As I concluded my master's degree in piano performance, the age-old question, "What will you do after graduation?", haunted my conversations with professors, friends, relatives, baristas, even strangers in the grocery store. The truth is, I was imagining a future of full-time service-industry work with a couple of piano students and gigs on th...

Q: This is the time of year when high school students are considering college and preparing for auditions. As a music administrator, do you have any suggestions for me and/or my students that would help us make good decisions? A (Part I): There are many ways to study music in college and many ways to prepare for a career in music. Learn about and c...

In recent years, there's been a lot of discussion about the state of the piano teaching industry. We know that piano sales have declined dramatically, but has there been a decline in the number of people studying piano? In the absence of thorough data, we can only look to anecdotal evidence, which seems to be highly variable. I hear from teachers w...

Jim Collins's book Good to Great 1 has spent years on business bestseller lists and has been translated into thirty-five languages. In the book, the author and his team of researchers investigate how some companies have transformed themselves from good into great, increasing and sustaining growth in sales and services. Despite its popularity o...

Teaching piano or working as a staff accompanist at a college, conservatory, or university is a desirable career for many pianists. Holding a full-time position in academia can have many rewards: teaching piano, chamber music, piano pedagogy, and piano literature to promising young musicians; performing solo recitals and chamber music with colleagu...

One pianist's quest to obtain the elusive faculty position I found that the most difficult part of entering the academic job market was getting started in the first place. At the time, I was teaching (adjunct) at a university and finishing up my doctorate. Finding more time to gather job prospects, prepare cover letters, recording so and other mate...

Against considerable odds, serious piano study appears to be thriving worldwide. Talented youngsters from East and West continue to crowd into conservatories and study standard repertoire, despite the temptations of popular culture to pursue alternate paths. Many in the piano world worry, however, that this glut of new artists gathering in the mark...

from the series: The World Around Us: News & Views Helen Smith Tarchalski, Editor Inform your students by Helen Smith Tarchalski Many years ago, I read a memorable article in a publication from my Alma Mater, Peabody Conservatory, that was written by the Director of Admissions, David Lane. It was an amusing, and at the same time,...