In a small, yellow room at the back of a Schmitt Music store in a strip mall, Michael Tang sat down at a grand piano.


Michael Tang: 14-year-old pianist plays Grieg with aplomb

Clayton Tillotson has been imagining auditions - the rooms they're in, the pieces he'll play, the people who'll be watching.


Auditioning for graduate school: "Your mind is like a laser beam"

These musicians earned their degrees and then saw their lives take non-musical turns.


What do you do with a music degree - when what you do isn't music?

Like freelancers in any field, freelance musicians worry about where their next paycheck will come from, and when.


Life as a freelance musician: "Scary, but a lot of fun"

According to a Wall Street Journal report based on 2010 U.S. Census data, the unemployment rate for music majors hovers around 5 percent — better than the majority of arts-based majors, and only tenths of a percent worse than electrical engineering.


Emma Nelson

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