This week on the podcast is part one of our interview with acclaimed pianist and chamber musician, Alon Goldstein. His artistic vision and innovative programming have made him a favorite with audiences and critics alike throughout the United States and around the world. He made his orchestral debut at the age of 18 with the Israel Philharmonic under the baton of Zubin Mehta and has performed with renown orchestras and conductors ever since. If you’re interested in what it takes to be concert artist, from practicing, to programing to creating opportunities, you won’t want to miss our interview with Alon Goldstein! https://www.alongoldstein.com/ and https://gpftrio.com/
Alon's inspiring journey embodies his unyielding commitment to his craft - a tenet that encourages going beyond the ordinary and giving it his absolute all. His unique philosophy of creating opportunities, rather than waiting for them to knock, is a powerful message for all aspiring artists and entrepreneurs in the arts.
This week on the podcast is part one of our interview with acclaimed pianist and chamber musician, Alon Goldstein. His artistic vision and innovative programming have made him a favorite with audiences and critics alike throughout the United States and around the world. He made his orchestral debut at the age of 18 with the Israel Philharmonic under the baton of Zubin Mehta and has performed with renown orchestras and conductors ever since. If you’re interested in what it takes to be concert artist, from practicing, to programing to creating opportunities, you won’t want to miss our interview with Alon Goldstein! https://www.alongoldstein.com/ and https://gpftrio.com/
Alon's inspiring journey embodies his unyielding commitment to his craft - a tenet that encourages going beyond the ordinary and giving it his absolute all. His unique philosophy of creating opportunities, rather than waiting for them to knock, is a powerful message for all aspiring artists and entrepreneurs in the arts.
Welcome to the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast. Making Art Work. We highlight how entrepreneurs align their artistry, passion and vision to create and pursue opportunities to capture value in the arts. The views expressed by guests on the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the podcast or its hosts. The appearance of a guest on the podcast, the venture they represent or reference to any product or service does not imply an endorsement or recommendation by the podcast or its hosts. The content provided is for entertainment and informational purposes only and does not constitute business advice. Here are your hosts Andy Heise and Nick Petrella.
Andy Heise:Welcome podcast listeners. My name is.
Nick Petre:Andy Heise and I'm Nick Petrella. With us today is acclaimed pianist and chamber musician Alon Goldstein. His artistic vision and innovative programming have made him a favorite with audiences and critics alike throughout the United States and around the world. He made his orchestral debut at the age of 18 with the Israel Philharmonic under the baton of Zubin Mehta, and has performed with renowned orchestras and conductors ever since. As with all of our interviews, we'll link to his websites so you can read more about Alon and his substantial list of accomplishments and activities. Thanks for being with us, alon.
Alon Goldstein:It's great to be here. Thank you for having me.
Nick Petre:Let's begin by having you tell us how you got started as a soloist.
Alon Goldstein:I started to play the piano when I was six, seven years old. It was very important in my family I'm one of four kids important for my parents that we all pick up an instrument. In terms of the world's soloist or even career in music, that's not something that I it's not that I didn't have it in mind, it's just that I don't know what it is. So I love music and I'm in love with music, and then you know, so I just want to play and, oh, I can also make a living out of it. That's great. But in terms of thinking, oh, I want to be this or that, I mean I want to play this piece, hopefully with this orchestra under this conductor. I like to joke that I still have a classified section in my pocket Every time I go on stage. There's like a job waiting somewhere. I mean, it's a life of privilege and I think you know, a turning point in my life was when I was 17 years old and I was a good pianist. I was in high school for fine arts. I was one of the best pianists there, but I was not the top. I was maybe number two or number three and I heard a concert of Zubin Mehta conducting Young Soloists and that kind of hit me hard. And I thought, well, maybe if I will be the son of this or know the person of that, maybe then I'll be able to get to play with him. And someone told me no, you know, there's a specific audition for scholarship that you need to do very well, and if you do it very well, you will be recommended to audition to Zubin Mehta. And I thought, oh, ok, so I did this audition very well and I was recommended to Zubin Mehta and I auditioned to him and the next year I played with him. But after that concert actually you know that I heard these Young Soloists and I was 17 before I played with him.
