This week's episode is a real treat because we are talking with the one-and-only Maestro Jacob Joyce! Maesto is a world-renowned conductor, working with orchestras including Pittsburgh Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, the London Symphony, the NDR-Sinfonieorchester, and many more!
In the episode, we dive into:
Join me as we chat with Maestro Jacob Joyce!
Click here for the episode shownotes
This episode is available as a blog post! Click here to read.
Click here for Maestro's website.
Click here for Maestro's podcast: Attention to Detail, The Classical Listening Guide
Click here for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's website
This week's episode is a real treat because we are talking with the one-and-only Maestro Jacob Joyce! Maesto is a world-renowned conductor, working with orchestras including Pittsburgh Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, the London Symphony, the NDR-Sinfonieorchester, and many more!
In the episode, we dive into:
Join me as we chat with Maestro Jacob Joyce!
Click here for the episode shownotes
This episode is available as a blog post! Click here to read.
Click here for Maestro's website.
Click here for Maestro's podcast: Attention to Detail, The Classical Listening Guide
Click here for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's website
But I personally did not practice four hours a day consistently ever. It didn't feel to me like that was even valuable and that I was getting good returns on my time. What I did was that I would practice an hour and a half a day. Maybe I actually had a really clear plan every day that I practiced of what I wanted to do to get better. I wanted to see by the end of the hour and a half that I had improved in some very tangible way.
Your host, Eleanor:All right, hello and welcome back to Confident Musicianing. Oh my gosh, am I excited for this episode because we are in for a treat. We are speaking with Maestro Jacob Joyce today. Maestro is the Associate Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Music Director of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra. He is the former Resident Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and has worked with several orchestras, including the Detroit, st Louis, houston, colorado florida, ann Arbor and Baton Rouge symphonies. He has also conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, He was awarded Solti Career Career Assistance Award in 2020 and he is the host and creator of our podcast called Attention to Detail the Classical Music Listening Guide. He has a Bachelor from Yale in Music and Economics and a Master's in Violin. Performance from Yale. Isn't that great? Like that's amazing. Oh my Hello, maestro. Welcome to the show.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:Hi, how are you, Eleanor?
Your host, Eleanor:I am doing great. I am so excited to have you on the show. Thank you so much for coming on.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:I am delighted to be here. I'm glad to see that you've been undertaking this great endeavor of doing this podcast, and any student in the youth orchestra who is doing something to further the audience for classical music I am very happy to support. So glad to see that you've been doing this.
Your host, Eleanor:Oh, thank you so much. That is so lovely. Let's dive right into some stuff that we can talk about. You have done so many things in your career already, from conducting the LSO to the NDR Symphony Orchestra to the Indianapolis Orchestra and everything in between. To get all of these opportunities, you must have had some strong networking skills. So what are the top things that you are doing when you're networking to get these opportunities, and how do you go about doing them?
Maestro Jacob Joyce:Yeah, I mean, I think for me one of the trickiest things about the classical music world in general and I think this is probably true of many industries, not just classical music but it's a real challenge to get opportunities and, like you said, you know, putting yourself out there and having a good network that you establish and continue to build is is really important.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:I have found, however, that the thing that speaks most strongly to people in the classical music world and is the most powerful networking tool is actually doing really high quality work and having people see you do that, and so networking is is certainly important, and I, when people think about networking, I think they think about talking to as many people as possible and making connections and contact with people, which can be valuable, I think.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:But, given that there are so many people who want to do this as a living and are putting their name out there, the best networking I've always felt is people actually seeing your work and seeing you do good work, and then word of mouth, and so you know, I think the opportunities for networking that are most important are whenever you have an actual performance or a rehearsal or something that you are doing in a public forum where you can actually invite people to attend or or something like that, because it's always more powerful if they see you in action as opposed to you just making a verbal or electronic connection with someone. And so that, I think, is, you know, what I've tried to rely, rely on is people actually seeing the work that I do as much as possible.
