Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research2011, Vol. 5, 138-156 ISSN: 1935-3308

of competence, and possibilities to earn income at a very young age (Sloboda & Howe, 1992). Fourth, the occupation of classical music has struggled along its history to gain status and recognition for its members and for its contri-butions to society, failing to integrate its values with the dominant ideology. Although classi-cal music has made significant progress toward professionalization, it still suffers from the stig-ma of a career that does not make much eco-nomic sense (Nagel, 1993). The challenges mu-sicians faced led to Charles Gray’s commentary (in Nagel, 1988) about the career:

Performing artists must be a pretty pe-culiar breed; their behavior does not seem to make much sense. Why would anyone seek employment in a profes-sion that pays notoriously low average salaries and entails equally notorious unemployment and underemployment? Clearly, these people are behaving in an irrational manner. Or are they? (p. 141)

Careers in classical music are differ-ent from those in other occupations. First, the learning period begins in early childhood and extends throughout the musician’s entire life (Jørgensen, 2001). Second, although this type of career typically requires considerable in-vestment of money and effort, and an average training period of 16 years is required to reach an international level of skill (Manturzewska, 1990), the financial rewards remain modest, and most musicians must hold multiple jobs in order to make ends meet (United States Depart-ment of Labor, 2006; National Endowment for the Arts, 2000). Third, this career is character-ized by intense work periods, public displays

Elena Gabor, Ph.D, is Assistant Professor of Organi-zational Communication at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Correspondence concerning this article should be ad-dressed egabor@bradley.edu.

TURNING POINTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CLASSICAL MUSICIANS

Elena GaborBradley University

This qualitative study investigated the vocational socialization turning points in families of classical musicians. I sampled and interviewed 20 parent-child dyads, for a total of 46 interviews. Data analysis revealed that classical musicians’ experiences were marked by 11 turning points that affected their identification with the occupation: being introduced to music, finding the right mentor, informal recognition of skill, formal recognition of skill, embracing the work ethic, losing/excusing the mentor, choosing a major, getting cold feet, crystallization of career decision, find-ing one’s sound, and losing one’s sound. Overall, the fact that many of these work socialization experiences took place in childhood led to an early identification with this occupation and less time to investigate other careers. In addition, the children musicians brought evidence of early investment in intense work, which qualified as career.

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For centuries musicians have been known to belong to the category of starving artists, and even well renowned professional orchestras have found themselves in the desperate situa-tion to beg for beauty (Horowitz, 2005). Be-cause artistic work is often irregular and tem-porary, artists often hold full-time, nine-to-five jobs in other fields in order to make a living or develop complementary skills (National En-dowment for the Arts, 2000). Classical music is almost a stigmatized oc-cupation for its low and unstable income, and the market trends regarding its consumption are not very encouraging either. In Social Trends and Indicators, U.S.A., Darnay (2003) report-ed that going to classical music concerts is not a favorite cultural activity of the 21st century Americans who prefer reading (63%), visiting historic parks (47%) and art museums (35%), seeing musical plays (25%) and non-musical plays (16%) to participating as audience mem-bers in classical music (16%). Going to jazz concerts (12%), ballet performances (6%), and opera (3%) are even less popular cultural activ-ities. However, on the positive side, there has been an increase in attendance of classical mu-sic concerts from 1985 (13%) to 1997 (16%), with symphonies remaining the most popular form of performance entertainment. Sympho-nies are more popular than Broadway shows. Overall, classical music remains an entertain-ment form preferred by high income, educated Whites living in urban areas and is considered an elitist form of leisure (Darnay, 2003). Simi-larly, Wakin (2004) observed that society has pushed classical music to the margins and its older generation audiences are not replaced by members of younger generations. Furthermore, classical music depends on a special performance context given by the con-cert hall with its formal attire and educated lis-teners in the audience who pay for the expe-rience of absolute music. When taken out of this special context, classical music suffers. The Washington Post experiment (Weingar-ten, 2007), where Joshua Bell, a renowned vi-olinist, performed in the Washington subway for 45 minutes on a Friday morning in January 2007 some of the most beautiful (and difficult) pieces ever written for violin on his four mil-lion dollar Stradivarius, showed the importance of the place, time, and social circumstance for

the reception of music. On that morning, sev-en people stopped to take in the music, “leav-ing the 1,070 people who hurried by, oblivious, many only three feet away, few even turning to look” (Weingarten, 2007, p. W10). The present study is part of a larger dis-sertation that focused on how children of pro-fessional classical musicians interpreted voca-tional socialization messages from their parents in view of their own career choices. The voca-tional socialization theory developed by Jab-lin (2001) described childhood as explorato-ry and mostly workless in nature, which is not the case with classical musicians who start dis-ciplined and even paid work at earlier stages than this theory would suggest. My survey of the music literature revealed that many classi-cal musicians developed their love for music in the family (Libbey, 2006). Levine and Hoffner (2006) found that the family is the most impor-tant source of vocational anticipatory messages. In the family, the individual learns the mean-ing and value of work, and internalizes feelings and attitudes related to work (Levine & Hoffner, 2006; Medved, Brogan, McClanahan, Morris, & Shepherd, 2006). Furthermore, listening to par-ents talk about their jobs and observing work-related activities serves to socialize children to future careers (Gibson & Papa, 2000; Kelloway & Harvey, 1999). Children also learn from their parents values and criteria according to which they later evaluate job and career options (Kel-loway & Harvey, 1999). The occupational socialization processes in families of classical musicians has not been suf-ficiently investigated, despite the fact that the music education field is rich in studies about giftedness, mentoring in music, musical identi-ty formation, and even hothousing (e.g., David-son & Burland, 2006; Howe, Davidson, & Slo-boda, 1998; McPherson & Williamon, 2006). Music education scholars have provided useful models that show the combined role of innate musical talent, coping mechanisms, and fami-ly support in the ability of young musicians to successfully engage in public performances and income-earning activities. Most of this literature has studied successful children musicians with either non-musician parents or a combination of non-musician and musician parents. For ex-ample, in a study of 20 highly successful child-hood musicians, Davidson and Burland (2006)

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found that parents who were not musicians themselves tended to discourage their children to pursue music, while parent-musicians pro-vided support for a musical career. To complement this body of literature, I used an interpretive, social constructionist approach (Allen, 2005) in the present study and investi-gated families where the parent already worked as a classical musician (performing, conduct-ing, and/or teaching classical music) and the child studied classical music. Specifically, the research question that guided my study was: How do classical musicians describe the turn-ing points of their occupational socialization?

