Emerge Already! The Ultimate Guide to Career Building for Emerging Artists

Emerge Already!

The Ultimate Guide to Career Building for Emerging Artists

By Jade Simmons

Cover Photo and Author Photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco

Published by Jade Media at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Jade Simmons

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Introduction- Be the Boss of Your Own Art

Chapter 1- Carve Your Niche

Chapter 2- To Compete or Not To Compete

Chapter 3- Practice Makes Perfect But Promotion Equals Concerts

Chapter 4- 18 Months: The Seed-Planting Period

Chapter 5- The Importance of Package Deals

Chapter 6- Salon Concerts Are Back, Baby!

Chapter 7- Savoring Small Town America (Or Wherever You May Be)

Chapter 8- Approaching Managers and Record Labels

Chapter 9- How Not to Get Re-engaged

Conclusion- Building a Lifestyle Grounded in the Arts

Meet the Author- Who is Jade?

Introduction: Be the Boss of Your Own Art

The Plight

Let's face it. The field of Classical music is technically over saturated when it comes to viable talent. It's as simple as that. But here is the good news. Even given that much talked about, and often overhyped oversaturation, there is still room in the market for you! By you I mean an innovative, thought-provoking artist willing to strategize new points of entry AND put in the hard work to see your dreams become a reality. Now...back to the plight.

Statistically speaking, there are way too many ambitious and extremely talented performers for the small amount of concert stages that exist. Yet, university music schools and private conservatories are still churning out cookie-cutter musicians at a record pace, many without a solid, relevant career development program in place. But let’s not just put the blame on music education. That is not at all what Emerge Already! is about. We musicians have held on far too long to the fantasy that if we just keep practicing, some big time conductor will happen across our practice room, fall in love with our playing and whisk us off on a worldwide tour with his world-class orchestra. In the least, we imagine we’ll win a big name competition and then of course our career will be born the very next day. As a result of our incomplete music educations and our somewhat delusional mindsets, emerging artists (meaning artists seemingly on the cusp of a great career...that’s you!) end up either drowning or perennially emerging, never seeming to fully break through as notable performers with solid, sustainable careers.

Add to the numbers problem the fact that today’s modern-day concert artist is expected to do much more than practice and perform, which is pretty much all they are trained to do. Today's arts presenters, in order to fulfill their own artistic and outreach efforts in a cost-effective manner, are seeking concert artists who will be effective on and off the stage. They want artists who have created a multi-faceted artistic identity that includes traditional performances, lecture recitals, master classes and school and community outreach. It doesn’t hurt if artists also happen to be media savvy. Today's emerging artists, in addition to performing and prior to being represented by commercial management, need to know how to promote themselves and need to be given the tools to do so. Even given the abundance of high level music schools and conservatories, there is still a regrettable dearth of hands-on career assistance which guides a young artist in their efforts to build a solid career grounded in the arts. Emerge Already!, intended for aspiring concert artists, other artsy types and creative entrepreneurs, as well as those artists already in the throes of building a career (including those newly or stalely under concert management), is designed to be that guide. The major lesson to take from this guide is the following:

Don’t wait around to be discovered. Discover yourself instead.

It's a simple piece of advice, but one that is not often taken. Music students spend hours a day practicing and not more than a few minutes thinking about where they are going to perform all those pieces they have been slaving over, aside from the next jury or student recital.

In the age of Do It Yourself-ism, aspiring concert artists have no good excuse not to take their careers into their own hands, but they need more direction than the old and not-so-true adage practice makes perfect. I know you do not want to hear this, but even when you land that commercial management you have been dreaming about, the work that you will have to do in the areas of promotion and artist development, in many ways, is just beginning!

Emerge Already! gives specific information on what is expected of artists by arts presenters and specific guidance on how to put together your artistic package. From basics like putting together promo kits, to invaluable extras like building attractive package deals, to getting the attention of management agencies, these ten chapters will help set you on the path to complete emergence. I would be lying if I said it would be an easy path to follow because it definitely is not. In fact, it is quite a difficult path. I dare say we have it even harder than our pop music counterparts. But if performing is your passion as well as your priority, then the hard work will be worth the effort when you find yourself playing an increasing number of venues each season and possibly even making a bit of a name (and money!) for yourself in the process.

