We’ve reinvented how we equip young musicians to thrive amidst the challenges they find after graduation. Today, performance excellence is the starting point. Musicians must be more than virtuosi; they must be their own businesses.
Musical entrepreneurship is a set of valuable skills—creative and critical thinking, communication proficiency, financial management, programming, marketing—but it's more than the sum of its parts. It’s a synthesis of your musical passions and a mindset of self efficacy that will drive you to lead the way forward in music. NEC’s Entrepreneurial Musicianship (EM) department focuses on providing individualized resources to help each student attain their path to a creative career.
EM's course offerings start with a required undergraduate class, The Entrepreneurial Musician, and include electives in finance, music law, marketing basics, promotion & communications, music and the media, and more.
EM offers free advising on resumes, applications, cover letters, and more to all NEC students and alumni. We also have a network of 150+ E-Advisors, who are industry experts in things like marketing, hardware development, innovation, and more, who you can be connected with.
Our online job board, free to NEC students and alumni and available via subscription membership for the public (check to see if your school has an institutional subscription!) posts over 7,000 arts opportunities every year, and provides monthly digest emails with the best new listings.
NEC students are eligible to apply for the EM Grant to fund their entrepreneurial projects. The EM team coaches students through the application process, which ends with a pitch presentation in front of a panel of faculty and staff. Fall grant drafts are due October 31!
EM presents a series of free workshops for NEC students and the surrounding community. Upcoming workshops in Fall 2016 include the EM Expo, a peek under the hood of an entrepreneurial ensemble (with Sybarite5 on 10/16), Freelanging 101, Recording Basics, Design Thinking, and more.
EM partners with organizations all over Boston for student internships. We have students working at organizations like the Boston Symphony and Celebrity Series, and in hybrid admin-performance fellowships with institutions including A Far Cry and the Boston Ballet.
MRS is NEC's in-house gig service. Students and young alumni are eligible to access our online platform for accepting gigs and performances around the city of Boston. Last year, NEC students earned over $80,000 through MRS.
Every year, a team of NEC students conceives and produces a creative performance off-campus. For independent study credit, students will form a leadership team to manage everything from venue relations to promotion strategy to performance production.
What does EM look like?
Contact us
Director, Entrepreneurial Musicianship
rachel.roberts@necmusic.edu
617-585-1108
Assistant Director, Entrepreneurial Musicianship
annie.phillips@necmusic.edu
617-585-1117
Program Manager, Entrepreneurial Musicianship
andrew.worden@necmusic.edu
617-585-1112
Send us your ideas at:
em@necmusic.edu
2016-09-21
CHARLES IVES