Alon Goldstein:It was a year before. And when someone told me, you know, do this audition very well I kind of something struck me that I'm practicing and I'm practicing well, but I'm not doing my best. I'm doing 90% of my best, or maybe even 95%, but not 100%. And I decided that the next morning I will wake up at 6 AM every day and practice five hours, with some breaks, but a net of five hours, and then go play basketball, see a movie, whatever be with my friend, but from 6 AM to my five hours up until 1 PM or so, and then just other things, and then you know, one day in a week I will take a break.
Alon Goldstein:But you know, either do 100% or do zero, but don't do 95 or 97 or, today, 90. No, no, you can do 120%. So if you're sick there will be at least 100 on stage, but not 99, because that's cheating. And it's kind of changed my life, because the following year I played with Zubin Mehta, which was a good sign, and since then everything I'm doing. I might not succeed all the time, but I will assure you there will be 120% of me, whether it's teaching or performing or talking with you or anything. It will not be like, well, I just have five minutes, I need to go, or something, or let me give no. No, either you do or you don't do, but there's no middle and not almost so.
Nick Petre:you're all in, no matter what you're doing.
Alon Goldstein:Yeah, and it's okay if I fail. I mean it's okay, I mean because I'll get up and I'll try again. But when you do, just do it all the way.
Andy Heise:I had a guest speaker in my MBA program one time who said no results. Plus a good story does not mean results. You do it or you don't right. If you don't do it. I don't want to hear the story about why it didn't happen.
Alon Goldstein:I mean, my second revelation was to accept others who might not want to do the 100%, which you know what. It's okay. It's, you know, because it used to really like I don't want to be with people like this I just cannot work with. Well, it's okay, it's like, you know, people are different and that's okay, Sure.
Andy Heise:Your experiences are vast and varied. How do you continue to seek out new opportunities that sustain your professional career and your artistic expression?
Alon Goldstein:Well, I'm a great believer and I tell that to my students as well rather than wait for opportunities, create the opportunities. So I mean, it's very important and the most important thing is, you know, sit down and practice. Sure, there is no way around that. But you know, rather than wait for someone to invite you, go out there and create a concert series. You know, at a local church, just go offer to start something. Or you know, there's a festival that I was invited a couple of times and I, you know, offered to help them pick up the artists or help them think of programs for the whole festival, and from here to there, suddenly they asked me to be their music director. So now I'm a music director of the Abibach Festival in Oregon.
Alon Goldstein:And then a concert series in Santa Cruz, and then a competition in Louisiana Shri Port Louisiana is called and then a Weidman competition and a festival that I started in Florida with the aim of going to places that have less access and means and just play concerts.
Alon Goldstein:And then there's a festival in Vienna that I run for two months in the summer. But again, all of these things are things that I either I initiated or I made it happen in terms of you know not, someone did not just come to me and offer. So I mean, I love meeting people, I love talking to people, I love thinking of ideas, I love looking at programs of you know, concert series around the country, around the world, to see what people are doing and how they are doing it. You know, and it's very interesting when you're in the other side of the, when you are the place where you invite people, and you know people write to me because they want to be invited and it's very interesting to see what they present and if it's attractive or not, because then I need to write to some other places sometimes to make myself attractive, right, so right, Can you unpack that a bit?
Nick Petre:So what do you mean by what's attractive? You're talking about the rep, You're talking about the fee. What specifically do you?
Alon Goldstein:mean, no, a fee, no, attracting in terms of, I mean we need to sell it to an audience. And if the pianist will write to me, oh, I would love to contribute. And I decided my last program was Bach Partita, beethoven Sonata and Schubert Improved, you know. Okay, what's? Tell me something new. You know there are maybe three or four or five artists that their name would be enough to sell, but most others you need other aspects of programming. You know I see my festival in Oregon, but you know we have some of the concerts coming up this summer.
Alon Goldstein:So I invited a violinist, wonderful violinist friend of mine, philip Quint, and he's going to do a program. It's called Charlie Chaplin Smiles, so it's about the music of Charlie Chaplin. Okay, I did not have that before, that's interesting and he's a wonderful violinist. But if he just said, oh, I would like to do a Brahms Sonata and Beethoven Sonata, well, that I already had. So I mean, programming is a big factor and it is hard to come up with a programming that might be a bit interesting or different. I did a program recently in Jacksonville Beach, solar Recital, in which in three of the pieces in the program I added video images which were only for two minutes and one video was just showing images of Germany when I played a piece by Fanny Mendelssohn. Another video was a very funny Charlie Chaplin-like acting that I did on a piece by Bernstein, and another video was a short introduction with images to a piece by Debussy that I played.
