets. While recognizing that this is a privilege afforded to her by her position in the Boston Symphony, Elizabeth feels fortunate to have found space during this time to develop her other interests and find ways to uplift others. She also acknowledges that she has also had periods of struggling and looking for answers, and that it’s okay and normal to not have found a great new calling during this pandemic! Already becoming increasingly involved in advocacy and mentorship work, Elizabeth feels lucky that she was already on the path to having something besides music in her life.

For a long time, Elizabeth has felt passionate about supporting musicians in their first decade after finishing music school, as this time period for everyone is filled with many choices, challenges, and opportunities. 

Some of my most gratifying conversations over the last several years have been with former students or early professional musicians with whom I have crossed paths at Tanglewood or at the New World Symphony. I have loved the opportunity to support them as they navigate the many life choices they face. 

This drove her to start the Facebook community Seeing Beyond the Notes soon after lockdowns started this year. Though not a huge fan of Facebook or Social Media in general, Elizabeth created and facilitates this online community with the goal of providing a space for discussion and making it okay to have a conversation about our shared challenges or the subjects that musicians don’t often acknowledge.

The community we’ve created is shaped by and dependent on the needs of its members. It’s all about the people who are in the group, what they’re interested in, what they want to talk about, how they want to show up for each other, the kinds of subjects they feel are relevant.

My role is to provide a framework of topics and ideas, and then to let people’s minds move in whatever direction they’re inspired to from there.  I just step back and see where the discussion goes. I might open a door to an idea, but the group members are the ones who walk through it.

One post this fall that seemed particularly honest and relevant discusses the challenge of finding meaning in our work.

Elizabeth’s goal with the community is to provide an environment for musicians to let go of their learned inclinations to judge themselves and desire to be “perfect,” and to empower everyone to connect with their most authentic self. 

We are in a profession that prioritizes perfection, and peak performance, and a polished presentation. This can be valuable when we’re on stage presenting a piece of music, but this mindset sometimes sets us up to apply those standards too harshly, and to all aspects of our lives. Too much perfectionism and self-criticism can turn into debilitating self-judgement. 

There’s an important distinction between observing yourself as an artist in order to discover opportunities for growth, versus judging yourself.   There’s a difference between “my phrasing here isn’t yet convincing” versus “I am unmusical.” Or “I wiped out on that technical passage” versus “I am a failure.”  Observation can help us assess what is occurring, where harsh judgment often shows up in statements about who you are.

We often get caught up judging ourselves, when we would be better served by simply observing. This is true whether we are thinking about our playing, or our patterns as a human being. Sometimes, this combination of perfectionism and judgement leads us to wall ourselves off from other people to protect ourselves. This can then cause us to develop a way of being in the world where we don’t allow ourselves to be seen for who we really are (and sometimes don’t really see others, either) because everyone is operating in these little bubbles of perfectionism.

She discusses this more in her TedxTalk “The Lonely Onlys”, and places special emphasis on how acknowledging your own imperfections can lead to developing empathy and enabling connections with others around you. 

Empathy is one of the most powerful tools to build community, to find people with whom you feel a connection. Empathy comes from understanding someone else’s human experience and finding a piece of it that resonates with yourself. It turns out that many of the most powerful moments of empathy arise from sharing our failures or setbacks. Our ability to expose our flaws, to allow ourselves to be seen and to see others, can provide meaningful connection. We may not understand all of what someone is going through, but we might understand one little piece of it–and that one little moment of empathy is all that it takes to feel connected.

The desire to empower others on their paths to self-discovery and to connect with larger communities has also driven Elizabeth to develop a coaching practice for creatives of all types, which to her feels completely distinct from her other work. 

Unlike teaching or mentoring where she offers expertise from her field, Elizabeth sees her role as a coach as being a thinking-partner, listening to people who desire to move forwards but may find themselves stuck, and asking questions to help them open a door that they may not have seen on their own. 

Coaching is facilitating, thinking together, providing a space to be deeply listened to and to explore what is possible.  Most of us rarely, if ever, experience how transformative it can be to be listened to in this way. Good coaching helps us identify and clarify our own thought patterns.  It helps us overcome those stubborn habits that keep us stuck and frustrated, and helps us move our lives in the direction that we want to go.

She loves working with people of all ages and in all fields, focusing on the “whole person” as they search for creative solutions and strive to make changes in their personal and professional lives. 

It’s a joy to do this work with people across all walks of life. The same roadblocks, frustrations, and negative voices that musicians experience exist everywhere else too. We all have so much in common, once we get past the surface, “resume,” piece of who we are.

This is the work I’m called to do. My whole life has brought me to this point where I’m now able to support people in a powerful way that builds on, and goes far beyond, what I can do as a flutist. 

Just as she emphasizes that letting go of perfectionism, while extremely challenging, helps to develop empathy and build community, Elizabeth also recognizes the importance of failure and believes her own past experiences, though not always pleasant, now help her to provide insight as a coach. 

All of the things that we perceive as failures at the time – auditions that didn’t go our way, relationships that fall apart, choices we regret – in the moment they are difficult and painful, and they don’t feel like anything we would ever consider to be an asset. But over time these experiences can become something truly valuable we can offer to ourselves and to others.

We gain wisdom and insight from all those setbacks. Failure is part of being a human being.  Acknowledging this allows for human-to-human connection and empathy, because nobody gets through life without failures! This is all easy to say in hindsight, of course, and nearly impossible to feel in the moment, but eventually those failures can shift into something meaningful. 

She discusses this in more depth as a guest in MIT’s FAIL! – Inspiring Resilience live-chat series. 

As she continues to form new connections, Elizabeth hopes to inspire everyone to release themselves from self-judgement, in their professional lives as well as their personal lives. 

My hope in the Facebook group, and in my other work, is to encourage us to find connection with each other as fully dimensional human beings, and to empathize with each other over the good and the bad, the shared struggles, flaws, uncertainties, and doubts that we all have, as well as the celebrations and successes. 

And as we all continue to find our ways forwards, as musicians and simply as humans striving to navigate a pandemic, I want to repeat one thought shared in the first part of Elizabeth’s interview:

It’s really important to understand that everybody is going to experience this in their own way, and there’s not a right way to go about this. 

Be kind to yourself. 