Method

Participants Because parents are the most important so-cialization source when it comes to work and careers (Jablin, 2001; Levine & Hoffner, 2006), and because parents are essential in getting children started in music and supporting them in this endeavor, I decided to interview both parents-musicians and children studying classi-cal music. Lindlof and Taylor (2002) explained that snowball sampling is “well suited to study-ing social networks, subcultures, or dispersed groups of people who share certain practices or attributes” (p. 124). Because this study focused on members of an occupation rather than a par-ticular organization, the snowball sampling technique was the best way to sample persons working in this occupation at various locations. I developed the initial list of subjects with the help of a faculty member in a music edu-cation department at a large Midwestern Uni-versity. From this list, the snowball expanded beyond the city and state limits. At the end of each interview, I asked my interviewee (par-ent or child) to recommend other families of musicians. The main criterion for inclusion of parents-musicians in my study was that at least half of their personal income should be generated by performing, composing, and/or teaching classi-cal music. The recruitment conditions for the child were that he/she had to have had regular training in classical music for at least 5 years, a period which, according to Davidson, Moore, Sloboda, and Howe (1998), is sufficient for de-veloping a basic level of skill, and at least one

independent recital; they also had to belong to Generation Y (born after 1980), which is cur-rently facing significant socio-economic shifts (Alsop, 2008; Tulgan, 2009). I recruited 20 parent-child dyads and inter-viewed a total number of 46 individuals (N = 46) (see Table 1). Of the 20 parents, 15 (75%) were female and 5 (25%) were male. I labeled parents with the letter P (e.g., P-1 for parent in dyad one, P-2 for parent in dyad two) to pro-tect confidentiality. I interviewed 26 children, of whom 16 (62%) were female and 10 (38%) were male. All participants were White. I la-beled the children with the letter C (e.g., C-1 for child in dyad one). Most of the interviews in-cluded two people, a parent and a child, but a few included a parent and two or more children, such as families 4, 8, 15, and 20. In those cases, I labeled children as C4-1, or C15-3, where the second number corresponds to a different child interviewed in the same family. The children ranged in age between 13 and 29 (with the av-erage age of 19), played different instruments, and had different backgrounds and career goals. Table 1 also indicates the major that the child pursued at the time I conducted the study or had completed in college, where applicable. I developed two protocols for the interview-ees, one for the parent and one for the child. In the interviews with the children, I covered six areas of inquiry: (a) background informa-tion, (b) communication-based socialization, (c) place of music in one’s identity, (d) mean-ing of work in classical music, (e) being a pro-fessional musician, and (f) career plans. In the interviews with the parents, I covered very sim-ilar areas of inquiry: (a) career trajectory and background, (b) communication-based social-ization, (c) place of music in one’s identity, (d) meaning of work in classical music, (e) being a professional musician, and (f) career plans. I conducted most of the interviews (28 out of 46) face-to-face, in musicians’ houses or public lo-cations in or within a 70-mile radius of a medi-um-size Midwestern city, which is also home to a large university and a regional orchestra. I also travelled to the state capital, which hosts a professional orchestra, to conduct interviews. I conducted the rest of the interviews (18) over the telephone with musicians who lived in different states (Illinois, Kansas, Massachu-setts, New York, and Ohio). In total, I recorded

TURNING POINTS FOR CLASSICAL MUSICIANS

141 GABOR

Parent Sex Instrument Occupation Child Sex Age Instrument & Major

P1 F Piano

Facul-ty member;

Church choir conductor

C1 F 18 Violin

P2 FPianoVoice,

Clarinet

Accompanist, choir director C2 F 17 Piano

P3 F Piano

Part-time faculty mem-ber; Studio

teacher

C3 F 20

Piano (Biology major; Piano performance

minor)

P4 MTrumpet GuitarVoice

Church choir conductor

C4-1C4-2

FM

1716

Trombone, Vi-olin, Piano; Pi-

ano, French Horn, Guitar

P5 F GuitarVoice

Counselor; Former

performer and studio teacher

C5 F 17 Voice

P6 F PianoFaculty

member; Studio teacher

C6 F 28Piano (Music

major; Market-ing minor)

P7 M Piano Studio teacher C7 F 16 Piano & Violin

P8 F Oboe

Studio teacher; Community orchestra member; Ensemble member

C8-1C8-2

FF

1518

Flute; Piano & French Horn

P9 F VoiceStudio teacher;

Freelance performer

C9 M 24 Guitar (Busi-ness major)

P10 M SaxophoneFaculty

member; Composer

C10 F 13 Bassoon

P11 F Saxophone Clarinet

Community or-chestra mem-ber; Ensemble

member

C11 F 29

Violin (French ma-jor; Freelance performer)

Table 1Participants (Parents and Children)

142TURNING POINTS FOR CLASSICAL MUSICIANS

Parent Sex Instrument Occupation Child Sex Age Instrument & Major

P12 F Viola

Freelance mu-sician; Com-

munity orches-tra member;

Studio teacher

C12 M 15 Violin

P13 FPianoVoiceGuitar

Journalist; Studio teach-er; Freelance

musician

C13 F 22

Violin (Stu-dio teach-

er, Freelance performer)

P14 F Violin

Communi-ty orches-

tra member; Studio teach-er; Ensemble

member

C14 F 18 Violin

P15 F Clarinet

Electrical En-gineer; Com-

munity orches-tra member; Ensemble member

C15-1C15-2C15-3C15-4

FMMF

19211615

Flute (Perfor-mance major); Violin (Busi-ness major);

Clarinet; Cello

P16 M ClarinetSaxophone

Freelance mu-sician; Studio teacher; En-

semble mem-ber; Part-time

faculty

C16 M 21 Trumpet (Jazz Studies major)

P17 F Clarinet

Studio teach-er; Ensemble member; Free-lance musician

C17 M 21Voice (Voice & Business

major)

P18 M BassProfession-al orchestra

memberC18 M 22 Bass (Perfor-

mance major)

P19 F FluteFreelance mu-

sician; Studio teacher

C19 M 21

Saxophone (Saxophone

& Conducting major)

P20 F ViolinViola

Freelance Musician;

Studio teacher

C20-1C20-2

MF

1513

Trombone, Vi-olin, Piano;

Cello

Table 1 Contd.Participants (Parents and Children)

143

approximately 64 hours of talk. The transcrip-tion of the interviews produced 1,089 pages of single-spaced text.

