Institute: Building a Chamber Music Residency (excerpts)

Career Development Institute: Building a Chamber Music Residency (June 2019)
Designed for the Vera Quartet & Rockport Chamber Music Festival

Why is this institute necessary? Beyond competing as interchangeable artistic commodities on the presenting circuit, emerging professional ensembles can benefit from learning strategies and concrete skills for developing future place-based career opportunities. In this pilot version of the institute, Rockport Chamber Music Festival benefited from the ensemble’s local work in the short-term, and the four members of the Vera Quartet gained the long-term benefit of being better prepared to build a place-based residency, such as their own summer festival.

Photo by Andy Hurlbut

Desired outcomes

1. Address the Quartet’s identified top priorities: learning about fundraising and doing strategic planning for an artistic project concept.
2. Prepare the Quartet for its activities representing Rockport Chamber Music Festival in the Rockport community.
3. Demonstrate the potential to create deeper relationships between Rockport Chamber Music Festival artists and the Rockport community.

Tuesday, 10:00 am. Based on the Quartet’s expressed interest in learning how to apply fundraising concepts to their projected career development, we discussed appreciative inquiry, donor cultivation, and strategic communications. We built an experimental model for developing annual residencies across disparate geographical areas in order to consider building a sustainable career for the Quartet based on relationships with key stakeholders in specific communities.

Photo by Andy Hurlbut

Tuesday, 1:00. Continuing to prepare for the upcoming “pop up” events in Rockport, the Quartet members deepened their thinking through a conversation about best practices for engaging communities with NEC's Tanya Maggi, Dean, Community Engagement & Professional Studies.

Photo by Josue Gonzalez

Photo by Josue Gonzalez

Saturday, 1:00. Lori Correale, Rockport Music’s Development Director, provided an opportunity for the Quartet to take a deeper dive into examining annual fundraising strategy, including using the example of Rockport Chamber Music Festival to explore how a festival is built on an always-expanding web of relationships that, like a garden, necessitate carefully planned attention.

Saturday, 2:00. We spent our final hour together reflecting on the overall residency experience of the Quartet, both in Boston and in Rockport, with additional reflections shared by Barry Shiffman, Rockport Chamber Music Festival’s Artistic Director, and Josue Gonzalez, Director of Education & Partnerships. Barry articulated the value of developing an emerging professional ensemble’s investment in a “constant state of thinking, observation, and awareness.”

​A Quartet member explained that the open-minded discussions were valuable for leading them to adopt new thinking and activities, even if indirectly and in the future. For next time, the Quartet members asked for more and repeat “pop up” opportunities, allowing them to both reflect on their work and improve upon it. It was generally agreed that there would be significant benefit from more time spent thinking strategically, including getting better acquainted before working together and beginning the “pop up” planning earlier.