For more on Elizabeth and what’s driving her right now, make sure you read Part 1 of this interview, sign up for her occasional newsletter, or visit her at www.iamelizabethrowe.com.

Elizabeth Rowe is the principal flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  She is a professional coach, a teacher, a social justice advocate, and a public speaker. After she took a stand to demand equal pay from her employer in 2018, The Boston Globe honored her as a Bostonian of the Year, calling “The Fighter.” Her ongoing commitment to opening up dialogue about complex subjects led to her TEDx talk, The Lonely Onlys, where she shared her personal story of learning to embrace the powers of imagination and vulnerability to create connection and community. Elizabeth’s coaching practice supports creative people of all types as they work to achieve their biggest vision for their personal and professional lives, while remaining true to themselves.

Andrea Beyer

Double Bassist Andrea Beyer is an avid performer, teacher and advocate for using music as a tool for social growth. As an orchestral musician, Andrea has performed in concerts at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, as well as national halls in Central and South America and Asia. A fellow at the New World Symphony from 2017-2020, she gained a passion for creative concert design when she conceived of and presented concerts geared towards new audiences, including “Face-off: Battle of the Instruments” and “Music from Beyond the Wall.” 

Outside of the orchestral world, Andrea is a passionate teacher and is on the faculty of Bass Works, a summer double bass program in Baltimore, Maryland. She is also the Public Relations Director and a Workshop Coordinator for the MusAid Organization, which supports music programs in under-resourced countries with volunteer music teaching workshops. Andrea holds a Bachelors Degree from Oberlin Conservatory where she studied with Thomas Sperl and a Masters Degree from Yale University where she studied with Don Palma.

Currently based in Austin, Texas, you can connect with Andrea at andreabeyerbass.com or find her on Instagram @wandering_bassline.

andreabeyerbass.com

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What have you been doing playing-wise since the Met stopped performing in March?

I haven’t played any in-person performances since things shut down in March. However, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate on some spectacular projects:

• Music Across the Ocean, a collaboration between Sphinx and Chineke, was a beautiful celebration of underrepresented orchestral musicians of the highest level. 
• For the Metropolitan Opera’s At-Home Gala, the Met Orchestra did a virtual performances of the Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, the Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin, and Va Pensiero from Nabucco with our amazing colleagues in the Met Chorus and our Music Director, Yannick Nezet Seguin. 
• Following the murder of George Floyd, I teamed up with about 40 Black trombonists to create the Black Excellence Trombone Choir. Our first project, a performance of Lift Every Voice and Sing (arranged by Michael Dease) was released on Juneteenth. It was a very meaningful performance for everyone involved in the project and raised funds to support social justice causes.

How have you been approaching your personal playing during this time?

As for maintaining my chops, I still continue to practice. In this time of isolation and stress, I find playing my instrument to be incredibly therapeutic. There’s something very calming about just playing slow scales and slurs, feeling the vibration of the instrument, and hearing the smooth connection from note to note. I’ve also enjoyed reconnecting with etudes, the Bach Suites and other unaccompanied material. It’s a beautiful distraction from staring at the screen, and if by some miracle performances begin again tomorrow, there’s a good chance I’ll be ready to go!

How are you continuing to interact with your students? Do you have suggestions for other teachers right now?

I have continued to teach online lessons and masterclasses with some degree of regularity. While teaching remotely has some limitations, it also has several advantages. My advice to other virtual teachers is to take full advantage of the resources at your fingertips and make the most of your at-home setup if you have the resources to do so. 

In terms of virtual teaching, what’s working well for you?

Since the transition to online learning, I’ve invested in a quality microphone/camera setup and learned how to make best use of them. I regularly use the screen and audio share function on Zoom to show students things in the score, reference markings from my old parts that have been scanned onto my hard drive, or quickly pull up great recordings they should listen to. 

I’ve also found that the ability to articulate your thoughts with extreme clarity is of the highest importance. As a result, the communication skills in my teaching have been forced to improve. In the online environment, it’s not always as easy to constantly rely on demonstration. While demonstration has incredible value, there is also value in learning how to clearly verbalize to the student what you would like them to achieve. 

How has Juilliard’s Preparatory Division adapted to the pandemic?  

The entire Juilliard faculty did an amazing job of quickly transitioning to the remote teaching environment. Over the summer, in an effort to keep our students engaged at a time when many other summer learning opportunities had been canceled, we created the first ever Preparatory Division Summer Term.

The summer term engaged about 200 students from both the Pre-College and the Music Advancement Program for five weeks of instruction from 10AM-5PM, Monday-Thursday. In the mornings, students got the opportunity to continue their studies in ear training and counterpoint while also having access to courses like Black Music in America, Ethnomusicology, Music Technology, and Brief History of Jazz. During the lunch hour, students had the opportunity to co-host interviews with guest artists like Joseph Conyers, Isabel Leonard, Orli Shaham, and Conrad Tao. In the afternoons, students engaged in instrument specific performance classes with members of our faculty. 

For the coming year, Juilliard is planning a hybrid approach that will include both remote and in-person learning. 

Can you offer any advice to the younger generation of musicians about how to approach this unprecedented time?

1. Prioritize your mental health and physical wellness. Take time to continue remaining connected to your friends and family. We don’t have to be disconnected during this time. We just have to connect differently. Continue to exercise, eat healthy, and care for yourself. 
2. Create some long term musical goals (3-6 months) related both to technique and music. Almost every musician has some aspect of their technique they would like to improve that is not a short-term fix. There is something in your playing that requires a slow rebuilding to be perfected, and having a period of time to do that work without the pressure of a major performance looming will be helpful. List out those goals and create a systematic approach to making the improvement. Do the same with repertoire. We all have repertoire that we previously didn’t have time to learn, and now is a time when you can prepare an entire new recital program. 
3. Read. Read. Read.
4. Remain optimistic. This too shall pass. Do the best you can during this time to maintain a positive outlook, stay connected to your instrument, and continue improving. When the doors re-open, you’ll be ready to make the most of the moment.

For more from Weston, please visit him at www.westonsprott.com.

