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

Joenne , 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.

To put my training in a nutshell: many years of music school training – pre-college, university, summer training programs – I went through it all!
There’s no shortcut to learning how to play a musical instrument at the highest level. Being exposed to various training programs expanded my skill set but also helped me build my network of professional artists that I work with now.
However, musical training aside, one of the most valuable skill sets I learned was career management. I would say it’s something I learned along the way through a combination of coursework, interactions with industry professionals, and mentors. And still, I wish I’d had more of it back when I was in college. But I do consider myself lucky that I was able to go to schools that offered that and I crossed paths with people who were willing to help.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was exposed to classical music and theater from a very young age, and I showed interest in both as a child. I’m lucky that I had a family that encouraged me to pursue these interests and later supported my ambitions to become a music professional. I took private violin and piano lessons as a child, then joined a pre-college training program for young artists. After high school, I completed college degree work in music performance with a minor concentration in music production, as well as certificate programs in film production and ethnomusicology. I branched out in college to study music composition, orchestral conducting, and collaborative piano (I realized early on that majoring in both violin and piano performance would be extremely challenging schedule-wise). This wide range of professional training helped my build music career because I feel just as comfortable performing as I do in a recording studio as a session musician, equally at home teaching and producing a live concert. I think of myself as a music chameleon. As long as I’m working with music, I can adapt to any circumstances, really.

Teaching has always been my stable career component and many times my inspiration. I think all well-trained professional musicians who have the patience to help the next generation of young musicians develop their playing should do it. I’m where I am today because a long list of people took the time to explain things to me and help me along the way. It’s my job to pass that knowledge onwards. I’ve been Chair at JSE Music Education for many years where I coach pre-college young artists, particularly the JSE Ensemble who have performed on ABC’s Good Morning America, America’s Got Talent, the 2015 White House Tree Lighting Ceremony, and Sesame Street. It’s one of the most fulfilling parts of my career while also giving me the freedom to pursue other music projects.

I’ve worked on cross-genre and interdisciplinary projects from Bach solo violin works with ballet dancers to soundtrack work (starting with the Screen Composers Guild of Canada and Atom Egoyan’s 2009 film ‘Chloe’) to backup musician for Dr. Draw and Kanye West to a History Channel electric car commercial. As a classical musician I’ve performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Hollywood Bowl, Wigmore Hall, and Teatro alla Scala to name a few.

While looking for venues to expand a recital series I began during the Covid-19 pandemic, I ended up circling back to a platform that I was familiar with from its early inception in Boston when I was still living there, Groupmuse. Groupmuse is a worker & musician-owned collective that focuses on bringing people together through musical experiences. Mainly, by producing intimate in-home concerts across the US, Canada, and now expanding into Europe and Asia. It also partners with major arts organizations like the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Museum in NYC, the Kennedy Center in Washington D. C., and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to grow their audience base. As a musician-owner of Groupmuse myself, I advocate for the power of music to bring communities together and to promote cross-cultural understanding.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

For me there have been two times where I’d say I pivoted. The first time for creative purposes, the second because of the Covid-19 pandemic, although I’d say almost all artists had to make significant adjustments.

I’ve always loved theater and opera. After years of solo work, college degrees, and music competitions, I thought playing in an opera orchestra would be for me. But I was wrong. In many ways I was lucky. I got several professional contracts early on with opera orchestras but I realized that I was very limited creatively. In a way I hadn’t really felt before. As much as I loved it, deep inside I knew it wasn’t for me long-term. So I returned to my roots – session work, chamber music, film scoring, I began producing live events. I wanted to stay close to studio work and film in general. But I also wanted to do my own projects where I had creative freedom. And of course, as I mentioned before, teaching remained my ever-stable element.

The second pivot was, as I said, the Covid-19 pandemic. I think all artists had to deal with sudden changes that the pandemic brought. For me, as I was in the middle of wrapping up my doctorate degree when it hit, I had to sit down and reset how my career was balanced, and adapt to the changing environment.

I dug in and finished setting up my remote recording studio. I had it partially set up before the pandemic, but once everything began shutting down, I realized I wouldn’t have access to a professional studio, or even my university’s recoding services. I remember frantically running around buying the rest of the equipment I’d need to make it fully functional. But I’m grateful for having it now where I can sit and compose/record whenever I want.

Remote work in general was a learning curve for performing artists. We’re so used to interacting in-person with each other, with our audience, with our students, and being suddenly cut off from that was jarring to say the least. Learning how to teach remotely was probably one of the biggest changes from my pre-pandemic work. Instrumental teaching is very much a hands-on process, particularly when working on musical phrasing, and being thrown into this new reality was a big learning curve. On a similar note, remote recording work had its challenges. Taking direction over a Zoom call is very different from being in the same studio. I ended up really putting my editing skills to work since I often had to submit entire tracks in a polished manner.

After the first lockdown was lifted, I started off a series of music soirées (‘Musical Nights/Connecting Through Sound’) because my cancelled concerts – or should I say, the concert presenters – would reach out to me to perform solo recitals since we were still socially distancing. After the second lockdown, I ended up continuing the series with various collaborators.

Now that we’re on the other side of the pandemic, I’m back to a full work schedule but in a more balanced way. I’ve scaled back on performances to focus on production work, recording, and teaching.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Most people unfamiliar with the industry are surprised to find out the financial costs of attending a prestigious music school. Even with grants/scholarships, it adds up when you factor in that most classical instrumentalists (even those who later cross over to other genres) start lessons before the age of 8. Summer training programs are also high-cost and are often attended abroad or at least away from an artist’s hometown. I spent summer months living in various parts of Europe or outside Austin (Texas) or in the Rockies of Banff (Canada) or you-name-it. Absolutely fantastic experiences! But they come at a high financial cost once you factor in travel, accommodations, and instrument maintenance.
Secondly, I find most people are surprised at how non-linear our careers as musicians are, and I’d say this applies to the rest of the entertainment industry. Freelance work is highly network-based regardless of how many degrees you have, so while having good music skills is a must, you also need a strong network of peers. A large part of my network goes back to my school years, whether it’s former mentors who’re now hiring me for their projects or old classmates who’re now my collaborators, everyone is very connected by only several degrees of separation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.joennedumitrascu.com
• Instagram: @joenne_dumitrascu
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoenneDumitrascuOfficialPage/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joennedumitrascu/
• Twitter: @JDumitrascu

Image Credits

Wagner-Dobler Photography
Pierre Lidar Photography
Alison Lim Photography
Oh Story Photography
Carnegie Hall
New Music for Strings Festival