- Some of you may have heard that about two years ago
there was a survey done by the Labor Department,
Federal Labor Department
that checked out jobs satisfaction
for 500 different jobs in America.
They listed all these different kinds of jobs
and had people have those jobs sort of describe
how they felt about their jobs.
Well, way near the bottom of this list
of job satisfaction was prison guard.
And just underneath prison guard was orchestral musician.
Way near the top of the job satisfaction list
was chamber musician.
So what is the difference between being near the top
in terms of job satisfaction for chamber music,
even in a career that doesn't pay as well,
that has many more insecurities,
and way less health benefits,
being much more satisfying than the job down here
that seems to provide what you want in a career,
which is decent pay, if you can get it
and all the benefits, and a stable life as a musician.
And as I look at those huge disparity,
what I see is creative voice.
That what chamber players have is the chance
to be exploring musically.
To take what it is that they actually love about this work
and choose to design it and shape their careers
and ask the questions and take the chances.
And explore, shape, all of that stuff
that may be messy and exhausting
but provides for much more satisfaction in a career.
Rather than so many orchestral musicians I meet
who are creatively eviscerated.
Who have kind of lost the juice, the joy
of having a life in music.
The ones who are just doing the gig
and playing what they're told get bitter, tense,
and creatively disempowered.
The ones who've seemed to find the balance
are the ones who are involved orchestrally
but keeps some of this alive.
They have a chamber expression
or some kind of exploratory part
of their lives keeping them creatively juiced.
And that balance keeps people alive
and creative in orchestras
and indeed, one of the things that tends to happen
when you get those two in the loop,
is their education skills, their advocacy skills,
their ways of drawing people in are in really good shape.
So I'm forever encouraging people
to keep that creative edge going,
whether you're in an orchestra or in a chamber group.
It is the skills of inquiry,
the curiosity, the desire, the commitment
to keep making musical things happen
that are of interest to them.
That makes the difference.
One final thought here.
The word "success",
now there's a big word in our field.
And we tend to have a commodified view of it.
I wanna take you back to the original meaning of that word
when it came into English.
It originally meant to have a follow through.
I think you are a successful musician
if you continue to be engaged in a way
that turns you on.
That is success in music.
Not just the benefits and the cash.
But the ongoing rediscovery, re-delight
that is created in a follow-through sequence
of events that keep you creatively turned on.
That's a successful musical career.