Great Expectations
In response to Adam’s questions below , there are a few. As part of the Arts Leadership Program at Eastman we were required to take 3 electives I believe. One was Adrian Daly’s career class (I can’t remember the title) and the other was Ray Ricker’s “Entrepreneurship in Music”. Both of these classes featured guest artists and professionals from all aspects of the business. Not only did it offer intensely valuable perspective but I also made some helpful connections for when I graduated and transitioned into the professional world. I’ll never forget some of the common sense tips that Ray Ricker offered in his classes: always show up on time and look presentable, call back and leave your name and number at the beginning of the message as well as at the end, and “shut up and play” – in reference to studio work. There was also Greg Mertl’s class on “Music and the Media” which focused on the role and identity of classical music in Hollywood and advertising and how we as classical musicians self-perpetuate the view that it is a higher art form, distancing ourselves from the lay-person. This class totally blew me away! Really, any class that offers you a forum for working through any of these issues or hearing the perspective from the outside world will be time well-spent.
Least beneficial: keyboard audits – not that I don’t appreciate all the great theory that we had during those four years. But, for the amount of stress I put on myself to do well during those 4 minutes every week was not so worth it!
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