Analysis Following the transcription and verification of the interviews, I coded the data. First, I wrote case summaries for each dyad. Those summa-ries focused on essential biographical informa-tion, but also vivid stories related to memorable messages, critical incidents, and turning points for both parent and child. After summarizing each case, I then engaged in open coding. This process required multiple iterations, as I built the coding scheme using concepts from my lit-erature review and my research questions as a guiding tool (e.g. memorable messages, turning points). At the first round of open coding, I de-veloped a list of 48 codes, such as “discipline,” “identity,” “musicians’ union,” “starving art-ist,” “getting started,” “parent as teacher,” “los-ing a good teacher,” “music camp,” “perfec-tion,” and “occupational injuries.” After the initial coding, I clustered codes into broader categories, such as “turning points/events,” “direct memorable messages,” “ambient memorable messages,” “osmosis,” “differentiation,” “values,” and “body.” I then used these categories to compare family mem-bers and family units, and to identify common-alities and differences, such as views on what a musical career means from one generation to another. At this stage, I was able to identify ty-pologies, detect deviant cases, and summarize and analyze data both within and across family cases. Finally, I identified major themes within the data guided by Owen’s (1984) three criteria: repetition, recurrence, and forcefulness. For ex-ample, I initially coded interview commentary referring to attending a music camp and coming out of the camp with increased motivation to work hard on the instrument as “camp,” clus-tered under the category of “Turning points/events.” Later, “camp” became part of the “For-mal Recognition of Skill” theme as understand-ing of the statements in context and in conjunc-tion with other participants’ interviews became more apparent. My data analysis processes were not entire-ly inductive. To answer the research question, I began by using Bullis and Bach’s (1989) concept of turning points and applied the framework to

the narratives. According to Strauss and Corbin (1998), this is not an uncommon starting point for analysis, as literature and experience can be used “not as data, but rather to examine the data in front of us” (p. 80). Bullis and Bach (1989) defined turning points as “any event or occurrence that is associated with change in a relationship” (p. 276). Their study about orga-nizational identification of graduate students produced a list of 15 turning points indicating changes in organizational identification, which is the feeling that one is an integral part of the organization. Graduate student participants in their study indicated their identification in-creased or decreased following the occurrence of certain events in their organizational life, such as entering the organization or being rec-ognized formally and informally. In the present study, I used Bullis and Bach’s (1989) notion of turning point and ap-plied it to an occupation that spans partici-pants’ lives from childhood to old age, and deeply involves the individual’s body and re-lationships with family and mentors. My inter-view protocols contained a question that spe-cifically referred to turning points, but turning points emerged from responses to other ques-tions as well. Initially, I separately analyzed all the interviews with both children and parents and generated a set of turning point categories. Conversely, Bullis and Bach (1989) indepen-dently coded turning points and were able to calculate the agreement coefficient. I conducted a thematic analysis, which did not require in-dependent coders (Richards & Richards, 2005). As such, I compared the turning points across interviews and decided to keep those that (a) participants described as significant events and processes, and (b) could be identified in the ex-periences of at least three participants. To en-hance the credibility of my findings, I engaged in member checks; four participants (two chil-dren and two parents from four different fam-ilies) reviewed my findings in summary form and confirmed my interpretation.

Results I found eleven turning points that emerged from the interviews with the parents and their children: (1) Being introduced to music, (2) finding the right mentor, (3) informal recogni-tion of skill, (4) formal recognition of skill, (5) embracing the work ethic, (6) losing/excusing

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the mentor, (7) choosing a major, (8) getting cold feet, (9) crystallization of career decision, (10) finding one’s sound, and (11) losing one’s sound. Below I elaborate on each point and pro-vide examples from interviews.

Being Introduced to Music Regularly scheduled musical training start-ed in early childhood for the majority of partic-ipants, which echoed previous findings in the music education literature (e.g., Howe, David-son, Moore, & Sloboda, 1995). The earliest age declared by participants was 3 (P13; C13) and the oldest was 16 (P9). There were 20 partici-pants in the parents group (Np = 20) and 26 participants in the children group (Nc = 26). The average starting age for the group of parent-musicians was Mp = 7.23, and for the group of children was Mc = 6. The mean age for all 46 participants was 6.31. In calculating these means, I considered the earliest age at which they started their first instrument, even if an in-strument studied later became the primary in-strument of expertise. The majority started be-fore the age of 8 on instruments like violin and piano. Those studying voice, large instruments (e.g., bass), or wind instruments began lessons after 10 years of age. For example, C18 started violin at the age of 4 and bass at 17. The decision to start classical music train-ing belonged mostly to the parents for the ma-jority of the participants, as the parents were responsible for acquiring the instrument, find-ing mentors, monitoring practice, driving to and from lessons, and covering all correspond-ing expenses. For example, C4 explained how powerful her parents’ influence was on the be-ginning of her musical activity: “My parents made me do it when I was little, so I didn’t re-ally choose it.” C15-2 similarly stated: “I start-ed on violin directly. I was 4 years old. My mom encouraged me; she gave me the violin. Then I started piano at 5 or 6, I don’t really remem-ber, and that was not negotiable.” C8-2, whose parents are both musicians, talked in a similar fashion about her parents’ insistence on musi-cal training: “They wouldn’t let me not at least try it, you know? They kind of forced it on me. It’s not bad though. They wanted me to be in the band; it kind of really wasn’t an option.” Most of the children interviewed expressed acceptance and even gratitude for having music

lessons forced on them during early childhood. The parents imposed the study of at least one instrument on their children and justified that discursively as: (1) wanting music to be part of their children’s lives, (2) wanting their children to be well-rounded individuals, (3) increasing their intelligence, or (4) wanting their children to experience music the same way they did as children. This turning point led to a long-term relationship with the instrument and opened up the world of classical music to the children.

Finding the Right Mentor The relationship between mentor and stu-dent is important for the development of the young musician (Jørgensen, 2001; Manturze-wska, 1990). The task of the mentor is to train the child in reading music, using his/her body to play the instrument, and special techniques (e.g., bow techniques, fingering, breathing, and memorizing techniques). The teachers are also valuable sources of experience, motivation, and inspiration from which students can learn about heroes and values of the occupation (Manturze-wska, 1990). Studies in music education have empha-sized that students appreciate teachers who have an optimal combination of personality match, friendliness, and challenging style (e.g., Macnamara, Holmes, & Collins, 2006). Thus, my interview protocols with children and par-ents contained questions about their mentors (i.e., how many they had, which one was the most important, and what memorable messag-es they heard from them). The answers revealed that when a good mentor was found, the moti-vation to practice increased. When the match between student and teacher was not optimal, the motivation tended to decrease. The children typically met with their formal teachers once or twice a week for 30 minutes or an hour, but practiced at home with their par-ents; therefore the informal mentoring of the parent-musicians was quite significant. Parent-musicians contributed to the vocational social-ization process by taking their children to work at their own rehearsals and public performances (e.g., P12, P15, P18, P19). By paying a stranger to formally teach the children, parents achieved two aims. The children felt a heightened sense of responsibility and were less inclined to nego-tiate work assignments. In addition, by hiring

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someone else and by providing discrete guid-ance from the kitchen, parents could dodge po-tential resentment. When the right mentor was found, chil-dren reported feeling motivated and enthusi-astic about work in music. For example, C8-1 spoke in very warm terms of her flute teacher: “I don’t think that our personalities were even very much alike. We just meshed very well. And when she pushed you, it was mostly her en-couraging you to make you want to push your-self.” C15-1 also remembered that her moti-vation drastically changed for the better after meeting her flute teacher:

When I went from my first flute teach-er to my second one, and I told you my second one was probably the most in-fluential music teacher, I grew rapidly in my musical journey, in my excite-ment for music. I just took off then.