In addition to his positions as trombonist for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Dean of the Preparatory Division at The Juilliard School, Weston has performed with several of the world’s leading orchestras and music festivals and has been a featured soloist throughout the United States, Europe, South Africa, and Asia. He has been recognized as “an excellent trombonist” with a “sense of style and phrasing [that] takes a backseat to no one”. A dedicated and tireless teacher, Sprott holds faculty positions at Juilliard Pre-College and Bard College. He regularly serves on the faculties of numerous summer programs and appears frequently as a guest teacher at conservatories, universities, and other leading programs such as the New World Symphony and The Orchestra Now. Weston is an active speaker, writer, and consultant for diversity and inclusion efforts in classical music. He is a recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence and the Atlanta Symphony Talent Development Program’s Aspire Award. He is the Board Chair of the Friends of SICMF, a member of the Bronx Arts Ensemble’s Artistic Advisory Board, and a member of the Avery Fisher Artist Program’s Recommendation Board.

Andrea Beyer

Double Bassist Andrea Beyer is an avid performer, teacher and advocate for using music as a tool for social growth. As an orchestral musician, Andrea has performed in concerts at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, as well as national halls in Central and South America and Asia. A fellow at the New World Symphony from 2017-2020, she gained a passion for creative concert design when she conceived of and presented concerts geared towards new audiences, including “Face-off: Battle of the Instruments” and “Music from Beyond the Wall.” 

Outside of the orchestral world, Andrea is a passionate teacher and is on the faculty of Bass Works, a summer double bass program in Baltimore, Maryland. She is also the Public Relations Director and a Workshop Coordinator for the MusAid Organization, which supports music programs in under-resourced countries with volunteer music teaching workshops. Andrea holds a Bachelors Degree from Oberlin Conservatory where she studied with Thomas Sperl and a Masters Degree from Yale University where she studied with Don Palma.

Currently based in Austin, Texas, you can connect with Andrea at andreabeyerbass.com or find her on Instagram @wandering_bassline.

andreabeyerbass.com

The post Interview with Weston Sprott - Met Opera Trombonist & Dean of the Juilliard School's Preparatory Division appeared first on AuditionCafe.com

A few years ago, I wrote a guest blog post for Audition Cafe about a practice journal system that actually works. 

This system, developed by MET Orchestra percussionist and auditionhacker founder Rob Knopper, treats each excerpt like a portfolio.  Rob would keep all recordings, notes, and such in one folder, so that when the piece came around again, he’d have his body of research handy for him to cross-reference.

Learning about Rob’s system inspired me to find a way to make it work with Evernote, which has been my “digital brain” and project management tool of choice for over a decade.

Since that blog post came out, I’ve been refining my system, and I’ve gone all in on two apps that have totally changed the way I keep track of my music, recordings, and notes.

Diving into digital sheet music

At the end of 2017, I finally scraped together enough cash to pick up an 11 inch iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil.  I’d been eyeing my colleagues who had jumped on the digital sheet music bandwagon, and after a long chat with a gigging harpist who swore by the combo, I took that plunge and shelled out a disturbingly large amount of money for the tablet and pencil.

Getting the iPad Pro totally transformed the way I thought about sheet music.  Going to music school in the ’90s, I’d grown to love the physicality of pulling out my music, getting a whiff of that musty paper and glue, cracking open the spine, and looking at the crazy patina of old pencil markings.

I was worried about the sterility of looking at my music on the iPad.  What about the sensory experience of the paper? What if something went wrong, like if I forgot to charge the iPad, or (gasp!) dropped it?

Those potential downsides have been massively overshadowed by the very real upsides of being able to have my entire music library in one place and available to me with just a few clicks.

Finally getting into forScore

I had been aware of forScore for quite some time.  In fact, it was one of my early app purchases when I bought the very first iPad back on April 3rd, 2010.  That’s the day it was released, by the way, and yes, I’m that kind of Apple nerd!

I played around with forScore for a while back in the early days of the app, but it never really “clicked” for me.  Notating on the music was a cool option, tt just didn’t seem that much more convenient than doing everything in a more general-purpose app like Goodreader.

Getting the bigger-screen iPad Pro in 2017 and having the added utility of the Apple Pencil inspired me to take a closer look at forScore, and boy, am I glad that I did!  This app has come a long way in terms of its feature set, and I found myself spending hours obsessively experimenting with its many features.

I realized that forScore made Rob Knopper’s “portfolio practice journal” approach so much more practical for me.  With forScore, every piece functions like a folder, with notes, recordings, tags, and such following it around regardless of setlist.

Discovering Modacity

After interviewing the wonderful bassist Lauren Pierce about her course on practicing, I got an email from a representative from a company called Modacity.  This startup had created a practicing app focused on deliberate practice.

After a little sleuthing, I realized that the Modacity team was based out of San Francisco just a few blocks south of me.  I met up with them and did a podcast interview with CEO and founder Marc Gelfo.

I also started to use the app for my own practicing, mainly for research purposes.  I wasn’t really looking for a new app for my practicing, but the features and layout of Modacity intrigued me, and I found myself using it more and more. It soon dawned on me that I was practicing much better when using Modacity. 

With his background in both cognitive science and music performance, Marc had created an app tailor-made for focusing on what actually needs to be practiced and measuring results.

I also found that, while both forScore and Modacity are great on their own, combining them made a perfect “music practice peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”  Both are great on their own, but putting them together takes my practicing to a whole new level.

Modacity + forScore: my killer productivity combo

After playing around with a few options, I came up with the following system for using both of these apps.  There are certainly many other ways in which these apps could be combined, but this is what has worked the best for me.

1 – I build identical lists in both apps. 

In forScore, they’re called setlists, and in Modacity they’re called practice lists, but the concept is the same. 

Generally, I just use one list and slowly add and subtract items over time.

Here is my current list in both apps to give you an idea of how granularly I break things down.  If I were planning for an audition, I would probably have each excerpt be its own item (Mozart 35 mvt 1, Ein Heldenleben #9, etc):

1. Tune, rosin, get set
2. Right hand “add fingers”
3. Boardwalkin’
4. Scales slurred, separate, off
5. Strokin
6. Fractal fingering
7. Sturm etudes
8. Whittaker exercises
9. Nicholas Walker Chorale
10. Can’t Stop Running
11. Irish Fantasy
12. Decade’s End
13. Ensorceler

I find that planning this out ahead of my practice schedule keeps me on track in the moment.  Pieces come and go from this list according to gigs (or the pandemic-induced lack thereof), but the general flow of technique into repertoire remains the same.

