How The Classical Music Business Can Teach You Resilience, Agility and Emotions Intelligence
Agility and resilience are among the most needed skills to survive in the classical music and auditing professions alike. The field of music performance is one of the hardest professions to get into and survive. From seemingly impossible audition struggles to stark realities of the profession, no part of the career path is easy. The question is then: why do people pursue such an unstable and harsh profession? Aside from the overly simple answer that it may be a passion, I think it speaks to the character of individual fortitude and resilience. People are driven to pursue what challenges them, despite the risk of failure. This is because they believe in their innate ability to succeed, which is a product of their resilience.
Though personal experience of serious challenges and the struggles of my colleagues, my presentation displays the skills I have had to develop to survive in the business. Feeling like you are investing in something with little to no return, while so desperately wanting to succeed at it is a challenging dichotomy to reconcile. This presentation seeks to illuminate the ways to build resilience though humorous anecdotes and heartbreaking situations alike. Resilience, emotional intelligence and agility can all be built upon and developed.
The cultivation of emotional intelligence is also a fundamental skill in the music world. This is displayed not only in the need to manage the challenges of auditions, but in daily orchestral life as well. In an environment where some 100 people are non-verbally communicating, as well as having to subdue their individual voice for the good of the group, emotional intelligence becomes an important asset. Like in all professions, not all professional musicians have good emotional intelligence. My discussion of how emotional intelligence improves one’s life and working environment comes not just from mindfully developing emotional intelligence myself, but also from the experiences with those who do not possess it.
Simply put, resilience plays a huge part in professional growth and stability. It is fundamental that any individual in the audit field build not only resilience, but that they cultivate essential belief that despite setbacks and criticism, they can still find success and fulfillment. Moreover, that a professional can learn when to be agile and refocus their direction.