We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cara Brindisi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Cara, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you 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?
I work full-time as a Board Certified Music Therapist in Hospice Care (End of life care). I have been doing this for almost 15 years (with a short break during covid). I currently work for an agency that serves patients and families throughout Cape Cod and The Islands. My role on the hospice team is to use therapeutic music as a way to reach goals surrounding comfort, support, pain and anxiety management, and overall family/caregiver support. I typically lead music with my guitar and voice and base songs off of a person’s preference. The music can elicit a range of emotions, from reflective and reminiscent, to challenging and sentimental, to joyous and lighthearted. It is my job to guide the person in what they need most. This can be done through lyric analysis, story-telling and life-review, memory recall of familiar songs (especially if the person has dementia), or interpersonal experiences that are meaningful for a family member, like legacy projects or just overall words of positivity and love as they say goodbye.
I began this work during my internship after graduating from Berklee College of Music in 2010. Hospice was the first job opening when I began my career. It began as a part-time position. Being only 23 at the time, I was also motivated to start using my newly guitar skills and learning of a large repertoire, to bring to coffee shops and corners of restaurants and bars. It was a way for me to make supplemental income, but also build my skills in playing songs over and over again. It also became part of my social life as a way to balance the heavy work I did throughout the day.
After a year or so of playing in Central Mass venues, I began to build an audience base that came to see me perform weekly at a well-known Dive in Worcester, MA, Vincent’s! I formed a band and played rock, blues, pop – anything fun – every Thursday night for a few years solid. The crowds got bigger and bigger each week and the memories from that time frame will last my life time. That weekly gig got name into other venues, write ups, and tons of private paying gigs (parties, corporate holiday events, etc.). Soon, my ‘part time’ work became another full-time music career.
I continued on both paths – my day life as a Music Therapist, and my evening/weekend life as a performing musician. Both have grown and reached new heights and I plan to balance the two as long as I can. Both are a huge part of who I am as a person, as a creative, and are what I rely on for my livelihood and how I maintain my life at this point.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My brand is very much who I am at my core and not at all outside myself. I can’t remember a time in my life where being a musician (specifically a vocalist) was ever separate from the identity of who I am. Even from early childhood I knew this. While I’ve worked very hard in both my career as a Music Therapist and as a performing musician/vocalist, I have never once questioned that bringing music to people would always be ‘my job’. Therefore, the way in which I do this, and the way in which I make a living from this, looks very different depending on the project, audience, setting, etc.
In my life as a Music Therapist, I bring therapeutic music (guitar and singing mostly), to people who are in End of Life (Hospice Care). I’ve mostly worked under the umbrella of health care agencies who have a client base that I then go to their homes and visit. However, I have also worked in private practice over the years, running my own company, Songbird Sentiments, to bring Music Therapy or therapeutic music experiences. I am often hired by those who run group homes for adults with disabilities, or retirement/aging centers for more therapeutic entertainment.
I have also branched out separately to promote my extensive experience in helping families navigate funerals/memorials/celebrations of life. I often bring music to these important and sacred times for a family and have worked with many churches and funeral homes around Massachusetts to make this happen. Families who work with me in hospice often ask me to support them in this way, but many times I get inquiries from families who know me as a performer.
Through my company, Songbird Sentiments, I also provide meaningful music experiences for a whole array of life events – weddings, bridal showers, rehearsal dinners, baby showers, anniversaries, retirements, graduations, fundraisers and benefits, etc.
What makes these different than just ‘gigs’ is my special attention to the meaning behind these life-giving events. Sometimes, I am asked to sing as background and that is fine by me! But more often than not, if a person or family is coordinating one of these events, there’s strong meaning in their song choices and the delicate nature of their gathering. While I am not providing music therapy in these events, I do believe my approach is more similar to that of a Music Therapist than of my life as a performer. I hold these happy and sentimental times with great value for the families I work with and it’s always an honor to be a part of a family’s life for one day in this way.
