Success Beyond The Score

It is not easy to define the sense of spectacle in classical music. Precision and speed are always a thing of wonder, yes, but the musician cannot leave behind the act of performing, of giving a character to the interpretation. Yuja Wang knows this very well, and it shows every time she sits in front of her piano.

During an interview with Los Angeles Times in 2017, she was asked about what alternative career she would have picked if she wasn’t a prodigy pianist. Her answer was: “For me, playing music is about transporting to another way of life, another way of being. An actress does that.” With that perspective, you can see the character she plays live; with the thrill of spectacle running in her fingers, her deliberated fashion choices that infuse a Hollywood glam flavour to the stage, and her empathetic approach to her repertoire.

Her brilliant and inspiring career surely comes as motivation to find our own character on stage and play its role in a musical...

Help Musicians UK and Musicians Union have helped funding the PiPA (Parents in Performing Arts) Classical Music Survey, which aims to identify patterns in job and working environments in relation to work-life balance, and develop practical strategies and resources for Classical Music organisations to better support parents and carers, and the wider workforce.

You can take the survey clicking here.

The survey was developed in partnership with Association of British Orchestras, Liverpool Philharmonic, SWAP’ra, Black Lives in Music and UK Music. It will investigate the impact of caring responsibilities on career progression as well as wider worklife balance and wellbeing challenges in Classical Music.

The survey will provide data driven insights to enable PiPA to develop a range of strategies and resources for the Classical Music sector to empower organisations to better support parents, carers and the wider workforce.

PiPA wants to hear from people from all backgrounds...