BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Is music your calling?
If the answer is ‘yes’, how much are you willing to sacrifice or tolerate in order to pursue a music industry career? Where do you draw the line between your personal passion and professional life? And what strategies do you employ to keep your work sustainable?
These are the types of questions Dr Diana Tolmie will address in her new Music Livelihood Knowledge Series. Across six online sessions, industry workers will explore and learn about pressing topics that relate to their careers in music.
Diana — who founded the International Music Livelihoods Symposium and is also a senior lecturer of Professional Practice at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University — sits down with CutCommon to shed light on some of the biggest challenges confronting those working in a tough industry.
Diana, you’re running a new Music Livelihood Knowledge Series this year. I’d love to know how you define this idea of “music livelihood”, and why you think this knowledge is essential to arts industry workers.
The term ‘music livelihoods’ I believe is a little more digestible — and takes the pressure off — than ‘music career’ or ‘music employment’. It captures more of what is happening in the musician’s life beyond ‘what they do’ to ‘who they are, how they have managed, and how they would like to live their lives’. That means involving the bigger picture — encompassing ways of knowing, being, and doing within a highly dynamic global environment.
I think this knowledge is useful for musicians as we move away from reacting to environmental and employment stressors towards adopting an approach that strategically pre-empts future challenges.
Why did you want to take it upon yourself to share this knowledge, and help other music workers make informed choices in relation to their livelihoods?
For over 35 years, I have worked with the full life-cycle of musicians, be it educating the beginner right through to performing with long-established musicians. In particular, my own doctoral research informed the constantly evolving suite of professional practice courses I teach at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University.
Through my ongoing research and these courses, every year I hear the storied lives of over 400 musicians from all over the world. And what I have noticed is that although each life journey is unique at micro-level, there are clear patterns and processes at macro level. Knowledge of what these are can enable musicians to pursue their passions, and be aware of the potential outcomes of their choices. I call this ‘dreaming with your eyes open’.
I’d like to think that fostering a culture of knowledge sharing will motivate others to do the same. Everyone’s story has the capacity to inspire and help others.
As a music leader who has undertaken research into these industry cultures, how would you describe artists’ general balance between their passion and career sustainability — two topics you’re exploring in this series?
The more I research into musicians’ lives, the more humbled I am to learn that musicians are incredibly intelligent, adaptable, empathetic, and creative humans. What they have in spades, that many other professions do not, is passion — and the good news is that influences not just their music, but everything they interact or engage with. They are literally making the world a more exciting place to live in.
Furthermore, it has been found that the ‘successful’ musicians are more than willing to strategically prioritise their music career, and have support mechanisms in place to sustainably maintain their passion. These support mechanisms are usually a strong employment network, which mostly occurs organically through their music making; a supportive cheer squad — family, friends, mentors; and a professional mindset, i.e. ‘backing’ themselves and considering their professional identity and practice as their walking business card.
Musicians largely acknowledge the drudgery of the administration, and the financial focus is abhorrent to many. But their passion and calling to a career in music overrides what would be generally perceived as deterrents.
Your first session is on what you’ve described as that “calling” of musicians who persist in their careers despite the challenges. Based on your own experiences and research, what do you feel that calling is, and why does it drive musicians to pursue a career rife with issues from funding challenges to failing leadership to mental ill health of its practitioners?
Calling and passion are distinctly related – and the conundrum is which came first.
I always say that the outcome of music dedication/discipline is passion, which in turn fosters ‘calling’, motivating one to keep working at their music. It’s cyclic. When you ask any musician, ‘What do you love about music?’, you’ll hear a raft of responses such as:
- ‘How it makes you feel’
- ‘How you can communicate and share your passion with others’
- ‘It’s my escape/my therapy/my home’
- ‘I like how you feel when you have accomplished something’
- ‘It’s who I am’
- ‘It’s like being part of something that is bigger than yourself’
- And for some, ‘It’s like being able to touch God’.
What these answers show us is that calling can either be meaningful to oneself, titled ‘modern’ calling; or something that is more akin to destiny or purpose beyond self-interest, titled ‘transcendent’.
Either way, ‘calling’ and ‘passion’ are what immunise musicians against all the negative aspects of the industry and profession.
With this in mind, at what point in a musician’s career should they begin thinking about sustainability?
In one of my sessions, I will invite the audience to problematise the word ‘sustainability’ and what that means to the individual. And what we find is that sustainability is a construct impacted by stage of career — early-mid-late; and also what one desires to sustain, which is also a fluid concept.
But on the topic of simply being able to satisfy base level needs to exist and continue one’s music profession happily and healthily, it is necessary to understand how the broader environment can impact the profession, to understand how to recognise opportunity, and also recognise when/what to say ‘no’ to in a profession that is largely built from initially ‘saying yes’.
Above all, it is vital to have the reflexive capacity to understand one’s foundational motivations for following a career in music. It is never too early to begin developing those skills.
Through the series, you’re covering topics such as the musician’s mind, the value of networking, and other career journey conversations. How important is it for musicians to take a well-rounded approach to building a healthy career — and what is one area you think needs a lot more work on an industry-wide level?
Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right: the biggest intrinsic challenge for musicians is confidence/self-belief, therefore communicating professional value. And this stems from a professional and personal identity that is intertwined so much that it is hard to discern the difference, which is why promoting oneself is so challenging.
Some musicians are very good at decoupling their successes, failures, and ambitions from their personal identity — and perversely, this is also related to what type of music passion they are fostering in their lives; is it harmonious or obsessive?
Musicians’ self-confidence is also something that is impacted by a societal outlook on the profession, for it is a career that mostly has no accreditation barriers, unlike other professions such as lawyer, medical doctor etc; and its ‘product’ or ‘service’ is viewed as subjective. Yet to implement professional accreditation is problematic:
A. Who has the authority to judge?
B. It is antithetic to the creative process — i.e. what it means to be a musician?
Thus the biggest extrinsic challenge remains that while some appreciate the music profession, it is either romanticised or scorned by the broader public. The Australian Covid-19 response spoke volumes about how musicians are professionally perceived. The profession needs to be more understood and in turn highly respected.
How long did it take you to learn these lessons in your career, and what did you struggle with before you decided it was time for a change?
I’m still learning, and there is still more to learn. I also notice, and admire, in other musicians their thirst for more knowledge and skill acquisition, personal, and professional improvement and just contributing to make society a better place with their music.
Like many other musicians, I struggle with finding work-life balance – and that is normal for anyone with a perfectionist disposition pursuing a vocation.
But the biggest thing I struggled with was figuring out what kind of musician I wanted to be, because my music training funnelled me into a narrow genre, which could have closed me off to other opportunities had I let it.
My research truly helped me understand myself as a musician, my core values, and how they align with my future purpose and opportunities. It has made me optimistic.
If you could give musicians just one piece of advice that could benefit their livelihood, what would it be?
Pay it forward.
Providing knowledge, positive support, and opportunities for your fellow musicians will create an industry full of unimagined professional benefits and social dividends.
The Music Livelihoods 2023 Knowledge Series takes place from 21 March – 2 May via Zoom. Visit the registrations page to book your sessions and learn more about the topics discussed.
Help us deliver Australian arts stories.
We’re self-funded, but always free to read. Show your support for independent arts journalism. Help us celebrate our creative communities.
Image supplied.
