How to Become a Successful Classical Musician: Part 1: Education

Music is not an easy career, but you can take steps to set yourself up for success. Professor Deborah Moriarty, chair of the Piano Area at Michigan State University, offers her advice to students desiring a career in music, with tips for many of the crucial stages along the way. From choosing undergraduate and graduate university programs, preparing for professional life, and guidance on freelancing, here are her recommendations for how to be a successful professional classical musician.

Choosing an Undergraduate Music Program

There are many factors to consider when trying to decide which schools you should apply for and how to find a good fit for yourself. Firstly, there are three different levels of applying: the bachelors of music degree, the masters in music degree, and then the doctor of music degree. And you might be looking for something different for each level.

Let’s look at getting an education as we consider how to become a professional musician.

Are you better off being a small fish in a big pond?

As an undergraduate student, your personality will play a significant role in what kind of college you should choose. Are you better off being a small fish in a big pond? If that’s going to inspire you, you want to go to some place where there are many graduate students in the school of music, where there are many people who play better than you do. Then you live up to that. If you’re somebody who often needs their confidence reinforced, you want to go into a smaller situation.

Either way, you need to go to a school for your music bachelor’s degree where you’re not at the top. You never want to be the best pianist because once you’re the best pianist, that’s it.

I’ve seen this happen with teachers, too. If you teach some place where you’re not teaching high quality and challenging students, pretty soon, your playing suffers. The best teachers are always better than their students. If your students are terrific, you maintain that level of excellence. The same principle applies for choosing a school. If you are not the top pianist, then you have something to aspire to a work towards.

Also, look for what else the school of music offers.

Conservatory of music versus a university

The environments in a conservatory of music versus a university are different. In a university, you will have lots of options for taking languages, literature classes, and other arts or humanities courses. But in a conservatory, you’re going to be competitively playing the piano, which, I think for American students, is a tough situation. There are very few American students who are brought up to simply focus on one thing, except, perhaps, in sports.

When it comes to the arts, we just don’t do that anymore. The arts have become something that is an add-on, an elective rather than a core activity. So the unilateral focus on performance that you get at conservatories can be a hard adjustment. This is true even for American students who are passionate about music. It’s important to be in an environment where people are composing and writing books about music, music is a language that communicates across cultures and requires stimuli from many different sources. 

Finding your teacher

Most importantly, though, you want to find a good teacher you are compatible with. Find somebody that you can work with; that’s more important than financial considerations.

Prioritize your ultimate goal. If playing piano is the most important thing to you, then you need to figure out who’s out there and who’s teaching. Look at universities and see who’s on the faculties. If you have a good piano teacher at the time, they should be able to recommend some people.

Go take a lesson, but don’t take a lesson with more than one person on the faculty of a single school. Not surprisingly, the professors talk to each other, and if they find out that you are essentially auditioning teachers, they get unhappy and annoyed.

You’re looking for somebody who can change your playing so that when you walk out of a lesson, you feel like something has happened that you didn’t think could happen, that somebody has opened a door for you that you didn’t know was there

My teacher Russel Sherman

I had that feeling during the first lesson I had with Russell Sherman (a Faculty at the New England Conservatory). There was a sound that I had never thought of before. Too often a gifted person will take lessons with people who will tell you that you are  wonderful, talented, and musical, and here’s a new piece. Russell Sherman was not that teacher.  In his lessons, something actually happened. I wanted to learn more. I knew he was somebody I could study with, and I knew I would learn much more than just new music.

You also want to feel that your teacher is going to inspire you. Everybody has a different way they work. Some people do very well under the sports method of yelling at people and telling people that they’re terrible, so they’ll practice hard. Other people need to be encouraged. They need to feel they’re improving, they’re good, and that you appreciate what it is that they’re doing.

If you have a teacher who will yell at you and tell you negative things all the time and that doesn’t work for you, then that’s not where you want to be. If you walk out of a lesson thinking about all the things you can’t do, that’s a terrible thing. You want somebody you trust, respect, and look forward to going to a lesson with. I don’t consider compatibility as crucial as getting someone who will change your playing, but it is still an important factor. 

Pursue your interests

I think it’s a great idea to do a double major. The art of music, or any art really, is knowing yourself, who you are, and then communicating that. I think that people who have other things that they’re good at, it’s fabulous, because it opens up a different part of your brain. You can practice, practice, practice, and at a certain point, you start to feel dumbfounded and are tunnel visioned. If you have something else that you can go to and then come back, suddenly you see things differently. You hear things differently.

I went to conservatories: Julliard, Curtis, and the New England Conservatory. That’s my background; a university wasn’t really an option in Massachusetts and New York because all the good music schools were conservatories. But I have a lot of interests, and I think I would have enjoyed going to a university and taking advantage of the variety of classes there. I think it’s an excellent idea to double major if you can.

Choosing a Graduate Music Program

As we’ve already seen, there are many factors to consider when trying to decide which undergraduate schools you should apply to and how to find a good fit for yourself.

If you are a performance major, and performing is your ultimate goal, you’ll be going to graduate school too. These days, you need a graduate degree in music. That’s it. There’s no other choice right now. You have to get a master’s degree, at least. If you’re going to go to graduate school, you want to get your bachelor’s in music degree in a place that will help you get into a graduate school.

Choosing a graduate Music Program

The process of finding a good graduate program is different from that of an undergraduate. Whereas I recommend taking several different elements into account when applying to undergraduate institutions, as a graduate student, your decision should be totally based on music. You’re not doing anything else.

When you go into a master’s or doctoral program, go into a program where you’re one of the top people. That way, when jobs open up, you’re the person they recommend. There are lots of fine teachers out there with connections, and they use those connections to get jobs for their students.

In addition to aiming for a program in which you will have a chance to shine, you want to make sure that the teacher you work with in graduate school will not only recommend you for positions but also help prepare you for the job market. A good teacher will mentor you, help you prepare for auditions, get you thinking about teaching strategies for your own students, and offer support as you create job application materials.

You should also look for a school that offers multiple degrees. In today’s market, it’s important to have a very diverse portfolio. This can include collaborative piano and pedagogy, as well as entrepreneurial activities.

Thank you for reading.

Be sure to read part 2 where I discuss how to prepare for life as a professional classical musician.

Moriarty is a founding member of the Fontana Ensemble of Michigan, and as an advocate of new music, has participated in numerous premiere performances including Milton Babbitt’s “Whirled Series” at Merkin Hall in New York City.

Moriarty is the Artistic Director of the annual Encore Festival and the “Music in the Hidden Churches” concert series in Todi, Italy. She is also co-founder of “Celebrating the Spectrum: A Festival of Music and Life,” an annual summer festival that brings talented pianists with ASD to the MSU campus for master classes, performances and college level classes.