The Career and Artistic Development Committee has been created by the NFA with the mandate to provide artistic and professional guidance as well as to facilitate access to information about career resources for all NFA members.
This committee brings together the entrepreneurial experience of several flutists:
The CAD committee offers both career and artistic development guidance, because we recognize the dynamic interdependence between the artistic and business aspects of every flutist's career. To serve our mission, we launched a mini-conference of workshops at the 2010 Anaheim Convention, and they have since become a standard part of the National Flute Convention. Featured Guests have included Jeanne Baxtresser, Alberto Almarza, Lillian Burkart, Flutronix, Cristina Ballatori, Alice K. Dade, Meret Bitticks, Shanna Gutierrez, Stephanie Jutt, and Eva Amsler, among others. The CAD committee also sponsors the biennial NFA C.R.E.A.T.E. Project Competition. Established in 2014, this unique competition seeks to reward and encourage new thinking and viable, innovative ideas with a seed grant.
We believe that the word "career" involves more than just earning money as a flutist. It's what shapes our path as artists and vice versa. Whether you're a full time flutist, an aspiring student, or an adult amateur, our committee has something to offer you!
2016 Winner: Jessica Sherer & Emma Shubin, Play It Forward - A nonprofit organization providing private music lesson scholarships. In exchange, students "play it forward" by volunteering their own time to help others.
2016 Finalists:
Stacey Chou: In Radiance
Bonnie Cochran: In Concert
Michael Hoover: Chicago Symphonic Winds
2014 Winner: Shelley Martinson, Elizabeth Robinson, David Graham, Ashley Shank, Flute New Music Consortium - A 501c3 nonprofit organization committed to promoting new music for the flute by commissioning works, organizing premieres, and encouraging repeat performances.
2014 Finalists
Leonard Garrison: L’Atelier de flute: French Intermediate Flute Repertoire
Meg Griffith, Rik Noyce: Whole Musician: Mind, Movement, Music
Melinda Ostrander-Aviles: Flute Troops: Scouting for Flutists
Following is a list of websites designed to help aspiring artists gain the entrepreneurial knowledge and skills needed to establish and maintain a career as an independent artist.
Twyla Tharpe, The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life. Pub. Simon & Schuster:
Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. Pub. Riverhead Books:
Angela Myles Beeching, Beyond Talent. Pub. Oxford Press.
David Cutler, The Savvy Musician: Building a Career, Earning a Living, and Making a Difference. Pub. Helius Press.
iCadenza Podcasts: A Music Career without Compromise
The Entrepreneurial Musician with Andrew Hitz