Area: Music Professor

  • Brandon Goff

    Brandon Goff

    “You’ve done it when everyone else knew you couldn’t do it, and it turns out you could do it all along.”

    Interview

    Transcript

    Emma Plutnicki  00:00 

    So, to start, what do you do for work, and where are you currently working from?  

    Brandon Goff  00:06 

    I mean, I do a lot of things to be fair, but I’m a professor of Music Industry in Florence, South Carolina, at Francis Marion University, which is obviously going to be the biggest chunk of what I do. But my, you know, my background’s as a composer, a producer, and an engineer and a performer does a lot of different aspects to being a professional musician, and you don’t always do just one. And I’m one of those people who do all those all the time. 

    Emma Plutnicki  00:27 

    Amazing. So how long have you been working as a professor, and then how long have you been doing all the other things? 

    Brandon Goff  00:35 

    I’m from Memphis, Tennessee, and I’ve been teaching on a university level since, oh my, it goes way back. I first started a Rhodes College, which is a really nice liberal arts school in Memphis, and then I moved from there to probably started teaching, you know, around 2003 2004 so it’s been a minute. Yeah, it’s been a while. Then I went to, like, around Nashville, at a place called Lambuth University, and then I came here from there, and I’ve been here since 2011 so I’ve been in South Carolina for like, you know, proper, 14 years now.  

    Emma Plutnicki  01:11 

    Okay, so what is one thing that you love about working as a creative in South Carolina, specifically, as opposed to in Memphis or Nashville?  

    Brandon Goff  01:22 

    Well, you know, I do. I—anybody who works in the creative, especially the music industry, is going to love Memphis and Nashville. These are two, like, major hubs of music industry. But along with that, from an academic standpoint, meaning from in the in regards to the education portion of what I do, it’s fun working with students who don’t have that grandiose expectation of someone who’s growing up in Nashville. I mean, these in the talent pool, it’s a misconception. People always think, well, everyone’s so talented in New York, London, Nashville, they’re always just like, let alone actually, mathematically, no, they’re not. They’re just surrounded by an industry which really kind of draws that talent out. So, one of the beautiful things about South Carolina, that I love is the talent pool is thick. It’s just as the talent pool is just as big as it is anywhere else. But there’s just less exposure to it, less exposure to your opportunities, your potential, to chances you can take that you don’t realize you can because you’re not in one of those big music hubs. And I do, I really do love that. Actually, I do. I do enjoy that a lot. 

    Emma Plutnicki  02:26 

    Yeah, that’s amazing. So, has South Carolina had any unique influence on your work specifically? 

    Brandon Goff  02:34 

    I mean, of course, yes. I mean, it would do, wouldn’t it? I mean, it’s the, I don’t feel, musically? How would I—there’s a, it’s a different—you know, I’m from Tennessee, in Memphis and Nashville. Everyone’s a musician. That is the thing that everyone does. You probably have an uncle who’s a songwriter. You might have another uncle who works for a record label, who’s like a, you know, a talent scout. And I kind of, I didn’t, honestly, I didn’t realize the rest of the world wasn’t like that until I moved here. When I moved to South Carolina, I was like, Oh, this isn’t like the major industry. This isn’t what everybody does. And so, in being steeped in a non-music focused culture is going to obviously be influential. There’s a complete different music culture here. There’s a different kind of nightlife culture, a different culinary culture. And so, I’m constantly stealing, like, little, you know, snippets of sounds and lifestyles and putting them in songs and putting them in, you know, pieces and stuff like that, which I think is as well you should. 

    Emma Plutnicki  03:37 

    Yeah, I love that. So how would you describe the local professional community within South Carolina? 

    Brandon Goff  03:45 

    In regards to music professionals? You know, again, you’re not in—there’s not, there aren’t a ton of recording studios. There aren’t just a ton of, you know, production houses and things like that. There aren’t a ton of publishing houses. There aren’t a ton of things like that. There are a few here and there and around. It’s more competitive getting into those spaces because there are less spaces for people to access. But one of the biggest, we’re still a big production state, in large part because we do, we still have a lot of arts funding, and we have a lot of massive churches that run big productions. So, I’ve had a lot of students who go work for big, big churches here in South Carolina who have productions that are equal to that, of, you know, equal to that, of like, a large performance venue. And we do have large performance venues, you know, Myrtle Beach, the coast has a lot of that stuff. Even Columbia has a few things like that, Green Velocity, nice stuff or something. A lot of students who have internships up there and stuff like that. And it’s just, it’s going to be, your churches are massive, and they have a massive production budget, so a lot of students will go work for the big churches, and a lot of students that’s like, that’s kind of what they want to do, because that’s like, that’s how they got into music this lot of in the we’re in the Bible Belt, so a lot of the students are picking up musical skills, and the gold concepts in church, and then end up wanting to go back there and kind of work in that church as a worship leader or as a production leader or something like that. 

    Emma Plutnicki  05:10 

    Yeah, makes sense. Very cool. So, within a creative career, it can be difficult to define success sometimes, because there aren’t always clear expectations. So how do you define professional and personal success within your career? 

    Brandon Goff  05:26 

    Oh, how you, know what I think—I tell this to my students all the time. Yeah and I suspect that depends on your personality type as well. But when I was quite poor, grew up very, very poor and actually I was not, I was not a high school graduate. I was a high school dropout. I dropped out of high school and got a job at a factory. And so, you gauge your dreams and your expectations of success on the reality around you. So, as you accomplish something, you then gauge, well, my next level of success will be that. And so, like, at that point in my life, I was like, you know, my dream is to work inside a place that has air conditioning, because I was working at a factory that had no air conditioning in the South, so it was hot. So, but then as I, as you move forward, like, Oh, I just, I just wrote a song. So I want to write 10 songs. And you, so each one of those little accomplishments is a success of its own, but ideally, and you find contentment and what you’ve accomplished, but you also, it’s fun to see how far you can push what you can do. So, you’re always looking for a new kind of success, but then recognizing the success that you had as you move through it. So, I mean, if you’re a full-time musician anywhere, you are mathematically successful because you’ve done something that’s difficult to do. You’re making a living off of a craft, art, a passion that’s very few people get to do that, and so that’s already successful. But even if you don’t do that, even if you’re just someone who’s actually sat down and written an entire album worth of material, and that’s not what you do for a living that’s still incredibly successful, because very few people have the patience and the skill set and the focus to accomplish that. So, there’s success can be found in so many different avenues. And I think it’s important for—I always tell this to my students, to recognize that and to reward yourself emotionally and psychologically for those successes, regardless of the monetary outcome that you might receive. 

    Emma Plutnicki  07:28 

    Yeah, that’s a great way of framing it. So, did you have any fears going into this career, or were you…? 

    Brandon Goff  07:35 

    I mean, I was too stupid to be scared like I didn’t know. I didn’t I mean, I didn’t know I had then that’s, that’s a benefit of youth, isn’t it? Like, no, I’m gonna, I mean, I’m gonna do this because I don’t know that I can’t do this. And it’s amazing how when you don’t know you can’t do something, that you kind of put your all into it, and all of a sudden, you’ve done it when everyone else knew you couldn’t do it. And it turns out you could do it all along. So, you’ve kind of got to the ignorance has its role there some level. Or, you know, unabashed arrogance helps as well. Because I’m going to do this no matter what, I’m just going to push through it. Just stick to it, even if you know you can’t do it, just convince you commit yourself you can. 

    Emma Plutnicki  08:18 

    Yeah, and was that something that you just found within yourself, or were there people along the way giving you advice? 

    Brandon Goff  08:25 

    I mean my undergraduate, you know, actually, my undergraduate degree is in music composition, so it’s not even music industry. Music industry is a lot of what I do, but that was just the nature of being a musician in Tennessee, where there’s a massive music industry. And I got into the music industry because I was one of the first people who was using computers to produce music, and so studios would call me to come do that kind of work, and that just opened the door for me. But again, I wasn’t, it wasn’t part of a grand plan. I was just, again, I was poor. I was, it was day by day. I was like, Okay, I need, I’ve got to eat tomorrow. So, I’m going to do this gig tonight. I’ve got to figure out how to make this happen. So, it was a constant. There was a constant, just a, you know, piece by piece by piece by piece by piece, and you kind of work it, work it out and make it happen.  

    Emma Plutnicki  09:10 

    Yeah, makes sense. Can you recall any times when maybe a mentor or professor within your degree maybe gave you some good advice, or even the worst advice you’ve ever heard? 

