Is it Recess Yet? Confessions of a Former Child Prodigy artwork

"The most important skill is connecting with people": Why connection is the most valuable skill. A Chat with Assaff Weisman, pianist, teacher, and Executive Director of the Israeli Chamber Project.

Is it Recess Yet? Confessions of a Former Child Prodigy

English - February 14, 2020 12:00 - 51 minutes - 47.3 MB - ★★★★★ - 21 ratings
Performing Arts Arts Music classical music creativity education child prodigy violin juilliard learning music Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Previous Episode: "The child of Korean immigrants, living in the in-between space": An excerpt from my work-in-progress, LUNCH BOX, about food, mothers and daughters, identity, microagressions, representation, and one kind of Asian American experience.
Next Episode: "In the depths of major depression, I realized I'd lived my whole life in someone else's dream.": PART ONE of A Chat with Dr. Sarah Carter, physician, cellist, writer, and former child prodigy.

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Learn more about the stuff we talk about in this episode here:

Assaff Weisman

3:54 - How the right teacher can change everything and why he credits his life as a musician to his early teacher, Seth Kimmelman.

6:07 - Seth Kimmelman's tragic passing from AIDS.

7:59 - Assaff's identity as an Israeli and an American.

10:15 - How Israeli Chamber Project started.

15:53 - The main learning points and challenges of starting your own organization.

18:20 - How our training at Juilliard at the time we received it did not teach us to think entrepreneurially.

19:34 - The secret to ICP's longevity.

24:40 - The importance of making peace with being in sales and how musicians are really salespeople. Chamber Music America (CMA).

28:35 - Why artists resist the concept of "selling."

30:50 - Approaching sales as a way to help and connect with people.

32:53 - The skills that classical musicians acquire through training that are useful for entrepreneurship.

35:06 - "The most important skill is connecting with people." Why connecting is the most valuable skill.

36:46 - Seth Godin and Real Skills.

38:00 - Seymour Bernstein (Seymour: An introduction). Continuing Education at Juilliard. Performance anxiety and vulnerability.

43:59 - How Assaff's career is different from what he thought it would be.

49:39 - Assaff's advice to his younger self: say "yes" to everything to combat rigidity of the mind.