Your host, Eleanor:Wow, yes, that makes so much sense getting your work out and being, I guess, on the ball for every time you practice and every time you play, even if it's just in something small. I think that that you know that that can create a really good, really good opportunities. That's really interesting. Do you have any like real life examples that you can think of that that has happened to you?
Maestro Jacob Joyce:Yeah, yeah, you know. I think one thing that's important to remember for people is also that you never know who is in the audience and who might be listening. And when you're starting, especially, I think it's very common that you're performing for quite small audiences, or sometimes at least, and it feels like you know you might have a recital at school or whatever it might be, and there's only a few people there, um, but every single person who's there, who is in the classical music world, is a potential connection or networking opportunity that, like you said, you know it's you. You want to be on your highest level all the time, because that kind of momentum that you build in people's minds can compound on itself. And so, yeah, there are countless examples, I think, of the majority of the work that I've gotten, the stuff that you cited at the beginning, of the orchestras that I've conducted and things like that.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:All of that has come from word of mouth or people actually seeing a performance. I've never actually emailed an orchestra and said here are my credentials, would you hire me? Or at least you know. That's never how an engagement really comes about. It's it's all from people hearing from someone else or seeing for themselves the quality of the work that you've done, that that really makes them reach out and hire you to do something.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:And so I think what you said is really important that you, you always want to be on the ball as much as possible and reach out and hire you to do something. And so I think what you said is really important that you always want to be on the ball as much as possible and never think of a performance that you have as just you know, there's not that many people going to be there. There's not that many. You know there's no one from the industry who's coming to check me out, so I don't need to be on my A game. There always could be someone there who might make a difference down the line, and so I think that's really important to remember that's fascinating.
Your host, Eleanor:I actually, when you were saying that, I remember one time I was doing a what's it called a rehearsal. I was doing a rehearsal at an accompanist's apartment and I didn't know but her roommate runs chamber, or like chamber groups, and her roommate heard me in the rehearsal and then I got an email saying do you want to join a chamber group? So I think it's I mean, it's so true of, like, just be on your best behavior in terms of playing as you can at all times. Yeah, so really, really interesting.
Your host, Eleanor:Let's talk a little bit about you studying violin and you studying conducting, because making the change from studying violin at Yale and then conducting seems like a big transition. I mean, for me, I will be making the transition from a long scrape oboe read to a short scrape oboe read when I go and study in the UK, but you changed from one instrument to another, completely different position in an orchestra, which is, to me, like a huge transition. So why, like, what created you or what, I guess, pushed you to make that decision? Why did you make it? And, to anyone listening who might be interested in making a big switch like that, what are some things that you would want to say to them?
Maestro Jacob Joyce:So the reason why I ultimately made the switch was because I felt for a number of years before I actually fully made the switch that I was really interested in conducting and, like the you know, when I started violin when I was a very little kid, I had this passion for violin where it was the thing that really felt like, you know, my, the thing that I loved most in the world to do, and I was motivated to practice and I listened to a lot of music, especially violin playing, and you know, I had that fascination and curiosity that you associate with being really passionate about something. And at some point in high school around then it kind of evolved for me to feeling that way about conducting, or at least about orchestral repertoire. And so I got really interested in orchestral repertoire and the idea of conducting and, uh, and once you have that bug or that itch, I think it's very you know, it's like anyone who wants to follow their passion. If you really, uh, feel strongly about it and you don't want to be denied the opportunity to do that, then you know you really feel like you need to go for it. And so I think the thing that gave me the confidence to really make a switch, which was, admittedly, a very big switch and a big gamble on my future and my future in the music world was the fact that I really felt like I would be unhappy or unfulfilled if I didn't fully go for it, because this is what I really really wanted to do.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:And even when you have that feeling, I think it takes a lot of confidence to fully pull the trigger and, you know, say I'm going to make this switch and, as a result, I kind of eased into it.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:You know, I kept playing violin and I think I wouldn't ever encourage someone to just cold turkey, completely alter their career path. If there's a lot of uncertainty there you're really you're really passionate about and you you really want to go for and you feel like you have that drive and that ability to outwork everybody else because you, you just love it so much, then I am a firm believer that it's it's worth it to to take that leap and and try to try to make a big switch like that if it's, if it's the right thing for you. I think you know that what's important is that you really have to feel like you couldn't do anything else, because you need that kind of fire to encourage you to keep working, keep practicing, keep studying, so that you can always be on the very top of your game yeah, that makes a lot of sense, especially when you were talking about you needing to feel like, if you didn't make the switch, you would feel like you're missing out on something.