    Brandon Goff  09:27 

    I mean, I say advice, perhaps not advice so much as just support and belief. And that was very meaningful for me when I was, when I was an undergrad, you know, I had a professor who thought that I was very, very bright, and therefore gave me a scholarship to learn a new piece of software that the university had acquired. And that software turned out to be a thing called Pro Tools eventually. So, I was one of the first people who knew how to use this particular software thing called Pro Tools. And so that particular belief and my ability to do that changed my life dramatically. And then, when I was doing that PhD, my PhD professor just really loved my music, loved what I did professionally, and as such, would often, he was a very, very famous composer, would bring me along, would program my works on big concerts across like Europe and from Turkey across, you know, through France and such. So that gave my work massive exposure that I would not have gotten, if not for a particular professor who saw something in me and really, really took it upon themselves to push me forward, if you call that advice. But it was yeah, no, but it was both those, both those episodes were very, very life changing for me. 

    Emma Plutnicki  10:46 

    For sure, and with Pro Tools being really life changing in your life, would you say, or, I guess, could you describe a time or a project that you’ve worked on that has been very meaningful to your life? It can be a significant, I don’t know, project or piece that you’ve performed or written, or just anything that you feel has had a significant impact on your life and has really showcased your creativity. 

    Brandon Goff  11:13 

    You know, it’s funny, the most popular piece that I have, and it was not. It was never intended to be this way. I was, I was relatively new to South Carolina, and I’m a guitar player. I play lots of instruments, but my guitar is kind of one of my main instruments. I would do session work in Nashville as a guitar player, but I’m a composer. I’m a writer. And so, the concert band director said, Hey, Dr, Goff, we would love you to come in and play perhaps an electric guitar concerto, which is where you have, like, a large concert band or orchestra and with electric guitar as a lead instrument. And so, I thought, okay, great, I’ll let me find a piece that will be good. And so, I searched and I searched and I searched and I discovered that there were almost no electric guitar concertos that are in existence. I was like, Okay, this doesn’t really exist. So, I said, Hey, how about I just write a piece for you guys that you did this for me and for you. And so, I did this. It’s a piece called Full On Rumble. So, it was like, and I actually made it. I wanted to make it kind of tongue in cheek, if you know that phrase, I wanted to make it kind of like, I used all of the over the top guitar techniques from like, the 80s and 90s. They’re all like, all the, you know, the big hair guitar players would play, from Led Zeppelin to AC DC to Van Halen, all the, I threw it all in there. It’s kind of a kitchen sink piece. It has like every little nuance in it, kind of poking fun at, like, the absurdity of guitar solos and stuff, yeah. But everyone loved it, and it’s become, by far, probably 80 to 90% of my professional work is traveling the world, playing that particular piece with other orchestras and concert bands all over the place. I’ve done it in the past two or three years, from London to Portugal to Germany to Istanbul, all the way. It gets performed all the time. So that one piece, that one little weird thing where I was like, Well, I can’t find that piece much better. I better just write one, that was that, changed everything, that opened so many weird doors that’s still a lot of what I do is just manage the distribution, publication and performances of that piece. 

    Emma Plutnicki  13:13 

    Very cool. You said it’s called Full On Rumble. Full On Rumble 

    Brandon Goff  13:16 

    Yeah, F, U, L, L, on Rumble.  

    Emma Plutnicki  13:22 

    All right, I’ll have to check it out. And so nowadays, what does a typical work day look like for you? 

    Brandon Goff  13:29 

    It’s, I’m, unlike most musicians, I guess I don’t know. I’m regimented, because I have to be. And it’s taken, yeah, I mean, everyone deals with this. I guess you discover over time what times of day you’re better at certain things. Because when I first get up in the morning, that’s not the only time of the day that I have the mental acuity to like, to do all my invoicing and to send, like, do all my communiques emails, like, I’ve got about an hour and a half where I have the I have the emotional wherewithal to sit down and, like, okay, because I don’t, I don’t relish that. I love creating, I love producing, I love teaching, I love performing. But all of that is tethered to, like, if I’m doing the music for TV commercial, I have to then invoice that, and then have to go through and like, you know, I might have to do all kinds of clerical work behind that, and then send off demos to other places for public publishers. Yeah, it’s like, tons of legwork. So, I have an hour and a half of morning legwork. You have to do that every morning. Just get all that stuff done. And then I’ll always, always put in about 30 minutes of just practice. And we can practice guitar, or could be practicing composing. It is just like, just like exercise, which I do as well. But I do that because it just keeps your brain engaged. You know, 30 minutes a day goes a lot further than five hours one day a week. So, I always do that. Then all my classes are always in that little mid-day chunk, and then I do a lot of production work late in the afternoon, a lot of like mathematical studio stuff I go through and take pieces I’ve worked on and start working on new mixes for them, for release and things like that. Yeah, I know those, the times a day, like times a day when I am most effective for those arenas. If that makes sense. 

    Emma Plutnicki  15:11 

    Yeah. You have to know yourself.  

    Brandon Goff  15:15 

    Yeah, you did. It takes a long time too.  

    Emma Plutnicki  15:25 

    Yeah. So how are you able to, you know, balance work and life, and just keep your creativity at you know, just keeping it alive, because it can be hard, you get bogged down and other things. So how do you keep that work life balance? 

    Brandon Goff  15:31 

    Oh, wow, that’s man, that’s enough. You know, work life balance. And these are generational concepts. When I was young, I don’t know that anyone ever really discussed work life balance. So that was the kind of, I’m sure we had issues with it. We just hadn’t figured out how to name it and, you know, manage it. So, if you do something that you really, really enjoy, if it’s the kind of thing you would do, whether you’re getting paid for it or not. That is a beautiful, beautiful thing, but it’s also rife with its own challenges, as you can imagine, because you’re never really off work, and that’s one of the biggest challenge for me, is to disengage with what I’m doing and find a way to tune it out, you know, after, say, 8pm so that I have a shot in hell of sleeping, which is my dream scenario where my brain isn’t frantic at 10pm and like I’m asleep before to 2am I’ll be great, difficult to do, because it is you do what you—it’s what I’m thinking about, whether I’m working on it or not. Like I often, like, in the summers, when I have the rare weekend where I can, like, not do music and go mow my lawn, I’m like, wow, that was amazing. I went and mowed a lawn, and I’m done, and I’m not thinking about my lawn now, like, I like that. I like that. You can put something to bed. And as a musician, you rarely get to do that. You’re just, it’s always doing and you have to. I—so I’ve called it work life balance, so much as just because you love music. And music’s everywhere. So, every time I turn on a Netflix show, there’s a piece of music in there that I’m like, Oh, I could steal that idea. I could do—and so everything’s research, so it’s difficult to pull away from that. So, I’ll often listen. I’ll often dive into, like, some sort of talk radio, because it has no affiliation to my career whatsoever. And it just kind of helps bring me, pull me away from that, that whirlpool of creativity. 

    Emma Plutnicki  17:38 

    Yeah, that must be hard, because music is everywhere, and it’s just part of life. Which is good and can also be challenging. But you’re right. As we just wrap up, are there any, is there anything else you’d like to add, or any questions you wish that maybe I asked that I didn’t? 

    Brandon Goff  17:58 

    I don’t think so. Thank you. That was a really nice selection of questions. I mean, it’s, my colleagues often call me—they say he’s kind of workaholic, he’s kind of hyper, and I am kind of hyper, and I can’t appear to be a workaholic, because I do love to perform and I love to write and I love to write and I love to produce. These aren’t all the same thing, but there’s absolutely no reason you can’t pick one of those things and be that. Be that thing. One of my best friends is one of our piano faculty here, and he’s just a concert pianist, and that’s all he does. But, and that’s a beautiful thing. If I just performed, I think I would lose my mind because I want to write as well, but I also love being in the studio and like, you know, stacking guitars and laying things in and making a nice product, that’s my particular passion. Is that diversified approach to a career, but it is by no means I don’t know what I would even suggest that to every student, because that said that it’s a challenge, and that’s it. That suits my personality, that suits the way that I work, pretty well, but I suspect it’s not the best fit for most people. I suspect I’m a minority in this that that arena. It’s hard to say. 

    Emma Plutnicki  19:17 

    Yeah, hard to find a balance, but amazing. Well, I’ve loved hearing your story, and thank you again for taking the time to speak with me. Last thing is, do you have anybody that you think would be great for us to interview another professional in the creative space? I could give you some time to think also and shoot you over a nominations link.   

    Brandon Goff  19:43 

    Yeah, please do. I know a lot. I know a lot of great creatives.  

  • Fran Coleman

    Fran Coleman

    “Anything is possible. Anything is possible. You just have to be creative”

    Fran Coleman is an associate professor of voice and choral activity at Francis Marion University. Fran’s teaching spans from voice lessons, directing choirs and any other coral activity. Fran is located in Florence S.C. and currently teaches but is also a performer as well as producer with a regional party band called Emerald Empire band.  

    Interview

    Transcript

    0:03 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Okay, perfect. So, to start off, what do you do for work and where are you currently working from? 