Alon Goldstein:I don't think it's necessary but it was interesting, it was a bit different, just to give the audience something interesting. Then, when we had the COVID, then this festival in Oregon, for example, they went online and I don't believe in cancelling anything, just let's find a way to make it happen and they had all this live from the week more and live from this and all these empty halls. And I was very, very uninspired by that and also uninspired by looking at the computer and imagining I'm sitting in a concert hall. No, no, no, no. But I decided, in Oregon, for example, to still do the festival online, but instead of having someone playing for him from his home, I asked, I thought to myself, okay, let's try to create content for the festival where, if you were able to come to the festival physically, you will not be able to see that. In other words, we need to make a content that is specifically for that online medium, online streaming, because if we are trying to replicate if you were in the concert or not, we will fail altogether. So, for example, I have a wonderful friend of Valenik, a cellist. His name is Amit Pellad, wonderful and very imaginative, and he has a sister who is a great sculpture artist and I asked him to go to the sister's studio and just play Bach Suite, and every dance would be in front of a different sculpture. Now, if you were coming to the festival in Oregon, we will not be able to ship all those sculptures and all of these things, but this particular content was wonderful.
Alon Goldstein:So three concerts like that. There was a concert that people submitted their requests of what piece by Chopin they would like to hear, and this wonderful pianist named Brian Gantz was playing and he recorded this music especially for that. So every concert was differently tailored and presented, and then we usually will have 30,000 visitors to the festival. So this online streaming. We had over 16,000 computers picked in and we got four times the amount of money that we invested in it. And the concerts were free. Yeah, great. There were no tickets, it was just donations. So I mean, it's just talking to people all the time, finding ideas, seeing things, that just being open all the time, and it's very interesting.
Nick Petre:But what happens when you're yeah, that was going to say the first part of your question. Actually kind of hints at another question that I was going to ask you what was it like arranging performances before you had management and what was your process for getting gigs?
Alon Goldstein:The same is when I have a management. Yeah, I mean the process is. I mean it depends. Okay, there's a concert series in Chicago. It's called the Myra Heast Memorial Concert Series. They have a concert every Wednesday at 12.15 for at least 30 or 40 weeks out of the year. So you can write to these concert series with two ideas of programs and CV and send recommendation and maybe a link to recording there is. You can look to places that have weekly concerts because there's greater chance that you would be even considered, and trying to get any kind of personal contact is very important. So if you go to a concert and then you go backstage and introduce yourself to the presenter and share, I was like a student of Leon Fleischer and that was a green card to many places.
Alon Goldstein:If I would say, oh, I'm a student of Leon Fleischer or I love playing for people, so I would play for notable musicians, conductors or pianists, but only people that I like, not in terms of the person, but people that I love their music making. It's very interesting. I asked to play for Alfred Brandl. Alfred Brandl, radu Lupu and some other great artists and they all agreed. Only one person said no. But then I thought yeah, of course, because you don't like him so much.
Alon Goldstein:So why do you go? I mean, I was not. Something was not genuine there when I asked. Not that this is, I was faking, but it's just like if you really love the artistry of someone and don't do it to get something, just do it because you. I remember when Radu Lupu, I was practicing on Brahms concert and I really, really wanted to play for him that Not for him to get me a concert or not for him to get me a management, because this is an amazing artist, wouldn't be amazing just to go, pick up his brain and thoughts and just see how he's thinking about music? And sometimes you even get a concert because this musician, andrasif, for example, he recommended me to a few places to play, and some of these people are eager to help and to advise, and so you know, and conductors that I played for him would invite me to play. Yeah, so if you go backstage and you introduce yourself and if you have something to say and which will interest them, and then you have a management and you continue to do that.
Nick Petre:Right, so starting off networking and then just taking that action of introducing yourself.
