Once you have a mailing list, you can invite people to your performances.
What do you write? We all are bombarded daily with ads, offers, and invita-tions. Why are some more effective than others? Think about an upcoming performance. Imagine inviting someone who is not a musician and who is unfamiliar with your repertoire. Perhaps this is your local barista, hairstyl-ist, your landlord, postal worker, or mechanic. You talk fairly regularly, and they have asked you about your work.
How would you invite this person to the concert? Think about what you would say in person, and then write it down. Make sure you have the impor-tant facts about the performance: who, what, when, where, and especially why! Why are you excited about this particular concert, and why should this person come to it? Your enthusiasm can be contagious, but you also need to convey specifi c details of interest to your prospective audience. The chal-lenge is to make your invitations engaging and personable.
When you write an e-mail invitation to a segment or all of your mailing list, write as you would to an individual. Don’t send an impersonal-sound-ing generic performance announcement, such as “Monthly Performance Schedule for the 123 Jazz Trio,” with a list of dates. This is not a way to
culti-vate a relationship! If recipients feel “marketed at” or spammed, then you are doing more harm than good.
Instead, write something more engaging:
Dear Jane: [your segmented mailing list allows you to personalize the mailings]
We’d love to have you join us next Thursday night, May 2, for the 123 Jazz Trio band debut performance at the Spilled Milk Coffee House in Woodstock. We’re all fi red up to be playing great tunes by Monk and Charlie Parker, plus new originals from our upcoming CD. We’d love to see you there! Below are details about the show and directions to the venue. Let me know if you have any questions.
Your friend, Tillie Smith
Expanding Your Network: Making New Friends
Networking is about more than cultivating existing relationships—it’s im-portant to create new ones as well. In discussing with musicians the idea of making new contacts, I sometimes hear, “I can’t do that, I’m too shy,” or “I hate making small talk.” But networking is not about being extroverted. You simply need to be interested in other people, able to talk one-on-one, and willing to say a bit about yourself and either your project or an upcoming performance.
Most people do this naturally. Notice your conversation when a friend introduces you to someone new. You probably ask the new person about their work, their interests, and where they’re from. And you reciprocate by sharing something about yourself. If, in the course of the conversation, you
“click,” you can ask to exchange e-mail addresses to arrange a follow-up contact. This way, a stranger or acquaintance may become, over time, a trusted colleague, friend, or mentor.
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Tool for Success: Your Business Card
Professionals carry business cards because they are a simple, inexpensive tool to make networking easier. Handing someone your business card is a great alterna-tive to handing out your cell phone number on a soggy cocktail napkin. And a busi-ness card works much better than trying to memorize an e-mail address that someone tells you in passing. You can exchange business cards with new contacts in order to build your mailing list and network.
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What goes on your business card? Your name and what you do (e.g., pianist/
teacher, baritone, jazz trumpeter), plus your phone number, e-mail address, and website. Your postal address is optional. Choose an attractive layout and typeface.
Check for online sources for inexpensive business cards such as http://www.vista print.com and http://www.iprint.com.
Make sure that your e-mail, website, and any other contact addresses are ap-propriately professional. Use internet addresses with your name, and stay away from those that are potentially embarrassing, such as “WorldsBestTenor.com” or
“[email protected].” What you may think of as fun and full of personality may come across as immature or worse. Ultimately, people need e-mail addresses that are easy to fi nd and remember, so your fi rst and last name is best.
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Tip: Ask for Advice
If you are working on a particular project and are looking for contacts with a particular expertise, don’t overlook the obvious: start with your friends and colleagues. Ask members of your inner circle for suggestions of people to contact about your project. Some musicians feel embarrassed at being di-rect with others about their goals. But if no one knows what you want, or what you are working toward, how can they help you?
Emerging artists often think that people in positions of power are not interested in speaking with them. Not true. If they have the time, estab-lished professionals often enjoy sharing their insights and advice with emerging artists. And, on the other hand, don’t overlook the people around you who may have great leads and advice to offer. Also, the alumni offi ce at your university or conservatory may be a great source for networking contacts.
Your approach needs to fi t the situation. If you’ve just met someone of infl uence or who has substantial experience and perspective in the profes-sion, it is not appropriate to ask right away for an audition, lesson, perfor-mance opportunity, or job. It’s like asking someone to marry you on a fi rst date: it’s not advisable. Networking is about developing relationships over time, not about quickie, one-time transactions.
Informational Interviewing
The method to use for cultivating contacts with people in infl uential posi-tions is called informational interviewing. These are appointments you can set up for the purpose of gaining information and perspective from an indi-vidual. This is a structured form of networking as a way to make an initial contact, not to ask for an audition, performance opportunity, or job.
