Angela
Myles Beeching, Beyond Talent (
Daniel J.
Wakin's article "The Julliard Effect:
10 year's later" (published in the New York Times,
December 12, 2004) documents the career
dramas played out year after year by music students enrolling in and
graduating
from schools of music in America.
Starry-eyed freshmen believe that everything is possible
and glamorous
careers as performing artists are waiting for them.
Upon graduation, however, the harsh realities
of the highly competitive job market dash many career dreams. Wakin's article notes that
of the 44 Julliard
graduates in 1994 at least 12 and perhaps as many as 20 have left music
performance careers. Others
among the
remaining students struggle to find enough performance opportunities to
pay
daily expenses and tuition debt. True
enough there were many successes among the graduates but it appears
that over
half of the graduates did not realize their career goals 10 years after
graduation.
Dr.
Beeching's Beyond Talent is much
needed medicine for the fevered aspirations of many music students
entering our
colleges and conservatories today.
The
presentation is positive but realistic, which is the ideal balance for
its
subject matter. She
draws upon her
experiences as director of the
In
several places the book makes the point that musicians need to assess
their
strengths in order to better prepare for a career in music. Included in the book are
an “Entrepreneurial
Checklist” and “Questions for Young
Performers” among other guides that will
help to identify a person’s interests and strengths. She
persuasively talks about the motivation and passion that is needed for
a
successful career in music.
Also she
addresses self improvement topics for musicians such as performing at
your
best; managing gigs, time, money, and taxes; and performance health.
Beyond
Talent
is a comprehensive manual
on creating a career in music. In
many
ways this is a “self-help” or “how
to” book since Dr. Beeching makes a strong
case that musicians best serve their career by developing skills as
their own
career counselor, publicist, and marketing agent.
Contained in its pages is guidance on
creating promotional materials (biographies, photos, and promotional
kits),
producing demos and CDs, promotion on the Internet, booking
performances,
raising money for music projects, networking, and connecting with
audiences.
The
young musician with little understanding of artistic managers, booking
conferences, teaching opportunities, or employment in the music
industry will
find the explanatory material in the book very helpful.
Beeching provides information that is
understandable and accessible to serious high school and college
students. The
resources section at the end of the book
is valuable for everyone including professionals with full-time music
careers.
I
see Chapter 5 "Online Promotion: Using the Internet to Advance Your
Career" as the least effective portion of the book.
Although it does present many current technologies
such as web pages, e-letters, e-mailing lists, etc., it fails to
articulate the
impact of these and other technologies on our new digital democracy. We are entering an age
where GarageBand
software turns a Macintosh computer into a recording studio, where XM
Satellite
Radio features recordings of performers who have never been released on
CD, and
where Internet radio is taking away listeners from commercial radio. Just as the influence of
the big three
televisions stations--ABC, NBC, CBS--is supplanted by cable and
satellite
stations or Internet sites, so is the dominance of major recording
labels and
classical radio stations being challenged by new recording and
distribution technologies. More
and more we will see that anyone can
share their performances in the Internet public market.
The book falls short in this chapter by
failing to mention the widespread availability of MP3 players and
recorders and
the burgeoning market surrounding this technology.
This medium will provide classical musicians
with many opportunities now and in the future.
It is worthy of note that the International Double Reed
Society provides
an example for career promotion in this medium through the many MP3 and
video
files on our website.
Despite
the drawback noted in Chapter 5 Beyond
Talent is a wonderful book that will be an important resource
for musicians
for years to come. This
is a book that
musicians in all fazes of their career will find helpful. I highly recommend you
purchase the
book. The list
price of the paperback is
a steal!