My branding workshop — filling up fast

Four people have already said they’re seriously interested in the branding workshop I’ll teach online. So now they and I need just two more people, at $200 each. Email me if you’d like to be one of them.

To learn more, follow the link to read my announcement of the workshop. In an entrepreneurial world, everyone going into the market — including classical musicians or ensembles or institutions looking for an audience — needs a brand. Which simply means words and images — or things that you regularly do — that tell the world how you make music. And why people should care.

And say all this in a concise, memorable way, so people won’t forget you.

Which is especially crucial for classical music, because we’re not good at telling people why they should care about us. Just look at all the press releases I get, full of blank talk of “acclaimed” artists playing “beloved masterworks.” There’s more to classical music than that!

I’ve been teaching branding in my Juilliard course on the future of classical music. Yesterday we talked about how other people — and corporations — brand, and the discussion was lively. Because, after all, all of us see branding in action, all around us, all the time.

But what we might not realize is that we brand ourselves even if we don’t mean to. A concert flyer without any style…a blank bio of you, printed in your program…these things (and more) tell your audience (and, worse, your potential audience) that you don’t have much to offer.

Which — let’s hope — isn’t true! But how can people know that, if you don’t find ways to tell them?

Not that branding is all that you need to do, to build and hold an audience. But it helps. And working on branding is a terrific exercise, to focus your thoughts on how to present yourself. Sign up for my workshop!