Separating out the planning from the practicing has been huge for my focus. Even if I only have 20 minutes, I’m now much more likely to pick up my instrument and get something done because I know that I can open up my apps and dive in.

2 – forScore is for marking, Modacity is for tools and tracking

I keep my iPhone with Modacity on the left of my music stand and my iPad with forScore on the right.  I’m left-handed, so I don’t know if it would be more comfortable reversed for right-handed people.

While it is possible to use both Modacity and forScore in split-screen mode on the iPad, I find that separate devices work much better for me.

I find myself interacting with Modacity much more frequently during a practice session than I do with forScore.  Modacity is my practice timer.  It reminds me to take breaks.  It’s my drone and metronome.  I use it to record myself, and I use the “improve” button to really hone in on what In need to be practicing and not waste endless amounts of time playing what I can already do well.

I use forScore like I would use paper music, but I mark up my music much more than I would on paper. I use different colors to indicate things like practice chunks, goal tempos, fingerings and bowings, and notes to myself.  Since I can show and hide multiple layers for each page in forScore, there’s no danger of over-marking my music.  I can turn off various layers to get a clean part at any point.

I also find myself zooming in on the iPad to the exact section on which I’m working.  That helps me to really focus on the passage at hand and resist the urge to simply barrel through things.  I’m so accustomed to this that I now  find myself trying to “zoom in” with my fingers when using paper music!

3 – both apps help me to plan the next day’s practicing

I record myself in Modacity multiple times during a practice session, but most of the time it’s to simply listen back to a few bars.  Getting in the habit of this helps to separate performance from evaluation, which is so helpful in developing solid performance skills.  I typically don’t save any of these short recordings.

Every few days, though, I intentionally save the recordings for later evaluation.  Depending on where I am in the learning process, that recording might only be a short section, or it could be an entire run of a work.  This listening back and evaluation process is another time in which forScore and Modacity interlock together so perfectly. 

At the end of my practice session, I’ll sit down with both forScore and Modacity.  With Apple Pencil in hand, I’ll play back the recording in Modacity and mark anything in the music that I want to work on. 

I’ll then use the “notes” section of that piece in Modacity to create to-do items like:

• m. 43 intonation in 16th notes
• m. 49 balance the chord–more low voice
• m. 72 rushing at end of bar
• m. 97 needs to sound easier–work for more flow

Those notes become a checklist in the app, so the next time I open up the piece in Modacity, I’ll see a neat and tidy to-do list of what I actually need to practice. What a brilliant implementation!

Final thoughts

There’s a lot more I could say about both of these apps. Both of them have really taken my organization up a notch, and they’ve made my practice sessions much more efficient and targeted.

What tools do you use in your practicing? If you use these apps, do you implement them like I’m doing, or do you have a different method? I’d love to know!

Jason Heath

Jason Heath is the host of Contrabass Conversations, a podcast devoted to exploring music and ideas associated with the double bass. His blog and podcast are highly regarded in the music world and have been featured as top offerings in the world of arts and culture for the past decade.

An active double bass performer and teacher, Jason taught double bass at DePaul University for seven years and served on the Board of Directors of the International Society of Bassists for many years. He also previously taught at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and at Trinity International University. Jason previously served as President of the Illinois chapter of the American String Teachers Association and as the Illinois Music Educators Association District 7 Orchestra Division Co-Representative.

A graduate of Northwestern University, Jason currently performs with the IRIS Orchestra in Memphis Tennessee, and with he Midsummer’s Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin. He was a member of the Elgin Symphony for 16 seasons and has performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Symphony, and numerous other professional ensembles.

contrabassconversations.com

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A professional perspective: The Houston Symphony’s new forms of audience engagement

First, some background: since going into lockdown in March, the Houston Symphony has focused on reaching listeners in three ways:

1. Radio Broadcasts – They are sharing archival recordings of the orchestra on a Houston radio station four times a week. Carlos has been doing pre-broadcast presentations to offer insights into what each performance can mean to the listener. 

2. New educational material – Community Embedded Musicians have been creating new material for children, and Carlos has been producing weekly short videos to share some insights about music in general. (See the end of the interview for one on our favorite topic!) 

3. Houston Symphony Living Room Series – Beginning in April, the Symphony has focused on presenting the musicians of the orchestra as they organize, program, and perform live from their own homes. This creates a direct connection between the performer and the audience, especially as the audience gets to see the players in a “domestic” setting. In addition, Carlos gives a pre-performance talk that encompasses basic themes of the program. 

According to Carlos, these virtual interactions, especially the “Living Room Series,” have changed the relationship between the performers and audience:

It definitely has made the relationship more one-on-one. Every performance, each of the listeners gets to chat directly with the musicians and to hear their voice, from introducing the pieces to answering their very questions personally. Sometimes those questions are interesting because we have valuable information about the performance, but more often than not, the audience have their own set of questions that deserve to be answered as well.

I also feel that by allowing each performer to choose their own program we always expand our listening horizon, not only discovering true jewels among the players themselves but also in the repertoire that they love and cherish.

The line between work and personal time seems to be more blurry every week, which made everyone realize that the way we carry our organization is a statement on our beliefs and our dreams for society at large.

This new perspective has changed the way Carlos hopes to interact with the audience:

The main challenge nowadays with all the virtual content is to offer remarkable live performances to the listeners so they want, desire, and commit to return to the concert hall. 

He is asking questions like: 

• How do we offer memorable concerts weekend after weekend? 

• How do we program music that truly addresses the needs of and questions from the community? 

• How do we balance our desire to touch upon every piece in the repertoire that inspires us (aka we like) and at the same time guide the listening experience of the audience?

And more generally for the orchestra:

These and many more philosophical questions need to be put into the context of the reality of the concert hall post Coronavirus. We are going to have limitations in how many players can be on stage, how many audience members can be listening to the concert in the Hall, and even the appropriate length for a concert with all the logistics of organizing four or five hundred people entering, staying, and exiting the same room.

We as performers realize that we need to adapt to the 21st century, embrace new technologies, and reimagine the way that the orchestra can showcase the best of our talents according to the particular makeup of each member in the audience.