Your host, Eleanor:I definitely feel that way in terms of long scrape reads and short scrape reads. I'm currently playing a long scrape read and I will be transitioning, and when I was trying to make that decision, that definitely came into play. I was like, if I stay on the long scrape, I don't, I'll feel like I'm going to miss out on the short scrape, and so that is part of the reason why I've decided to make the switch. So, yeah, that's really, really, really interesting. Talking a little more about university, and that time you were also studying economics as well as music, and when I read that about you, I was like whoa, I had absolutely no idea. So why did you decide to study both music and then something outside of music, and how has studying economics informed your music career throughout your life?
Maestro Jacob Joyce:You know, I think the main reason that I studied econ particularly was just that I had a real secondary interest in it. I took a lot of classes my first year and I was curious to see what I would actually be interested in, and I particularly enjoyed my, my economics classes. And so then for me it was a. It was, uh, I was more motivated to try to, to try to get some proficiency in something other than music and take some higher level classes, uh, that that demanded a little bit more specialized knowledge. I had the opportunity to because I was majoring in music. I didn't have to progress far in any other field in college to complete a major, and so I could have just taken a lot of introductory courses, and sometimes I wish I had done a little bit more of that. But I do think, you know, there was something about economics and working hard, just like I had been trained since I was a young kid in the music world to work at something for an extended period of time and hone a craft. I kind of wanted to do that with some some academic discipline, and so I, you know, I did that with econ. But I will say, um, I don't know, you know, I don't know how much my econ per se has has informed my, my musical career, but I do think that, more broadly, studying something other than music and really just being academically curious and motivated and continuing to read and learn, that is something that has, I think, benefited me enormously.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:I find it, I think it's a really important element of being a well-rounded musician, a well-rounded colleague, a collaborator.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:You know, in conducting particularly but this is true for all musicians there's a lot of interpersonal skills, managerial skills, social skills, and not just kind of social skills in the more colloquial sense, but kind of sociological skills that you really need to have.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:And so I think having thought critically and having the ability to think critically and having developed that in some academic discipline outside of music is really horizon broadening and gives you a better platform to to navigate what is going to be a very multi-faceted career, regardless of of what you do in music. And so I think that's for me that's been uh, really valuable as well, just just not so much maybe econ per se, but the fact that I continue to study, continue to read, and you know I do, I do so today, I I recently have been kind of more interested in English and and literature and and and reading, catching up on some reading that I feel like I I missed in in my college days and and you know, I feel like that that benefits me in in some way. I'm not sure exactly how to to quantify it, but just continuing to to be curious, I think, is something that is, is it really has helped my music making yeah, yeah, that's really interesting, especially staying curious and focusing on something outside of music.
Your host, Eleanor:I feel like a lot of, I guess, the vibe or the feeling about if you're going to study music, you have to study music and music is your whole life, and if you have any interests outside of music, then you're a bad musician, and I feel like a lot of people might think about that, but it's definitely not true. Like we're just humans and we're people and and we're interested in things, and music is one of them and that's what we want to make our career out of. But it's perfectly fine to to be interested in something else. Um, I think one of the things that maybe student musicians who are thinking about maybe studying music as well as something else one of the things that they might be thinking about is can I take on that load? Because music is a lot, but then adding something else completely different is also a lot. So, to any of the listeners who might be feeling that way or might be thinking about making that choice, but they're still kind of a little unsure, do you have anything to say to them?
