My Manifesto: The Sensible Flutist speaks out

Dear Music Community,

I've been sitting on this post for a few weeks now. With a couple of self produced concerts under my belt, the lessons I've learned along the way have opened my eyes to see things I didn't necessarily see before. In fact, I've been feeling intensely confused and frustrated as I notice walls where I didn't notice them before. No longer is making a living in music a dream, but it's a reality that I have to contend with. If this is what I want to do, I better figure out something.

The unfortunate reality is that I clearly see the division that exists in the classical music world. Music should be the unifying factor in our community but factions exist with multiple, sometimes unbending opinions. Some still hold true to the traditional system while others are jumping on board for the wild ride of the new economy. I want to post on The Sensible Flutist my aims and values so that I can start a conversation with others about the best way that we as a community can move forward and make a positive impact on our audiences. This is a conversation I desperately want to have with any willing musician. 

This is the mission statement I crafted for myself a few months ago when I knew I wanted and needed something to keep me grounded as I began working in a new way:

Empowering musicians and audiences through healthy movement in performance, education and collaboration.

This is a succinct statement that says a lot, and I feel now is the time to elaborate on this.

Here are the points of my manifesto:

• Serve the community
• Value yourself
• Think outside the box
• Teach yourself
• Be fearless

Having come from a family of teachers, I was taught to value education and to help others in any way I can. Instead of teaching in a school like my parents and other family members, I have instead chosen to help people with my music via teaching, performance and writing. Furthermore, I am continuing my education to help musicians via Body Mapping and the wider population via Physical Therapy. My goal is to be as useful to as many people as possible, through music and wellness. This new path I'm forging for myself centers around music, but branches out to include a professional field in which musicians desperately need advocates and understanding.

Here's the thing - I know that as much as I love performing, my end game is to not pick up an agent. I have had to figure out a way to preserve my creative freedom so that I don't risk burn out. I have decided that as much as I love orchestral playing, winning a seat in an orchestra somewhere is almost statistically impossible. I would rather spend my time practicing solo and chamber music that gives me freedom and the ability to collaborate with wonderful like minded musicians. I don't find enjoyment in practicing orchestral excerpts ad nauseum. 

I'm interested in continuing to self-produce concerts, and finding ways to make them profitable for all involved. I'm also interested in figuring out how to use these skills to get invited to appear on a concert series, but one thing at a time. The bottom line is that I am a performer. I love performing and sharing new music with the audience and connecting personally with people that come to hear me play. New music is my passion and advocating for composers through performance is something that is very important to me.

Performing hasn't been a profitable thing for me. I pick up a paid gig here and there, but this has made me realize that I should not focus on getting paid more to perform. I am focusing on making my performance based projects financially sustainable. 

In the meantime, I'm choosing to pursue Physical Therapy that will give me the financial freedom to choose the projects I want to be a part of. Quite simply, I have realized that performing is a deeply personal thing to me and I cannot make that a commodity for my financial gain. 

You may be saying at this point, "Then how can you possibly make a living as a musician? Once you become a Physical Therapist, won't you just be a PT playing music on the side? You aren't legitimate."

This is where world views collide and here presents the source of my confusion and at times, frustration. My world view is that there is absolutely no job security for anyone any longer. We must work in new ways, and see the world as a fluid place in a state of transition. Anything can happen. "The Man" in the music world is academia and orchestras, and we see these once strong institutions failing with severe budget cuts. We see the facts, and there's STILL debate on whether these institutions will survive. Organizational change is slow to come by. 

When asked what they want to do, most every music student answers that they would like to play in an orchestra or be a college professor. This is what's familiar even though it is not sustainable. Unless music schools do a better job of showing to the outside world how a music degree prepares a student for success in any field or unless music schools are encouraging and educating music students to think outside the box for work opportunities, there's countless musicians out there being set up for failure. We have to stop the charade and start making changes NOW. Otherwise, the music that we love won't survive and we will no longer be able to make a living in this industry.

The question I want to answer is how can we serve our community and earn a living at the same time? In no way can we give everything away for free nor should musicians be expected to. Would you ask a surgeon to perform open heart surgery for free?

But everyday, there are musicians out there giving so much of their time away for nothing in order to keep performing and hoping that the networking and exposure will pay off at some point. What if you're stuck in the middle, between amateur players who can afford to play for free because they work in a different field and those musicians who teach at local schools and universities and pick up better paid work. That's me at the moment, and I don't begrudge those who are getting the work. All I want to do is make a living, and I want to make a living on my own terms. 

How do we start making these changes?

We need to have real, open and honest conversations about how to move forward. We each need to be willing to rethink our opinions for the greater good. We need to start putting into practice all these ideas we keep circulating and talking about. Musicians, composers, conductors, arts administrators, management and all the rest of us involved in music need to have this conversation together. We all bring unique perspectives, but we're all cut from the same mold - we love classical music and we want our art to survive. Our experiences have been uniquely individual and this enables us to innovate and change our community. These conversations may be uncomfortable, but it's important these discussions represent a cross section of our community. Solutions need to be proposed, openly discussed and implemented. 

I believe with all my heart it is possible to make a living doing what you love. Make it useful to other people, and you will find success. Perhaps we've spent so much time focusing on ourselves as musicians that we haven't given much thought to those we can serve. And for me, it all goes back to helping people. 

Sincerely,

Alexis Del Palazzo, The Sensible Flutist

Flutist/Teacher/Writer/Andover Educator trainee (Body Mapping)/future Physical Therapist