Possibilities Beyond the Practice Room

​Maybe it’s because I’m a senior, which means the real world is looming large in my path. Or maybe it’s because I work at the music library, which means I watch musicians interact with music in a nontraditional way every day, but something about options has me excited! Options that go beyond the practice room. Options that turn from casual opportunities to real-life jobs. There are endless combinations of them. Don’t take my word for it. Just sign up for “Ensemble Entrepreneurship” and you’ll see what I mean. The ways we as vastly complicated individuals, with interests that span as diversely as Pokemon and catalytic converters, can interface with music are endless. ​

That said, I have to keep this post to a few hundred words, so I’ll give a brief list of career opportunities I have previously or am at present exploring, both for myself and in observation of other people who I consider to be successful:

1. Write about music! I’m a writer, and music infiltrates my stories all the time. I can write with authority and authenticity when I draw up a character who is interacting with music. But fiction is not the only way to make music in the world. Blog posts, (like this one!), public practice logs, video documentation, public legislation about performers’ rights, orchestral or symphonic union bylaws, and theses on scores and composers, believe it or not, are all forms of writing. 
2. Music and libraries: How does scholarship about music change and influence modern pedagogical methods and practitioner performances? How can we as individuals make these practices historically informed while also documenting our experiences to date? Music librarians! They are the key to these questions and more. Plus, they get to work with rare books and manuscripts, so they see really ancient music every day! And most importantly, librarians preserve our work. 
3. Freelance work: I do it, as a student, and I hope to do it as a professional as well. The person playing piano at the hospital lobby for families who may be grieving, or the guy producing literal clown music for your brother's end-of-year baseball team party, or the stuff you hear in chamber performances during and outside of concerts… it’s all freelance work. And the thing is, it makes peoples’ lives better and happier, and hopefully brings some meaning. It’s not always glamorous, but it is usually remembered. And it is hard work! To be a freelance artist, you must be your own teacher, administrator, practicer, tax-filer, researcher, solicitor, and more. But those who stick with it end up with banks of stories and experiences that are a valley deep.
4. Music therapy: I wish I knew more about this, but both the organizer and the performer are musicians in this situation. Did you know that music (both recorded and live) can help slow the effects of Alzheimer’s even into the middle stages of the disease? This is huge, and it is a big job. 
5. DJ: Ok, this is not just to have an in at parties, although that is a plus. But DJs have to listen to music, know current trends, work well with people, expose themselves to new forms of music they may not ordinarily like, and be aware of what makes good (or at least decent) music to produce a satisfactory product.
6. Endless others! These are just the few that have crossed my mind recently while watching folks around me. There are many paths to success. 

​- Sarah Castle