Alon Goldstein:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and and and. Be genuine, because if you're not genuine, it's it's very easy to see through. Yeah, so, like I like the first thing with rather look, he did not want to say I'm not a teacher, I don't want to listen to and I don't listen to young people, young pianists or something. And then I said yeah, but no, I was working on the prompt second concerto. Suddenly there's like a flag coming up. I'm like oh, okay, okay, the middle section, you know, there's that the corral like theme and would you consider it, okay, come tomorrow at 11. Yeah, so it has to be something that might interest him.
Alon Goldstein:And was it like working with Alfred Brindell he kind of deconstructed everything I did for three hours and then reconstructed something new or build something new for the other two hours. So that was kind of the first movement and very, very interesting. And I was looking back, I was too young, I was like 17. And wow, and when I, years later, after I moved to London, I studied with Leon Fleischer four years and it was so enriching that after four years I thought to myself, wow, I have to go somewhere else outside of the US and just going to a different country and meeting different people and different language and food and friends, okay, you only live one time. Just go somewhere else, yeah.
Alon Goldstein:So I moved to London and I auditioned to this, the Guild Hall School of Music and Drama, and instead of getting me as a student, they offered me a job. And the job was like you're going to be a performer fellow, and I said, okay, great, what does this mean? So we don't know. You just do what you like and we see if we like it. So I started to organize this concert series where teachers and students play together and festivals of forehands to piano playing and lectures you know before, concerts and mini festivals and just this whole idea of creating things and it ended up being wonderful and there I started to hear Brandl. I was already 27 and I heard Brandl in concerts and I started to connect with his music much, much more and understood. I feel that I understood it much better there and now that I organized this thing in Vienna, I invited him to come. So he came a couple of years ago.
Nick Petre:That's great.
Alon Goldstein:So again, I wasn't touching him for 10, 15 years or so and I just like, hey, hey, just call, let's see, let's find a way.
Nick Petre:Yeah, yeah, I would have imagined he was a good teacher. I had that book about a long time ago. Musical thoughts and after thoughts.
Alon Goldstein:And there's music. Music sounded out. Oh, there is a pianist. A to Z. There is a witty poem, book, poems book, called One Finger Too Many. He has a lot of wit and wit and wisdom.
Nick Petre:So how do you define success? As an entrepreneurial artist, I mean, you just got done telling us early on that you know being a professional musician is a life of privilege. Is that how you define success, or is it some other way?
Alon Goldstein:I mean when you say entrepreneurial artists. I don't know necessarily what's the what's the definition of that. I mean, I would think, just to be a musician, how I would define success of being a musician is waking up in the morning in the presence of Mozart and Bach and Beethoven. You know, there's the festival that I organize in Florida. The idea is to go to schools, play in sub conditions on upright piano, but sometimes you need to place in the right place and it's not always in tune. But just go and play and bring music to all these people, all these populations that have less access and means, and I bring my students from Kansas City to join me and to do some of these concerts by themselves and it kind of changes their life because suddenly they feel that being a musician is much, much more varied than just aiming to play at the Carnegie Hall and stay in a luxury hotel and play with a great orchestra. It's wonderful.
Alon Goldstein:But if you only do that, I think it's a bit narrow Again for me.
Alon Goldstein:Playing on all you know, bringing music outside of the concert hall, to schools, to retirement homes, to facilities with people that have disabilities, as well as Carnegie Hall, as well as the Kauffman Center. I think for me that's much more important, much more enriching kind of career and then teaching and then doing chamber music and then accompanying singers and then organizing your own festival and then. So I don't have to call this entrepreneurial or not, I just think for me it's much richer kind of life In terms of success. I mean, if you don't need to ask someone for money, I guess that's all you need to say. I mean, if you wake up in the morning and you make music, I think that's success. If you do it in Carnegie Hall or you do it in a school, I mean that's sometimes it's just geography. I mean, again, I understand playing in big halls is great and it's exciting, but part of me is also saying, well, that's geography. What's important is not where you play, but how you play.
Nick Petre:Yeah, and what you play.
Alon Goldstein:That you play something that you really want to play, not like, oh I'm playing here, you know, disney tunes. Nothing to say against these tunes, it's just for me. I will not do that. It's not something that I know how to do. But so if someone will ask me just to play that, I might not be so happy. I mean, it's beautiful tune, it's just, it's not. You know what I know how to do. So I might do it to me, but I want to decide what I want to do.