Maestro Jacob Joyce:Yeah, you know, I think the most important thing, it's really important. I think what you said about the vibe around musicians not having to focus exclusively on music, I think that's totally misguided, and so if people feel that way, it's important to not succumb to that kind of peer pressure or whatever it might be. I think it is really important in your kind of formative years if you want a career in classical music and especially in performance. It's true, and it's always going to be a truism of the classical music world that you're going to have to practice a lot and really achieve a high level of technical and musical proficiency, and so to get a job, it is true that you just have to put in a lot of time and you have to work at your craft to really get good at. You know just the fundamentals that I think people don't really stress enough you have to be able to play in tune, you have to play with a good sound, you have to be able to technically execute passages, um, that are required of your instrument, and so those things.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:you know that takes a lot of time and and a lot of practice that being said, I think you know, I think one of the biggest, biggest issues for young musicians is that they don't practice particularly efficiently, and so I never understood personally.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:I mean, I know everyone's a little bit different and you know people take different amounts of time to learn things, but I personally did not practice four hours a day consistently ever it's. It didn't feel to me like that was even valuable and that I was getting good returns on my time. What I did was that I would practice an hour and a half a day maybe, um, but I actually had a really clear plan every day that I practiced of what I wanted to do to get better, and it wasn't just going through the motions or playing stuff. I wanted to see by the end of the hour and a half that I had really that was like worth my time. I hadn't just four hours in a practice room and I had improved in some very tangible way, and so I do think I practiced comparatively very efficiently and that gave me some extra time to do all this other stuff.
Your host, Eleanor:And.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:I think that more musicians have that ability, then then maybe they give themselves credit. For you know, I think if, if you can, you don't want to be hard on yourself, but you just want to look, um, look at your practice sessions really objectively and say am I really maximizing the use of my own time and there are areas that you can expedite the process, or you're focusing too much on things that are really not helping you with those fundamentals of? Am I just getting better at my instrument?
Your host, Eleanor:yeah, then maybe it's it's worth reworking a little bit because, uh, you want that time to do other things yeah, yeah, um, that's really fascinating, I think I, for me, I am trying to do that every single practice session. Any tips on making really good practice sessions and staying consistent with your focus?
Maestro Jacob Joyce:yeah, I mean, listen, I think you know it's never gonna be the case. It's, it's not gonna be your. Your progress is never gonna be linear and there are gonna be days when it doesn't go well, but but I think you know what you can control ultimately is your plan for what you're going to do to try to get better that day and really sticking to it. Um and so, yeah, I mean, I think you know the one thing that is also really interesting about and I think it's a phenomenon that happens to a lot of people, uh, when they practice is that your perception of your practice session and how something went often varies considerably from from objectively, how it might have actually been. You know, when you're your own musician, you're, you're in, you're in the practice room with yourself considerably from, objectively, how it might have actually been. You know, when you're your own musician, you're in the practice room with yourself. Every single day you get to know exactly how you sound. The tiniest little details can affect your perception of how you're sounding, how your practice session went, how an audition went.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:I see that all the time from people in auditions, whether it's for youth orchestra or professional orchestras, regardless of the level, you know people have a very strong sense. People will say, oh, this was a great audition, oh, this was a disaster. Or I played really well, oh, I played terribly. And for them they feel like there's this big uh window of, or kind of spectrum of, possibilities that they're playing could uh fall under. You know, they could have a really good day, and that's a hundred out of a hundred. Or they could have a really bad day, and that's zero out of a hundred.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:But for anyone sitting, anyone who hasn't been there in the practice room with them every day, that spectrum is so much smaller because they play at a certain level. That's what you hear immediately, whether they're on their best day or their worst day, and so that feeling internally is just so much more heightened than it comes across to anyone else. And so I think that's you know. One thing that I tried to keep in mind whenever I was practicing was that you know there are great days. There are days where you feel like you sound great. There are days where you feel like you don't sound so good. Maybe the room you're playing in that day sounds better or worse or whatever. But how can I just bring it back to? Okay, here's two things that I want to get better at.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:I'm not going to move on until I do them. If you just break it down in that sense and you're not kind of thinking so much about how am I sounding today, am I where I want to be, then you can just take those slow but steady steps and I think you know that's. That's a really tough phenomenon to get over. Uh, the the kind of internal. Okay, here's how I sound and there's this wide range, but it's so important for auditioning.
