Welcome to the Jungle....or How to Avoid Getting Trampled at Target

Hi all,

We are nearing the final weeks of the semester and things are at full-crank again. Looking forward to the much-needed break, but before we depart for the Holiday Break, I couldn't leave without one post about the Post-Thanksgiving consumer craziness that's beginning to brew.

A recent NYTimes article showed that artists are feeling the crunch from our economic situation (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/arts/design/24study.html?emc=eta1). Not only did more than half of all artists across disciplines (5,300 participants took the survey) feel a drop in income from 2008-09, roughly 2/3 of the group indicated that their income fell below $40,000/year. This struck me as I braved the Black Friday deals here in Madison; early-bird specials, one-day-only in-store discounts, and CLEARANCE signs are still swimming in my vision. I don't know about you, but even though we are conditioned to believe this is the best time to buy gifts, it seems like there must be a better way to spend our quickly-diminishing holiday funds. And especially when I don't particularly enjoy the experience of shopping on those days, when normally-pleasant humans become jingle-bell crazen animals.

It's weird though, because the more I bought, the less I felt satisfied with my purchases. Now, I did find what I wanted, at a good price. So it wasn't about being dissapointed in missing the chance to get the gift I had been thinking of. Rather, I felt like I was living inside Barry Schwartz's The Paradox of Choice: the more options I had, the less satisfied I was with the product. Because, as Schwartz points out, one's expectations rise incrementally with each new option, so his key to true happiness is this: keep your expectations low.

But isn't there another way to satisfy my gift-procuring experience? After all, I don't want to get mediocre gifts for my family and friends. So, when I got home I set upon the task ot figuring out whether spending all that time and money was actually worth it? Turns out, for me, buying online from retailers like Amazon.com saved between 10-20% EVEN when compared to the best deals in brick-and-mortar. Now, I'm not the only one who figured this out. I can't be. So that means people must actually like being out during those days, kind of like going to a birthday party in 6th grade. You may not really like the location, but you can't afford to miss it.

Maybe it's worth a little bit of time to see whether shopping is really worth the time at all. Joel Waldfogel's new book Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays (2009) proposes exactly that: spending money on presents for your family and friends just doesn't add enough value to justify the expense, because, due to a number of factors, the recipient feels less than satisfied (http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8972.html). Maybe we could find some really innovative ways of adding value through thoughtful and unexpected gifts.

Here are some places to start:

The 29-Day Gift Giving Challenge:http://givingchallenge.ning.com/
The Happiness Project: http://www.happiness-project.com/
The Paradox of Choice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6XEQIsCoM
PriceWatch: http://www.pricewatch.com/
And my favorite book on the subject:

Lewis Hyde's The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World! Find inspiration here: http://www.amazon.com/Gift-Creativity-Artist-Modern-Vintage/dp/0307279502

Only problem is, I'm writing this with a whole pile of presents sitting next to my desk. So I guess I'm outta luck this time....

Thanksgiving to All

On this day I will finally honor a long-held, and too-often-ignored promise of shorter blog posts.

All I have to say is, Thank You for reading, and have a great holiday!

Artful Activism: What Musicians Can Learn from Environmental Filmmakers

A few weeks ago, Madison was lucky to witness the Tales From Planet Earth. It's hard to described what exactly TFPE was, except that one could call it a hybrid film festival/call-to-action for anyone concerned about the environment, society, and politics. Yeah, I guess that pretty much sums it up...

So, anyways, what I found most amazing about it was the vigor, the excitement, the passion that was present among all those participating (filmmakers, community coordinators, and audience). But more important than that - and I realized this in the midst of the opening night extravaganza featuring a talk by Guggenheim-winning social activist Majora Carter - was the why. That is, why everyone seemed to cared so much...after all, it was just a film festival calling out the problems of our complex society, right? Wrong.

What set it apart from a film festival, and what translated to over 4,600 people turning out for it, was the way it blended, nay synergized, the energy stirred up by films like Academy Nominated-The Cove (2009) and Trouble the Water (2008) into action. How did co-directors Judith Hefland and Gregg Mitton (of UW's Center for Culture, History, and Environment) do this? By coupling action with art.

These four themes provided a roadmap of issues explored by the various films presented on the roster:

•Landscapes of Labor
•Precious Resources
•Strange Weather
•In the Company of Animals

Each track featured cinema that interwove environmental activism with poverty, race relations, immigration, politics, globalization, and economics. This, of course, reflects the interconnected, complex, and complicated relationship all of these issues share. Next, by offering seven community events that matched the themes and their relational complexity (e.g., quasi-think tanks, Community Supported Agriculture fundraisers, and town-hall type interactive panel discussions), audience members were able to instantly channel their interest into action that, when brought home to each participant's local community, could have a lasting impact on Madison, to Wisconsin, to the whole country.