One thing remains amazing to me every day: the more I am able to respond to the audience’s cues and clues, the better they enjoy music and the better I feel as a musician. Music becomes every day an excuse to reach out from one human being to another.

The Houston Symphony’s plans for the remainder of the summer and the fall:

For the rest of the month of June we will continue with our living room concert series, and in July and August we will offer live broadcast chamber-music-size ensembles from Jone’s Hall itself. In between, we will also offer several concerts in outdoor settings, of course adhering to the best practices in social distancing and virus contention.

All the way to the end of the summer the premise is: how can we show our city that we are here making music even more dedicated than ever, for their delight and pure enjoyment.

Educational challenges: connecting with conservatory students online

The Instituto Superior de Música del Estado de Veracruz, where Carlos is the Music Director of the Conservatory’s orchestra, went into lockdown on March 10th, so every student interaction since then has been virtual.

This has posed numerous challenges but has also connected Carlos to his students in a new way:

The main challenge that was highlighted by this pandemic, and all the measures in order to carry it out, was the realization of the huge gap in terms of access to technology that our students had. So, either they had impressive technology at their disposal or none whatsoever. You can imagine the challenges we face when we try to have a virtual rehearsal and half of the section may not even have access to a Wi-Fi connection in their home. 

Despite these enormous challenges, we have been able to prepare together for future auditions in order to secure their permanence in the orchestra next semester. I have personally discovered very valuable insight on their dreams, expectations, and work ethics, which perhaps otherwise would have taken years in order for me to realize. When we meet again, we will be more than ready to enjoy the encounter with live music.

The new lines of communication have pushed the students to take more responsibility in the ensemble, as Carlos understands them better and they get to hear the thought process behind his decisions:

We have always had great input from the players into the season planning, but now we are carrying that input into the operation of the group itself. They soon realized that whatever progress we achieve as an ensemble is going to be reflected in the way that they will carry themselves and their careers from here on to the future.

They also have a new project!

We also imagine, produce, and publish a by-weekly podcast where we share with our younger audience (in the whole state) our thoughts about symphonic music. Most of the content is student-driven. Although I create the script, it is their idea of what the listeners need to learn what transpires in each of the episodes of the podcast.

We have for instance an episode on each of the instruments of the orchestra, to serve as an introduction to our audience in order to know each better and prepare the way towards the moment when we can again gather in this dynamic audience/performer duet.

Shaping the future: advice for young professional musicians

When I was a student, none of my teachers were aware of how the world was going to look when I was ready to graduate and tackle the world on my own. No fault on any of them, of course, it just happened that the last 3 decades the world sped up its transformations! 

I soon realized there were several areas that competed in importance with the skills my teachers helped me hone and master. Such skills range from public speaking, business savviness, project submissions, fulfilling and effective networking strategies, smart use of new technologies, and even awareness of the impact of repertoire selection inside the social discourse. Today’s artist needs to navigate different (if ever less clear) waters than any previous generation. 

I am convinced this pandemic carries with all its challenges a priceless opportunity, a perfect chance to make our profession ‘exactly’ what we imagine. We now have an opportunity to connect directly with our audience, and share with them our thoughts and fears, enriching the musical exchange and overcharging it with tons and tons of humanity. 

Unchartered territory is precisely the phrase that defines our plight right now, but in the best sense of the expression, for it’s truly our responsibility that each of our steps reflect with honestly our world view, and our desire to connect as many listeners to the music we love, taking care of music so that it can in turn take care of those who come to listen.

Colombian-American conductor Carlos Andrés Botero serves as the Music Ambassador and Assistant Conductor for the Houston Symphony and is the Music Director of the Conservatory Orchestra in the State of Veracruz. Passionate about using music for social transformation and cultural diplomacy, he also leads orchestral workshops with underprivileged youth and budding musicians in Aruba, El Salvador, Argentina, Panama, Iraq, Lebanon, and Colombia.

For more on Carlos, his vision for the classical music world, and the full collection of his recent videos, please visit him at www.carlosandresbotero.com or follow him on Instagram @carlosandresbotero.

But first, our favorite of Carlos’s “Moment of Music” videos:

Andrea Beyer

Double Bassist Andrea Beyer is an avid performer, teacher and advocate for using music as a tool for social growth. As an orchestral musician, Andrea has performed in concerts at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, as well as national halls in Central and South America and Asia. A fellow at the New World Symphony from 2017-2020, she gained a passion for creative concert design when she conceived of and presented concerts geared towards new audiences, including “Face-off: Battle of the Instruments” and “Music from Beyond the Wall.” 

Outside of the orchestral world, Andrea is a passionate teacher and is on the faculty of Bass Works, a summer double bass program in Baltimore, Maryland. She is also the Public Relations Director and a Workshop Coordinator for the MusAid Organization, which supports music programs in under-resourced countries with volunteer music teaching workshops. Andrea holds a Bachelors Degree from Oberlin Conservatory where she studied with Thomas Sperl and a Masters Degree from Yale University where she studied with Don Palma.

Currently based in Austin, Texas, you can connect with Andrea at andreabeyerbass.com or find her on Instagram @wandering_bassline.

andreabeyerbass.com

The post Interview with Carlos Andrés Botero - Asst. Conductor & Music Ambassador for the Houston Symphony and Music Director of the Conservatory Orchestra in the State of Veracruz appeared first on AuditionCafe.com

Over the last few weeks, people across the United States have become increasingly aware and active as the country experiences a social awakening. Arts and music organizations are making bold statements in support of Black communities and condemning racism, one of the most notable coming from the League of American Orchestras. 

Many individuals, especially in the music community, have been finding ways to get involved by making statements online, having difficult conversations, and educating themselves. The question many musicians are facing is: what now? As individuals, what can we do?

If you find yourself among the many asking these questions, we encourage you to use your musical skills and creativity to connect with your community, and we have a few ideas of how to get started from your own home!

1. Host an online fundraising concert

Making a donation can be one of the most straightforward ways to support a cause, but during this time when many musicians have lost work, this doesn’t necessarily feel like an option. Many musicians have been giving online performances with tip jars since lockdowns started in March, so a great way to dedicate your musicianship to a cause is to raise money through the same platform.

