We recently connected with Sarah Folsom and have shared our conversation below.
Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
When I was just beginning my career as a professional musician, I thought that success would be achieved in one magical moment, like flipping a light switch. If I could just make it to that one big mountaintop, all of my hard work would pay off all at once, and I would suddenly be “successful.” I also thought that being a full-time professional musician meant that I would just do one thing, all the time, really really well. In the ensuing years of building a full-time living from my artistic work, I learned that in actuality, a successful musical career includes years of steady growth, trial and error, success and failure. Success may happen in a moment for some, but for most artists, it means working diligently for years and continuing to develop your craft when nobody’s paying attention. Eventually, you look up and you find that you’re where you dreamed of being 5 years before. You’re always moving up that spiral staircase, even when it feels like you’re just going in circles. I also learned that being a professional creative means not only cultivating your craft, but learning a bunch of additional skills that support and expand that artistic work. In my career, I am a singer, an instrumentalist, a teacher, a designer, an arranger, an accountant, a sound engineer, a scheduler, a fundraiser, a booking agent, and a million other things I had no awareness of as a young artist. I feel like I had to play catch up for many years because I wasn’t prepared to wear all of the hats that my career required. I wish I had started building all of these necessary, supplementary skills sooner. In a similar way, I also wish I had allowed myself to explore the variety of musical projects and creative activities that interested me in my younger years instead of just focusing on one aspect of my art that I thought other people wanted to see from me. In reality, the more I “chase butterflies,” the better my career and musical life gets.
Sarah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I grew up in a musical family and studied Western classical singing and opera in college. While I was in school, I would always go home after a day of art songs and arias and refill my soul by banging out pop and rock covers on the piano, singing jazz, and admiring the vocals of singers like Rosemary Clooney and queen Ella Fitzgerald. I finally realized that that I didn’t belong in classical music, and I needed to follow my own arrow as an artist. These days, I’m living my vintage pop singer dreams as a Principal Artist and Founding Artistic Director of the Cincinnati-based arts organization and concert series, Queen City Cabaret (QCC). I founded QCC with my dear friend, pianist Matthew Umphreys in 2018, and since then we’ve been producing dazzling concerts of vintage pop and jazz standards across the Midwest and beyond. In honor of the beloved Doris Day tune, our tagline at QCC is “take a sentimental journey,” and that’s exactly what we inspire our audiences to do. We take timeless tunes from the Great American songbook (think popular music from the 1940s and 50s) that still resonate deeply with today’s audiences and give them a new life with freshly imagined arrangements and a touch of whimsy. Additionally, we use this stunning music from the past to create a better world for the future, regularily using our performances to raise funds and awareness for important causes in our community.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
I think the single most important book that I have ever read was “Mindset” by Dr. Carol S. Dweck. This book completely changed my limiting ways of thinking about myself, my skills and talents, and those of others. I used to think that talent was an on/off switch—it was there or it wasn’t. This kind of thinking also seeped into my beliefs about my ability to build new skills and get better at things that I wanted to be able to do. I would not be where I am today if I had not changed my beliefs around my capacity for growth as a human being. Once I let go of my limiting mindset and became willing to be “bad” at things, I finally started becoming who I really wanted to be in my career and life.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I think in general, society should be willing and happy to pay artists what they’re worth. I know so many teachers and musicians who set their rates insultingly low, their thinking being…”this is how much my teacher charged” or “if I charge more, I’ll lose the gig.” And by doing this, not only are they cheating themselves out of a fair wage, but they’re hurting fellow artists by lowering the value of all of our work. If someone can get it cheaper from Artist A, why would they pay Artist B or C a fair wage? It’s a tricky situation, but setting rates too low teaches society that it can mistreat artists and take their work for granted. It’s hard and it’s scary, but every time I have raised my rates, I have never regretted it and my whole network of colleagues and clients have benefitted. Also, by charging appropriate rates and not apologizing for it, I am able to be so much more generous with my time and talent. So, when an artist you want to work with offers their rate, don’t debate it—respect it, and add a tip!
Contact Info:
- Website: Queencitycabaretcincy.com, sarahfolsom.com
- Instagram: @qcccincy
- Facebook: @qcccincy
- Youtube: Queen City Cabaret QCC-Cincy
Image Credits
Yorgos Komiotis