Last year I was invited by the Reina Sofia School of Music in Madrid, where I am Visiting Professor, to help create a brand new Entrepreneurship program for the School. Having got to know the work of the School and its students (it is in many ways Spain’s equivalent of Curtis in the States and of a very similar size) the opportunity was too tempting and I am now coming to the end of a first year of development which will lead to the establishment of a new Masters program. It was the student’s reaction to this new challenge involving so many new non-musical skills, which was so fascinating. Getting them to see the need for communications skills (storytelling by any other name), networking, languages, EQ, negotiating, marketing, PR, teaching, and concert production is part of their journey as musicians in our contemporary world and even in its first year has led to some very creative individual and group projects. Next year will take the journey even further.
https://www.escuelasuperiordemusicareinasofia.es/E_ClaustroAcademico_Emprendimiento.aspx