Now, imagine what could happen if we (as artists) could channel that same passion we have into community action. Even if we could tap into 25, 50, 100 people in our community to get together and (instead of just sitting there listening to us sweat-it-out on stage) work collaboratively, it would become something more than just a concert. That way, we could all make a huge difference (in a localized sense) towards promoting a better/stronger/healthier __________(and yes, here feel free to fill-in-the-blank on the issue of your choice). Couple that with the connectivity Twitter, Facebook, and the iPhone offers...and we're talking something big!

Where do we start? That's the question, isn't it! Well, all I can think of as a starting point is Bill Ivey's notion of cultivating an "expressive life." He proposes that just as so many in society had equated tangible (financial) wealth as a sole measure of success for much of the 20th century, we must now look towards the art around us (and our ability to synthesize it into our lives) as a new addition to that rubric. I think this goes two-ways. In other words, artists need not only search for meaning in art, but a meaning through art. As he writes in the introduction to his must-read book Arts, Inc.: How Greed and Neglect have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights (2008), "...by failing to link our expressive life to America's public purpose, we have placed our nation's heart and soul at risk" (p. xviii).

Well said, Mr. Ivey, and let's be the first to take up the cause and turn our artistic abilities into activism.

So, what do you want to do?
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To learn more about Tales From Planet Earth, check out: http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/tales/speakers.html

Musicians' Wellness Day 2.0

I'm recovering from the UW-MTNA's second annual Musicians' Wellness Day, held at UW-Madison and featuring interactive sessions on Feldenkrais, Yoga, and Laban Movement. I'm excited to say that this year we again had a healthy (oops, sorry) turnout and a really enjoyable day of exercises that can't help but make you want to stay fit, both in body and mind.

As musicians, and probably artists in a more general sense can empathize here as well, we all-to-often neglect our bodies in favor of long hours in the practice room. Of course, we HAVE to practice, but shouldn't the two go hand-in-hand? I'm particularly interested in the notion that we need to put our physical wellbeing in the forefront of our life, just as we promote the idea that honoring the music we make as the top priority in our artistic pursuits, because if we are NOT physically healthy we simply won't have all of our creative tools at our disposal.

So what can we do about it? I mean, we can foster this sort of experience through events like Wellness Day (if we are lucky enough to have a group of musicians and artists who are interested enough to put such an event on), but the challenge lies in transferring a fun one-day event into a steady commitment to nurturing a healthy lifestyle.

One problem is the proliferation of misinformation about 'exercise' - everywhere you look are ads touting the next 'easy' way to get ripped or lose 100 lbs. without giving up your cheese curds. We obviously haven't learned our lesson, first revealed decades ago that, yes, staying healthy requires effort, smart eating, and lots of exercise (gasp!).

I learned this lesson from being a competitive swimmer for 10 years, competing year-round at state, regional, and national competitions. Many of my peers went on to swim at the collegiate level, and two even made it to Olympic Trials. Now, I was never that caliber of an athlete, but I can say that the harsh, exhausting, and ultimately addictive nature of intensive sports training (for me, at least) directly paralleled my musical study. In fact, I often thought they complemented each other. As my coach's favorite T-shirt used to remind us: "Ignore your health, and it will go away." I think somewhere along the line we all forgot that one doesn't necessarily have to separate sports from art - they both demand a commitment from our bodies and minds alike, and they both require an holistic and consistent maintenance of our overall well-being.

Maybe I'm being disingenuous. In fact, it's probably more likely that we artists just don't think we have the time to commit to working out, Yoga, or some other supposedly therapeutic hobby. Plus, there's that rumor that we can burn up to 300 calories an hour practicing our instrument. So who needs 'exercise' anyways?

After Wellness Day I'm reminded of the hard-to-believe revelation that we can actually incorporate exercise into our practice sessions. At the very least, we can begin to harness a greater personal awareness of our physical habits we use in our arts training. I'm starting to think maybe it's time to get our feet under us so we can start moving in a healthier direction; in our lives as well as in the practice room. As yesterday proved, for the second year in a row, it's not as hard as it sounds, and, when you can find a few others interested in getting healthy, all of a sudden "working out" can become a lot more relevant to our musical experience. And, it's just a heck of a lot of fun.


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To read more about the complex notions of eating "healthy" and "exercising" as they relate to our relationship with society, check out these resources:


1) Pollan, Michael. (2007). The Omnivore's Dilemma. Penguin Books. ISBN: 0143038583
2) Green, Barry. (1986). The Inner Game of Music. Doublday Press. ISBN: 0385231261
3) Finally, this is a great Blog: http://a2create.blogspot.com/

November Arts Roundup

Here are my "arts events" picks for November 2009:

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11/05 Broken Lizard

Location: Barrymore Theatre, 8pm

Check out this comedy team responsible for movies such as Super Troopers and Beerfest. See the link below to find out of tickets are still available!

