CAREER DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP SERIES 2025-2026
Join BU School of Music for these dynamic workshops presented by renowned guest speakers who share their insights, challenges, and innovative approaches toward successful careers in the arts.
Life After School 101: How to Design Your Career Before You Graduate | Dana Fonteneau
Thursday, October 23 • 4:00 – 6:00 pm • CFA 165
In her workshop, “Life After School 101: How to Design Your Career Before You Graduate,” Dana Fonteneau will provide practical tools for helping students imagine their career futures, define success both personally and professionally, and gain clarity on actionable steps toward these futures. Ms. Fonteneau has coached leading performers, artistic organizations such as the San Francisco Opera, teachers, to academic institutions including Juilliard, Rice, MSM, and C-level executives about optimizing talent, fulfilling potential and achieving peak performance.
Having It All: The Art of the Portfolio Career | Laura Metcalf and Rupert Boyd
Friday, November 7 • 4:30 – 6:30 pm • CFA 154
In this workshop, cellist Laura Metcalf (CFA’04) and guitarist Rupert Boyd of the Boyd Meets Girl Duo discuss building a fulfilling career doing all the things that inspire you artistically, without compromising financial stability. This far-reaching conversation will touch on the topics of balance, productivity without burnout, collaboration, networking, entrepreneurship and much more. Metcalf and Boyd will draw upon their multi-decade careers as performers, educators, concert curators and arts leaders to illuminate various paths to a successful career in music and the arts.
Idea to Impact: Aligning Your Artistry with Opportunity | Jessi Rosinski
Wednesdays January 28 | February 4 | February 11 • 4:00 – 6:00 pm • CFA 165
This interactive 3-part entrepreneurship workshop series by Jessi Rosinski is designed to empower music students to bridge their artistic vision with real-world opportunities. Through a blend of self-reflection, empathetic problem-solving, and practical experimentation, students will learn to develop, test, and articulate ideas that align with their personal values and professional aspirations, fostering a holistic sense of entrepreneurial thought and action.
Session 1: Purpose, Problems & Possibilities | January 28
Connecting personal artistic values to identified community needs and generating aligned solutions.
Session 2: Building, Storytelling & Peer Insights | February 4
Rapidly building a prototype/storyboard and crafting a compelling narrative to gather meaningful feedback.
Session 3: Action, Adaptation & Sustainable Purpose | February 11
Synthesizing learnings, defining concrete next steps, and cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset for future projects.
The Art of Creative Endurance: Building a life in the Arts through Resilience and Ingenuity | Yevgeny Kutik
Thursday, February 26 • 4:00 – 6:00 pm • CFA 165
In this conversation, violinist Yevgeny Kutik (CFA’07, BUTI’00) shares insights on building a meaningful and lasting career in the arts through resilience, curiosity, and creative problem-solving. Drawing on his own path as a soloist, recording artist, and festival director, Kutik will explore how to navigate uncertainty, pursue artistic authenticity, and sustain momentum over the long haul. Topics will include adaptability, self-advocacy, building networks and community, and redefining success on your own terms.
Building Your Brand through Digital Media | Jennifer Bill
Wednesday, March 18 • 4:00 – 6:00 pm • CFA 165
In today’s music landscape, a compelling brand is essential for standing out and making a lasting impression. From visual aesthetics and storytelling to the message behind the music, a cohesive brand identity allows musicians to connect with audiences on a deeper level. Often, it is the musicians’ persona and presentation that capture attention first – serving as the gateway for listeners to explore and engage with the music itself. In this workshop, Dr. Jennifer Bill (CFA’07) will cover your Mission Statement, Branding, and Logo.
The Entrepreneurial Practice Room | Stanford Thompson
Thursday, April 9 • 4:00 – 6:00 pm • CFA 165
The Entrepreneurial Practice Room, presented by internationally acclaimed arts leader Stanford Thompson, is an interactive workshop that helps artists turn their ideas into real-world projects. Designed for students in the College of Fine Arts, the session introduces key entrepreneurial tools and mindsets—like identifying a need, building a team, gathering resources, and making an executable plan. We’ll talk honestly about what it takes to sustain creative work, create value for others, and collaborate in ways that help your ideas sustainably grow. Whether you’re exploring what’s possible or looking to take your current ventures further, this workshop will help you think critically about your role in shaping communities around you and take the next step.
The Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Music Career Development Workshops are made possible through a generous gift by Gene and Molly Boxer.
Past Workshops
PARTNERSHIPS
Boston University School of Music is affiliated with numerous organizations that provide an exciting and creative extension of its core programs.
Alea III
Alea III is the contemporary music ensemble in residence at Boston University, a group devoted to promoting, playing, and teaching music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Founded in 1978, Alea III is the third such group organized by Music Director Theodore Antoniou. The ensemble is consistent with the music it embraces—flexible in size, open to experiment and to exploration. Over the years, Alea III has offered world-premiere opportunities for dozens of contemporary composers, often under the composer’s direction, and with extended program notes or comments. The group has performed more than 1,420 works by 810 composers—most of them living. Frequent international touring has enhanced the relationships of American performers with their colleagues and composers from other parts of the world. With its inspiration, several other contemporary groups have been formed, offering growing opportunity to young composers and musicians to play and comprehend contemporary music.
The Greek word alea taken from Homer, means “to wander.” In Latin, it refers to “a die or dice used for playing at games of chance.” The term aleatoric music indicates music based upon the principles of indeterminacy as evidenced by certain random and/or statistical procedures of composition. In regard to the ensemble, aleatoric is concerned with the expression of a multiplicity of musical directions, historical styles, and performance practices.
Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (BYSO)
Widely regarded as one of the country’s finest youth orchestra programs, the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (BYSO) is recognized as a model organization in music and arts education. BYSO serves nearly 500 students from more than 120 communities throughout New England. Since 1958, BYSO has been in residence at Boston University.
The mission of BYSO is to encourage musical excellence in a professional and supportive environment by providing the highest quality orchestra training and performance opportunities to qualified musicians, grades K–12, and making its programs accessible to underserved communities through financial assistance and outreach.
Under the leadership of Music Director Federico Cortese, BYSO has become one of Boston’s most prestigious arts organizations with a programmatic scope that includes three full symphonic orchestras, six chamber orchestras, two string training orchestras, a preparatory wind ensemble, a chamber music program, and the Intensive Community Program, a nationally recognized string training program for underrepresented communities.
Muir String Quartet
For over three decades, the Muir String Quartet has long been acknowledged as one of the world’s most powerful and insightful ensembles, distinguishing itself among audiences and critics with its “exhilarating involvement” (Boston Globe), “impeccable voicing and intonation” (San Francisco Examiner), and “unbridled musicality” (American Record Guide). The Muir Quartet has been in residence at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts since 1983, and gives annual summer workshops at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI). The Muir Quartet has also given master classes at schools worldwide, including the Eastman School of Music, the Curtis Institute, Oberlin Conservatory, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and conservatories in Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian, China. Since 1989, the quartet has presented the Emerging Quartets and Composers Program in Utah with eminent composer Joan Tower. This program is now part of the Muir’s role as resident chamber ensemble with the Deer Valley Festival, in partnership with the Utah Symphony/Opera.
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ADDITIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
CFA Partners with Boston Public Schools
The partnership provides BPS employees with a discounted tuition rate scholarship for CFA’s online and on-campus master’s programs in Music Education.
SOM and RI Phil Create Fellowship Program
The graduate-level fellowship program is designed for exceptionally talented BU violinists and violists who come from underrepresented backgrounds.