45: Five Questions For Todd Palmer
with Todd Palmer
What is the best professional advice you’ve received?
The best professional advice I ever received was when I was in my early twenties and the manager of the soprano, Kathleen Battle, told me to never wait for the phone to ring, which we've heard before, but it is very, very true. And what does that mean? Well, it means that one has to be very creative with what they want to do in their career. And yes, the phone will ring for you, but still, it's very important to generate your own work, which is a much more complex answer than just saying that.
But I also want to mention the other piece of advice that was given to me early on was, “Todd, my best advice to you,” - now, this is from a professional musician, said-- after I played for him, hoping to somehow get work or somehow make connections, networking - he said, “My best advice for you is to move out of New York and get yourself a real job.” Yeah, I know it was, but I never forgot that. I didn't listen to him because I'm still living here!
How can a musician build a network and increase performance opportunities?
Well, I think for me, one of the best ways that I've been able to network myself throughout my career is to play chamber music. I think it's incredibly important for us to not only look at potential solo concerts for ourselves and being with Young Concert Artists, that's sort of what sort of how we are seen by the public. But I enjoyed playing chamber music from the get-go at school, and I know that it is very, very important to maintain relationships with your colleagues throughout your career and always work on those friendships. It's extremely important. Also get to know living composers, whether or not you like their music, you should play it. And, and once again, you'll meet many other people. And basically, it's all about who you know in our profession as it is with many professions.
What does it mean to show up fully prepared for an engagement?
So I want to speak about how important it is to be fully prepared when you're going into a new musical environment and people that you may not know or, or an organization that you've not played with before,
whether it be an orchestra or a chamber music festival. I have always been extremely conscientious about preparation. I've never been a quick study, first of all. So, number one, learn your music. Number two, always be early. If it's an orchestral rehearsal, be there at least one half hour before the downbeat of the conductor. Nowadays, there are many different ways to listen to music online, to prepare. If it's, if it's a new world premiere, that's something altogether different. You can always get a score from the composer. Put cues in your part. This is extremely important and you must always, throughout your career, you must do our homework at home. Another very important thing is don't dress as you would dress at home. When you're going to a rehearsal, you know, look nicer. It just shows more respect for your colleagues.
Outside of performing well, what is the most important thing you can do to help grow a career?
The most important thing, as I've said before, is maintaining friendships with your colleagues, the people that you will see all your life in your career in music. It's a small world out there in our field and, and this is a lesson to be learned in life as well. And, be kind to people. Kindness goes a long way. And I have maintained, maintained many friendships. Of course, you can only have so many friends. We all know that. And-- I mean real friendships. I don't mean friendships on social media. And I still see these people from decades ago. I've had friends for 30 years now in this business, and it is extremely important because those people will help get you work as well.
When do you say “yes” and when do you say “no” regarding work?
One of the hardest decisions we always have to make in our career is the work that we take on and the work that we say no to or just can't do. You can only be one place at a time. You can never be two places at one time, and this is a problem we have throughout our lives as musicians, unfortunately. And I just know when I was young that I took on whatever was possible. And I think that's really important to do if you have the time without stretching yourself too much because you always want to do a good job wherever you go, whatever the circumstance is.
And I remember where I went to school at Mannes College of Music, they had a bulletin board of all various, you know, work for students, this and that. And I was like, Sign me up for this, Sign me up for that. I did this little competition, that little competition, whatever. And the thing is, that's how you start building your contacts and, and you’re networking and, and once again, it's all about who you know and who knows you. So, yes, there are times where you take on work and then a week later you may get called to do something at the exact same time. This happens frequently in the summertime, where everything is very concentrated within the three months of time. And it is frustrating. And then there are difficult questions you have to make. Like do you want to play this particular concert because you love the music, you love the people going to play with, it probably may not pay very well, and then you get an offer to do something else later on at the same time, that pays infinitely better. So what do you do? It's a very hard thing to decide. And it's important not to burn too many bridges. Eventually we all burn a bridge here and there.
But then there's also the circumstance about building a bridge to begin with. And it happens to all of us where we may be asked to do something, and we just can't for whatever reason. And that connection is lost from the get-go. And that just happens. So we just have to learn to live with that and, and have faith
that other things will come along your way and they usually do. We all have, you know, the great paying jobs and then the less well-paying jobs, but the ones that don't pay as well usually are the ones we love the most. And sometimes you do them to help out friends and, or causes, and these are very important things to always keep balanced in your performing career. But once again, it's a very complex answer and a very difficult question to answer succinctly, I believe, because it's something that we constantly have issues with throughout our lives. And, you know, it's just the way the, the nature of the business is, unfortunately. But, you know, just be thankful that you are getting asked.