However! I am also very passionate about my life as a writer, recording artist, event producer, and performer! It is in this space that I’ve built an audience who now buys tickets, music, merch, and follows along with my journey as an artist. This is most definitely the harder of the two careers. Over the years, I have played in hundreds of bars, wineries, breweries, small music clubs, restaurants, coffee shops, festivals, etc. However, I always found it incredibly rewarding to curate shows with mixed modalities, multiple artists, and a uniqueness that can’t be found every friday night. I began this work with a group called ‘Women of Worcester’ in which I was inspired by the Lillith Fair concept of the 90s. In the 2010s, I had met a variety of female musicians in Central Mass who were all working on their own, typically backed by all male musicians. I thought it would be really special to bring a group of us together to perform on one stage and showcase the varying talents and styles. These shows proved to be hugely successful, selling out 4 major shows, all with different ‘cast members’ and themes. I transitioned away from this particular project after a few years as things changed for me personally and globally.
When covid hit, I began focusing much more on my own music and writing. I decided to dump every extra penny of my savings into recording songs with some great producers based out of Boston and NYC. I had recently lost my day job and felt it was time to put more effort into my own musical endeavors. While I was writing and writing, I also was finding small ways to perform through a project I led called ‘Singing Telegrams’. It was a huge hit with people asking me to sing at distant from their sidewalks, dedicate special songs, create virtual videos to send to loved ones, and do zoom performances. It proved to be quite lucrative even though it was all gratuity based (a huge lesson for me in business!).
By 2021, some live performances began to happen once again and I found myself on stage singing backup for a friend who had just returned home from “The Voice’. It sparked something in me to find a way to audition, so I did! I felt I had reached an age where I was more confident in who I was and would be on a tv screen, plus I didn’t want to continue on thinking ‘what if’ and let the chance pass me by!
So in Sept 2021, I opened my computer, sang 90 seconds of ‘I’m On Fire’ by Bruce Springsteen, and received an email saying I made it forward to callbacks. ‘Callbacks’ ended up being 8 more months of interviews, portfolios, song lists, paperwork, etc. By April 2022, I received a phone call from an unknown number while I was out to dinner with friends. The woman said, fairly casually, ‘we’d like you to come to Los Angeles June 1’. From that point on, I was fully immersed in ‘The Voice’ process.
Though I didn’t make it incredibly far on the show itself, I am so grateful for the experience. I was given 3 full songs and episodes, mostly focusing on my work as a Music Therapist (which was a “win” all by itself for me!). It was a challenging summer (I was away from everyone and everything from June-August 2022). When I returned and the show aired in September, my current fans and new fans began to become incredibly excited. It was an honor to represent my home area for a few months and get a little taste of that type of notoriety. I am a fairly private person, but I also tried to maintain the foundation of it all, which is that – this is fun! Life is supposed to be fun and filled with some strange adventures. And it was! It was a lot of celebrating, not just of me personally, but of the many many people who had supported me up until that point.
The BEST outcome from ‘The Voice’ experience was that December 2022, I booked a 350 person show on a smaller stage of Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA. It was the last stop on a small New England tour, off the heels of The Voice that year. Within 24 hours, the 350 tickets sold out. I was blown away and also had no idea what to do. A second show perhaps? Instead, I asked if I could bring the show upstairs to the Great Hall. It needed 750-800 people to feel full/make it worth it. 1200 seats was max. It was definitely a risk. By the night of the show, I had sold out the entire hall. It was held on the first night of winter, the longest night of the year, the Winter Solstice. It was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life. I have brought this show back to the same stage for 3 years now, with no end in sight for this annual tradition. It was soon branded as Cara Brindisi Presents: The Winter Solstice Concert. Each year has different guest musicians, poetry, and it’s grown with each passing year. It’s now my main focus as a performer throughout the year.
January 2023, I moved to Nashville for 6 months to get a taste of Music City, USA. I loved it. I met a producer there to help me with 3 more songs. Later that year, I moved back to Massachusetts (Plymouth, MA to be with the person that I loved – in fact, we are now engaged and having a baby girl in October 2025!). When I moved back in 2023, I launched a Kickstarter campaign to help me with finishing a full length album. It was so successful – 250% more than what I had crowdfunded! I am just now finishing up the final touches of a full-length 14 song album of songs I’ve written over the last decade or so of my life. It is titled ‘I Am Home’. Through all my adventures and searching, it wasn’t until this chapter of my life that I realized I am the one who creates a feeling of ‘home’. Who I choose to surround myself with, the work that I do, the love we grow for ourselves. So many of those themes are in all of my songs for this record, and it’s exciting to finalize it all into one place.