    0:09 | Fran Coleman 

    I do a lot of work. Currently, I work at Francis Marion University. I am an associate professor of voice and choral activities there. So, I teach voice lessons. I direct all of their choirs. I arrange any kind of Choral Activities that might be on or off campus. I arrange any kind of vocal recitals, anything like that. I arrange. We also have a couple of other vocal groups. We have a jazz ensemble and a music industry ensemble. I don’t direct those, but I do work with most of the singers that are in those groups, just by default music.  

    1:03 | Emma Plutnicki 

    How long have you been working there? 

    1:05 | Fran Coleman 

    This is my seventh year. Yeah, this is the end of my seventh year. So I’m also a performer and a producer with a regional party band. So I obviously sing and perform with them, but I also put together events with them. I work with our, with our vendors, with our, with our, obviously, with all of our clients. I work with them. I’m kind of like the third party between them and the vendor and the band also. So I kind of wear multiple hats when it comes to them, because when I am dealing with them before the event, I’m the producer, as far as helping them to plan the event, plan out what the band is going to do, how the band how the band is going to fit into their event schedule. When I get on site, I am kind of the band manager, as far as advocating for the band, making sure the band gets their breaks, making sure that they can, especially like last summer, when it was super duper hot, making sure they, you know, get water, make sure they get their dinner break and all that kind of stuff.  

    2:16 | Fran Coleman 

    And then when I’m on stage, I am the performer.  I wear lots and lots of hats when I’m with the band as well. And then I’m also a classical singer. That’s kind of a freelance thing. I sing with a lot of different churches in the area for weddings, funerals, Sunday services. I sing with the symphony in the area. I also sing with the Long Bay symphony at Myrtle Beach. I do a lot of regional work just with other events in the Carolinas and Georgia. When it comes to the arts, I always like to say that you have to wear a lot of different hats. You have to be willing to have a kind of piecemeal life together. You have to be willing to, you have to be willing to have lots of different side hustle. And if you’re willing to do that, you’re going to be fine. But it’s like understanding that you have to know where your passion is, if to know why you’re doing it, you know. 

    3:24 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, amazing, yeah. It sounds like you have a lot of things pulling you in different directions. But what is one thing that you like specifically about working as a creative in South Carolina? 

    3:40 | Fran Coleman 

    You know, moving down here, I moved from Richmond, Virginia, which is a fairly different size city, you know, then particularly Florence, which is where I’m at, but even Conway, or Charleston, for that matter, I mean, Richmond’s a pretty, pretty decent sized city, which I wasn’t, I really wasn’t ready to realize until I moved, but it was really nice to move to an area that appreciated the arts as much as they do. This area really appreciates the arts and and they’re willing to pay for it.  

    3:40 | Fran Coleman  

    You know what I mean? Like, I feel like in Richmond, I was constantly advocating for artists to be paid for what they do, constantly, constantly advocating. When I was in Richmond, the hustle was even more real when I mean I was, I wasn’t a full-time professor up there. I was an adjunct professor, which is what’s called a part time professor. Where I was, I was part time at several different universities around the state. Some were a couple hours away. Some were less than, you know, an hour away.  

    4:58 | Fran Coleman 

    But either way, I was trying. Traveling a lot. I was working with several different nonprofit organizations to advocate for the arts. And I was working with Virginia opera, which was a couple hours away. I mean, it was just, it was a lot a lot of driving, and a lot a lot of hustle, and that was and the basis of all of that hustle was advocating for the arts, advocating for the artists to be paid, you know, and to be such a cosmopolitan area, it’s amazing how little they wanted to pay for the arts. So, to move down here and to come to an area where the arts were so appreciated, the very second question after you know, what can you offer? Is, what is your fee? And I was just dumbfounded, because I was like, wow, okay, let me think about it, because I didn’t know. So, so that I really do love is how appreciated the arts are around here. 

    6:00 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, amazing. And have you been able to find a professional community within South Carolina that you kind of meet with, or how would you describe your local professional community? 

    6:14 | Fran Coleman 

    Well, you know, through the band, through the band that I work with is called Emerald Empire band. And Emerald Empire band, excuse me, I have a frog in my throat. Emerald Empire band is part of a larger organization called the International Musicians League. And so that International Musicians League is literally International, and it spans across the world. And so I was with them in Virginia as well. Up there, they were called the Bachelor Boy Band. And so when I moved down here, I was able to transition over to Emerald. And so they really helped me to find a large entity of professional musicians that I wanted to be a part of and through them, I was able to branch out and kind of find a little bit more of that, like classical entity that I was looking for. But also in working with the Florence Symphony Orchestra and the Long Bay symphony orchestra, and then also through working with some of the other musicians in Emerald, I was able to meet some of the some of the other crossover musicians like myself that do classical as well as contemporary music, that work in the Charleston area and as well as in the Columbia area. I also sing with a nonprofit in Columbia called Palmetto Opera. 

    7:40| Fran Coleman 

    And so I was able to meet some of the other classical players in the Columbia area. So through all of those entities, I feel like I’ve been able to really like I’ve been able to really dig into the contemporary pool of players. I’ve been able to scratch the surface when it comes to the classical players. I know there are so many more that I would love to get in touch with and start collaborating with. There’s a fantastic woman in the Florence area who is doing some work with the Met, the Florence Masterworks Choir. She’s doing some work rebuilding their website and helping to build their database, and she has created an organization called the Ladies Who Lunch, and that is a group of ladies, all who work within the arts community in Florence, whether it be through visual arts or performing arts.  

    8:40 | Fran Coleman 

    And we all try and get together at least once a month, just to kind of talk through things that are happening, things that are, you know, things that need to happen, things we like to see happen. And so that’s a great, great way to try and keep things moving. And so that’s been happening, and so that’s really good. Things like that are what need to continue to happen, right? Just having conversations, and just knowing who to have conversations with, right? Yeah, particularly within the female community, you know, because even in 2025 we’re still so subdued, yeah, so yeah, yeah, 

    9:27 | Emma Plutnicki 

    No, it sounds like a great community, and hopefully it continues to grow. And with all the hats that you wear, you know, how do you define professional or personal success in such creative fields? 

    9:44 | Fran Coleman 

    Oh, I used to put dollar signs on it. I don’t anymore. I really define success in how full my heart is. You know, if I’m waking myself up and putting myself to bed? Every day with music, then that’s how I define my success.  

    10:03 | Emma Plutnicki 

    That’s great. It really is great. So have you had a kind of major project in your life, or, I don’t know, like a defining moment in your creative journey that’s made a significant impact on you, or something that you have produced or sang, or project that you’ve worked on that has really showcased your creativity? 

    10:36 | Fran Coleman 

    So many things. I try and keep the creative fires burning as much as I can. This particular semester, I’ve got, like, next week, we have an event happening at a little restaurant in Florence called Victor’s. And so, through the Palmetto opera, I was introduced to a kind of dinner, a dinner theater type event called up, called, what they call it, Villa Tronco. And Villa Tronco is just a restaurant in Columbia, and excuse me, it’s like a it’s like a dinner theater where two opera singers get up and they just sing a few songs, and then they take a little break, and then they sing another few songs, they take a little break, and then they get up and they sing a few more, and then they take a little break all and all of it is paired with meals and then within those pairings are like little mini sets. And those little mini sets include some backstory behind the areas. And there’s always a duet within each of those mini sets, and there’s an explanation behind it.  

    12:00 | Fran Coleman 

     Anybody is invited to these dinner theaters like you don’t have to be a world-renowned opera buff to understand. I kind of borrowed their idea, and I took it to Victor’s, which is a restaurant in Florence, and I said, I’ve got this great business model, and I would love to bring it to Victor’s. Victor’s is like one of the classier restaurants in Florence, and they have a great back room, like, a kind of conference room area where they could kind of create a nice little dinner concept and sell reservations. And so that was a great success. We did that a couple times, so it was really successful. And we’ve got another one coming up in February, and so far, it’s been really successful. We had one scheduled for October, and it was the day before Halloween, and it didn’t sell like we wanted, so we had to end up postponing that one.  

    12:55 | Fran Coleman 

     That was, unfortunately, not as great, but the one we had coming up in February was really successful, so that was great. I did an event on campus last year with where it was called singing the legacy of black female composers, and I paired that with some of my current students along with some of my alumni students, and we did a whole concert where we sang nothing but music of black female composers, and we talked about the works of these women and all of the great all of the great information, all of the great things they did. We talked about all sorts of amazing things they brought to us as composers, as women, and that was really cool. Back home, I worked with a couple of nonprofits where we built a Mozart Festival every year in different parts of the city.  

    13:55 | Fran Coleman 

    That was amazing. I mean, every year it was, and it was almost all completely female run. You know, that was amazing. Every year, I am the only female that helps to put together this event called FSO Rocks at the end Florence, where it’s the Florence Symphony Orchestra, and we do all classic rock music. So that’s really amazing. Anytime I can help build something new and exciting that is even the slightest bit different. I always like to say that, you know, I kind of like Winnie the Pooh. I’m not your average bear. Yeah, you know, yeah. Anytime I anytime I can, anytime help out, like, with something that’s slightly different, I try and get involved. So great. 