Alon Goldstein:So I think again it's like where doesn't really matter is how and what, and if you can do that, that's wonderful. And then, if you also, I love really, I like organizing things, I like organizing big projects. So that started this whole this organizing this festivals. Also in my job I do all these marathons. We just did a marathon on Bartok music where I commissioned this school students to write pieces to reimagine Bartok in the 21st century. And again we just talk about how to become entrepreneurial. I mean, just have ideas and go after them, go make them happen. And you know, some people say that, yeah, but you know, how are you gonna pay this and how are you gonna pay? I mean, if you think realistically, don't do anything, right, right, yeah. Again, I understand you know things need to be supported, but it's just, first of all, you know, have the idea, go out there. I believe in things, the right things will happen, yeah, okay.
Alon Goldstein:But, no one will come to you first. Oh, I have all this money. Can you just take it and do something? Oh yeah, better not wait for that.
Andy Heise:Right. So I think that approach that you've just described is exactly what we would. I think what Nick and I are calling the entrepreneurial artist when we ask that question of you. And of course, there's like a mindset aspect to that right being able to come up with those ideas, see those opportunities, as well as sort of more of an attitude to be able to take the initiative to do it, but to actually pull it off to make things happen. What are some of the skills that you need to in order to do that? You know, obviously you gotta be good. You gotta be a good artist, right, you gotta be good at what you do. But beyond that, what are some of the other skills and abilities that you need to do the things that you're describing?
Alon Goldstein:I think you need to be a people's person. That's important because then you can bring people together and then you know if you make a phone call, the person will pick up, or if you write an email, you will get an answer. So if you truly you love people and you wanna be with people, then you will get answers. Again, you might not get always a yes, which is okay, but the person that you call to also needs to feel that he can say no, and that's fine. You know, people should not feel uncomfortable. And the other thing you really have to believe.
Alon Goldstein:I had a friend who liked very much this festival that I'm doing in Florida and she was like, oh, I wanna do the same thing in Michigan. Like, okay, great, yeah, yeah, we'll do that. And I asked her do you really wanna go to schools, play one movement of your program, deal with pianos which are not always in tune and audience, that is sometimes. Do you really want that? She ended up not doing it. But I sense that you know you don't really want to do that. So why? Because that's kind of, it sounds kind of cool or it sounds kind of will help, you know, be recognized. I mean, if you do it for that don't do it.
Nick Petre:Yeah, it's a lot of work. You better be passionate about it.
Alon Goldstein:Yeah, and really believe in that and I believe very much in sharing, like sharing my thoughts. And then, like in Florida, the way we started, I was giving there a solar, we started and I shared my idea of starting a festival that the center of gravity will be to go to all these small venues Venues, I'm talking about classroom and just and he's all sounds wonderful. And then the next thing we did is that we had a concert at his house where he invited like 30 world no 30 community leaders, like a lawyer and a realtor agent and the head of the school board, and I played like for 25, 30 minutes and then I shared my ideas and vision and then we had a small questionnaire to the audience. If you want to add, if you'd like to contribute time, let me on the board and share ideas and thoughts, and if you're gonna contribute some ideas, where should we play? You wanna help us get some of the invader? Or if you wanna contribute money?
Alon Goldstein:It was simple and the first year we had seven concerts in a week. The second year we had 17 concerts in a week. The third year we had 25. The fourth year we had 46. And then the fifth and sixth year we had this COVID Right, we were kind of, but we did it online. We had 63 concerts. It's a full time job.
Alon Goldstein:Well, I realized early on that the most important thing when you all do do all the work is to have a concert. So in all of this organization that I have, in the Oregon, louisiana, santa Cruz, florida, vienna, all of these places, I have assistants and they are very, very able, very reliable, and then life is so much easier. So I can call it a day, I can call it a day. I can call it a day, I can call it a day so I can concentrate on getting the artists, I can concentrate on building the program and I can concentrate on raising the money.
Nick Petre:And practicing, because you still have other things to do.
Alon Goldstein:I have to.
Nick Petre:I have to.
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