What’s next - challenges for emerging musicians in an ever changing industry

The music industry is changing rapidly and this brings with it increasing challenges for emerging young musicians. The days of a guaranteed successful and straight forward career trajectory are pretty much gone, and even our most renowned and respected artists have often found their careers taking unexpected and exciting directions.

During the two days, we will look at some of the challenges and skills/questions facing most young musicians as they embark on their professional lives, thinking about how they can look at interesting ways to present themselves and to feel that they engaging in a realistic and relevant with the profession and their future audiences.

Preparation

Think about a work/programme/idea that you can imagine performing or presenting. You will then consider along with colleagues how you think this can be adapted and made relevant to various types of audiences and performing spaces.

Session 1

• Introduction about challenges facing young emerging artists at all levels
• A couple of case studies about different career trajectories of artists and groups
• Questions and thoughts from participants that can be considered over the course of the two days
• Initial work in groups to decide which audience/space/programme/work they will present the following day
• Time for individual brief session to think about specific issues that people wish to bring

Session 2

• Group workshoping and discussion of how to present programmes/ideas
• Short presentations of each groups thoughts and ideas
• Discussion of key factors of presentation, pitching ideas, thinking of needs of promoters
• Summing up of challenges and skills that feel relevant to a fast changing music industry and thoughts of differences between various international marketplaces

Application:

The workshop will be held in English and requires registration. Please indicate your intention of participation by 18 February 2019 using the online application form available on.

For students of the Liszt Academy the participation can be accounted as a masterclass (4 credits).

Scottish cellist Alasdair Tait studied at the RNCM with Emma Ferrand and Ralph Kirshbaum and in Basel with Thomas Demenga. As cellist of the Belcea Quartet until 2006 he performed internationally and was ‘Resident Quartet’ at London’s Wigmore Hall. Recordings for EMI of Schubert, Brahms, Britten, Mozart, Fauré and Barber (collaborating with Ian Bostridge, Thomas Ade and Thomas Kakushka) were awarded both Gramophone Awards and Diapason d’Or. The quartet were twice recipients of the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award and were the first BBC New Generation Artists.

Alongside his now full-time role as Chief Executive of Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT), he was Head of Chamber Music at Guildhall and RNCM, professor at Reina Sofia in Madrid and regularly teaches on the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) and at Aldeburgh Music. He has given masterclasses at the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Glenn Gould School in Canada, New England Conservatory and Stanford University in USA. He is frequently invited as jury member on international competitions such as Banff, Osaka, Melbourne, Wigmore and Vienna/Haydn Competitions.

Alasdair has also collaborated with artists including Piotr Andrezewski, Christian Zacharias, Kathryn Stott, Imogen Cooper, Aleksander Madzar, Robert Levin, Isabelle van Keulen, Valentin Erben, Borodin Quartet, Heinz Holliger, Michael Collins, Simon Keenlyside, Dame Anne Murray and Christine Schäfer.

He is currently a council member for Snape Maltings (Aldeburgh) and the Countess of Munster Trust. In 2013 he was made a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy for his contribution to excellence in Teaching and Learning was awarded the ABO (Association of British Orchestras) 2016 Artist Manager of the Year.

Alasdair also works as a psychodynamic psychotherapist in private practice in London.