Check Out: http://www.barrymorelive.com/
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11/06-11/08 "Tales from Planet Earth: Environmental Film Festival"

Location: various throughout Madison

This FREE and OPEN to the public festival has an exciting line-up of films, including the much-hyped documentary "The Cove," about an infamous Japanese dolphin farm.

Check Out: TalesFromPlanetEarth.com
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11/12 Bill Ivey

Location: Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

Former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and recent Obama advisor will be here to talk about "Arts, Inc. Greed, Neglect, and Our Cultural Rights." This is going to be one of the highlights of the year, so don't miss it. This FREE event is part of the Arts Enterprise Public Forum.

Check Out: http://www.uw-artsenterprise.com/?page_id=38
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11/14 Musicians' Wellness Day

Location: UW Humanities, Rm. 1341

Join UW-MTNA for the second annual Musicians' Wellness Day, which features sessions on Yoga, Feldenkrais, and Laban Movement. Open to all students, and faculty - this event is also FREE!

Check Out: the UW-MTNA Facebook group www.facebook.com
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10/24-5/9/2010 MMoCA Exhibit: Cage and Cunningham: Chance, Time and Concept in the Visual Arts

Location: Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

This incredible multidimensional exhibit is sure to raise many interesting questions about the intersection of dance, visual art, and music! Don't miss it!

Check Out: http://www.mmoca.org/
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Let me know what I missed from this list......

If Don't Read This You Are A Bad Person

I'm writing today after a weekend attending the World Piano Pedagogy Conference. It's was fun to get away from Madison for a few days. Amazing how it always feels like a vacation, even when one ends up in a highly-charged and intense educational experience. But maybe it's really because October in Phoenix feels better than July in Madison.

In any case, I have to say that many of the sessions were incredibly enlightening (especially those offered by Phillip Kawin and Yoheved Kaplinsky). The intensive schedule (as they always are) got me thinking (during one of my caffeine pick-me-ups) about the relationship between administration and participant. What struck me as I was leaving one of the sessions was how so closely these events, although educational and often non-profit, resemble the consumerist transactions (or trade-offs) we are making every day. Unfortunately, both sides often don't see this quality, which can lead to organizational dysfunction.

For example, at one international conference I was recently attending, I heard an administator, in their welcoming address, admonished those who had chosen to refrain from coming that year. As if they should be ashamed for their choice not to fork over hundreds of dollars (not including airfare and hotel) for a conference that MAY not have been earth-shattering.

Nevermind the fact that such a statement has no affect whatsoever on those who are NOT in attendance, such an attitude reflects the all-to-prevalent idea that WE, those whose support makes these events possible, should feel obligated to support them. I would argue that precisely the opposite should be the case. It is the responsibility of those hosting an event to make them attractive enough to keep the "audience" coming back for more. This is no different than the standard we hold films, theatre, and yes, music concerts to, so why should it be different for an event that often includes LARGE monetary and capitol investments (travel, hotel, transportation, food, etc). It should occur to those running festivals and conferences that maybe everything isn't perfect, and pre-emptive research should be focused in improving program offerings in accordance with the needs of those who pay big bucks to attend.

And let's be real here, any event that costs close to a $1000 to attend can't pretend that it ISN'T a commercial event - whether we like to admit this or not, when money is involved we all make decisions based on opportunity cost, not to mention value-adding calculations, just as we would with any large-ish commercial transaction.

The REAL question, then, is: why do artists sometimes feverishly hold on to the notion that we (the public) owe them something? Maybe it grows out of a dependency on arts' patronage that has both allowed the creation of unprofitable creativity to survive and promoted a divide between the empresarios and producers of art. Or maybe it's the die-hard habit of channeling organizational frustration at the "customer" ("Why DON'T they like what we're doing, anyways? They must not get it!"). The classic argument that many (even within in the arts' professions) just don't "get" High Art. Either way, it's time artists woke up and realized that the "customer", whether right or not, should be the focus of every artistic endeavor that requires patronage for survival. Similarly, we as participants must do a better job at communicating honestly and constructively our thoughts about how to improve these extremely expensive programs. As has been proven in the advertising world, this must stem from an open-minded view of creativity and it can change the world.

Speaking of which, one of the highlights of my trip was checking out the college-town of Tempe. It resembles Madison, albeit a drier, less pedestrian, and hotter version of it. Their 'State St.', AKA Mills Ave., had a wonderful little movie theater featuring the new documentary "Art&Copy", about creativity in the advertising industry. This is a must-see for anyone in an artistic profession; a truly convincing tale about the power, and necessity, of creativity. It offers valuable lessons on valuation decisions, and what makes something "sell".

