10 Top tips for a career in classical music…. without a competition win

Kate Blackstone graduated from the University of Manchester in 2010, and the Royal Northern College of Music in 2011, from the demanding Joint Course. Since then she has forged a successful freelance career as a musician, combining a busy teaching schedule with frequent performances on both piano and clarinet, her principal instrument. She is now undertaking her second year of PhD research at the University of Leeds, supported by the Stanley Burton Scholarship. Her project is exploring the ways in which music college graduates manage their transition into the professional music world, the first phase of which is a publicly-available website containing musicians’ career advice to their younger selves.