The Emerge Already! Difference

Fortunately, thanks to the bandwagon effect largely caused by the creation of Juilliard’s career-focused Academy partnership with Weill and Carnegie Halls, conservatories all across America have added some sort of career assistance or career development program. It might be as extensive as what Indiana University is creating with its Jumpstart program at the Jacobs School of Music or as puny as a simple promise to pass along gigging inquiries to students. But as far as we have come, it is still a bit baffling to me that not many of these programs are directed by current performing artists. I do not care how many DMA’s you might have in performance, it is not even close to having the life-experience of performance, especially when it comes to long-term touring experience. Emerge Already! is brought to you by an artist who is performing today and constantly reshaping her own artistic landscape. Emerge Already! tells you which of the experiences you had in school translate to the real world and which old-fashioned, overly academic, non-practical advice to throw away.

The ‘Why’ of Emerge Already?

Emerge Already! is for YOU, musical artist or not. It is a book written for those just now leaping off the precipice into a fledgling career, those in the midst of a stalled career, and those enjoying a steady career but sensing the need to upgrade to the next level. So many of us have spent our lives on the cusp of something great but for whatever good reason we have not fully emerged. There is a critical point where emerging artists and others hoping and praying to break out begin to contemplate what they thought they would have achieved by now and compare it to what they still have not achieved. It is a frustrating, often devastating picture. It only worsens when they mentally fast-forward and cannot imagine anything changing because they cannot envision their circumstances changing. Soon after this realization, they give up. This book exists so you will not give up. That is the feel good part.

Here is the ugly truth part, the part I guarantee you will not get in school. You can also think of Emerge Already! as a tell-it-like-it-is book. Lucky for you, I have had quite a few artistic acquaintances that have done things dreadfully wrong. While I have miraculously avoided catastrophic mistakes, you can bet there is indeed a flub or too you can benefit from at my expense as well. To be fair, I have changed the names, but not the stories of young artists who have allowed their diva attitudes (guys included), laziness, corny or phony stage antics, bad business practices, misguided and mean behavior, bitter complaining, inappropriate emails, fraudulent marketing, and ingratitude to lead to stalled careers. The saddest part of it is that many of them still have no idea what went wrong. Even if they read this book they might not recognize themselves. And how do I know about these misdeeds? I know because the classical music world is a small one. You would not believe how much presenters, conductors, board members, volunteers, stage managers and orchestra personnel managers will tell you when they feel that you are wonderfully different from the last artist they just presented. So now, I dish the dirt so you don’t have to step in the mud.

All of that being said, I initially decided to write Emerge Already! because unlike almost any other profession, classical musicians especially do not have a prescribed pipeline to go through to get to the career they aspire to. This is especially true if we want to perform as solo recitalists. For a performance career, there are no internships and we do not get recruited. We can audition for the few limited orchestral seats that open up each year and we can compete in music competitions that no longer guarantee career success. But aside from that, we are pretty much on our own.

Right out of grad school, I had some early success going it alone, figuring things out by trial and a little error, too. As a result, I had countless musician friends who kept asking me the same thing. They wanted to know how the heck I was getting all of the gigs I was landing fresh out of school. In fact, I do not mind telling you what I know they really wanted to ask me, but did not have the guts to do so. Some wanted to say, "Jade, you haven't won any major competitions, how the heck are you getting concerts? or they were thinking, Hey, I play better than you, why are you the one with the budding career?. Others wanted to say, Wait a minute, I was the big dog at the conservatory, why are you getting all the attention now?"

As I will talk about in the next chapter, the first thing you need to do before forging ahead in this field is to take an honest assessment of your talent. So here goes mine.

I have not taken home the top prize at any major competitions, though I made a significant splash at the last two very important ones I entered. I am sure, in fact I am absolutely positive, that there are better pianists than myself (there is always someone who is better than you). And no, I was never ranked #1 Pianist during college or grad school, if there ever was such a ranking. Nevertheless, the things I have achieved, the venues I have played and the recognition I have received speak for themselves.

Still yet, given those realities, the following questions I asked myself were these: Does not having won certain accolades disqualify me from pursuing a career? No. Do I think I have a talent worthy of hearing? Yes. I derive my answer not simply from a gut feeling or an inflated self-esteem but from the reaction I get from audiences and critics, re-engagements I am offered from presenters and most importantly, I know I am genuinely aiming to perform at a high standard. You will learn in these pages that initial engagements are about word of mouth (AKA hype) and re-engagements are a genuine reflection of your talent, your ability to deliver on that talent and your knack for engaging audiences.

So yes, the plight is a real one. But even given the new demands placed on artists and the small number of venues for which we are all competing, there still exists a mountain of opportunity. You just have to gather the right tools and prepare to climb it. At the end of the day, no one is going to work harder, more consistently and more persistently for your career than you.

A PR person took issue with me on this point, claiming that some artists just are not equipped or simply are not inclined to deal with all of these facets. She is right. If I had it my way, I would practice all day and my