Not all participants had the fortune of meeting the right mentor early in their musical journeys. However, participants expressed the importance of their mentors in their development as musi-cians, which is consistent with studies in music education and development (Burland & David-son, 2002). Classical music remains one of the few fields where the one-on-one, master-disci-ple relationship is fundamental to developing one’s skill, even at the college level.

Informal Recognition of Skill This turning point emerged from answers to the question about moments in participants’ education that marked a change. Members of both generations remembered instances of in-formal recognition as moments when they saw themselves in a positive light through the eyes of parents, friends, and teachers, who provid-ed positive feedback regarding their skill. Young musicians received informal recognition most-ly during family, community, and school cele-brations. The recognition stimulated their confi-dence in themselves as musicians. In the parents group, P13 recalled such a turning point:

It was a turning point in how I saw my-self and that was in third grade, and for some reason, my teacher was having me play this sonatina for my class, and they were amazed and impressed. I be-lieve it was from then on that people looked at me as a good musician.

Similar circumstances facilitated this turn-ing point among the children as well. C3 remembered:

I would play talent shows and stuff, and it was me and then a garage band [laughing], and so they were like, “Wow, that’s really good!” And now definitely everyone thinks it’s really neat and nice that I can play piano, and I feel like my friends’ parents like me more than oth-er kids because they’re like, “Well, she has a focus or something.”

Informal recognition mostly came from audi-ences who were not musically trained, such as friends at school or other parents. This turn-ing point seemed to have brought the realiza-tion that music can create a pleasurable experi-ence for both the immediate audience and the performers.

Formal Recognition of Skill Participants reported three types of events under this turning point: (a) winning competi-tions, (b) participating in national/regional mu-sic camps, and (c) earning income from teaching music. Formal recognition of skill from peers, judges, and audiences functioned not only as a confidence booster, but also to increase identifi-cation with the occupation of classical music. Taking individual lessons in a teacher’s stu-dio allowed for limited self-assessment via com-parison with peers, which explains why sever-al children reported competitions as important turning points in their musical growth. A few children described competitions as “nerve-wracking” because of their public nature and the evaluative process. Music usually had to be memorized. The preparation for competitions involved practicing hard (C1, C2, C3, C4-1, C5, C6, C11, C12), having an early curfew (C3), do-ing physical exercises (i.e. running or stretching to release tension) (C3), psychologically prepar-ing by mentally going through the music from start to finish, focusing on the problem spots (C3, C8-1, C11), and praying (C4-1, C15-1, C15-4). The children clearly indicated that their mo-tivation increased after they had won a formal competition. For example, C3 described the psy-chological and financial rewards that followed winning a music competition:

At the same time, I was winning com-petitions. So that kept me going. I

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didn’t want to quit because I was like “Well, I’m pretty good.” I was starting to get really good at what I did com-pared to what they [friends my age] were doing, and then all of a sudden it was like, “Wow, you got $500! That’s a lot of money, especially for 15.” I was just like, “Wow, that’s a lot of money!”

C6 also reported that competitions were impor-tant in her development as a musician:

I started doing competitions first just locally and then I did some national competitions, and I just remember be-ing really excited by the process of it, and I ranked very well in some of the competitions. And just that was prob-ably more of what kind of spurred me on. And then I think the first mon-ey I probably ever made was through competition.

Participants distinctively remembered when they were recognized as being good musicians by peers and experts, not just by untrained au-diences that could be easily “fooled.” Besides participating in official competi-tions, musicians indicated that going to pro-fessional music camps had an important so-cializing impact. Musicians benefitted from the direction and feedback of consecrated musi-cians who acted as teachers and conductors for the duration of the camp. The camp was where the young musicians had the chance to assess their level of skill that they had to match in or-der to succeed in music. Participants from the parents group de-scribed attending the Interlochen Center for the Arts camp in Northern Michigan as a special turning point in their childhood when they de-cided to pursue music as a career. For instance, P20 indicated that the camp helped her decide on her musical career:

When I was 16, I went to music camp in the summer. I went to Interlochen Arts Camp, and that’s definitely what made me decide I wanted to do mu-sic as a career. Before then you don’t really know. You know you’re in your own little school and your own little suburb and you know, there’s some things here and there that come along, but you don’t really know how you’re measuring up in a real competitive

atmosphere, and so then going there gave me confidence and also it was just such a great experience.

P12 and P18 both reported attending Interlo-chen and gaining focus and increased self-con-fidence as musicians. Parents shared with their children the benefits of attending music camps. C18 remembered his father’s career advice in relation to the Interlochen camp:

I remember him saying that you know, “If you actually want to be a bass play-er, if you really want to do this, you have got a lot of work to do, and you have to get to Interlochen this summer. And if you go to Interlochen this sum-mer, and you see the level of competi-tion, and you still want to do this, then that’s fine.”

Many participants remembered winning com-petitions and being formally recognized at pro-fessional music camps, as well as making an in-come from performing or teaching music with precision. Typically, parent-musicians interme-diated this type of formal recognition when they considered that their child had sufficient skill to teach others at the beginner level, or to par-ticipate in various professional gigs, such as weddings or even symphony work. The earliest age at which participants in both the children and the parents groups reported earning mon-ey from these endeavors was 12 (C13, P7). C3 started teaching her mother’s beginner students when she was 13 and enjoyed earning money this way. C14 was also 13 years old when she first performed at weddings with her mother, a violinist. In the parents’ group, P2 remembered that she was an eighth grader when she was asked to substitute as a paid choir conductor at her high school. In summary, musicians felt formally rec-ognized after winning competitions, playing in semi-professional orchestras, participating in professional music camps, being allowed to teach younger students for money, or being in-vited to play real gigs. For some, financial re-wards and the chance to mentor others came as early as 12 years of age.