Your host, Eleanor:Yeah, yeah, I mean that that is fascinating, I think. I mean, at the end of the day, we are human, so we do have bad practice days, um, but yeah, just getting the overall level to just get higher and higher and higher. I think that is just so valuable to maybe even just hear from someone else and just be, I guess, validated in that sense of you know, we have bad practice days and that's fine. We're just focusing on focusing and just slowly getting better, better, but it is okay to have an off day or two. Um, many of our listeners are also going to be doing auditions for various different ensembles and programs, whether that's like university or youth orchestra. Um, when you audition, what are your top three things that you do beforehand to prepare?
Maestro Jacob Joyce:oh, top three things that you do beforehand to prepare. Oh, top three things that I do beforehand. Well, I mean, I think you know, on the day of, I try to not overpractice or overprepare, so that there's a little bit of that feeling of freshness, both you know, there's a little bit of kind of okay, I haven't played this 20 times already today, so I'm bored. Um, internally and externally, that you're kind of you're playing with a little bit of energy and excitement because it's you haven't already played that 20 times uh, before in the day.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:Um, you know, I now I perform a lot more than I audition, to be honest, um, and so I think more about my performance practices beforehand. But I also I just try to take a minute or two it's not really meditating per se, but I try to before I go on stage. Every time I go on stage I try to just kind of clear my head for one or two minutes and not think about anything. Um, because I read somewhere, um, this study on focus and the ability to maintain this really really high level of focus that I think we all know as musicians, especially when you get into some sort of low state that can be really taxing on your brain and you can't actually maintain that for particularly long periods of time.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:And so if you do a little kind of and it's actually it's been shown that you know, if you, if you kind of clear your head and you're not really thinking about anything actively, that that's a good relaxation for your brain to to restore the ability to really focus on that high level. And so I try, before I go on stage, to just for a couple of minutes really clear everything out, and sometimes I even lie down and close my eyes and just take two minutes to reset the brain so that I can click it on and then really be focused. So, yeah, I think those are some of my kind of free audition or performance rituals. Um, in the actual audition or performance, you know what we were talking about just a second ago. I think that's.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:The most important thing for me is that, uh and you get better at this with with age and with experience performing, but especially early on, it's just so important to not kind of sabotage yourself by feeling like you are having a bad day, like I think that's something that's just so important is you know if you start an audition or if you're warming up and you feel like an audition, or if you're warming up and you feel like, okay, it's not going well today, that you don't get overly hung up on that because, like I said it, it is never.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:It never, ever comes across to the panel, to the committee, whoever is listening to you, even close to the level that it feels like internally of how good or bad this is going. And you know, I can tell you, I can tell, I tell this to everyone the the level of someone's performance on a particular day is so infrequently the deciding factor that wins them the audition or loses them the audition. That has been taken care of so much before they even get into the the audition room you know, they're playing at a level.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:And I listen, you know, I listen to paizo auditions all the time and I know certain kids you can tell they just feel like, oh, that went terribly, oh, this went well, but the reality is that all of it was done before they even stepped into the room. Because they're playing at a certain level, they've practiced at that certain level and so, given that that's the case, you know, I think it's really important for people to just not to try to not worry so much in the actual audition about how it's going and just play, because it always feels way more dramatic to yourself than it actually is to the people listening.
Your host, Eleanor:Yeah, yeah, that's so interesting. I that reminds me of I recently just did an audition for something and I kind of had a realization beforehand because I was nervous. It was for something big and important and I was nervous and I was like, oh, is it going to go well? And then I realized that's not my responsibility. If I like win or lose, that's the panel's responsibility. My responsibility is to play and have fun and enjoy it. I don't have to decide who wins.
Your host, Eleanor:So that in my head, because I was thinking like, okay, if you do this then you'll be more closer to winning, or if you do this, then you'll definitely have not won, and my mind was like that's not, that's not my call, that's not my responsibility, I'm going to focus on what I can control.