    14:47 | Emma Plutnicki 

    And when you decided to go into a creative profession, did you have any fears about that? Like, what was your biggest fear? 

    14:55 | Fran Coleman 

    I mean, I’m always fearful of the unknown, but ultimately I. Um, I let anybody who says they don’t think I can handle it fuel me, like anytime I’ve ever had a professor to say, I don’t know if this is for you or you might want to try something different. I let them. I let that fuel me to say, oh, really, really, watch me, you know, and I let that kind of feel me. And so that’s what’s gotten me to where I am. Any negative feedback has been what’s got me to where I am? Yeah, it’s not, it’s not pulled me down. 

    15:37 | Emma Plutnicki 

    What’s the worst advice that you’ve ever gotten, or the best advice? 

    15:45 | Fran Coleman 

    Well, when I first got to undergraduate school, I was so in when I was a senior in high school, my dear and bestest friend from, like, literal infancy, um, she, she and her dad and my dad were like, best friends. They like went to military school together. They were stationed in Germany together. They like, we were born two months apart. Like, we were raised together, you know. And she died in a car accident when we were, like, 17, just boom, two months before graduation, gone. Dead. And it was just, I mean, it just, it shook your world, you know. And so, I didn’t go straight to high school. I mean, I didn’t go straight to college straight after graduation. I just moved out after high school, and just kind of like, got a couple jobs and started singing in bands, and started going to open mic nights and just kind of sewing my musical oats and deciding what I might want to do with my life. I just didn’t know. I just knew that if God could take Kim at 17, he could take me too, you know, and so, so I just knew that I needed to explore what, what the world had to offer me. And so that’s what I did. And so, one band led to another, led to another, led to another, until eventually I started getting into some, some significantly successful bands, and we started doing some touring up and down the coast, and things were doing really well, until eventually that van broke up. I was about 24 at that point, 23 maybe, landed back in Richmond, and I said, okay, now what do I do? And so, I decided I would go back to college.  

    17:38 | Fran Coleman 

    And I started, you know, taking some like, gen ed classes at community college. And then by the time I was 24 I decided, okay, I’m going to go back to Virginia Commonwealth University, which is kind of like the USC of Richmond, you know, big urban campus. They’ve got a great music program, and I was going to learn how to really sing, right? And they are a very, very traditional school in 2001 which was at the time when I decided to go back to school. They had removed their jazz voice program, which in 1994 when I originally auditioned for the school, they had they didn’t tell me, they dropped it, right?  

    18:24 | Fran Coleman 

    So, like, when I re-auditioned with the exact same two songs that I auditioned in 1994 for, they didn’t tell me, they dropped it. So when I got in again, I was like, Okay, well, I’m going to be a jazz voice major. And I was, I was alerted very, very, very staunchly in the middle of theory class, that I was not a theory, that I was not a jazz voice major, but I was classical voice major. And so, so that was a little daunting and so that was eye opening to know that I was going to spend the next four years singing classical music when I’d never sung a note of classical music before. And so I spent the next at least two years fighting that tooth and nail and so many, many of my teachers in undergraduate school were not pleasant to me.  

    19:19 | Fran Coleman 

    They basically compartmentalized me and said, oh well, she sings rock music, so she must be an alto or a mezzo. No, I’m really not. I’m very much a high soprano. But they didn’t give me the benefit of trying to listen to me or understand me at all because they didn’t want to. So that was very frustrating those first two years, so and so, and that’s really the negativity that fueled me, but at the same time, I needed to find an outlet, because I knew I couldn’t just in classical music. So that’s when I started. Kind of moonlighting, so to speak, with the jazz department at school. And instead of just singing with the madrigalists, which was like the very traditionalist a cappella group, I sang with the small jazz ensemble, and then I was invited to sing with the large jazz ensemble, which was like their big band, you know.  

    20:19 | Fran Coleman 

    And I really fell in love with jazz music. And then I started, you know, studying like Jazz, Jazz vocal pedagogy, and I was able to do an independent study with them, and, and I was able to study with one of the best jazz drummers that this country’s ever seen, you know, and, and I was able to make some fabulous connections that I still have to this day, and that have stuck with me for 20 years, you know, and it’s just, it’s, it’s been phenomenal. And they, they really are, who got me through undergraduate school. Now, mind you, I fell in love with classical music in the meantime, and I ended up getting a doctorate in opera. And I love classical music. 

    20:58 | Fran Coleman 

    And like I said, I you know, both of the nonprofits that I worked with in Richmond were both classical. One of them was the Classical Revolution, and the other one was a small nonprofit opera company that I helped build from the ground up. And so, I love classical music, and I will sing classical music till the day I die, but I’m never going to not sing other things either, you know what I mean, I can’t, I can’t just sing one thing. That’s not who I am. I’m somebody that has to have my hand in lots of different cookie jars, because that’s just the world we live in, and that’s the person I am, you know? So, um, so that’s, and that’s also the teacher I am as well.  

    21:39 | Fran Coleman 

    That’s, that’s who, in my opinion, we need to be as singers, is, is somebody that is diverse in what we sing, in what we represent as performers. Because there’s just, there’s too much talent and there’s too much to say, you know. So, if you want an active job as a performer, you need to be able to say a lot of different things and in a lot of different ways. 

    22:11 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, wow. That’s been an incredible journey for you. Thank you for sharing all that. So nowadays, what does your typical workday look like? What’s expected of you daily, 

    22:25 | Fran Coleman 

    On Mondays and Wednesdays…Mondays, I have voice lessons in the morning and then we have studio in the afternoon, meaning, like either recital, like with the whole voice department, or the, excuse me, the whole music department, or just my voice studio in the afternoon, and then I have my women’s choir in the afternoon after that. And then on Tuesdays, I have voice lessons in the morning, and then I have my University Choir in the afternoon. On Wednesdays, I just have voice lessons. On Thursdays, I have voice lessons in the morning, University Choir in the afternoon, and then my men’s choir after that. And then on Fridays, I generally try and keep that free for you know, personal like if I have makeup lessons, or if I have doctor’s appointments, or if I have personal appointments, or, you know, interviews, things, whatever need to happen. And then on the weekends, you know, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday is generally set aside for gigs and things like that too. 

    23:37 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Okay, amazing. So how do you create that kind of work life balance when you have a busy schedule, where you’re able to kind of have professional creativity, but then also have some time for personal creativity? 

    23:50 | Fran Coleman 

     Last semester, really, last year 2024, was probably the busiest year I’ve had in probably a decade, and it was, it was so busy for me. I mean, it was great. Everything was great. Like all of them, all the work I had was all good work, but it was so much. It was so demanding. And last fall in particular, I was supposed to be teaching four classes. I ended up teaching seven classes because my part time professor resigned, so I had nobody else to teach but me. And instead of telling anybody that I can’t help them, I just say, no, I’ll do it. I’ll just take another class. I’ll take another student. And so, I ended up overloading myself by like, three classes, right? 

    24:45 | Fran Coleman 

     And then the fall is always busy with the band, so I ended up in triple overload academically, and then I ended up with over 70 singing engagements on me. Calendar, and between that, between all of the teaching and all of the singing, I ended up by December and then, so with not being able to find a healthy work life balance, I ended up getting sick constantly. I mean, I was sick constantly last semester, from the end of September until the middle of December. I think I got sick at least five times. It was like, every time I got better, I’d get sick again. It was like, it was just this constant roller coaster of like, you know, it was like a sinus infection, and then it was a cold, and then it was an upper respiratory infection.  

    25:45 | Fran Coleman 

    Then everything just sits right here, when you’re a singer, you know, it’s just and it was just horrible. And so, I would get better long enough to, you know, regain my voice for the next gig, and then, and then I would get sick again, and then I would sing through illness, and then I would get better enough to sing for the next gig. And then I would, you know, lose my voice. And that, you know what I mean, and that the window of time that I would have to get my voice back was getting wider and wider and wider until eventually I was getting really worried, and so I went to my otolaryngologist, which, if any vocalist is having a challenge with their voice, I would say, don’t just go to your standard ENT down the street, because God bless them. If you have a cleft palate, if you have a deviated septum, if you have chronic sinus infections, if you have you know concern of laryngeal cancer. 

    26:44 | Fran Coleman 

     You know any standard ENT issue go right, but anything else that is pertaining to the singing voice, please go to an otolaryngologist that is who is trained to know things about the singing voice, and I went to go see mine. And I had, I had a vocal injury, you know, and so I had to go on strict vocal rest for two and a half weeks. And for the very first time in my entire adult singing life, I couldn’t sing for Christmas. I’ve never been able to sing for Christmas, and it was heartbreaking, you know.  