Embracing the Work Ethic This turning point could be described as a process rather than a discrete event. Participants pointed to a certain period in their lives when a

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shift in motivation occurred and when they no longer needed parental prompting to practice. They also knew what to do during practice and how to effectively practice. For most partici-pants, this turning point occurred in pre-teenage years when social and occupational experiences such as being part of the high school band (e.g., C4-1, C4-2, C18), attending music camp (e.g., C18), the choir (e.g., C4-1, C5), the youth or-chestra (e.g., C1, C12, C15-3), or even the adult regional orchestra (e.g., C3, C6, C13) motivat-ed them to work hard without being prompted by parents. The experiences described by par-ticipants revealed that “Formal Recognition of Skill” and “Embracing the Work Ethic” themes influenced each other. C13 described how she had always rebelled as a child and resisted prac-ticing, but when she won a major state compe-tition at 12 years old and became a substitute member of the local regional orchestra, she felt responsible towards the orchestra members, the conductor, and the audience, and started prac-ticing more seriously. Overall, in the children group, the girls seemed to have internalized the work ethic sooner than the boys (girls around 11-12 years of age, boys around 14-15). For ex-ample, C15-4 described being self-motivated: “I usually practiced on my own; I usually enjoyed it enough myself that I had the drive and the motivation to practice on my own.” Her older brother, C15-3, also remembered when he de-veloped a strong work ethic:

It was about the time when I started to realize that I had a natural knack for it, and I realized that if I put a little more time into it, and if I made it a goal, I could really excel.

C19 described that he had developed a work ethic in regards to music as early as elementa-ry school: “Even in elementary school they [my parents] didn’t always have to make me prac-tice. Once I got into high school I was basically practicing on my own. So I knew always what I had to do.” Practicing on one’s own was a clear sign of intrinsic motivation (Deci, Koestner, & Ryan, 2001), when playing the instrument was no lon-ger the parent’s desire, but the child’s. Two par-ticipants from the children sample (C3, C14) compared the daily routine of practicing with washing their teeth and reported feeling guilty if they forgot to practice. Not all participants went

through this process and turning point. Those who played music simply because their parents had pushed them were still rebelling at 18 years old. For instance, C17 described how he nev-er felt intrinsically motivated to practice piano: “To me practicing piano was tedious and there was just no motivation. I was just too young to realize that it would have any value to me.”

Losing/Excusing the Mentor This turning point marked the end of the relationship with a mentor. When the teacher was the right teacher, this event was perceived as a personal loss, and the student went al-most through a grieving period filled with anx-iety about finding someone else as compatible. When the student-teacher fit was not optimal, this moment was discussed in transaction-al terms. Participants simply said “and then I stopped taking lessons from him/her.” For in-stance, C15-1 described the regret she felt when her favorite flute teacher moved to Germany:

My second flute teacher was probably the most influential music teacher and I grew rapidly in my musical journey. Then she moved back to Germany and that was a huge turning point. I started taking lessons with a local flute teach-er, here in [name of city], and it was a big disappointment.

Coincidentally, C8-1 and C15-1 shared the same flute teacher and both expressed deep regret when she moved. For C8-1 it was her parents-musicians who provided support and tapped into her reserves of motivation to continue after the loss of her teacher:

There were some points when I was in about sixth grade, it was right after Mrs. B. had left, and that really discour-aged me because she was an awesome teacher and she still is. But I think around that time things just got diffi-cult for me. Her leaving discouraged me, and band was discouraging me be-cause I was farther ahead of the oth-er students, and so it wasn’t really a challenge at all. So there were points where I wanted to quit, mostly during my sixth grade year. But my mom and my dad encouraged me to stick it out, and I’m really glad that I did.

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In most cases, musicians associated certain pe-riods in their lives with the teachers they had, and the transitions from one teacher to an-other marked stages in their musical develop-ment. Overall, most of the transitions from one teacher to another were retrospectively report-ed as unproblematic, with the exception of P13, whose first piano teacher was her mother:

It was just so miserable. It was just one long fight. I remember one time when I was little, there was a way to lock the piano, and so I locked it with a key. But since I never could lie very well or deal with guilt, after my mom looked around for the key for a while, I had to admit that I had locked it, but I actu-ally would have these fantasies of tak-ing an ax and chopping up the piano. I fought so hard against it that my moth-er finally gave up. I believe I was 12 when I won that battle. I would say that the woman my mother sent me to, be-cause it became clear that it was just terrible for her to teach me, and so she did send me to somebody else whom I liked very much. And that’s where I re-member having my recital experiences and things like that.

As the experiences of some of the musicians showed, the proximity and intensity of the teacher-student relationship are likely to make it memorable for years to come. Participants had multiple teachers, a phenomenon that re-quired their adaptation to different personalities and teaching styles.

Choosing a Major Choosing a major is a turning point in any-one’s life and career, not just musicians, be-cause acquiring a degree in any field requires a significant commitment of time, effort, and money. Choosing a major is also the first time a professional label is applied to individuals (Hall, 2002). The present study revealed that musicians (in both generations) coming out of a decade or more of regular training in music had already applied the label of “musician” to them-selves before entering college. By the time the participants had to decide upon a major, they had already consistently worked on their skill for an average of 10 years and had proved them-selves in competitions, recitals, professional

music camps, and various gigs. As C6 stated: “When you grow up doing something, like a lot of my growing up was very centered around music, I think you feel that that’s all you have to offer sometimes.” Similarly, C8-2 described mu-sic as being part of who she was because she “grew up with it”:

Well, it’s always been kind of a part of my identity just because I grew up with it. Playing music is a way for me to ex-press feelings. And then going to my parents’ concerts has always just been part of my life. I’ve just grown up with that. It’s just part of who I am.

Choosing a college major was often done in consultation with the parents-musicians as main advisors and sponsors. From this dia-logue, some children learned that not all musi-cians are equal. For example, C6 described how she learned that the performance degree is for those who are highly talented and motivated, while the music education degree or the newer music business degree is for those who want to take the safer route in teaching or administra-tion. Choosing a major was thus the point when young musicians decided where they wanted to place themselves in that hierarchy. The parents’ experiences in college were important sourc-es of information, as were their contacts and networks in the music world. Getting a good teacher, being able to spend hours alone in the practice room, and having emotional endurance were important socialization information about the organizational culture of the performance degree that children musicians described learn-ing from their parents-musicians before getting into college. Interviews with C3, C5, C6, and members of the parents group also showed that choos-ing a major was a moment fraught with internal conflicts and tensions regarding (a) their pas-sion for music, (b) the earning potential (or lack thereof) of this occupation, (c) the sheltered and egocentric image that they had about them-selves through the one-on-one relationship with the teacher, and (d) the realization that in col-lege and after college the competition was going to be intense. C17, for instance, asked himself the following questions before he had to decide between a music degree and a business degree:

I wanted to know if I was interested in it. I wanted to know how much pay it

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would have, and that’s pretty much it. If I was interested in it, would I like do-ing it, and would I be able to live on it.

