Dear Alma, My agent has left me high and dry
Daily Comfort ZoneDear Alma,
I have been with the same agency for more than 20 years. Initially they were keen and hard-working, and organized tours beautifully. But it has slowly been declining – number of concerts, type of engagement, fee. They even asked me to make my own travel and hotel bookings last year. It’s all really too much. I have been asking around about another agent, but it looks like my type of niche is no longer au courant.
Alma – I have all but given up – I am used to a certain lifestyle and I can’t imagine what to do. I am afraid and yet I need to keep up a false front of confidence. I was so busy building a career that I didn’t have time or energy to find a partner, I almost terribly alone and past the age to have children. It’s sometimes months between engagements and I am having trouble making ends meet.
Is it all over?
Dear Is it all over,
I feel your desperation. Your loneliness and fear. Please, Is it all over, make a list of anyone you you could reach out to – an old friend, family member, colleague. You must make a human connection, and as fast as possible.
A career in classical music is erratic, fickle, emotionally satisfying, and cruel. You are not alone in your feelings. All of us have had to deal with fluctuation in income, having to project a false sense of confidence, and a flip-flop of success and difficult times.
I once knew a musician who had had tremendous success as a teenager. They were traveling the world, creating music with the “A” list, making recordings and experiencing the riches of an extravagant life. All before age 20. A handful of years later, when I was in need of a collaborator, I was surprised when my manager suggested this person. Certainly they were well above my level – I had a full schedule but was hardly playing the top venues. But I followed their advice, and we had some trial meetings. They never invited me over, until we had decided to make an official partnership. I was shocked to see them living in a small, dingy apartment, the main room (combination kitchen and sitting room) had only an old, sagging loveseat in it. Eventually they told me that their concerts had dwindled – they were alone in this country, and they still had a number of years left in their contract with their manage. They were being supported by their parents again but embarrassed to look for work teaching or in other non-performance fields. Our collaboration lasted years – and of course it was a less glamorous life – but they found a companion and a new way to live.
Having great success can be a debilitating, numbing experience which can isolate you and leave you feeling worthless. Don’t fall for that. You are better than that – you are a marvelous talent and can find a way to share your skills with people who look up to you. Open your mind to new ways to use your skills, and leave your pride, no matter how nobly won, behind you.
It is all over, please look up this organization – International Association for Suicide Prevention – which has free help lines in many countries. Speak to someone as soon as you read this, and shed your old skin. A new and wonderful life is there for you, bravely step towards it.
Questions for Alma? Please put them in the comments section or send to DearAlmaQuery@gmail.com
Sad to say that many agencies do this. You are not alone! They Put their money on very few big artists. Look at the major agencies’ websites. How many have you heard of? How many biographies dont mention future performances are listed, they probably don’t have any. If the biography talks about the past only, that’s a red flag.
I recommend that this artist goes with a small agency, someone with only 10-20 artists. They wont drown and be ignored there and the manager will have time to speak more often. Big agents can get away with being too busy for a call with a not-busy artist because they only actually care about the few big names.
Your agency might honestly not be doing any real work for you behind the scenes. If you want to live in the present, contact some agencies that work for YOU. It’s also way better for your mental health because you will feel their support. Small agencies might work with smaller venues but they are also the venues where the administration will give you the time of day and where you’re not picked up in the lobby of some huge orchestra by an intern who doesn’t know anything. Human contact is with the small agencies. Sad to say that I know this from years of experience behind the scenes
This is a tragic thing, and something that happened to me, in a smaller scale. It felt like they just gave up.
Make three lists. One, conductors you have worked with, or know and have not worked with. Two, administrators, such as executive directors, artistic administrators everywhere whom you know. Three, a list of living composers you know. I don’t know your instrument or anything about you. Find any of these people with social media presence. Connect, network, see if there are composers who would compose a new work for you with orchestra and share the idea with conductors and orchestras. One, you can form a consortium of orchestras to share the composer fee cost, or, two, raise the composers fee through foundations and private donors through a non profit conduit. Personally, this is how I lived for the last twenty-five years, and doing all the contracts, with composers, orchestras, non profit, and all the travel, hotel etc. You seem to have a passion to continue doing what you love. Don’t let a management dictate your fate. At the same time, they are probably having a tough time. It’s not easy for them as well. Try to take the control of your destiny, and reboot. One thing I’ve learned is to never ask anyone for anything, and do as much for yourself as possible. There are no guarantees, but my teacher told me many years ago, “Dear, we make our own careers.” Good luck. You got this.
I remember RIchard Margison saying something very similar to students after a very good Master Class. He told them to make their own music — contact churches that run music series and volunteer to join in (they are always looking for participant artists as they can rarely pay very much), or get together with others and rent a venue and give a concert. He told them to busk, to accept any sort of gig until they broke through to some secure level, if they did.
He told them to keep making music because if they were good they would get further and further into the profession. He may have been optimistic, but it was still a good attitude with which to embark upon a career.
Dear Alma,
I am pursuing a degree in violin, primarily because I am getting tuition fully covered by the violin studio. My career aspirations, however, are in viola! The more I play viola (I am now in my 7th year) and the more advanced I get, violin becomes more foreign!
Seeing as I have to keep the violin for my degree, what advice do you have for playing both violin and viola at a high level?