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Career and Artistic Development Committee

Mission

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.

Lightning Talks at the 2019 Convention

The Career and Artistic Development Committee is pleased to announce a call for lightning talks for the 2019 convention. Presenters will share innovative projects, fresh ideas, new approaches, and research in an exciting new format. Lightning Talks distill a larger topic into 5 minutes of the most relevant material. Submissions are due by March 1, 2019.    

Learn more and submit a proposal.

Career Checks

Feeling uncertain about your career path? Does your resume need a reboot? Sign up for a 30-minute career mentorship meeting with the Career and Artistic Development Committee.

Learn more and sign up.

Activities

This committee brings together the entrepreneurial experience of several flutists:

  • Powell Artist, Hilary Abigana, is aCo-Founder and the flutist with The Fourth Wall, a hybrid arts ensemble that combines music, theatre, and dance to create performances that leap from the stage. Lauded for their "deft choreography" by the Wall Street Journal, The Fourth Wall also teaches workshops that encourage participants to think outside the box.  
  • Haynes Artist, Marco Granados is an international concerto and recital soloist, master teacher and educator. He has had recital debuts at Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall. He is the founder of the Granados Music Institute, an innovative program for aspiring flutists.
  • Zara Lawler combines music, dance and theater in her solo project The Flute on its Feet, her duo with percussion Lawler + Fadoul, and in massed flute events.  Her second CD with Lawler + Fadoul will be released in 2019. She teaches at Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division and in her own private Suzuki flute studio.
  • Dr. Shelley Martinson serves as chair of the Career and Artistic Development Committee and Associate Professor of Music (Flute and Musicology) at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. She is founder and President of the Flute New Music Consortium, and Past President of the Oklahoma Flute Society.
  • Shivhan Dohse Morton is the National Marketing and Sales Director for Miyazawa (USA), performs with Orchestra Iowa, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony and the Ottumwa Symphony. In addition, Shivhan teaches flute and flute pedagogy at Coe College. 
  • Alina Osika, Manager of Corporate Partnerships at Utah Symphony; Utah Opera and Utah Flute Association board member
  • Dr. Jessica Sherer serves on the faculties of Emory University and Agnes Scott College. She is a member of Sinfonia Gulf Coast, LaGrange Symphony, Albany Symphony, and Spartanburg Philharmonic, and co-founder of the Atlanta Chamber Music Festival and Play It Forward Scholarship
  • Dr. Michelle Stanley is the Associate Professor of Music at Colorado State University where she teaches flute, chamber music and entrepreneurship. She is an active teacher/performer that travels frequently throughout Europe and the U.S. as a recitalist and teacher.
  • Dr. Colleen White has taught flute, chamber music, and entrepreneurship courses at Colorado State University, MSU Denver, and the University of Colorado Boulder. She has performed with the Colorado Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony, and is core flutist of Green Room Artists, a Boulder-based chamber music collective.

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!

NFA C.R.E.A.T.E. Project Competition

2018 Winner: Iva Ugrčić, LunArts Festival - LunART Festival is to support, inspire, promote, and celebrate women in the arts through public performances, exhibitions, workships, and interdisciplinary collaboration; thus enriching our community and creating a welcoming space for learning and experimentation. https://www.lunartfestival.org

2018 Finalists:
Sabrina Raber: Find Your Beat 
April Cheung, Joanne Wheeler, Laura Pillman, Maria Gabriela Alvarado, and Stacey Chou: In Radiance
Natasha Hongsermeier-Graves: Musicians for Healing

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

 

LINKS

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.

Music Career Guides and Strategies

CV, Resume and Cover Letter Guides

Marketing Your Music

Arts Entrepreneurship Sites

  • Arts Enterprise - University of Wisconsin's comprehensive website for entrepreneurs in all artistic disciplines, including useful links and informative videos
  • Self-Employment in the Arts - An educational resource with a monthly column, numerous informative articles, and an interactive forum for professionals to share ideas. 
  • Entrepreneur the Arts - A Chicago-based blog with hundreds of entries covering a variety of business of art topics including legal, accounting, and marketing issues, as well links to related books, websites, and conferences.
  • The Artful Manager- The Artful Manager seeks a new set of metaphors for the administrative leaders of arts and culture. 

Arts Entrepreneurship Books & Podcasts

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.

New Resources

iCadenza Podcasts: A Music Career without Compromise
The Entrepreneurial Musician with Andrew Hitz