In other cases, however, the tensions arising from answering these questions were not easy to negotiate. C3 intensely experienced these tensions as she grew from a prodigy piano play-er into a talented adult whose musician mother encouraged her to become a doctor:

In France I saw this kind of like 1800s musician lifestyle and I just fell in love with it, and that’s what I wanted to do. But then at the same time, it was just like, “well, should I be doing something more practical?” My mom was defi-nitely pushing me to do bio[logy], be-cause musicians are poor [laughs]. And just me, myself, as I grew older, I real-ized I wanted to get married, I wanted to have kids, I wanted to settle down somewhere. I didn’t want to travel. It’s really stressful to live like that. And so I started thinking, well, maybe it’s not really what I want to do.

In her decision-making process, C3 also looked at her mentor and musician mother, both who financially struggled, and asked herself whether she could lead their lives. Although apparently the answer was “no,” she could not complete-ly depart from music. At the time of the inter-view C3 was a biology student also enrolled in the School of Music:

I think about it every day when I wake up. It’s just like an obsession almost, but I could not let go the music. I think it’s because it is my identity. When people ask, “What do you do,” it is the first thing I say: “I play piano, I’m a pi-anist,” because I developed it so much. I almost feel like it’s the thing that I have, that I can do, that sets me apart from anyone else.

C3’s dilemma showed that when music is a long and all-absorbing activity, it can be diffi-cult for musicians to transition to a different ca-reer identity. The children-musicians who chose a per-formance major provided further evidence that a musical major was an identity-confirming en-deavor. When music had been a family occu-pation for generations, the decision to enroll in a music program was almost assumed. C6

described how “easy” it felt for her to follow in her mother’s footsteps:

Well, it was definitely I think part of our family. My grandmother was a musi-cian, my mother was a musician, it had a very important place in our house-hold. I think that it’s very easy for the children to just follow in the footsteps of their parents. I think [in] some fam-ilies, if no one is a musician, it’s just frowned upon for someone to go into music because it’s not a very easy ca-reer, and it’s not something that’s easy to make a living also, but in our family we were so accustomed to seeing it be-ing done in music.

Her words illustrate the idea that after many years of training and being immersed in the oc-cupational culture, an individual can naturally “fall” into this career as time progresses (see also Gibson & Papa, 2000). It is also possible that many young musicians chose performance degrees in order to please their parents. Later on, once they were away from home and sub-jected to more diverse socialization forces, the participants felt more empowered to make their own decisions about what major to pursue. The next turning point discusses precisely such a situation, when young musicians get cold feet and start having doubts about their future.

Getting Cold Feet To be clear, not all participants interviewed went through this turning point. Some nev-er had doubts about their career choice; others had doubts, but not powerful enough to prompt them to make different educational choices; and others did not consider pursuing a music de-gree at all. However, from the interviews with children who were already in college pursuing a performance degree, I observed moments of sudden and powerful doubt regarding a career in music. I also observed a cold feet moment in the retrospective accounts of two parents, which showed that getting cold feet was not exclusive to one generation. For a few partici-pants, cold feet occurred halfway through col-lege (P17, C6, C21), but upon careful reading of the interviews, I observed even earlier instances (e.g., C5). This turning point was characterized by a process of re-evaluation of the challenges and rewards associated with a musical career.

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Participants also described it as a period of self-introspection and information seeking associat-ed with feelings of anxiety about the financial outlook as a professional musician. For some of the young musicians, going through this turning point resulted in enrolling in two majors, changing the major to music ed-ucation or music business, adding a different minor, or changing their field of study altogeth-er. For others, this turning point ended with the decision to pursue music by any means, and in such cases it brought an even stronger identifi-cation with the artistic occupation. For instance, C6 described getting cold feet midway through college when she realized that she was burned out and that she was surrounded by very talent-ed and motivated competitors from all over the world. She explained:

I think just the amount of competition and the amount of talent that was in the school was discouraging, and I tend to compare myself a lot with other peo-ple. I think I got discouraged knowing that there were people who wanted it so much they were willing to make it everything that they did.

C6 added a minor in fashion apparel and was working at the headquarters of a major retailer at the time of the interview. She no longer prac-ticed piano, because she did not have one in her new home, but described missing it and getting emotional at concerts, which signaled that she grieved her own musical identity. Parent musicians also experienced cold feet and were thus able to advise their children about how to solve this crisis. For example, P17 worked as a member of a large symphony or-chestra. She described getting cold feet when she was a sophomore in the clarinet perfor-mance major:

When I was a sophomore in college, I got cold feet. I went through this thing thinking, “Well, yeah, I can’t make a living doing this, so what’s my back-up plan [laugh]?” And I didn’t have one, and at that point I switched. I just switched the degree from music per-formance to this “music with an out-side field.” It was almost like a double major type thing, and then my outside field was business because I thought I might need a job some day.

This turning point signified participants begin-ning to question if playing music for a career was what they wanted to do. Many of them looked at job opportunities, the competition in their field, the kind of lifestyle they wanted, and the financial stability associated with this ca-reer. When participants talked about this turn-ing point, two discourses clashed: on the one hand, the dominant discourse about artists as starving and about arts as extremely competi-tive while ultimately unnecessary, and on the other hand their micro discourses about work in music as elevating, challenging, and reward-ing (Michels, 2001; Ruud, 1995, 2000). During this moment of change, musicians considered diversifying their skills and chances for em-ployability. Most of the musicians who got cold feet did so when they were older, either getting ready to graduate from high school or in col-lege, but it was not a universal turning point for everyone in the sample.

Crystallization of Career Decision This turning point was the result of the de-cision-making process regarding career choice and answered the identity question: “Am I a musician?” It was not clear that the decision to make a career in music or other field remained unchanged and the career trajectory was fixed. On the contrary, interviews showed that life events, such as marriage, divorce, having chil-dren, or moving could significantly change crystallized career plans. Therefore, what I cod-ed as “crystallizations” at the time of data anal-ysis was just a snapshot of career decisions that might turn into different career plans in the fu-ture. From the parents group, P17 had her crys-tallization moment 2 years after she had gone through the cold feet turning point:

Two years later when I was a senior I decided, well, music is for me and no matter what, [laugh] no matter what, I have to do music. Whatever it takes, that’s it! So that’s when I decided to get the masters in music performance, be-cause I realized that I was gonna do it no matter what.

Similarly, P19 described her crystallization turn-ing point as being an ‘aha moment’ right before starting college:

There was the moment when I said, “I’m a music major,” you know, “I’m

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going to be a music major,” where I se-riously said out loud, “This is what I’m going to do!” I can’t play music just kind of halfway, so I never thought of it as a hobby. I never, ever thought of it as a hobby.

