Be Your Own Manager is a career podcast for classical musicians from the former CEO and Artistic Director of the Vienna Concert House, Bernhard Kerres. Learn how to win your next engagement, how to build up a fan base, and how to market yourself. The podcast is an extension to the career handbook for classical musicians, Be Your Own Manager, which Bernhard co-authored with Bettina Mehne. More about the podcast, the book, and regular courses on www.beyourownmanager.com. Thanks for listening!
https://www.beyourownmanager.com
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 1 day 2 hours 9 minutes
My Daily Schedule
The demand on your time is enormous. Practice, rehearsals, learning new repertoire, business issues and more can easily stress you out. My little secret is to divide my day in active and re-active slots.
Get Business Cards
Even in a digital world these small pieces of paper with your contact details on there are really helpful. Get them and make sure that they represent what you stand for.
Don’t Just Send E-Mails
We have more and more communication tools available. Picking the right one at the right moment when in contact with festivals and concert halls is important. Some guidance from Bernhard.
Portfolio Careers
A career in classical music will comprise several activities. You will play a bit solo, you might play in an ensemble, you might teach. Start to think early on about your portfolio to ensure that you are not only prepared but can really thrive in it.
Working with agents
Working with agents requires close cooperation. Define together what you want to achieve and what everyone has to do. Be aware of “rouge agents” who just take money but are not really artist managers. If in doubt check at www.classicalmusicartists.com
Your Route to Creativity
Finding creativity for classical musicians can be hard. The pressure on their schedule is immense with practice, rehearsals, business issues and much more to take care of. You need to think about preparing the ground for creativity to happen.
A Deal with you on Sales
Selling can be hard. As artists we would love just to be called up for a performance. Unfortunately life is different. Therefore I suggest a deal: do a bit of selling every morning and let me know how it goes.
Filling Your Calendar
Unfortunately your calendar will not fill up by itself. So you need to go out and sell. But build up a relationship first!
A Podcast on Accidents
Hopefully you will never need this podcast. Nevertheless accidents and illnesses happen. Therefore it’s important that you think about them beforehand and that you make sure that you have the right insurance and a network of people to support you.