A few organizations to consider donating to (which are also amazing educational resources) include:

• The American Civil Liberties Union
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund
• Human Rights Watch
• Black Lives Matter

You can also diversify your programming by including more composers of color! Musicbyblackcomposers.org has a long list of resources, including a directory of living composers. Classicfm also just published a list of 9 black composers who changed the course of classical music history.

2. Get to know more Black Artists in and around your field

There are countless others, but here are a few voices that motivate and entertain.

Samora Pinderhughes, pianist & composer – Personally, I [Priscilla] have admired and watched Samora blossom in ways that continue to amaze me ever since we first met in college. An article published about him by NPR begins with a quote of his: “Our best musicians in the jazz tradition were radical imaginers.”

Francisco Joubert Bernard, bassoonist –  The opening line of a recent video of his quotes Ella Fitzgerald, saying, “Forgive me if I don’t have all the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand.” What he accomplishes in this video is an example of how to create something that is both gripping and healing at the same time.

Lee Burgess, music educator – His objectives about “Educational Reform” are resourceful, impassioned and persuasive. Lee has CCM’s institutional backing to enact structural changes that will bolster the relationships between Cincinnati’s diverse communities and the conservatory. He is a guest lecturer on the topics of race, education and the intersection thereof, and is instituting a virtual learning program in South Carolina that will impact over 100,000 students.

Michael Casimir, violist – Michael explores technological ways of expressing himself. Two favorite videos from his latest offerings are May 22nd’s “Welcome… to Jurassic Park” and June 6th’s “Take Two Knees.” 

Amaker Smith, creative – Amaker’s presence will leave you with a smile on your face. A professional dancer, etc (emphasis on the “etc”), he clearly wants to share his artistic gifts, both in the product itself but also through educating others about ventures new or old, while keeping things light. 

3. Reach out to your local youth music program

Connecting with young people is a great way to affect change. In addition, engaging those who have different backgrounds from yourself can offer you with a new perspective. While reaching out to people of different ages or backgrounds might seem difficult, music acts as a common interest and easy topic of conversation.

Due to shutdowns, youth music programs have to be especially creative to keep their students engaged and inspired, and many are holding online workshops and are open to having guest speakers or teachers. If you are looking to connect, you can simply contact your local youth orchestra or socially driven music program to volunteer your time for an online workshop or lessons.

Not sure where to start? Check out the El Sistema USA directory. El Sistema USA supports programs that provide music education to underserved youth and are committed to equity, empowerment, and community.

4. Register to Vote!

Yes, this is not specifically musical, but being a musician is about expressing your voice, and so is voting. Just do it. www.vote.org

Final Thoughts

As orchestral musicians, we are familiar with improving ourselves in order to contribute to a larger group of people or of recognizing the significance of being one small part of a larger whole. We all also know the importance of self-care and personal well-being in our efforts to grow, and we want to remind you to be kind to yourself and to find what works for you. In whatever ways, large or small, that you choose to connect to your community, we are in this together and steadily, with our actions, we can move forwards towards equality. 

About the Co-Author:

To see more from Priscilla, follow her on Instagram @sillyprillz or sign up for her newsletter!

Florida native Priscilla Rinehart came to Sarasota from Miami Beach, where she was a Fellow at the New World Symphony. Priscilla is honored to play in the Sarasota Orchestra horn section and looks forward to the season ahead. In 2019, she performed for the first time with Chineke! Orchestra in London, Sphinx Symphony Orchestra in Detroit and Gateways Music Festival in Rochester, NY. These three organizations seek to inspire cultural variety in the representation of classical music through programming choices and dynamic concerts. Motivated by their efforts and the Black Lives Matter movement Priscilla is working to better serve our marginalized communities and will continue to evolve with those who share a similar vision.

Andrea Beyer

Double Bassist Andrea Beyer is an avid performer, teacher and advocate for using music as a tool for social growth. As an orchestral musician, Andrea has performed in concerts at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, as well as national halls in Central and South America and Asia. A fellow at the New World Symphony from 2017-2020, she gained a passion for creative concert design when she conceived of and presented concerts geared towards new audiences, including “Face-off: Battle of the Instruments” and “Music from Beyond the Wall.” 

Outside of the orchestral world, Andrea is a passionate teacher and is on the faculty of Bass Works, a summer double bass program in Baltimore, Maryland. She is also the Public Relations Director and a Workshop Coordinator for the MusAid Organization, which supports music programs in under-resourced countries with volunteer music teaching workshops. Andrea holds a Bachelors Degree from Oberlin Conservatory where she studied with Thomas Sperl and a Masters Degree from Yale University where she studied with Don Palma.

Currently based in Austin, Texas, you can connect with Andrea at andreabeyerbass.com or find her on Instagram @wandering_bassline.

andreabeyerbass.com

The post 4 Ways to Use Your Musicianship to Connect with Your Community appeared first on AuditionCafe.com

Jason Heath

Jason Heath is the host of Contrabass Conversations, a podcast devoted to exploring music and ideas associated with the double bass. His blog and podcast are highly regarded in the music world and have been featured as top offerings in the world of arts and culture for the past decade.

An active double bass performer and teacher, Jason taught double bass at DePaul University for seven years and served on the Board of Directors of the International Society of Bassists for many years. He also previously taught at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and at Trinity International University. Jason previously served as President of the Illinois chapter of the American String Teachers Association and as the Illinois Music Educators Association District 7 Orchestra Division Co-Representative.

A graduate of Northwestern University, Jason currently performs with the IRIS Orchestra in Memphis Tennessee, and with he Midsummer’s Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin. He was a member of the Elgin Symphony for 16 seasons and has performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Symphony, and numerous other professional ensembles.

contrabassconversations.com

The post 10 Preparation Strategies I've Learned from Audition Winners appeared first on AuditionCafe.com

Every once in a while, though, a ton of them pile up at once.  I was flabbergasted at this month’s paper. It seemed like every page had multiple bass auditions on it. Talk about feast or famine!

That got me thinking about a common problem that musicians face: how to plan for multiple auditions at the same time?

While planning for a bunch of different auditions at the same can be complicated, the following methods can help to make the process more manageable.

1. Make a spreadsheet with all audition pieces

Go through each audition list and input it into a spreadsheet.  I use Google Sheets so that I can access and modify the spreadsheet on any device and share it with others.

