PROFESSIONAL GROWTH
Click on the tabs below to advance your career by searching Contests & Awards, Schools, Festivals, Camps, Service Organizations, and our list of Services and Products, Scholarships and Grants and Events and Conferences.
And be sure to browse the excellent career advice offered by legendary Artist Manager Edna Landau in her Ask Edna blog and the entertainment law experts in their Law and Disorder blog.
US/Canada Arts Administration Degree Programs
Music Schools & Departments
Summer Music Camps & Special Programs
Services & Professional Music Orgs (non-profit)
Performing Arts Industry Events and Conferences
AskEdna: Career Advice blog
Law and Disorder: The Law and the Arts blog
How-to Videos
Scholarships and Grants
Musical America routinely updates the list of scholarships and grants in an effort to keep current and ensure opportunities for musicians.
If you know of a scholarship or grant not mentioned in our lists, please send us a message.
Performing Arts Industry Events and Conferences
Edna Landau—doyenne of the music business, long-time managing director of IMG Artists and director of career development at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles—writes Ask Edna exclusively for MusicalAmerica.com to provide invaluable advice to music students and young professional artists. Read more about Edna’s impact on the performing arts.Send your questions to Edna Landau at AskEdna@MusicalAmerica.com and she’ll answer through Ask Edna. Click the links below to read Edna’s recent columns on the critical aspects of launching and managing and professional music career.
Communicating with Your Audience
During Edna’s 23 years as managing director of IMG Artists, she personally looked after the career of violinist, Itzhak Perlman and launched the careers of musicians such as pianists Evgeny Kissin and Lang Lang, violinist Hilary Hahn, and conductors Franz Welser-Mõst and Alan Gilbert.
Edna believes young musicians can grow their own careers, with “hard work, blind faith, passion for the cause, incessant networking and a vision that refuse[s] to be tarnished by naysayers.”
Law and Disorder:
Performing Arts Division
The legal blog from GG Arts Law
The law plays an integral part in the performing arts, whether it's dealing with visas, copyrights, contracts, taxes, licensing, employees, venues . . . well, you get the idea.
Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division is written by the attorneys at GG Arts Law. GG specializes in entertainment law as well as visas and immigration issues for foreign artists and performers.
To ask your own question, write to lawanddisorder@musicalamerica.org. Click below to review answers to key questions about the business and law affecting the performing arts.
Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division
Central Withholding Agreements
How-to Videos
iCadenza helps musicians of all career stages break through challenges and pursue their goals with confidence and joy. Through our individual consulting, workshops, and our Career Development Bootcamp, we help classical musicians develop strong personal brands, create action plans, and sharpen their mental game. We are happy to offer a free 1-hour consultation to readers of Musical America. Send an email and mention MusicalAmerica.com to arrange your free consulation.
Musical America and iCadenza are committed to providing up-to-date career development resources to emerging professional musicians. Send your questions to info@MusicalAmerica.com. You'll find a list of videos below.
Special Reports
Injury Susceptibility Quiz
Test yourself to see if you’re risking injury and you need to make changes.
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INJURY SUSCEPTIBILITY QUIZ
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YES
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NO
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Does your teacher have an intense teaching style?
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Is your playing style intense, emotional, macho?
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Is your position awkward or uncomfortable?
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Do you have a predilection for difficult, pyrotechnical, challenging, loud repertoire?
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Do you love to slam your bow or slap your fingers into the strings or slam or squeeze down keys?
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Do you practice mostly at the forte dynamic range?
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Do you squeeze your instrument while holding it?
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Do you jam the keys down, even when playing softly?
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Do you lose track of time when practicing?
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Do you have difficulty saying “no”?
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Do you clench your jaw or grit your teeth?
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Do you schedule back-to-back rehearsals, gigs, and performances?
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Do you play in spite of fatigue and pain?
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Do you fling your fingers off strings or keys?
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Do you grip your bow tightly or grab your fingerboard or squeeze it?
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Do you play without warming up?
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Do you play a very large, heavy, or very resistant instrument?
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Do you play with a heavy bow, keep your strings high or use a worn-out, ill-fitting chin rest?
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Do you stretch to reach notes or keys?
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Do you hold fingers uplifted and/or curled?
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Do you hold stretches, double stops or chords down?
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Do you snap your elbow when changing from
downbow to upbow?
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Are you a tense, stressed person?
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Are you depressed?
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Do you neglect to warm-up?
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Do you sleep poorly?
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Are you physically inactive?
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Are you overweight?
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Do you consume more than two cups of caffeinated beverages a day?
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Do you take drugs or drink more than a moderate amount of alcohol?
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If You Answered “Yes”
If you answered “yes” to 10 or more of these questions, you need to rethink your approach to your instrument. Watch yourself in the mirror: Are you tensing up? How’s your posture? Are you holding your instrument awkwardly? Take more breaks per hour; pay close attention to aches and pains. Use a daily diary to keep track of fatigue or any soreness.
Note: If you have trouble “nailing” a passage, if your technique feels sluggish, if your fingers or lips don’t want to do what you need them to do, these are all indicators that something is amiss. Ignore them at your peril.—JH
NETWORK