Your host, Eleanor:And my mind was like that's not, that's not my goal, that's not my responsibility, I'm going to focus on what I can control and it's their responsibility the panel to listen and make a decision. I do not make that decision for myself beforehand. And that really helped me to play really well in that audition. So that's that's really interesting, kind of what you were touching on there, talking a little more about, I guess, younger musicians you have worked with youth orchestras throughout your career and you have experience working with younger musicians and, on the whole, throughout your experience with younger musicians and seeing how, on the whole, younger musicians play and maybe the things that they struggle with. What are a few things that younger musicians could work on or focus on throughout their development, or anything that you want to say to those younger musicians who might be listening.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:Yeah, I mean, I think so. I think one of the most important things certainly is just having a love for music. I think the students that I always like working with the most are the ones who are enthusiastic, who want to be there and who are curious about music and excited to play about music and excited to play. You know, I, I I've never understood why people do this if they don't love it, because it's such a demanding thing, it's so you need to practice a lot, Um and so, and especially for for younger people, um, you know it's, it's trying. I think it's important to try to find the the thing about music that you're particularly interested in, whatever that might be, and and taking the initiative to research it, to be curious about it, to learn more about it. You know, that actually goes a really, really long way in your playing as well as your general musicianship. If you just have that curiosity and that passion for making music by no means means that you need to be someone who's interested in going into music for the rest of your life.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:you know, I think most of the people that I work with who are kids I I wouldn't even encourage them to do that um but you know what I, what I always enjoy seeing from people is if they get something out of it, um, that's really, really stimulating to them and allows them to be creative and curious, and so that's important, I think, technically speaking. You know there are some things that young musicians do frequently that, if you can avoid, will instantly take you to a much higher level, and I think a lot of it comes down to having an awareness and the ability to listen to people around you. You know you spend a lot of time in a practice room as a young musician, and so if you're practicing your orchestra music, if you're practicing chamber music, whatever it might be, you're not always learning what else is going on around you. And if you listen, if you go to a rehearsal with an orchestra like the Pittsburgh Symphony, the speed at which the players adapt to things that are going on around them is staggering and it's incredibly impressive.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:They know the pieces and everything that's going on around them so well, so that a lot of these mistakes that young people make just don't happen, like rushing, like missed entrances, like, um, you know, playing way too loudly or way too softly, in a non-balanced way, not matching the stylistic tendencies of your colleagues.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:You know these are things that are you know, a lot of young musicians here don't rush, don't rush, don't drag, whatever it might be. But so much of that is just an element of listening to who's playing, the primary voice at this moment, who has the uh, driving rhythm at this moment, and listening, and if you do that then you you can't rush because you're, you know you're following someone else, you're uh, you're, you're playing with them, and so I think that is a thing that's really important for young musicians. You know, if you can expand your knowledge of what is going on around you and have the ability not only to play but also to listen, so many of the technical mistakes that people make rushing, even intonation, you know, adapting to the intonation around you, so important and so and you don't always get that in your practice room so listening, practicing listening in orchestra and chamber music I think that's the most important thing that instantly shows to me that someone is a really intelligent and advanced musician is if they have the ability to do that.
Your host, Eleanor:Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, that's really, really insightful. I will try and listen more in orchestra rehearsal.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:Yeah, that's good. Well, everybody can do it.
Your host, Eleanor:Yeah, yeah, we can. Yeah, definitely, meister Joyce, you are the associate conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Let's talk about that. What are some upcoming concerts that people can look out for with the PSO? This episode will be released either next week or the week after, so like end of April, early May. What is going on with the PSO?