I enter each excerpt from each list as a separate line item, add the date on which I need to play it, and color code all the excerpts with a different color for each audition.  I’ll probably have duplicate excerpts, but that’s ok.  I’m trying to get a “zoomed out” view of the task in front of me.

Getting all the requirements for an audition down in print is really helpful.  You can see exactly what each audition is requiring, where there’s overlap, and which audition is going to be the most challenging in terms of preparation.

Once you’ve got these excerpts documented, you’ll have a much better time figuring out how much you can handle and which auditions you can reasonably tackle.

2. Give each excerpt an A, B, and C priority

I picked up this technique from Chicago Symphony principal bassist Alex Hanna.  Assign a letter to each excerpt.  A-level excerpts are ones that require your daily attention.  B-level excerpts should be played every other day or so, and C-level excerpts only need to be played once a week.

This is a great way to understand the level of difficulty for each audition and ensure that you’re preparing everything with an appropriate level of attention.  Over time, you’ll find certain excerpts moving from the A list to the B list, from the B list to the C list, or even from the B list back to the A list as problems creep in.

3. Cut overwhelming auditions

Here’s where it gets tough.  Take an honest look at the task in front of you.  Can you actually prepare all of this music to the best fo your ability?

Maybe, but maybe not.  It all depends on how much overlap there is with the multiple lists, how far apart the auditions are spaced, and any outliers with a ton of challenging unfamiliar repertoire.

While I’m sure you want to try to make all these auditions work, you may find that cutting one or two makes for a much more manageable process.  I’m much more likely to take 3-4 auditions with a lot of overlap than two auditions with radically different lists.

4. Build out multiple practice lists

I like using the app Modacity for this.  Modacity allows you to enter excerpts as separate practice items and then build out multiple playlists.  It then tracks how much you’ve worked on everything overall.  Think fitness tracker but for music.

At the beginning of each week, I build out a playlist for every day that week.  I make sure that all the A-list items are covered daily, then I alternate B and C items for the rest of the week.

This takes the organizational cognitive load off every single practice session.  My “manager” brain can tackle this at the beginning of the week, freeing up my “worker” brain for focused productivity.

5. Listen to yourself frequently

Modacity is great for this as well.  There’s a record button staring at me from the app interface, encouraging me to record myself throughout my practice session.

I record myself in short bursts constantly throughout my session.  Recording is crucial for me because it allows me to be in the moment when I’m actually playing.  I save my analysis for when I’m listening back to the recording.  This is a great way to learn to quiet the mind and separate performance from analysis.

6. Think of all excerpts as part of a whole

I’ve always found auditions to be easier when I think of all the audition repertoire as a recital of sorts.  This is more mental than physical, but I find that if I imagine all of these smaller excerpts as being connected into a larger thing, I tend to prepare more musically overall.

I focus on developing contrasts between excerpts as much as possible.  Recording helps so much with this because of the objective feedback it provides. Maybe I think I’m really making that crescendo or nailing that dynamic change, but the recording doesn’t lie!

Final Thoughts

Preparing for just one audition is a challenge, and juggling multiple ones doesn’t make the task any easier.  The above strategies have helped me greatly, and I’ve seen success in my students when they implement these in their own process.  Being honest with yourself and preparing with good organization will make the multiple audition road less bumpier for sure.

For a lifetime discount and to try out the practicing app modacity click here!

Jason Heath

Jason Heath is the host of Contrabass Conversations, a podcast devoted to exploring music and ideas associated with the double bass. His blog and podcast are highly regarded in the music world and have been featured as top offerings in the world of arts and culture for the past decade.

An active double bass performer and teacher, Jason taught double bass at DePaul University for seven years and served on the Board of Directors of the International Society of Bassists for many years. He also previously taught at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and at Trinity International University. Jason previously served as President of the Illinois chapter of the American String Teachers Association and as the Illinois Music Educators Association District 7 Orchestra Division Co-Representative.

A graduate of Northwestern University, Jason currently performs with the IRIS Orchestra in Memphis Tennessee, and with he Midsummer’s Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin. He was a member of the Elgin Symphony for 16 seasons and has performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Symphony, and numerous other professional ensembles.

contrabassconversations.com

The post How to prepare multiple auditions at the same time appeared first on AuditionCafe.com

Plenty of audition articles tell you how hard you need to work, and some even tell you how to work hard. This one goes out to all of you who followed that advice, played a great round, and still found yourselves taking a tearful cab ride back to the airport.

If you’ve ever suspected that audition winners have a psychological edge or secret weapon, then I’m here to tell you that you’re right. There is an edge. But it doesn’t need to remain a secret.

You already know that auditions are decided by committees. And committees are made up of irrational human beings just like us. Therefore, in order to maximize your chances at an audition, you must understand how committee members think and how to persuade them.

I’ve been on both sides of the screen enough times to know that perfection rarely persuades. What a committee craves is a player who makes their decision easy and enjoyable.

Do you want to be that player? Then study up on how people really make decisions.

Test-driving blind

Imagine that you have a great-uncle who’s an automobile fanatic. He owns an entire fleet of amazing vehicles, and he makes you an unbelievable offer: he’ll give you whichever one you want.

There are only two conditions: this will be the last car you’ll ever own; and you’ll have to make your decision based solely on three-minute test drives. You won’t be able to do any research beforehand. You won’t even know what car you’re test-driving since all the identifying marks will be covered up.

How would you choose your dream car?

The class system

You’d instantly be able to put each car into a category based on your first impression. Some cars you’d eliminate just by sitting in the driver’s seat and starting the engine. Others you’d cut after a quick spin around the block. Soon you’d have a short list of contenders. But without consumer ratings, expert opinions, and specifications, how would you make a final choice?

There’s no such thing as “objective”

You’ve just put yourself in the shoes of audition committee members. They’re charged with making a decision they’ll have to live with for the rest of their careers, and they don’t get the benefit of objective evidence. Your audition, just like a test-drive, is completely subjective. It’s subject, in fact, to emotion, conjecture, bias, and blind (or deaf) spots!

The power of a story

Think back to those automobiles that made your short list. They felt “right” from the moment you stepped inside. As you sank into the plush leather, you imagined sun-dappled drives in the country. Firing up the engine gave you flashes of your friends’ envious faces. Turning the wheel had you carving up curvy coastline roads.