How-ever, this personal contact may eventually lead to a job, audition, or perfor-mance. So it can be very worthwhile to invest your time in doing informational interviews.
For those just leaving school, making a career transition, or moving to a new city, informational interviews can be especially helpful. They are a tool to expand your professional network, to help you connect with people who can refer you to resources, ideas, and other contacts.
Start your informational interviewing with the people you already know: current or former teachers and experienced colleagues. Although you may see these people often, if you have not had a conversation about advancing your music career, now’s a great time to start. Make an appoint-ment to meet and tell your contact in advance that you’d like to get his or her perspective and advice on your career. The meeting can be done over coffee or lunch (you pick up the tab). Prepare beforehand the particular questions you want to ask, tailoring your questions to each individual’s ex-pertise. Think of this as practice for future meetings with people you do not already know.
At the very least, the meeting should yield two or three new contacts.
Ask if you can use your colleague’s name when calling or e-mailing these people. Request a brief appointment (20–30 minutes) in order to ask ques-tions and gather information about a specifi c area of interest. I would rec-ommend making the initial contact (to someone you’ve never met) by e-mail.
Take care in writing any professional correspondence, even when it is a quick e-mail. Nothing says “unprofessional” louder than spelling or gram-matical errors. Proofread carefully. Take the same care with those details as you do with your music, because your correspondence represents you and your music. The subject line is important. If you are writing to someone new who won’t recognize your e-mail address, what you write in the subject line will often determine whether or not the e-mail is read. Try “Request for appointment with you to discuss . . . ,” or better yet, use the referring con-tact’s name “Larry Scripp at NEC suggested I contact you.”
Below is a sample e-mail request for an informational interview. Jane Smith is an oboist interested in performing with her quintet at local elemen-tary schools. She is contacting the Massachusetts chapter of the national or-ganization Young Audiences because they hire musicians for in-school performances and they have an excellent reputation. Note that Jane is not asking to be hired (although, eventually, that may be what she wants). She knows that for now, she needs more experience and wants to develop her presentation skills. She is requesting an informational interview with the program offi cer, Ms. Borg, in order to gain perspective and advice on how to
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proceed. Note that each paragraph has a specifi c purpose, as explained in the bracketed italics at the start of each paragraph.
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Subject line: Request for meeting; Larry Scripp referred me to you!
Dear Ms. Borg:
[The fi rst paragraph should establish a connection to the reader by naming your mutual contact or referral, if you have one, and should estab-lish why you are writing—to set up a brief meeting in order to gain infor-mation:] Larry Scripp at New England Conservatory suggested I contact you for advice and information regarding arts education performance opportunities in K–
12 schools. I would like to arrange a brief informational interview meeting at your convenience to gain from your knowledge and experience in the fi eld. I read with interest the information on the Young Audiences website and am impressed with the range of programs and the artists you make available to schools.
[The second paragraph should establish your credentials: highlight your most impressive, relevant experience and skills so that the reader will think it worthwhile to spend time speaking with you.] I am an oboist, and I teach at the Brookline Music School. My quintet has performed for after-school programs in Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury, as well as at two community music schools. I would welcome the opportunity to fi nd out what you feel makes a great K–12 program and how you’d recommend we work on designing and improving our school presentations.
[The third paragraph should reassure the reader that you are not look-ing for work, just feedback, that you will call next week, and that you ap-preciate the help—be enthusiastic.] I would like to see if we can arrange a brief meeting at your convenience. Again, I would appreciate any advice you have to offer, and I look forward to speaking with you.
Sincerely, Jane Smith
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Although this may seem very formal, especially for an e-mail, the idea is that if you are approaching a busy professional and asking for some of their time and expertise, you need to come across as interested, respectful, and professional.
Once you have your informational interview scheduled, a little prepara-tion will help you get the most out of your appointment. For any profes-sional occasion, you should dress cleanly and neatly. You need not wear a suit, but you need to be taken seriously as a professional, so look the part
(jeans and a T-shirt is probably inappropriate). The next section describes how you might handle the appointment itself.
How should Jane handle her meeting with Liz? She knows she needs to be conscious of time because Liz is busy. So Jane writes out her key questions in advance:
What makes a great K–12 performance presentation?
Are there any Young Audiences artists I could meet with or observe?
Do you have any suggestions of resources or organizations that would help my quintet improve its K–12 presentations?
Everyone in our quintet has private teaching experience, but we have no classroom experience. Can you suggest any reading materials on gearing our presentations toward specifi c curricula and age groups?
The result was Jane had the meeting with Liz and it went great. At the end of it, Jane made sure she thanked Liz for her time and information. And when Jane got home, she wrote and mailed a handwritten thank you card.
This is a crucial piece of networking—people need to hear and receive thank yous. And handwritten ones are especially rare and welcome these days.