    27:23 | Fran Coleman 

    And so that was really, really sad. And that was, that was, that was the result of not knowing or not being able to find a good work life balance, you know, yeah. And so that’s sad. And so that’s that, that’s, that’s how I had to find that. That’s how I had to know, unfortunately, a better, that’s how I had to find a better work life balance this semester. You know? 

    27:55 | Emma Plutnicki 

    So just as we wrap up, are there any, is there anything else you want to add, or any questions you wish I may have asked that I didn’t? 

    28:21 | Fran Coleman 

    I can’t think of anything right off the top of my head. Um, you know, like I said before, it’s like, you know, the life of an artist is not one for the faint of heart. You know, I certainly don’t deter anybody from it. If you have a passion for anything, if you have a passion for singing, if you have a passion for painting, if you have a passion for set design or costume design or makeup or arts administration, or, you know, sound work or production or anything, you know, I mean, anything in the arts is going to be challenging. Anything, anything that does not live in a box, is going to be challenging, right? But if it is what makes you happy, then do it right? Because think about how many times you go out into the world, whether it be to the grocery store or to pick up you know, your food order, or your, you know, your dry cleaning, or whatever it’s like.  

    29:25 | Fran Coleman 

    And you deal with miserable people who want to be miserable. Nobody wants to be miserable. Be happy and spread happiness. And the only way to do that is to find what brings you joy. You know, so the best way to find, the best way to do that is to is to do what brings you joy, and if that is not ultimately lucrative upfront, then you have to find ways to bring the funding. You know what I mean. Anything is possible. Anything is possible. You just have to be creative. 

    29:49 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, that’s great advice and a great perspective. Amazing. So last thing. Do you have anybody that is in your life that’s a creative working in South Carolina that you would like to nominate or think would be beneficial for us to talk to?  

    30:23 | Emma Plutnicki 

    I could also just have you think on it and send you, yeah, if anybody comes to mind, we have a nomination link where you can input somebody. 

    30:34| Fran Coleman 

     Yeah, yeah. Let me think on it, and then I can maybe send you, like, a list of a few people. 

    30:37 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, that’d be great, amazing.  

    30:41 | Fran Coleman 

    I’m always the type of person that likes to think of a bunch of things since I walk out the door. 

  • Fran Coleman

    Fran Coleman

    “Anything is possible. Anything is possible. You just have to be creative”

    Fran Coleman is an associate professor of voice and choral activity at Francis Marion University. Fran’s teaching spans from voice lessons, directing choirs and any other coral activity. Fran is located in Florence S.C. and currently teaches but is also a performer as well as producer with a regional party band called Emerald Empire band.

  • Paolo Gauldi

    Paolo Gauldi

    “It’s a good thing to bring beauty to this world, you know. Like, leave it a little bit better than you found it, hopefully.”

    Interview

    Transcript

    00:03 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Okay, so to start, what do you do for work and where are you currently working?   

    00:10 | Paolo Gualdi 

    So, I am a musician, generally speaking, and I divide my time between teaching. I’m a full-time professor at Francis Marion University. And I also do a part time job here at the University of Wilmington UNCW and that’s for my teaching in general. And then I am also a performer. So, I play piano and both as a soloist and chamber musician, which is collaborating with other musicians. And I play regionally, nationally, internationally, depending on, you know, the opportunity.  

    00:46 | Emma Plutnicki 

    So how long have you been doing each of those, the teaching, the playing? 

    00:51 | Paolo Gualdi 

    Well, for many, many decades, I’m, I mean, I don’t know if you need to run 50. I started when I was, I started teaching when I was 16. So, we’re talking about privately, of course, but and then also, very shortly after that, I started performing, you know, full concerts and everything now, in terms of what my current positions, I’ve been at Francis Marion for 16 years, and the UNCW I think maybe seven, eight years. I can’t remember when I started my part time job, but, yeah, my concert. I mean, I played concerts my whole life, pretty much.  

    1:26 | Emma Plutnicki 

    So, at UNCW and at Francis Marion, what are your official job titles? 

    2:44 | Paolo Gualdi 

    At Francis Marion, I’m a professor of, I think in music, it’s called something like that. But I’m, yeah, focusing on piano, but I also teach other classes like ear training. I do direct chamber music, sorry, a jazz combo, which is, you know, we play different styles of music, but mostly jazz. And speaking of Francis Marion, yes, this might be interesting, also to you. I also started a chamber music festival every February with both fine grants from the university as well as donations from the community and has been going, I’m organizing right now. At the end of February there will be the 13th edition of this festival. So that’s actually another kind of another aspect of my job in at UNCW again, it’s a very, I’m an instructor. Here I actually am teaching Piano Jazz. And that’s, that’s pretty much the involvement. It’s minimal, obviously, because can’t have clone doing, but it’s okay, yeah. 

    2:38 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah. Amazing. So, what is one thing that you love about working in South Carolina, specifically? 

    2:44 | Paolo Gualdi 

    Well, Francis Marion, it’s a great place to go, I really enjoy it. It is a little complicated for me, because actually leaving Wilmington, North Carolina, as we are talking right now, I mean North Carolina, so it’s a little bit, you know, a nuisance to go back and forth. I, you know, like, but it is really a very desirable job. I have great colleagues, and it’s a great little University with a lot of potential in general. And I do enjoy the fact that specifically, Francis Marion gets a lot of people that are indecisive. So, we get, we don’t require an audition to access our program, which is a double-edged sword.  

    3:27 | Paolo Gualdi 

    Of course, you get a lot of people that should not be doing that, but that discover, you know, the interest in music, and then they pursue it seriously. So, speaking of, you know, discovering, real careers, I have more than one student that had gone to, you know, either gigging in the region or I have a, most recently, a student that opened a Music Academy in Florence. She wasn’t even done with her undergrad degree, and she opened a music school, which is thriving. And so, I really enjoyed that aspect of, you know, that specific job moment. So yeah. 

    4:03| Emma Plutnicki 

    That’s great. And so, does working in the Carolinas specifically influence your work in any way compared to other places that you may have worked in the past?  

    4:13 | Paolo Gualdi 

    I can’t differentiate that I do. I can tell you that it’s mostly aside from the positives of the specific institutions I do love living in the South. I do love living around here for many reasons. And so, I wouldn’t say that there is a detached, how to say, a reality in the Carolinas for what concerns music in general, but definitely it’s special in South Carolina. I have the occasion, for example, to go play and teach at the Governor’s School up in Greenville, so you get really a sense of what’s the future is holding.  

    4:51 | Paolo Gualdi 

    And it’s incredible because, I mean, South Carolina is not specifically, you know, on the top list when it comes to culture and music. General, but aside maybe from the, you know, the spoiler festival in Charleston, which is a big event, and it’s known nationwide, but it is really, there’s a lot of talent in South Carolina, and so, yes, I really enjoy that, that aspect. But, you know, it’s, you know, it’s a specific which, again, it’s, yeah, it doesn’t make my work different in any way, but it’s definitely an exciting context to be working in. 

    5:28 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, no, that’s really refreshing to hear. So how would you describe the local professional community? You said it’s really, you know, inviting, and there’s a lot of art in Charleston and other places. So how would you describe that community? 

    5:42 | Paolo Gualdi 

    There is a lot of…by the way, as a parenthesis—so, you’ve been…Are you from South Carolina, or…? 

    5:47 | Emma Plutnicki 

    I’m from New Jersey.  

    5:51| Paolo Gualdi 

    Oh, wow. Okay, New Jersey. And how long have you been in South Carolina?  

    5:54 | Emma Plutnicki 

    I’ve only been here for about a year and a half.  

    5:57 | Paolo Gualdi 

    So, I’ll tell you because, I mean, otherwise you would know already a lot of realities. That’s why I’m telling you.  I’m not going to bore you with the details. But for example, yes, Charleston has this. You know, it’s one of the most vibrant cities in South Carolina concerning the cultural environment as a scene, Columbia as well. Columbia has a lot of things. For example, they have this specific piano. They have a huge festival in the summer called the southeastern piano festival. Florence, again, beside the festival that I was telling you, which is small. I mean, it’s nothing, you know, in the nation, not newsworthy. But Florence, for example, has exploded in the last few years, they built a world class concert hall, for example. Then we have also Lake City, which is a tiny little town about a half an hour from Florence, which has this world class gallery, art gallery that brings in incredible shows.  

    7:00 | Paolo Gualdi 

    Years ago, I remember that there was a Goya exhibit for several months, I mean, and you would not expect it, you know, from a tiny little town in the middle of South Carolina. So yeah, and so yes, definitely for what concerns South Carolina, and then, not to mention your school and environment. I don’t know much about, you know, like Coastal, but I know that they’re doing incredible things. And for example, the piano teacher that Philip Powell, I mean, he’s been bringing the fancy names and wonderful instruments that they are. I don’t know if they’re a strain with school, but anyway, I don’t want to get to the specifics of music, but what I’m saying is that there is definitely a lot going on. 