Maestro Jacob Joyce:Well, the PSO, I mean. One thing that's great about the Pittsburgh Symphony is that basically every week we have some world-class performance going on. I have a lot of concerts this summer, so if there are people in Pittsburgh and they want to come see one of my concerts, one of the benefits of my job is that I get to do a lot of different styles of concerts and repertoire. So you know, ranges from everything. There's some. I have kind of a full classical program that has, uh mendelssohn italian symphony on it and a number of other pieces, and then the, the.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:The week before, I think, um, I'm conducting star wars with the movie, um, episode seven, uh. So it very kind of varied uh types of concerts, uh, which I really love, because I love conducting classical music. Like straight classical music is my favorite and that's what I, what I ultimately love and and the reason why I got into this. But but conducting movies with the film is also something that I've grown to really love because it's incredibly challenging and so those are fun as well, and everything in between. So there are a number of concerts coming up this summer that I'm doing with the PSO, and really one of the great things about living in the US is this way, but also, of course, the UK level symphony orchestra uh just uh up the street and, and you know, almost all of those orchestras have really, uh, affordable tickets for students.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:Um and so it's something that I always encourage people to do is just you should just go listen, um, cause that's also the way that you learn better than anything else, and so sitting there and just listening is is one of the best things you can do to improve your playing, so that's what I encourage people to do yeah, 100.
Your host, Eleanor:So if you are in Pittsburgh, um, the link to the PSO will be in the show notes, in the description, and if you are not in Pittsburgh, we highly encourage you to go and see the symphonies nearby because I mean, that can be such a huge help for for practicing, especially if, like I mean it's it's an amazing opportunity when you know there's a soloist of your instrument in town and you, you, you can see that and and gain some knowledge about your instrument from that. So, yeah, definitely, maestro. You are also the owner and the host of the podcast Attention to Detail, the Classical Music Listening Guide, which I am such a fan of. When I was doing some research, I found this podcast. I had no idea that you had this podcast and I listened to a few episodes and it's just packed with amazing information. So if you were to sum up for our listeners, your podcast, what it's about, how would you go about doing that?
Maestro Jacob Joyce:Well, that's very kind of you. The podcast is really about. It's especially for non-musicians or people who are a little bit less experienced listening to classical music, but it's all about listening to classical music and some techniques that I and my co-host developed can't even say developed, but just kind of try to highlight about around listening to classical music. Co-host developed can't even say developed, but just kind of try to highlight um about around listening to classical music and trying to develop an appreciation for listening, um, for for people for whom this might be a little bit of a foreign language, and so, and the whole idea is really, um, I believe I've always believed that people have a really strong internal faculty of the musical cognition and ability and the ability to listen, and they can unlock that just like you unlock the faculty for speaking a language by doing it, and so you know, to build fluency in listening to music, people just really have to do it with kind of an open mind, like you have when you're trying to learn a new language.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:Those are what the techniques in the podcast are really about is just how to approach listening to something that might sound very foreign but in a way that might kind of engender further appreciation down the road.
Your host, Eleanor:Yes, 100%. So that podcast episode, the link to the podcast, will be in the show notes in the description. The show notes in the description. Um, we are just about um finished. All right, that is about it with for our conversation with maestro jacob joyce. Maestro, thank you so much. Where can people find you online?
Maestro Jacob Joyce:um, they well, if they want to find me online, they can go to my website. Uh, I think it's jacobjoyceconductorcom. Um, but, more importantly, if they want to listen to the podcast, that's on Apple and Spotify and everywhere. And yeah, and they can find me at the PSO. Like we said, lots of concerts coming up. So, thank you so much for everyone listening and it was a joy to be on the podcast. And again, thanks. Well, congrats to you, eleanor, for doing this and taking the initiative to spread the word about classical music.
Your host, Eleanor:Thank you so much. That's so lovely to hear you say that To our listeners. Thank you so much for listening. As always, all the stuff to do with this episode will be linked in the show notes in the description, from the link to the PSO to Maestro's website to the link for the podcast. Make a habit of doing yourself a favor and looking at those show notes because, let's be honest, there is some good stuff in in there and if you want to show your love and support for the confident musicianing podcast, make sure you give it a follow. All right, well, maestro, thank you so much for speaking with us. I am so grateful that you took the time out of your day to do that and I hope you have a lovely rest of your day me.
Maestro Jacob Joyce:Me too. Thank you Alright bye-bye.