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In order to cope with the decreasing availability of symphony jobs and collegiate faculty positions, many musicians are starting to pursue less traditional career paths. Also, to combat declining audiences, musicians are exploring ways to cultivate new and enthusiastic listeners through relevant and engaging performances. Due to these challenges, many…

In order to cope with the decreasing availability of symphony jobs and collegiate faculty positions, many musicians are starting to pursue less traditional career paths. Also, to combat declining audiences, musicians are exploring ways to cultivate new and enthusiastic listeners through relevant and engaging performances. Due to these challenges, many community-based chamber music ensembles have been formed throughout the United States. These groups not only focus on performing classical music, but serve the needs of their communities as well. The problem, however, is that many musicians have not learned the business skills necessary to create these career opportunities. In this document I discuss the steps ensembles must take to develop sustainable careers. I first analyze how groups build a strong foundation through getting to know their communities and creating core values. I then discuss branding and marketing so ensembles can develop a public image and learn how to publicize themselves. This is followed by an investigation of how ensembles make and organize their money. I then examine the ways groups ensure long-lasting relationships with their communities and within the ensemble. I end by presenting three case studies of professional ensembles to show how groups create and maintain successful careers. Ensembles must develop entrepreneurship skills in addition to cultivating their artistry. These business concepts are crucial to the longevity of chamber groups. Through interviews of successful ensemble members and my own personal experiences in the Tetra String Quartet, I provide a guide for musicians to use when creating a community-based ensemble.

ContributorsDalbey, Jenna (Author) / Landschoot, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / McLin, Katherine (Committee member) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Solis, Theodore (Committee member) / Spring, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2013

Looking out the window: toward a visual understanding of school grounds as place

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This study looked at ways of understanding how schoolyards might act as meaningful places in children's developing sense of identity and possibility. Photographs and other images such as historical photographs and maps were used to look at how built environments outside of school reflect demographic and social differences within one…

This study looked at ways of understanding how schoolyards might act as meaningful places in children's developing sense of identity and possibility. Photographs and other images such as historical photographs and maps were used to look at how built environments outside of school reflect demographic and social differences within one southwest city. Intersections of children's worlds with various socio-political communities, woven into and through schooling, were examined for evidence of ways that schools act as the embodiment of a community's values: they are the material and observable effects of resource-allocation decisions. And scholarly materials were consulted to examine relationships in the images to existing theories of place, and its effect on children, as well as to consider theories of the hidden curriculum and its relationship to social reproduction, and the nature of visual representation as a form of data rather than strictly in the service of illustrating other forms of data. The focus of the study was on identifying appropriate research methods for investigating ways to understand the importance of the material worlds of school and childhood. Using a combination of visual and narrative approaches to contribute to our understanding of those material worlds, I sought to expose areas of inequity and class differences in ways that children experience schooling, as evidenced by differences in the material environment. Using a mixed-methods approach, created and found images were coded for categories of material culture, such as the existence of fences, trees, views from the playground or walking in the neighborhood at four Tempe schools. Findings were connected to a rich body of knowledge in areas such as theories of space and place, the nature of the hidden curriculum, visual culture, visual research methods including mapping. Familiar aspects of schooling were exposed in different ways, linking past decisions made by adults to their continuing effects on children today. In this way I arrived at an expanded and enriched understanding of the present worlds of children communicated as through the material environment. Visually examining children's worlds, by looking at the material artifacts of everyday worlds that children experience at school and including the child's-eye view in decision processes, has promise in moving decision makers away from strictly analytical and impersonal approaches to decision making about schooling children of the future. I proposed that by weighting of data points, as used in decision-making processes regarding schooling, differently than is currently done, and by paying closer attention to possible longer-term effects of place for all children, not just a few, there is the potential to improve the quality of life for today's children, and tomorrow's adults.

ContributorsWalsum, Joyce Van (Author) / Margolis, Eric M. (Thesis advisor) / Green, Samuel (Thesis advisor) / Collins, Daniel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2013

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