In the children sample, I observed more cau-tious career decisions among the girls pursuing performance degrees. Four of them preferred to keep their options opened by having a double major, like C3 (biology and piano performance major), C5 (seeking a double major in speech therapy and voice performance), C6 (piano per-formance and marketing), and C15-1 (freshman in flute performance, planning a graduate de-gree in physical therapy). These young women desired to continue studying music, but at the same time sought stable careers in other fields. For instance, C15-1 expressed her interest in a back-up career in physical therapy, but only af-ter satisfying her musical calling first:

Right now I am hoping to be a phys-ical therapist, and then teaching mu-sic on the side, or I should actually say, alongside. But I would like a stable job. A physical therapist kind of combines other interests I have as well, as I feel like my music could be flexible, and I could continue to enjoy music while also doing a different career. But I do not plan to pursue that career until af-ter I have my undergrad in music. I felt the calling to do my music first.

Three male children decided to pursue music performance as a career: C16, C18, and C19. C16 was certain that he wanted to become a musician and not get a “real job”: “Well, I just don’t really see myself doing anything else. Even if I have some kind of job, I just don’t re-ally see myself doing anything else. I don’t real-ly wanna get a real job ever [laugh]!” When I asked him whether he considered other careers, he said he “didn’t really think about anything else.” C16 (currently a trumpet performance major) is an example of a young musician who decided to follow in his father’s footsteps, confident he had the skill. Similar-ly, C18 single-mindedly focused on pursuing a bass performance major. His crystallization mo-ment occurred at the age of 13, when he started “seriously” playing:

I thought about, you know, what would I do if I could never play music again? And if I hurt my hand or something and I couldn’t use my hands, I would still find a way to have a career in music.

For C19, enrolled in a double major (conduct-ing and saxophone performance), the crystal-lization moment happened when he was only 12 years old:

By sixth grade I knew that I wanted to be a conductor. I remember we had a project on different careers and I re-member I chose conducting because that’s what I wanted to do. So even back then, I knew that this is where I wanted my life to go, you know, so that I knew I was working towards making it really work rather than just for fun.

For other children (C14, C17) the crystalliza-tion moment led to the decision to not pursue classical music as a career at all, either because they believed they were not good enough, or be-cause they were concerned about the economic challenges of this career.

Finding One’s Sound This turning point is a metaphor. It is about finding one’s sound, uniqueness, and voice as an artist among other artists, but also about finding one’s place in life. This turning point de-scribes artistic experiences, but also social and psychological ones, such as discovering new sounds from one’s instrument, winning audi-tions for orchestras, and balancing work and family. For example, P19 found her sound, but also her voice as a confident woman out of her hus-band’s shadow in a fortunate encounter with a mentor:

I think of this particular person as a mentor to me. I was actually in my 30s, have been playing professionally, play-ing jobs, gigging, and my little chamber orchestra was not a full-time job. And he let me know that he liked my play-ing very much, and he said something about, “Do you need a job?” And I said, “Well, I have these jobs I do.” And he said, “No, you should have your own job. You should be having your own.” And it was the biggest boost.

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Finding one’s sound is also about maturing as a human being and as a musician. P3, who man-aged a piano studio and taught music theory at a large university, believed she finally found her place as a teacher after emigrating from Russia several years ago: “I more think of myself as a teacher and I think musician-teacher is my best part.” For P20 winning the audition for a profes-sional orchestra and having the independence of her own job gave her the confidence that she was on the right path in life:

I was lucky. My first audition I ever took for a professional job I got, and I was playing in Louisville. It wasn’t a great job but it was a job, and I was on my own and had my own apartment and car and everything. And I just real-ly enjoyed that.

For P12 finding her sound meant compromising with her husband on living in a small city and managing to develop both of their careers while raising children. She expressed frustration for the effort and money that she had to invest in her freelance career to keep it going at the high level she desired:

We’re kind of tied with my husband’s job at the university. There is very little for me here. I have to drive. I’m spend-ing a fortune on gas right now. I have to drive an hour south or two hours north to do what I do because that’s where it supports the level of what I do. So that to me is the most difficult, I guess that’s part of the frustration. It’s so hard to freelance when you’re not even in a major city.

Despite these challenges, P12 said she did not lose the joy of playing. However, she advised all her children not to pursue this career and rather to become orthodontists, as they would be able to buy good string instruments for their other very important work, music. After graduating from college, musicians continued to grow both as artists and as people. For many, their personal lives became more so-cially complicated and involved marriage, chil-dren, divorce, paying back debts, finding em-ployment, learning to be self-employed, while also working to increase one’s performance level.

Losing One’s Sound This turning point marks the end of the mu-sical career or the transition to a parallel career in music or another field. This turning point is also a metaphor for not being able to produce the same quality sound as in the past; it also includes life events that traumatize the musi-cian physically and psychologically. Upper and McKenzie (2004) discussed similar life- and ca-reer-changing events among ballet dancers who had to take different career paths following an accident. In the medical realm, Thomson, Foy, and Benstead (2006) described the same phe-nomenon of decreased confidence and loss of touch during career progression among consul-tant oncologists. One of the reasons why musicians lose their sound is aging. Each instrument solicits the body in a certain way. According to P11, player in a regional orchestra, studio teacher, and ensemble member, the first to go are brass players. Those musicians have a shorter musi-cal life than string instrument players, because they tend to lose their chops (P20) as they age and their cheek and mouth muscles become weak. P20 also talked about her fear of becom-ing a hack:

I think at some point I’ll probably not be able to play as well, and I’ve al-ways thought, gee, I don’t wanna turn into a hack, as somebody that every-body’s saying, “Boy, I wish she’d quit” [laugh]. There’s a lot of people in that position, who used to be really good players, and they just don’t know when to hang it up.

The issue of dead wood in orchestras is compli-cated by union contract obligations. According to several interviewees who worked in profes-sional orchestras, conductors cannot easily fire a musician just because they think he is play-ing out of tune. Besides aging, musicians can also suffer from physical injuries that affect their ability to play. There are musicians who lose their sound after an injury and never recover. For exam-ple, P15 told the story of a musician who lift-ed heavy merchandise at the grocery store and damaged her shoulder. Her arm started to shake uncontrollably and the musician had to quit the orchestra because her performance accuracy di-minished. P16 also talked about a one-month

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period when he could not play his clarinet and consequently made no income because he had broken his arm falling off a ladder. These examples illustrate how tightly the body is connected with the musician’s psyche. At the intersection of music and psychology, Nagel (1993) described treating several musi-cians whose psychological ailments manifested in physical pain that affected their performance. Depression can hurt a singer more than other musicians, precisely because their instrument is their voice and not an external object. For ex-ample, P9 described how her traumatic divorce, having to single-handedly care for her five chil-dren, and sudden loss of studio students pro-foundly depressed her. During the emotional in-terview, she pointed to her chest and diaphragm and said that depression affected her very core, the same place where her singing voice came from:

It’s difficult for a singer when their in-strument does not work, when you’re feeling ill or feeling tired or if emotion-ally depressed. It just doesn’t work, because you can’t get past that phys-ical barrier that you need to support the voice. It’d be sort of akin to a cel-lo player trying to play without a bow.

