Careers in Music

Course Description

Summary

What does it actually look like to build and sustain a career in music right now? This course approaches that question through the lived reality of professional musicians working across a range of musical ecosystems.

Topics will include living as a touring musician, networking and visibility, the recording industry, auditions, grants and funding, management and contracting, freelance finances (including the realities of taxes), graduate study, and pathways into music education. The course will incorporate conversations with a range of outstandingly accomplished industry professionals—including Grammy Award-winning performers, composers, producers, educators, and top-level arts administrators—to offer multiple perspectives on how musical lives are built and sustained.

We’ll look at the structures that shape the field, but also at the less visible work that makes a career possible: professionalism, managing money and time, navigating uncertainty, balancing burnout with work ethic, and maintaining personal health and wellness. While grounded in music, many of these conversations extend to professional life more broadly.

Throughout, students will be invited to consider how their own values, interests, and working styles might translate into a viable and fulfilling path. The course is intentionally broad and responsive, recognizing that there is no single model for a successful career in music.