As the subjects of this film profess, instead of complaining about a diminishing pool of attendees, why not do some research about WHY your constituency is turning their back on you. Maybe it's the cost. Maybe it's a bad experience last year. Maybe it's the advertising strategy. Maybe it's some subtle aspect of the event you never thought of (free coffee can go a LOOOONG way). In any case, too often suitable feedback mechanisms aren't in place at conferences and festivals. It can be tough for administration to make adjustments without knowing how the experience could be made more fulfilling.

At least it's a place to start. For now, though, I'm back to reality and the all-to-present reminder that winter is just around the corner. So, as the trees change to shades of autumn and we prepare to dig out our boots and jackets, and as the Capitol Farmers' Market moves indoors in the coming weeks, don't feel guilty if you decide not to attend an expensive and somehow unattractive out-of-town event. But DO try to let them know what would make you more willing to attend next year. And, whatever you do, remember to read my blog.

Pianists in the Creative Age: Where do we fit in?

One of the buzziest words around in the realm of professional development is the so-called "professional portfolio." This catch-phrase is all over the place, and everybody seems to think it applies to them. My favorite definition is this one, designed for teachers:

"The professional portfolio is a vehicle for collecting and presenting that evidence [of their growth and achievement over time]." (1)

There's even a website that will help you develop a "professional portfolio," customized to your needs and career path: http://www.portfolio5.com/. It makes sense that such an exploration into the idea of how a broad, multifaceted career(s) can foster viable and sustainable professional lifestyles is a popular idea in our new Creative Economy. People don't work for one company anymore; in fact, most people under the age of 30 have already had several employers, and I'm not talking the summer, beach-bum-in-sandals kind of gig. (2)

It's pretty easy as a pianist to see the neccesity of a "professional portfolio." After all, we are continually called upon to shift, chameleon-like, from soloist, to chamber musician, to teacher, and sometimes to be an entrepreneur. So why is it, then, that so many of us miss out on developing (first) a framework for evaluating our creative skills in the aggregate, and then (second) figuring out relevant, impactful, and effective methods for putting them to use?

Maybe it's because we are, in large part, asphyxiated by the historical rigidity of tertiary curricula. Colleges and Universities are notoriously slow to adapt, and music is no exception. A recent study found that of B.M. piano performance degree requirements at 82 accredited tertiary programs across the U.S., only 24% required a "functional keyboards skills" course. Only 5% required a jazz/improv skills class. (3) Are you kidding me?!?! This at a time when social scientists have been heralding the coming of a need for a diversely-trained and flexible workforce, primarily based on right-brained, creative-thinkers. (4)

While education at the College and University level seems to adapt at a snails' pace, when it does evolve, it jumps into gear seemingly at light-speed. A few years back, this was exemplified by the rise in 'business' training for artists, primarily through an attempt to bridge the gap between the silos of the Music and B-Schools. The problem was, as we found out, many schools didn't do as good a job as they had hoped in integrating the curricula into the context of arts' training. In other words, lots of artists where learning how to use SAS and Minitab, but weren't exploring how they could use these tools within a given arts' career.

More important, though, is the realization that an MBA isn't enough to ensure success today, regardless of one's chosen profession. (5) We need to turn to the advantage that we (pianists) all exhibit as musicians and pedagogues: the ability to communicate our artistic vision through creative and impactful channels. This doesn't mean we have to start programming Radiohead transcriptions - actually Christopher O'Riley already does that, darn - but we do have to start exploring how we can transfer our skills towards making music in a way that promotes creative-thinking, collaborative artistic expressions, and a focus on meeting the needs of our society (I say at the local level!).

From here we can start to build on a foundation of music-making that is infused not only with meaning and purpose, but also a greater sense of identity. This is precisely what our students must be exploring as well, for if we believe any of the research being on the economy, it is apparent that the creative workforce has already begun to take on the responsibilities of renewing our society through as-yet-unforseen innovation. By doing so with intent, we can become leaders in a new movement, one devoted to creating successful, independent, and maybe even divergent arts careers. It’s time to help your students’ find their niche!

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1: From Scholastic.com: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4148
2: Check out Next Generation Consulting for some stats, http://nextgenerationconsulting.com/
3: Walker, Tammie. "The Status of the BM Piano Performance Degree." AMT Journal, April/May 2008, 20-22.
4: Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, (Riverhead Trade: 2006) and Richard Florida's The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent (Collins Business, 2007) are two excellent examples of this research.
5: Asher, Donald. “Alternatives to the MBA.” MSN Encarta, Posted December 2006. Accessible at http://www.gradview.com/articles/graduatestudies/alternatives_to_mba.html