    7:37 | Paolo Gualdi 

     And again, so it’s an exciting, you know, boiling pot, yeah, opportunities, and North Carolina as well. Here in Wilmington, at least, if you are interested, also outside of this, I don’t know if you’re writing something about specifically South Carolina. It’s generally a kind of group of South Carolina professionals… 

    7:58 | Paolo Gualdi 

    But I mean, Wilmington is also very cool, but yeah, the scope of what you’re talking about, so I will know the details, but not amazing. 

    8:11 | Emma Plutnicki 

    So, in your life as a creative, how do you define success, like, how do you define personal success, and then also professional success? 

    8:21 | Paolo Gualdi 

    Well, it’s a very personal standard, right? So, you I really think that within creative arts, for example, you know music and painting, whatever you know like, it is a very dangerous balance, because you have the competitive aspect, which can be overwhelming sometimes, right? You’re talking about being successful. Does it mean winning something, a competition, winning a job, position and so on, versus the capability to be accepting the fact that, especially in in in arts, you’re always improving, you there’s no, you know, goal that you’re I got there now I can see it and relax. It’s a lifetime of excitement if you take it the right way.  

    09:10 | Paolo Gualdi 

    Otherwise, it’s a lifetime of frustration because you don’t feel you’re good enough forever. So success, what is success? It is to have, obviously, this, I think it’s about involvement and engagement, actually, into what you’re doing, loving what you’re doing, being curious.  

    09:28 | Paolo Gualdi 

    That’s, I mean, very important for an artist. At the same time, we don’t live on top of a mountain, you know, like foraging, so we need to pay the bills. And also, you want to find the reality that allows you to, you know, pay the bills, to have a car and all of that. So, I think success is very personal in those terms. But at the core of what we do, yes, we want to make sure that we never become cynical, that we never lose the imagination and the again. The aim for, you know, for beauty in general, generally speaking, I mean, that means, for me, as a pianist, there is an anecdote. I’ll tell you. This is, this might be kind of cute to include. There was a famous cellist, cello player by the name of Pablo Casals. And he was 93 years old, 93 and he was practicing, right?  

    10:25 | Paolo Gualdi 

    And so, somebody asked him, like, So, Mr. Casals, like, why are you still practicing? You’re 93 years and he answered, like, because I think I’m making progress, you know, like it, and it’s somebody that, I mean, we’re talking about the legend of, you know, of cello. And I’m 93 he was still like, you know, like, I’m still going, and I’m looking for, you know, like something. And so, I think that that’s, that as a personal aim goal. It’s the best feeling in the world. So really, like, always being interested and curious and digging deeper. 

    11:00 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, no that’s a sweet story. Definitely always room for self-improvement. 

    11:05 | Paolo Gualdi 

     A lot of people can’t wait to retire and be done with whatever you know, office job or something, with all due respect, with those, with those you know, but they’re not, we’re very lucky if we’re in the arts, granted that it’s also very difficult. Nothing is easy about that. But you know, did you arrive at 93 that you’re still, still love music so much. It’s really a blessing.  

    11:27 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, I love that. So, within this career, before you went into the career, did you have any big fears about going into something more creative? 

    11:41 | Paolo Gualdi 

    I had, I think, I was a little bit different as a child, because I knew, before I even have memories of knowing that I knew that I wanted to be a musician. My parents used to tell me that I was when I was three or four years old. I don’t remember. I did start playing piano when I was five, and I knew, always knew that I wanted to do that, and now I have a bunch of different hobbies. I like photography and so on, but I was never intimidated by that. That’s one of the reasons why, actually, I moved to the States. I’m originally from Italy, because I could not really, I didn’t see myself. It was a really difficult situation. So, I had the ambition to do that as a life, you know. But as I said before, you don’t live only playing one concert every six months.  

    12:28 | Paolo Gualdi 

    You need something that is also practical. And so, I came to the States to pursue that. And I mean, I consider myself very lucky that I did. And so, I had a moment, if you were talking about fears, yes, there was, when it doesn’t work out, if things are not really clicking, it is scary, because then you get a little bit discouraged.  

    12:49 | Paolo Gualdi 

    And a brutal aspect about creative, you know, careers in general, it is that, unfortunately and again, not, not everybody likes to hear that you do need to have some level of talent, because you, if you’re not, you know, unfortunately, it’s brutally, brutally honest. So, there needs to be something that doesn’t mean you have to be a genius, but, you know, that’s where you find your position in a specific career. But you cannot expect you’re terrible. You can do it, and then you just like the idea, you know, it’s kind of like when you’re little, I want to be an astronaut. Okay, you know? 

    13:24 | Paolo Gualdi 

     So, a lot of people have thought that I want to be a singer. I want to be, you know, yeah, okay, then when you have to do the hard work, then that’s where you see who really wants to do it. So, when you face challenges in life, then, yes, you get scared. Because I was, I was really scared at what I’m going to do, but you know, luckily, again, I found my way. So that answers your question.  

    13:48 | Emma Plutnicki 

    So, when you face those challenges, are you able to receive any advice from anybody? Was there any advice that was either good or bad advice that really stands out to you? 

    14:01 | Paolo Gualdi 

    In general, if we’re talking about that kind of challenge, then definitely there needs to be more, more than just inspiring, more practical advice. In general, I was kind of following, how can I say, Well, I mean, yes, some of the teachers who basically, you know, generally speaking, it’s very important to have a mentor, somebody that guides you, a professional that was basically what you’re doing. Also, you’re bringing, you know, a little bit of perspective of people that had the experience of older people, older, you know, individuals that had decades of experience, and then they had, you know, down moments and up moments and success stories and all that. When I was in Italy, I was about 22- 23 I had no idea what to do.  

    14:47 | Paolo Gualdi 

    I tried every avenue, and it was not looking good. As a matter of fact, I was looking at alternate careers because I was, you know, because I was not living in LaLaLand. And, I mean, I wanted to be independent, and then eventually, through some of the connections that I had, I found my way to, you know, back to the States and to what basically became my home for the last 25 years. So, it’s been a while, a specific connection, I mean, a specific piece of advice, the one that I can give is basically never give up, really. I mean, it seems cheesy and everything, but you need to learn how to deal with closed doors or rejection. It’s part of the thing. Nobody has, you know, a straight line into a career. I rarely heard that even the most talented, most you know now, the most famous, all fell down. 

    15:45 | Paolo Gualdi 

    They had an unfair situation where they were not chosen, you know, and so on. So never give up, but at the same time, have always, you know, like a kind of a reality check, because once again, if you keep going and you’re, you know, 10 to 20, years into this career, and it’s not clicking. 

    16:03 | Paolo Gualdi 

     Maybe that’s so but in general, you know, like always take the especially in our career, it’s, it’s a given that you’re going to get some, you know, moments where, like, oh, I suck, you know, like, or nobody likes me, or what am I doing? And then, if you really love it. Just keep going and eventually, you know, you don’t have to be, you know, the Van Gogh of the situation that he never sold the painting in his life, but it is, you know, that’s why I’m telling you. It’s the best profession in the world, but it’s also one of the toughest to, you know, to find your spot. 

    16:36 | Emma Plutnicki 

     That’s definitely great advice. And has there been a particular project in your creative journey so far that has really, like, showcased your creativity, or has just made a significant impact on your life? Can you think of anything specific? 

    16:54 | Paolo Gualdi 

    It’s very specific. Okay, so in general, since I’m a performer, basically my main thing is as a performer. It’s now, I don’t know how much you know about music careers. You have very many. How can I say identities as a musician? So, you can be more academically prone or pedagogically prone and so on, right?  

    17:16 | Paolo Gualdi 

     Specifically, for me, I’m very interested in, I mean, I did write a dissertation for my doctoral, you know, studies, which I wouldn’t, would not recommend to anybody, unless you want to fall asleep at night. But, no, but, but as in projects, I can tell you, as a performer, I am a, not an advocate, but I’m really close to the music of Franz Liszt, who was a romantic composer. So, I brought a lot of my future concert music. Sometimes I gave lectures about his music. And he is a very well-known composer now that I’m bringing unknown musical figures to the audience. But there is an under, how can I say, underappreciated as a composer for certain aspects. So, I would say that one of my best, again, contribution would be for the music of Franz Liszt.  