Each of your impressions went far beyond the evidence at hand: they were all flights of fancy that your brain conjured in an instant, without your approval. But once written, those stories stuck. Without any hard data to examine, they were all you had. You might have see-sawed for a while, but in the end you would have picked the most compelling story and walked away happy.

Committee members gravitate toward that same ease in their decision-making. So make it easy for them: tell them a story.

Storytelling is part of human nature

All of us have a need for narratives. Even as you read these words, you’re drawing a mental picture of me: what kind of person I am, what kind of life I lead. It’s human nature, and if you can tap into it at your audition, you can reach the committee at a gut level.

As soon as a committee assembles on audition day, they tell themselves stories…about themselves. Before the first note sounds, here’s a typical committee member’s thought process:

• I know all the music on this list inside and out.
• It all started when I won my job here.
• I worked like a dog for that audition, and it paid off.
• I take care of all the musical details, and I expect my colleagues to do the same.
• I want someone like me for this opening!

Pay special attention to that last one. After telling herself all the reasons that she belongs in the orchestra, the member finishes with a desire to include one more person…as long as she’s just like her.

That need to belong, to be included, goes hand-in-hand with storytelling. It’s no accident that most superheroes have an “origin story” that begins with them living life as an ordinary person. Good writers know that we’ll be more invested in the tale if we believe that the hero is one of us.

Without trust, you’re finished before you start

Somehow, then, you have to assume the form of someone who already has the job. How do you begin to do that from behind the screen?

Imagine yourself once more as a decision-maker. This time, instead of choosing cars, you’re choosing people. You need a business partner, someone whose fortunes will be tied to yours for years to come. So you throw a party and invite entrepreneurs from all over town.

As you scan the room, drink in hand, what is it you’re looking for? What’s the crucial ingredient, the thing you have to recognize before you’ll consider doing business with someone?

It’s trust.

If you don’t trust the person in front of you, you can’t take him seriously. It doesn’t matter what he says or how he says it. But someone who makes you feel comfortable, while delivering a killer pitch? You’ll buy whatever he’s selling.

Cultivate “the look”

Each guest at your hypothetical party has a “look”: clothes, accessories, body language. When you see a well-fitting outfit combined with confident posture and easy gestures, you know that person is worth listening to. And you know it at a glance.

In a screened audition, your “look” equals your playing in the first ten seconds. A quality sound, delivered with confidence and fidelity to the score, puts the committee at ease. There’s no sliding scale for this gut reaction: it’s pass/fail.

Fill in the details

Once you pass, each committee member starts to sketch a broad outline of you in her mind. It might resemble the following:

• romantic player
• lush sound
• confident
• experienced

Or perhaps:

• solid technique
• hard worker
• safe
• predictable

The committee doesn’t actually know these things about you, but their minds race ahead to craft a compelling narrative for themselves.

The committee fills in the details of your story as you play more selections. In fact, without being aware of it, they predict how you’ll play each excerpt based on the story they’ve written about you so far! They pay more attention to evidence that confirms their story, and less to new information that would change it.

That’s why two different players, A and B, can make the same mistake and yet be judged completely differently. Once you understand why, you’re well on your way to honing your edge.

A double standard

One minute into the audition, a committee member pegs Player A as “a maverick, risk-taking youngster who needs to be reined in.” Thus a mistake is further proof that A needs to settle down before deserving the job.

Player B, after one minute, is “a warm, sensitive musician who plays well in all styles.” That same mistake is a fluke: nothing to get worked up about.

It doesn’t matter that in reality, Player A is a veteran of several professional orchestras and a wonderful colleague, while Player B is freaking out during her first audition. The narrative has taken hold, and it dictates how new evidence is received.

First impressions and second chances

All this is to say that first impressions matter. They are perhaps even more important than you guessed. So can you recover from a bad one?

The answer depends on just how bad an impression we’re talking about! If you failed to establish trust, then forget it. But if you at least caught the committee’s ear, then your success at rewriting your story depends on how interesting the story is in the first place, and how boldly you tell it. Give the committee enough new and compelling evidence, without distracting them further, and they’ll be on board with a rewrite.

Your action plan

So how can you take control of your audition story?

First, you have to choose your auditions with care. You must establish trust right away, and that simply will not happen if the entire committee is made up of players who are better than you. So before sending in that resumé, get knowledgeable feedback on your playing level so that you don’t waste your time.

Next, cultivate your “look”. Work on the technical details for your instrument that allow you to make a great sound in any range, at any speed, and at any dynamic. When those details are second nature to you, then committee members will hear in you that idealized version of themselves that they’ve built up.

Finally, to advance and win, you need to work the way mystery writers do: write the ending, then work backwards! You know the end of your story: you’re welcomed by the committee as one of the gang. How did you get there?

Think back to Players A and B, and the narratives that took root after just a few excerpts. What will your story be? Write it down, then live it through your practicing.

At the end of the day, the committee is only human, and humans are attracted to easy decisions. So make it easy for them. Tell a winning story from the start, and they’ll overlook your flaws every time. After all, you’re just like them!

Nathan Cole

Nathan Cole, First Associate Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is one of the world’s leading coaches for the violin audition repertoire. Previously a member of the Chicago Symphony and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, he has sat on audition committees for nearly every orchestral instrument. He has also performed as guest concertmaster for the orchestras of Houston, Minnesota, Oregon, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and Seattle.

Nathan’s passion is helping violinists reach their potential in the practice room, concert hall, and audition stage. Through one-on-one coaching, master classes, blog posts, and videos, he shares detailed knowledge that is typically taught only inside elite conservatories. His “New York Philharmonic Audition Challenge” invites violinists from all over the world to follow Nathan’s own audition preparation timeline. It has already been adapted for other instruments including flute and viola.

Born to professional flutists in Lexington, Kentucky, Nathan started violin at age four in a Suzuki program. He earned his Bachelor of Music at the Curtis Institute, where he spent less time practicing solo pieces than he should have, and more time rehearsing string quartets. His wife, Akiko Tarumoto, is Assistant Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

You can visit and write Nathan at www.natesviolin.com.

www.natesviolin.com

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