What are the 15 steps to become an international concert organist?

Many organists dream of one day becoming world-class organists. They want to be able to tour the world extensively giving organ concerts in the world’s most famous cathedrals and concert halls. Such a successful organist career brings chances to play interesting and important organs in various countries, meet new audiences and show your organ skills to a large number of people. In this article, I will give you 15 tips that will help you become an international concert organist.

1. Commit to practicing playing the organ every day. Regular and wise practice is vital in any career as an organist.

2. Develop excellent finger and pedal technique on the organ. This is a critical step. You must have the ability to perform any technical feat that can be found in any organ composition.

3. Master a large amount of organ repertoire. Learn the most important pieces from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern periods from various national schools of organ composition.

4. Participate in several international organ academies and master classes. This will help you improve your technical and artistic level, try out new instruments, and make lots of personal connections.

5. If your age allows it, participate in various local and international organ competitions. Winning major international organ competitions is the fastest path to success. Even if you don’t win, proper preparation and participation will propel you to the next level of advancement.

6. Establish important personal and professional connections with organists from around the world. Use social networks to increase the number of your friends in the world of organs.

7. Think about how you can be unique among other organists. Because the competition on the international organ scene is so great, this is a crucial point. You must find an angle that helps other people see you and your abilities in a different light than others.

8. Constantly market yourself as an organist. Use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social media channels to spread the word about your professional accomplishments, activities and commitments. However, be careful not to send spam.

9. Create a personal website. Your website should make it easy for your visitors to learn more about you.

10. Record video and/or audio samples of your performance. Your best recordings and videos will testify to your level of advancement.

11. Prepare a unique and attractive program. Think about your audience, a particular instrument, as well as the concert organizers as you create a list of organ pieces you want to put together for a recital.

12. Research and compile a list of possible festivals and venues for organ concerts. Use the Internet to find various churches, cathedrals, and concert halls that offer international organ recital series.

13. Write an attractive recital proposal. Everything from a subject line (a headline) to the introduction, the body of your message, and a call to action is important to keeping your readers interested. If you miss a single detail, your email will most likely end up in the spam or junk folder.

14. Send this proposal to your personal contacts and a list of concert halls and festivals. Use your list that you compiled in step 11 to spread your message.

15. Repeat the above steps as many times as you want. Remember, personal development and marketing is an ongoing endeavor, so the more consistent effort you put into action, the better your chances of success. Don’t expect to receive tons of offers from your first email. People have to trust you, they have to have confidence in you and this takes time and persistence on your part.

There is much more you can do that can help you become an internationally renowned organist. But these are the most important things. Although it takes many months to successfully complete this step-by-step plan, you can start implementing it today.