    18:10 | Paolo Gualdi 

    And also recently, I have just recorded, for example, the music you might be interested in this. It is, it is a trend of the last few years to really rediscover some music that was neglected because of issues of race, of gender and so on. I do have a trio that we’re actively playing and performing, and we recorded just this. We released this, released two trios by Clara Schumann, which was the wife of a very famous classical composer, Robert and then Fanny Mendelssohn, which was the sister of the most famous Felix Mendelssohn. So, we are basically those two gigantic figures of music which were neglected just because they were women, right?  In the last few years, has been brought back all of this beautiful music. Finally, I would say because they were unfair, you know, because of society, the stigma and all that. So those two things, maybe, you know, are among the many things that I’ve done in life. So again, I’m not a painter. It’s not like, you know that I did a series on whatever, painting landscapes or something, but some composers are, again, especially from Franz Liszt again. And then lately, these two women composers that we recorded, and I think it’s a nice thing. So, yeah, 

    19:30 | Emma Plutnicki 

    That’s great. So nowadays, what is your typical workday like? What kind of is expected? 

    19:37 | Paolo Gualdi 

    This is one of those things that another reason why I really love my profession, because we don’t have, you know, oh, this nine to five, you know, kind of thing, generally speaking, yes, I am involved for the greatest part of the week at Francis Marion. Then I came back. And usually, I teach on Fridays. Here in Wilmington, and in between, I practice, I practice.  

    19:59 | Paolo Gualdi 

    And so, it’s a very movable schedule. Weekends can be either, you know, like we have some I have some periods where I have no weekends free. I’m always practicing, rehearsal or traveling and performing, and then all of a sudden you have, you know, like 20 days free. Okay, great, you know. So, our schedule is completely, you know, changing, ever changing. So, yeah. 

    20:07 | Paolo Gualdi 

    I practice when I can, especially as a family man. I have a daughter, wife and speaking of being also, I would say pragmatic. I practice when I can. 

    20:44 | Emma Plutnicki 

     Yeah, so how are you able to kind of create, how do you create that work life balance where you’re able to have your personal creativity and then also have your profession? 

    20:57 | Paolo Gualdi 

     This is another personal thing, I think that also it depends on the amount of work you want to take on and the ambition I did much more when I was much younger, in terms of so I’m not going to, you know, 100 concerts and then travel all year. I will miss my family. I will neglect my family. So that’s very important to me to be present. And so, it is a very personal and a very fine balance, yes. 

    21:27 | Paolo Gualdi 

     I would say that if you’re a young and ongoing, you know, artist or musician or whatever, it will be much more you’re going to be more involved. You have to invest in it, all right? You have to go for it. You can be lazy about it. Then as you grow, I mean, hopefully again, the excitement stays, as I said, I mentioned the 93 years old cellist, but at the same time, you have to find a little bit more balance, like you say, you have to make choices so you become more selective, also, of what you want to be involved, rather than, you know, just take anything.  

    22:01 | Paolo Gualdi 

    Yes. Always. You have got to learn how to say no and be more. And you know, at 50, if somebody comes to me and says, like, always going to be very important to your career, I’m saying, okay, thank you. Now, I’ve done that. You know the freebies, like, they call it them so many times when you’re very young, and it’s good to be up there, even if you’re not making any money. And just sorry, I’m very brutally directing my senses. It is like that. So, you have to invest in being visible, networking and all that.  

    22:34 | Paolo Gualdi 

    And sometimes, you know, you’re so, yeah, it is. The struggling artist is a real thing, you know. But then once, once you find your balance, I mean, at some point again, especially if you have and especially if you know, financially speaking, if you are reached, has an acceptable position, then you know, you can say, Okay, I cannot do this because blah, blah, blah, my daughter is having a ballet or whatever. And no, I mean, so I think it’s a, it’s very personal, but I chose, I mean, I think that is very important to me to live also a normal life. Otherwise, you’re going to be, you know, this very egocentric person that thinks of my career, my life, and that’s not me.  

    23:18 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, no, that definitely makes sense. 

    23:23 | Paolo Gualdi 

    Because I’m not criticizing, I’m just saying everybody has to find their balance.  

    23:28 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, no, for sure. And okay, just as we wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to add, or do you have any questions you wish I might have asked that are missing? 

    23:41 | Paolo Gualdi 

    I don’t know… now I’m getting—you put me in a spot. A couple of advices that I give to my students, so maybe something that you can translate into something interesting to your audience, that to be, especially if they’re students, to be relating, networking. Be kind to each other. I always say, like, you might, you might be each other’s boss in 10 years, for example, in terms of music, you know, I give an example, like, Okay, you’re a guitarist, and he wants to be, I mean, I don’t know an engineer, sound engineer, or something like that. So, he might have a studio in 10 years, a recording studio he wants to hire you, but if you, you know, be misbehaved or treat him like you know, horribly. So anyway, so make sure that you network with your nice people.  

    24:34 | Paolo Gualdi 

    I have, I personally, even nowadays, a lot of my commitments come from networking, from networking that I did when I did my master’s degree or my doctorate degree, the trio that I just mentioned a few minutes ago, that we recorded, those women composers, two people that I met and started collaborating with during my doctoral studies. So, for example, this is the school. It is an incredibly useful environment for networking, which is essential in creative hours. And the other thing, again, one day, once, once. You know, that’s why I was mentioning very quickly about the music festival.  

    25:16 | Paolo Gualdi 

    They’re organized. It’s not my money. I am very grateful to the institution and donors and everything, but make sure they also, you know, give back in a way, you know. So I am actually now hiring musicians, and I’m happy to do it because, again, we have to help each other as a community and so being able to involve others in your project, I don’t know how it will translate in other fields, or branches of the arts. It’s, it’s always very, very it’s a cool feeling that you now are in a position, you know, I’m a little older, and I’m in the position to actually organize music, to make concert happen, not only to play concerts, but also to offer the community in Florence, again, I offer this series of concert I’m very proud of because it’s a beautiful thing. It’s a good thing to bring beauty to this world, like leave it a little bit better than you found it, hopefully. So that’s one of those things that we, you know, creative people, should keep in mind. And again, it translates in very different ways in all of the disciplines. So, yeah, great, I don’t know. I don’t know what else.  

    26:23 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah no, amazing. 

  • Terry Roberts

    Terry Roberts

    “There’s always something new to learn.” 

    Terry Roberts is the Coordinator of Music at Francis Marion University. He is the professor for various different classes and ensembles, and also the Music Director of the Florence Symphony Orchestra.  

    Interview

    Transcript

    00:01 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Okay, so first, what do you do for work and where are you currently working from? 

    00:06 | Terry Roberts 

    I’m the coordinator of music at Francis Marion University, and I’m a professor for various different classes and ensembles, and I’m also the music director of the Florence Symphony Orchestra. So, this is all in Florence of course. I’ve been here, I’ve been a conductor since 2003 and with the University for about 16 years. I believe. 

    00:31 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Amazing. So, what is one thing that you love about working in South Carolina, specifically? 

    00:37 | Terry Roberts 

    Well, normally, you can play golf year-round, but not now. Well, I was raised in the south mostly. I’m from Oklahoma originally, but, yeah, most of my life I’ve lived in the South. It’s a lot nicer, calmer. I had friends, one friend of mine, who’s a soloist, said “The only reason to go to New York is to get the check and leave.” So yeah, I was in Europe for a long time. When I moved back, people asked why I didn’t move to New York. I said, “Well, I can get to New York real easy. I don’t need to live there.” So yeah, and I get up there to do some gigs. But, yeah, one week’s about all I can stand in there. 

    01:25 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Fair. So, what does South Carolina bring to your work? Does it have any unique influence on your work compared to working anywhere else, working in New York? 

    01:37 | Terry Roberts 

    Well, like I said, I’ve had, I’ve had the good fortune to live in several different places. So, I’m more like trying to bring what I’ve learned culturally in different countries, different places in the United States, to impart that information, if you will, to my students and also to the public, and culturally speaking simply. South Carolina obviously has a lot of history. One of my professors was a famous composer from Latta, just up the street here, Carlisle Floyd, and I studied with him when I was in Florida State University, and I played some of his works and things like that. 

    02:28 | Emma Plutnicki 

    And how would you describe kind of the working community in South Carolina? How is your local professional community? 

    02:38 | Terry Roberts 

    Oh, well, Florence especially is sort of booming. To be quite honest, when I moved here, I wasn’t going to stay, but things change you know. That’s fate, as they say, and this particular community has really just blossomed. I mean, we have two major hospitals, several major companies have moved here, and culturally, it’s just a gold mine. There’s a lot of culture going on here, and there’s a lot of talent within the community. So, it’s great. I mean, it’s very refreshing, and everyone loves to partake in the arts here, which is great. And I try to be diverse as possible, which is a hard thing to do anyway, but to include as many people as I can in the arts. So, I mean, when I had hair, long hair, I played in rock bands and all that stuff. So, you know, I’ve sort of done everything, if you will, so just a classical player. 

    03:46 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Amazing yeah, so within your working in a creative field, how do you define personal success and professional success? 