In between these bigger projects, day-time work, and personal life, I curate smaller performances (100-300 person venues) around New England to share my original music, storytelling, and quiet listening venues. These are always so special and if not spiritual. The energy is always so circular, just like in my work as a Music Therapist. Whether I am with one patient at end of life, or in a room of 1200, music has always been a way for me to let people know they are loved and they are allowed to feel something through the music. Whatever they bring and whoever they are, it’s my life’s work to bring music to people to help them in the very real and very delicate human experience.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Being with people. Knowing that my music, voice, or stories were able to make someone feel more sure of who THEY are, and THEIR experiences. It rarely about ME, the artist. I want people to feel they can walk away with a better sense of knowing THEMSELVES. I believe when we can do this as artists, we are reminding people that they are not alone – not in their joys nor their struggles. When people feel less alone, they have a greater capacity for empathy and understanding of others. I’d like to think this all has an important domino effect.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
Something that many non-creatives assume about those of us who make a living creatively, is that it is ‘easy’. That it is ‘just an hour of music’. Or ‘just go record this song!’ Or ‘just go get famous!’ Or ‘you will help us raise money for our charity, please perform! But oh, we can’t pay you because it’s a charity…’
I’m sure there’s a quote/saying out there about how the more skilled someone is, the easier they make it look. What you didn’t see was the ICE BURG of work it took/still takes underneath the surface. The years of training and education on an instrument, the sacrifice, the absolute brunt work of the ‘business’ tasks when you are an artist. The THOUSANDS (tens of thousands?) of dollars spent on creating more art and fueling the next project. As a musician, we have to SPEND a lot! We need to pay band members for gigs, rehearsals, recording sessions, engineers and producers, photographers, videographers, merch, rental fees for venues, etc.
One of the hardest lessons I’ve learned along the way is to NOT accept free help from anyone. When we artists have a producer or photographer offering to work for less/free, you will NEVER be happy with the outcome. And the problem is, you then have no leg to stand on to speak up because “oh come on, I was doing you a favor.” In other words, “this is now MY creative project too and will be on my timeline and within my guidelines”.
There’s collaboration and then there’s…whatever that is.
Also, the sheer physical and mental pressure of performing at special events like weddings or corporate gigs – lugging in heavy gear to set up hours before the event starts, the pressure of coordinators, always last minute requests and changes – it’s way more than just “one hour of work”. Including preliminary phone calls, admin work, rehearsal time, travel time – “one hour” of singing at an event can actually equal up to 15 hours of work total. This is why we ask to be paid accordingly.
Also, we know when you’re using our name (that we’ve worked hard to build) to be a little braggy to your friends or to help you sell tickets to your fundraiser. We appreciate it so much and are honored, but that added element does ultimately come with a price tag. Artists have a value that sometimes cannot be tangibly itemized on an invoice and we should not feel ashamed of that :)
Creatives need to stand firm in knowing their worth – especially if they are aiming for the higher paying, more notable gigs. When I didn’t have much of an audience base and I was truly gigging for fun and to build something, $100 and dinner was AMAZING. I was also only 23! But like any other business, there is supply and demand. I reached a point where I needed to realize that if I wanted to sell tickets to a show, or charge $2500 for a private performance, I needed to say goodbye to a hundred bucks and beer gigs in the same weekend. I had to BELIEVE I was worth this if this is what I wanted. And I did. And it’s hard sometimes. I also miss low-key nights in barrooms because that was just so much fun singing to a wall of people. But non-creatives (and fellow creatives) need to realize there is such a wide spectrum of how to be a musician. It ALL has its place.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://carabrindisi.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carabrindisi
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CaraBrindisiMusician
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/CaraBrindisi
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/cara-brindisi
Image Credits
Sophia Riviello (beach photos and red-gown)
Eva Ferguson (black shirt headshots, yellow flowers)
Paulette Griswold (sparkles on stage, guitar and mauve dress standing up)