Hi there First name / friend, 

 

Tiffany here! I was recently talking to a colleague about her path. She’s fascinating, creative and resourceful. Her name is Cheryl, and I think she has a lot to teach us all.

 

Cheryl has an undergraduate degree in business administration and an MBA in marketing. After she got out of school, she worked for Taco Bell, White Castle, and other corporate giants. Unfortunately one day she woke up and frantically thought, "Why the hell am I helping sell tacos?" She decided it was a good time to fulfill her long-time dream of going to acting school and got an MFA from The New School in NYC. She’d always loved theater and decided it was time to explore what this path could bring to her life. She finished her degree and has since enjoyed writing and producing plays and acting in commercials and short films. 

 

But, I’m sure you won’t be shocked to hear that Cheryl also needed to pay the bills, and acting wasn’t quite doing it. She began to look for work that could combine her love of marketing and theater and worked as an independent contractor, in the marketing department at Santa Cruz Shakespeare, and did work for friends and colleagues that needed help building websites and advertising for their plays and events. She taught herself Google Analytics, Adobe Suite and just enough code to get by.

 

Eventually, Cheryl took a job at Cal Performances, the performing arts presenter at the University of California, Berkely. That’s where I met Cheryl, which is a story for another day or this email is going to turn into a novel.

 

Yesterday, Cheryl and I were talking about the fact that there are opportunities you seek and opportunities you create in life. Cheryl has been great at both. She has sought out steady, full-time jobs where they exist but she’s also created opportunities for herself by writing plays, acting, putting on productions and doing independent work that uses her unique skill sets.

 

 

 

Here’s the bottom line: there are ways forward that music school doesn't put in front of us. There are also ample and important ways to contribute to the larger performing arts community in addition to playing or teaching your instrument. The performing arts needs you and it needs people that know how to resolve the seventh in a dominant seventh chord AND how to contribute with other skills. We don’t think we talk about all of this enough.

 

That’s one of the reasons we created our Thrive membership. We open Thrive 3 times a year and our Summer Session is open for enrollment until May 5. And… WE ARE ANNOUNCING THE SUMMER GUESTS FOR THE FIRST TIME RIGHT NOW!!!

 

This lineup is like, really exciting. Chen Halevi is my personal clarinet hero whom I studied with for a year in Germany. I can not WAIT for everyone to meet him. Then we've got Joe Morris, Ixi's colleague in Cincinnati and an absolutely stellar clarinet player. Then there's the infamous Michele Zukofsky who is brilliant and one of a kind. And lastly… for the first time… there's US!!!!!!!!! 

 

 

You get live classes + access to the Thrive video library as a member. Check it all out here. 

 

Lastly, it wouldn't be a Wednesday email without some clarinet advice. So, here it is… if you saw this on Instagram this AM, hopefully this inspires you to REALLY do this today. ;) 

 

1. Without the register key

2. Largo with the most sustained beautiful sound - truly legato

3. Staccato

4. With a drone on C

5. By being as free physically as you possible can

 

Don't complicate things. Sometimes the simplest material can be the gateway to the most improvement.

 

Cheering for you! 

 

 

ps: Lots here today. Blog post on Creating & Seeking Opportunity, THRIVE summer guests announced (!) and 5 ways to practice a descending 1 octave C major scale (scroll up).   

 

 

 

 

 

 

*yes, he's a cellist. No, that doesn't matter. You will learn so much. Zlatomir is on fire on Instagram. Join us!

 

Thanks for reading and sharing.