So You Want a Career In Music?

behind the scenes at the dsso

Markand Thakar

I had a late dinner recently with some spectacularly accomplished musician friends. The names are changed to protect the guilty, but let’s call them Tiffany, the grand prize winner of a major international violin competition; Wolfram, internationally renowned concert pianist; Kim, internationally renowned concert violinist; William, former violist of a renowned string quartet; Fred, principal cellist of a major orchestra; Kelly, former associate concertmaster of a major orchestra; and my wife, Francine (OK, it’s Vicky). We were in a coastal resort town, where she and some of the others had just performed a Brahms piano quintet at a music festival. Afterwards we all repaired to our separate accommodations; ours was a luxury two-bedroom condo on the
beach.

All in all quite glamorous, to be sure. We live charmed lives, meet fascinating people, and travel the world. The discussion turned to a conductor we knew who gave up the musical career he loved for the business career his parents wanted for him. Tiffany said, “Oh I could never be in business… commuting every single day to the same place, at the same time… I couldn’t do it.” There was general agreement. Wolfram wondered how “normal” people can do it.

I don’t. We are blessed, but we are cursed.

We are compulsive. We don’t keep regular working hours, because we work constantly. Consider my own hectic schedule. Mornings are devoted to studying scores. The rest of the days—and evenings, and nights (as some of you who’ve received 2 a.m. emails from me)— are given to meetings, phone calls, emails; making friends for my orchestras; managing my public image; making television, radio and other public appearances; various writing responsibilities, such as this column, or an upcoming website blog, or program book messages…that’s when I’m not in rehearsals sometimes two per day, which might begin at 10 a.m. or might end at 10:30 p.m. Try getting regular, restful sleep on that schedule.

We are perfectionists. We are driven to play perfectly in tune, perfectly in rhythm, to unfold the tones with an unfailing organic line, in short to move ourselves and our audience utterly. Of course as a result we live with deep disappointment, constantly.

We are individualistic. We put the urge to satisfy our own professional needs above sharing our lives with loved ones. I refl ected on my dinner companions that night: Tiffany’s husband is a concert pianist who was off performing in parts unknown. Wolfram’s wife is a concert fl utist back home in Vienna. Kim’s husband is a concert violinist performing at a festival in Montreal. William’s wife is a concert bassist on her way to Alaska. Fred’s wife is a pediatrician at home in Cincinnati. And Kim’s boyfriend is a professor stoking the home fires in Knoxville. The only performer there that night with her significant other was my wife. And the next morning I was off to Duluth for 30 days of rehearsals and performances with the Duluth Festival Opera and the DSSO, while she was headed to Atlanta for three days, and then on to Aspen, Colorado where she spends the summer participating in the Aspen Music Festival. In other words, we are terribly lonely. And as much as we may treasure our kids and our families, they can’t but suffer.

We sacrifice financially. At the top of the field, musicians are well com- pensated, and no one will ever hear me complaining about what I earn. But the fact is that it’s a fraction of what a driven business person with similar education, experience, discipline and competence can pull in.

So why do it? It’s the applause…it’s addictive. It’s the creativity. It’s the ability to set your own standards and to own your own schedule. And, above all, it’s the ability to live with the magical experience of music.

And that businessman turned con- ductor turned businessman? I know him well—he’d give up the money, the family, and the steadiness in a New York minute to get back on that podium.

Markand Thakar is Charles A. & Carolyn M. Russell Music Director, Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra; music director, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra; principal conductor, Duluth Festival Opera and co-director of the graduate conducting program, Peabody Conservatory.