70: Five Questions For Benjamin Beilman
with Benjamin Beilman
1. What makes an artist a great collaborator?
There are many things that make a young artist a great collaborator. They're all incredibly human. It's, you know, does this person have curiosity? Do they have the ability to hold two conflicting thoughts in their head at the same time? Do they have open ears? Do they have confidence in their own artistry, to feel that even if they're adjusting for somebody else, that they're not losing sort of the essential part of who they are? I mean, the advice is the same for a young artist or an old artist or a medium artist. But it's hopefully it's just a sense that through contact with other people on stage, there is an opportunity to make something greater than yourself.
2. How would you advise a young artist when they are choosing solo repertoire?
Choosing repertoire is always such a very difficult, but hopefully a wonderful opportunity. Sometimes there are pieces that you can't avoid. You have to encounter them. They're so beloved. They're so essential in the canon that you sort of like– I'm a violinist, of course, I can't escape Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. And sometimes it's a wonderful thing. Sometimes it's a not so wonderful thing. So I think there has to be an awareness that you are leaning into the things that have made people fall in love with the violin, or with whatever your instrument is, but also choosing repertoire that reflects who you are, your own traits. Are you someone who gets really hot and heavy very quickly, and if so, maybe you choose more passionate pieces. Or if, if speaking quietly and more intimately is something that comes naturally to you, then you lean into that. Or if there's a genre of music or a country or a specific composer, the more, the more personal, the more intimate and unique you can get, the better.
3. What is the best professional advice anyone ever gave you?
One thing that's-- one piece of advice that's coming to mind to me right now is the encouragement to take time for yourself. There is, you know, let's say if in a single career you have, you'll be able to play something like 5,000 concerts, or whatever the number may be, you don't want to be someone who's playing, you know, 50% of those concerts in the first five years or the first ten years of your career. You want to have an opportunity to experience the intensity, and the adrenaline rush, and the enthusiasm, and the excitement of performing, but then also taking moments or weeks or months for yourself just to kind of reflect on it, allow yourself to grow.
I look around at many of my peers, who - and I have been in this camp before - who overbooked themselves. They jump from concert to concert to concert to city to city to city. They have no chance to build a personal life. They have no understanding of how to be living in a society that you're supposed to be commenting on as an artist. So hopefully there is some sense that you can, even if you see people around you going much faster, that doesn't necessarily mean that that's right for you.
4. As a multi-faceted artist, how do you manage your time and commitments?
I have been told that I have a very high tolerance for risk, so I do think that there is a sense that if, if I'm feeling lots of nervousness about something, then usually that means that I have to address that head on.
So how do I balance all of my activities? It's really just what am I feeling most anxious about? There are different techniques, you know, making a list of all your activities, all of your time to work on those activities, and kind of sliding in your various tasks in those blocks so that at least you can sort of externalize your inner monologue and see, you know, in a full week or a full month, I have this amount of time blocked off for each thing. For me, it's a much more intuitive thing. I have to, I have to feel like I have to touch on all of my different disparate parts of my life.
5. When do you say "yes" and when do you say "no" regarding work?
Oh [chuckles]. Yeah, the, the binary choice of yes and no. You know, if you're offered a concert, that's, that's very different and very difficult and it will slide depending on where you're at in your life. As I'm sure any musician or any conscious person can attest to.
During COVID, you would have said yes to anything. And very often I did, just to feel like I was in contact with other musicians. I mean, playing any situation in front of a camera or for two people or three people felt like a godsend. And of course, now that we're outside of COVID and we are back to mostly normal life, it's a very different judgment.
One piece of advice that I was given early on about how to select concerts is this idea that you should consider it in terms of three different elements. There is the professional consideration. You know, is this going to be a concert or an engagement that advances my career, whether that's through performing with other musicians that you admire, or conductors, composers, whatever it may be, maybe a prestigious series or an opportunity for someone to hear you. That's one consideration, the professional.
There is the personal. So, you know, is this going to be a fun place to vacation to, you know, someplace exotic? Can I bring my partner or my dog to? Or will I be able to see my family if I go to this place? Because, you know, the human element is very much important.
And then there is the thing that people don't like to talk about, but it's essential as an artist, but is this going to sustain my lifestyle financially? So is this going to be a well-paid engagement? Am I going to lose money? Am I going to make some money? Yeah. And so hopefully in any decision you have those three things that you're considering. Hopefully you're hitting at least two of them. You know, eventually you might hit all three, but at least two of those should be sort of checked off.