by Austris Apenis
One of my teachers said that to me once, and it stuck. Until then, graduation had been the destination to me, but he was right. Absolutely right!
I decided to study the horn professionally when I was 16. The notion I had at that age was, “You need to get a job in an orchestra! If you don’t, what are you going to do then?” I think many professionals can relate to that. It is a great goal to work for and to be motivated by, but we all know how difficult it is to win an audition. And let’s be serious for a moment: how many of us will actually get a job in an orchestra? Even though it is a hard truth, don’t put your head down…and don’t give up yet! There are many other things that we can do. The last couple of years proved this to me.
Young professionals can have it pretty hard. We need to compete with everyone, no matter their age. Building up a network takes time but rent still needs to be payed. I lived that life for several years, and then something unexpected happened. The pandemic….
Without a doubt, no one expected that, and no one could have predicted how much it would change the world and, subsequently, the music business. Personally, I have to say that it was not all for the worse. At the beginning, I was sitting in lockdown with almost no work and only thinking of what to do. I am a person who constantly needs to work, make progress, and better myself. One thing led to the next, and I started learning how to build a website. It was very exciting, and my dopamine level was off the charts! I love working with computers. I was watching YouTube tutorials and studying 11 hours per day. Maybe it was my way of dealing with the pandemic. Who knows? But I learned something about web design, WordPress, SEO, marketing, and all kinds of useful skills that can be handy for an entrepreneur.
After the website was built, I started having doubts if anyone would even be able to find it, but then the next idea hit me: create a YouTube channel!
Since I am quite a shy person and sometimes have problems with stuttering, I could not have imagined a couple years ago that I would consider standing in front of a camera making tutorials about learning how to play the horn. But at that point, I was already outside of my comfort zone and in a nice flow. This seemed like a logical next step, and it really paid off. When I started, I already had a good amount of teaching experience. But also, you can upload anything to YouTube: teaching tutorials, music videos, orchestral excerpts…whatever you want to show to the world, and so this next adventure began. I had to learn video editing, filming, standing in front of the camera and talking. As a professional horn player who has already performed for 24 years, I am not a stranger to being on stage, but you won’t believe how difficult it was at first to talk to a camera! (I have gained so much respect now for television news anchors.) I pushed the record button and then started to panic. “Wait, what did I want to say again?” Memorizing lines was extra difficult, and I would stop after every sentence. Because of that, some magic needed to happen in the editing phase. That went on for a while, but then I got more and more comfortable with the process and realized that this is just another skill—quite different from playing the horn, but still a skill—and eventually, I got the hang of it. By the way, I think that we musicians are very good problem solvers and skill learners, even outside of our comfort zones.
This enterprise has taught me a couple of really useful things: recording horn ensembles is incredibly fun and satisfying, YouTube is a very effective way of getting your ideas out into the world, and listening to yourself playing is crucial if you want to improve.
If you are interested in seeing what I have made, you can click this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCPnrJpHIakA20s_AOsj2cA
But why am I telling you all of this? Maybe you already know where I am going with it: graduation is not the destination but the beginning. There are more things to do than just playing. Constantly get out of your comfort zone, learn new things which are not related to playing the horn, and, above all, be creative and genuine. That is what people like and will respond to well.
I think this is not said often enough, but I believe that we as a horn community have a responsibility to inspire the future generations, to show people how beautiful, inspiring, and impressive the horn can be, and to evolve with the times and use the most modern tools available to us. We can do so much more than we think!
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