Let’s Talk Community
As a young music student some 17 years ago, I heard Elizabeth Rowe's captivating playing with the Baltimore Symphony, & I knew her to be a great mentor and educator to several of my friends and fellow students at the Peabody Conservatory. Fast forward to a couple years ago when I read in the Washington Post about her groundbreaking work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (where she is principal flutist) that brought about systemic change for greater gender equality in the classical music industry. I absorbed every word of her TEDx talk like she was speaking directly to me about embracing vulnerability as a way to grow artistically. I cheered my friends and colleagues on as they auditioned for & won positions with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, thinking about how lucky they are to perform on stage with Elizabeth Rowe! And then a few weeks ago, Elizabeth contacted me about rebuilding her website - all thanks to my very kind and generous friend/composer/violist Sakari Dixon Vanderveer, who referred Elizabeth to me.
To say this is a full circle moment, however cliché, would be accurate. To think about where I was psychologically when I started my website design business earlier this year, compared to where I am in my career as a musician amidst seeing my entire musical community gutted by a pandemic - well, let's just say, I am lucky. I am lucky to have such amazing clients, and to do the work I do for them means so much to me. I pour myself into every project, examining every angle, every choice, down to every letter, because I am deeply invested in the success of my clients and the communities they build.
Elizabeth continues to build a thriving community around her coaching practice - which I highly recommend you look into! I'd like to leave you with some of her powerful words:
“Reach out to people in different stages of their careers and different phases of their lives, and find the strength to be vulnerable with them. You will draw strength from them and they from you. We all have the power to create our own unique and vibrant communities. These kinds of communities may not be obvious or ready-made, but together, we’re building them, and they’re strong.”
