Kerry Smith, Viola.
Artistic Planning.
When you were 18, what were your career aspirations and how much (if at all) did those change by the time you finished university/grad school?
When I was 18, I was staunchly, stubbornly certain that I was going to be a professional violist. By the time I was finishing graduate school in Montreal, I knew that what I was doing wasn’t fulfilling to me (as a matter of fact I felt miserable) and that something needed to change. I did not have any access to career advising services (I think that’s still a pretty new concept within music schools) so instead I spent a year in a sort of “Lost Weekend” mode-- traveling, gigging, teaching, working odd jobs to cover my $450 a month rent, and figuring out my next steps. My parents were not thrilled with me and I did spend a lot of time watching West Wing episodes instead of doing anything productive -- but in many ways it was the most important year in my pivot because I took the time I needed to think about my strengths and what I wanted my job to be like and to feel like.
Over the course of your entire career to this point — but prior to the pandemic — how have you pivoted or changed career paths and why?
There were definitely many evolutions within my pivot from active musician to what I am now. If I’m thinking of it like a Butterfly’s life cycle:
“The Egg” was deciding not to be a musician and thinking that I was going to go into Finance.
“Egg-hatching-into-caterpillar” was realizing that I could work in the non-profits arts as administrator and get a Master’s in Arts Administration combined with an MBA so I could pursue both options.
“Caterpillar-into-Chrysalis” was actually doing the degree and realizing that I should be an “Artistic” person, as opposed to pursuing a fundraising path, marketing path, or an Executive Director path.
“The Hatching Chrysalis phase” was spending a few years working and shadowing fantastic Artistic Administrators.
“The Butterfly phase” was getting my first job as an Artistic Planner with the Louisiana Philharmonic and living through the job.
What were you doing at the start of this year (2020), prior to the pandemic?
My same position, Director of Artistic Planning at the Sarasota Orchestra. We had just announced our 20-21 Season and I had just made two public presentations of the season, one to the musicians and one to the Orchestra stakeholders. Very disappointing professionally because all of that went out the window, but grateful that we were able to “reimagine” the season and that I have my health.
How has the pandemic changed your career path or goals moving forward?
One thing that I’ve realized through this time is that I think I will probably go through this kind of pivot every five years or so-- and when I started my job at the Sarasota Orchestra, I started yet another Butterfly life cycle. I’ve started a new process of growing and trying to figure out how I fit into the orchestral world as an artistic planner. I feel like hearing that the evolutions never stop when I was first starting this process would have made me groan like, “This is going to keep happening?!?” But the truth is that even when we are on a certain career path, there are lots of little stops along the way because life is long and unpredictable.
In many ways, I feel like this pandemic time has also been a “Lost Weekend” even though I’ve been working more than ever. I’ve had time to cultivate my inner life again.
I’ve been thinking about a lot of things-- questions, projects, a lot of different directions including but not limited to: writing about music, starting a chamber music series for small children and their families, finding ways to be more of service to the community of Sarasota, and adopting another pet.