She further described losing her sound:As far as singing goes, I basically did not sing for the last 4 years, except when I was teaching a voice student here and there. So that’s the deal. I have a grand piano in my living room and sometimes I look in there and think, “I haven’t touched that or sang in three weeks” and that’s just amazing to me because it used to be who I was, and I had to put that part away to be practi-cal and pay my bills.

P9 stated she was now looking for a job with benefits that could allow her to care for the three children who still live with her. Her artis-tic momentum seemed lost in a small town with little opportunities for professional singers. This turning point should not be understood as the end of a musical career occurring solely because of old age or injuries. On the contrary, it may happen to young people as well, and it can be followed by finding one’s sound again. For example, P13 who had been debilitated as a child by the severe teaching style of her mother,

lost her sound for a while, but came back to music as an adult and was slowly forging a new identity as a freelance musician and teacher.

Discussion The twelve turning points identified above encompass physical, social, and psychological events that play a role in the occupational de-velopment of a musician. Although these turn-ing points could be read as following a neat chronological order, they may not happen nec-essarily in this order, may not happen to every-one, and may not occur just once in one’s musi-cal career. Not all participants had reached the point where they embraced the work ethic, not all had to choose a major, and not all got cold feet or found/lost their sound. However, the sample was large enough that I could see these experiences occurring for several participants at different points in their lives. Overall, my findings echo those of other re-searchers who have investigated the develop-ment of musicians’ identity (e.g., Davidson & Burland, 2006; McPherson & Williamon, 2006). However, this study also extends prior research and shows that there are tensions, ambivalenc-es, contradictions, and different kinds of events that impact career decisions, trajectories, and processes. By interviewing both parent-musi-cians and children-musicians, I was able to gain unique insights into the occupational socializa-tion process of classical musicians. For exam-ple, one of my findings was that the parent-mu-sicians who themselves could not entirely fulfill their career goals and resigned themselves to working as studio teachers or freelancers in small towns were more likely to induce cold feet in their children by advising them not to become classical musicians. Other parents who appeared satisfied with their careers were will-ing to give their children professional advice to help them advance in their musical devel-opment. Thus, parent-musicians can be sourc-es of contradictory messages, such as “Music is great, but a career in music is not” or “Keep practicing hard, but don’t become a musician”. This finding deviates from Davidson and Bur-land’s (2006) study, where parents who worked as professional musicians were mostly support-ive of their children choosing a musical career. The second significant finding is the ear-ly age at which formal recognition of skill oc-curred for several participants in this study.

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Participants from both the parents and the chil-dren groups reported earning regular income, mentoring others, and winning competitions as early as twelve years of age. Thus, career events that are typically associated with adulthood and the midlife period (Arthus, Inkson, & Prin-gle, 1999; Hall, 2002) can occur much earlier for classical musicians. For classical musicians, childhood is a period filled with intense work and transformational experiences that are the building blocks of a musical career. This finding is different from stage-oriented occupational so-cialization theory that claims that childhood is mostly workless and preparatory in nature (see Jablin, 2001). Specifically, the crystallization turning point seems to separate the notion of music as a hobby or as something fun to do on the side, from music as a career, passion, and work. According to career theorists (e.g., Hall, 2002), in typical career models, crystallization occurs in adulthood, after careful introspec-tion and assessment of one’s skills, mental and physical abilities on one hand and stabilization of one’s personal life (getting married, raising a family, laying down roots in a community). However, some children musicians crystallized their decisions before even looking into other career options. Others used the college period to enroll in double majors and work extra hard in order to explore multiple careers. This find-ing reveals the fact that music is an early, time-consuming, and demanding specialization that simultaneously opens new directions and closes other opportunities in one’s life. The creation of the Pre-College division in 1969 at the Juilliard School of Music in New York (open to students between 8 and 18 years of age) illustrates the at-tempt of this prestigious educational institution to provide an avenue towards professionaliza-tion for young talented musicians with proven skills and crystallized career decisions. Finally, another intriguing finding was that the girls seeking performance degrees seemed to make more complicated career decisions than the boys, trying to fulfill both artistic ambitions and the need for financial stability. This finding is consistent with studies in career literature by Brush (1992) and Levinson (1996), who exam-ined the intersection of gender, life stages, and career. They found that women were more like-ly than men to have a desire to combine fami-

ly and work, while men were focused more on one or the other. This study provided an event-based or rela-tional change perspective on musicians’ social-ization processes. Some turning points were ex-ternal insofar as they stemmed from voices and experiences beyond oneself, such as when one is told that his or her talent may be insufficient to have a successful soloist career. Other turn-ing points such as the indecision and ambiv-alences regarding career choice were internal, in that individuals took in external stimuli, or extracted cues from the environment. As such, turning points may be part of sense-making (Weick, 2000), where strategies for coping with social pressures, positive experiences with oth-ers, and music as a determinant of self-concept can determine the performer’s success (David-son & Burland, 2006). Finally, although the con-cept of turning points has been aligned with or-ganizational socialization (Bullis & Bach, 1989; Bullis & Stout, 2000) and with interpersonal re-lationships (Baxter & Bullis, 1986), it is also consistent with career literature. It provides one aspect of musicians’ career processes and so-cialization experiences that is grounded in the specific context that shapes and is shaped by the musician.

Limitations & Future Research The limitations of this research project en-tail the geographic location and the research fo-cus. I mostly conducted interviews in the mid-western area of the United States. Most of the participants lived in a medium-size town with a regional orchestra. Collecting data from larg-er cities with more active musical scenes would paint a more complete picture of the career chal-lenges of classical musicians, especially given the fact that musicians’ incomes vary consider-ably by location (United States Department of Labor, 2006). This project is also limited because it sole-ly focuses on communication between parents and children, when other socialization agents such as teachers, mentors, and friends act to influence career decisions. Consequently, find-ings do not present a holistic understanding of the participants’ entire socialization context. Future research should include interviews with other socialization forces as well. Finally, the list of turning points presented in this study is likely to be far from complete.

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Given the common trend among musicians and artists to hold multiple jobs, a longitudi-nal study using a larger sample would provide more insight into how artists adapt, transform, and advance their careers within the economic and social conditions in which they live.

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TURNING POINTS FOR CLASSICAL MUSICIANS

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