    03:57 | Terry Roberts 

    Oh, wow. Well, for me, personal success is being able to learn more every day. You never stop learning in music. There’s always something new to learn and to hopefully to grow a bit every day. Professionally, I’ve been blessed to have done a lot of different things. I’ve played in all the major, I played French horn, solo horn in Europe for 16 years, and I played in all the major opera houses, concert halls in Europe and the United States. And that was, I was very fortunate. I was able to learn two more languages, you know. So, all those things are because of music. I got to see a lot of the world. So, it, I’ve been very fortunate. And it wasn’t easy at first, I have to admit, you know, but I think everyone who’s successful has to persevere. 

    05:08 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, amazing. So, you said it was difficult. Were there any fears that you had when you first decided to step into a profession in the arts? 

    05:18 | Terry Roberts 

    Well, my father has a PhD in music education. He was a chairman of music for years at universities, and so I was sort of raised in that environment. And I thought about actually becoming a pilot, that really intrigued me. But then I would have to stop playing, and I really wanted to play. And I mean, I’ve been playing some instruments since I was six years old, so, you know, and playing music is almost mathematical too, so that sort of tied in. I thought about piloting or architecture and things that, and my father encouraged me to do that because he didn’t want me to be a poor musician. But, but anyway, it worked out. So, it was hard at first. I mean, when I got to Germany, I was going to study for one year, and I had like, $250 in my pocket and a horn and two suitcases, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. And it just sort of blossomed from there. So, I was very fortunate. Right place at the right time, so to speak.  

    06:24 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, it’s great how it works out that way. Were there any people in your life giving you advice? Do you remember like the best advice or the worst advice that you ever received? 

    06:39 | Terry Roberts 

    Well, I mean, gosh, there’s so many different people. My teacher, he was very famous horn player, Erich Penzel in Germany. He gave me a bunch of tips about how to handle conductors and now I’m a conductor, so it’s funny. And I would talk to a lot of different conductors, I worked under some very big names, and I would ask them how they went into the field. And all of them, all of them, talk about perseverance, and talk about, when you’re starting out, how hard it is, and it is. You just have to be at the right place at the right time. You know, there’s, there’s plenty of people out there that can do my job, but I just happen to get lucky, you know? I tell my students, “There’s always someone waiting to take your place.” You have to think that way. You have to, you have to practice. You have to always continue to get better. You can’t just sit and do nothing. And that, I believe that still to this day. I mean, the orchestra could say one day, “oh, come on and get someone else,” you know, with different ideas, you know. 

    07:46 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Makes sense. And within your career, has there been one particular project that has made a significant impact on your life or a project that you think really showcased your creativity and kind of was the pinnacle of your career? 

    08:15 | Terry Roberts 

    I don’t think I’ve reached that yet. To be quite honest. I hope I haven’t. I’m very proud of some of the works I’ve commissioned to be premiered with this orchestra, and I’m doing another work next fall, in October, that a former student of mine is writing. So, I’m always very proud when former students are successful. It makes me, you know, it’s like having your own children be successful. You know, which I do have children, they’re somewhat successful to me. 

    08:58 | Terry Roberts 

    I mean, it’s always good, when you see someone succeed and you’ve been nurturing them and sort of mentoring or whatever, you know. So, yeah, I mean, I like helping out young people, and I think that’s probably one of my best things around. 

    09:18 | Emma Plutnicki 

    I love that. So nowadays, what does a typical workday look like for you? What’s your work process and what’s kind of expected of you on a daily basis? 

    09:32 | Terry Roberts 

    Well, one thing about the arts, it’s never the same every day. I mean, obviously at the university you have your schedule. But, like, I’ve just done three days of rehearsals with three different ensembles, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. And today, I gotta regroup. I’ve gotta get ready for a different ensemble. Yeah, so and then I’ll teach a bit. I always have one day, and this is my day actually. I always have one day during the week where I try to regroup, and that’s Thursday this semester. But normally I come into the office, I start answering emails, which there’s plenty of, and stuff like that, and then I’ll start studying whatever music I need to be studying for the next concert I’m doing, or next project I’m doing. And at the same time, I’m doing budgets for the orchestra, budgets for the music program, things like that and people are asking me for money and all that neat stuff, a lot of paperwork. I mean, everyone goes, “Oh, so it must be so great be a musician.” I say, “Well, you know, when you spend 75% of your time doing the other stuff, so you can be a musician, yeah, it’s really great when you make music.”  

    10:53 | Emma Plutnicki 

    So how are you able to keep that work life balance where you’re able to work on your professional responsibilities, but then also have time for personal creativity? 

    11:07 | Terry Roberts 

    It’s, actually not that hard. It’s all about time management. And, you know, teaching my students about that, that’s the one thing that you know, ever since I was, gosh, since I don’t know “it,” or whatever. The first thing I do every day is do some music. You know, whether it’s practice, listen, study or something, that’s the first thing you want to do every day. That sort of like, gets you going, then you can take care of all this, other things like that. So, I don’t think it’s hard to balance it out. I like to play golf, I like to watch sports, crazy about the football stuff right now and, you know, I try to have other interests. And everyone you know, sort of, you know -I hate saying this. Everyone thinks that I’m just focused on music. I said, “You know, I have a normal life,” you know, and that’s what you have to have, is a normal life. So, you have to shut it down sometimes. And I get, you know, nervous or excited, whatever. But you have to learn how to turn it off, too. And that’s, that’s difficult, and some days I’ll get pretty perturbed, you know? But you always have to look for a solution. You can’t stay perturbed. You have to figure out what you can do. After every rehearsal, I like to sit down for a second and just think about what I can do to make something better. You know, after when I teach something, did I teach it correctly? Or can I make it better? Make it more understood, if you will. So, it’s, it’s a, you know, different lifestyle. It’s not going into the office, clocking in, do your work, there, go have lunch. It’s not that. You’re sort of married to music, but you have to, just like with your spouse, you have to spend a little time away from it. 

    13:20 | Emma Plutnicki 

    That’s a great perspective to have.  

    13:23 | Terry Roberts 

    I once told someone, I’ve known my horn longer than I’ve known my wife.  

    13:27 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah, there you go. True. Perfect. So just as we wrap up, are there any other questions you wish I would have asked, or anything else you’d like to add about you, know, your career and your life. 

    13:43 | Terry Roberts 

    I think the most important thing for anyone in the arts doesn’t matter, music, art, theater, whatever, that you cannot become discouraged. And that’s easy to say, very easy to say, because I have been discouraged many times. I’ve done auditions all over the world, and, you know, been disappointed, gotten almost there, and you feel really disappointed afterwards, but you have to persevere. You can’t just stop, you know. If you really love what you’re doing, it doesn’t matter. And I used to say, “the money will come later.” Yeah, you have to pay bills. Yeah, you have to know how to do a budget and all that stuff. But, if you persevere, if you really believe in yourself, then something will happen. It might not be exactly the way you thought. I mean, I didn’t think I was going to be a professor. After growing up that way I swore, I’d never do that. Here I am, you know. So you just never know the path, you have to be flexible and persevere.  

    15:22 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Well perfect. Do you have any other creatives in your life that you think would be good for us to interview? Can you think of anybody? 

    15:40 | Terry Roberts 

    My wife, she was a prima ballerina in Pacific Northwest Ballet in France and we met in Monte Carlo. We were both working there, and she does the ballet here. She’s artistic director of the South Carolina Dance Theater. 

    15:58 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Okay, amazing. If we could get her contact information, or I can send you the link to nominate an individual. 

    16:05 | Terry Roberts 

    I’ll just email you her email address and whatever. 

    16:08 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Okay, amazing. That’d be great.  

    16:11 | Terry Roberts 

    She’s seen more of the world than me. She has literally been around the world. But she’s from Wilmington, North Carolina, of all things. And she went to North County School of the Arts and studied. Well, she’d been dancing since, professionally, she started at 17. Dancers have a short lifespan, you know. Then she went into teaching, so I never saw her dance. I met her when she was finished dancing, so. 

    16:41 | Emma Plutnicki 

    She’s got to still be dancing a little bit these days, right?  

    16:44 | Terry Roberts 

    Well, she demonstrates. And sometimes she says, “I shouldn’t have demonstrated that.” 

    16:50 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Yeah. 

    16:53 | Terry Roberts 

    So, she choreographs and runs the ballet here. 

    16:57 | Emma Plutnicki 

    Okay, amazing. That would be great if you could send that over. 

  • Brandon Goff

    Brandon Goff

    “You’ve done it when everyone else knew you couldn’t do it, and it turns out you could do it all along.”

  • Paolo Gauldi

    Paolo Gauldi

    “It’s a good thing to bring beauty to this world, you know. Like, leave it a little bit better than you found it, hopefully.”

  • Fran Coleman

    Fran Coleman

    “I define my success in how full my heart is.”

    Terry Roberts is the Coordinator of Music at Francis Marion University. He is the professor for various different classes and ensembles, and also the Music Director of the Florence Symphony Orchestra.