Location, Location, Relocation...?

I've taken a little bit of a posting sabbatical due to relocating across the country!

One of the huge perks of professional musicians is that, in a way, we can live virtually anywhere, so long as we have our instrument and a decent airport. Sure, it's more ideal to settle somewhere long-term and make local connections, but our home location can be more flexible than many careers.

Are some locations better to live in for musicians than others? Absolutely -- or at least different places have their pros (and dreaded cons) when it comes to being a musician. For instance, living in New York City seems like the perfect life for a classical musician, right? It's a city saturated with great artistic talent, full of potential connections, and bustling with opportunity. Yet there are still a ton of "starving artists" in NYC. One can infer from this that there are just too many fantastic musicians all located in the vast competitive market that is New York City. So, even though there are plenty of opportunities, there's only enough for the very best (or more likely, those with the best connections or management!).

Ok, scratch living in NYC. It's not the place for a small-town raised girl like myself anyway. Where are some other good places for artists to live? I am no artist's job-placement expert, but as a pianist who has lived in seven states, varying from rural towns and smaller cities to living in the city of Boston, I'd say that being near a major city is preferable. I love small towns and rural places, but with some exceptions, there just are not typically as many opportunities for artists in smaller towns as there are in big cities. Most major cities have a high-level orchestra, often an opera and/or ballet company, great art museums, and are overall rich in culture for the classics and other types of music and art. It's not that small town folk don't appreciate the arts, it's just that the artistic opportunities are not quite as plentiful, rich and diverse as they tend to be in cities.

But on the flip-side, pianists living in smaller cities or towns have the great advantage of being able to be very "known" within their area. They can be the one great piano teacher in town, or the one person people would call for a pianist, or the town piano guru in general! It's not at all a bad thing to be living in a smaller city or in a town where everyone knows your name, so to speak.

So for me, I've relocated and am now living in the 'burbs of a great city. I'm trying to get established here and make some local connections, but it's slow work at first. Here's to new beginnings and to making the most of your art, no matter where you live!