We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jane Kozhevnikova a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jane, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Musicians learn their craft the whole life. There is a myth that the key to becoming a musician is having a natural talent for it, but it is all about hard work. I play piano for more than 30 years – and I still learn it. Sometimes have to re-learn something because old habits do not work anymore. Same with writing music: it is an endless journey of learning and discovering (oftentimes, discovering your true self).

There are no shortcuts in music. You can go to school to learn composition, you can take private lessons or attend a workshop, but there is no guarantee that after a certain amount of hours you will write what you want to write in the way you want it.

The skills that are most essential in music are, surprisingly, not related to music. One of them is dealing with rejections. As musicians, we get rejected all the time. Every time I post about some achievement, people congratulate me, but many of them do not realize how many rejections there are on the way to any achievement. Another essential skill is collaborating with people. This can be hard for an introverted person like me. My most natural instinct is to run away from any conference or festival, but that is not helpful in music. As years go by, I am becoming less shy to be around other people, communicate with them, and build relationships.

Jane, 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 am a composer, pianist, and educator. I have been writing music in various styles, oftentimes blending them. Lately, my main interests in music were focusing on jazz and music for voice. I have written several pieces for jazz band that have been performed and/or workshopped by the jazz orchestra at Western Michigan University, directed by Dr. Scott Cowan. For the past year, I have been working on my PhD in composition – and I had wonderful collaborations with the jazz orchestra at the University of Florida, directed by Prof. Scott Wilson. In addition to jazz, I have been writing vocal and choral music. I have recently released a CD of my art songs, Lift Up Your Hearts that contains my settings of poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Paul Laurence Dunbar, James Weldon Johnson, Sara Teasdale, Mary Lathbury, and Christina Rossetti.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My parents were against my career as a musician. When I graduated from high school, I thought I could study music professionally, but my parents insisted that I should instead go for a degree in IT. It took away five years of my life. All these years I have been trying to be “normal” and to get an office job. I survived about six months in the office. I worked in an IT company for 12 hours a day, 2 days on, 2 days off. Whenever I had days off, I scheduled my music students and played music gigs, and had the life I wanted to have. In Fall 2010, I quit the job and decided to fully dedicate myself to music. I had yet to prove to my parents that this path is viable, but I never regretted my decision to follow my passion.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

An artist can reach out to people on a level that is hard to understand logically. It is rewarding for me to see people changed by music. They might come to a concert after a long workday, or they might have some struggles at home, but that hour they spend listening to my music can make them forget all the troubles. Sometimes, listening to music can totally change one’s life. And I am not saying that it is necessary that an artist should change anyone’s life. Yet, I do think that we can reach out to souls with our art.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.janekmusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/currierjane/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jane.kozhevnikova/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzJfXL_hLKW7lk8X9CqyPOQ

Image Credits
Mikhail Fomin, Daniel Townsend