Career progression in the arts doesn’t have to be linear. Indeed, the vagaries of life in the cultural sector mean that traditional models of career advancement are often inapplicable – which is not to say they’re entirely out of reach.
But for every student theatre-maker who cuts their teeth as a director and eventually ends up running a mainstage company, or creative producer whose career culminates in running a major festival, there are hundreds of artists whose careers necessitated side-steps, dramatic changes and other creative responses to climbing the career ladder.
Stephen King has spent the last 25 years as a touring musician, most recently as the Australian String Quartet’s (ASQ) violist for almost a decade. Weary of the endless travel associated with working as a classical musician, King sought out a new challenge.
‘I felt like I’d been on the road for 25 years. So, how could I stay home yet still work with an organisation that is making a difference nationally, and find a new way to make the music travel without me necessarily travelling? That’s really where the conversation started,’ King explained.
‘The ASQ is a wonderful organisation that was very happy to listen to that proposal and both the management and the board were keen to keep me involved with the organisation, which was fantastic,’ he said.
King is now a few weeks into his new role; a brand new position within the ASQ. ‘The title is Director of Engagement and Learning, but what is engagement and learning, really? It’s everything! It’s what music should do. It’s what we should be doing. So I guess in a way I see it as a continuation – without the notes,’ he told ArtsHub.
Read: Classical music must stop obsessing about young audiences, says ASQ’s Sharon Grigoryan
While allowing him to grow in new ways professionally, King’s latest position will also allow him to focus on more important things in life, such as his family.
‘I’ve got three boys at home, and before they fly the coop, it would be nice to get to know them a little bit better,’ he said.
GIVING BACK
One of King’s reasons for continuing with the ASQ is because he wants to give something back to the world.
‘There’s so many ways one can give to society. I’ve got a lot out of [my career to date] and there’s a lot of people over the years that have supported me and helped me, and I have a real feeling that I wanted to give back. And I could keep playing notes, and keep trying to move people in that way, or I could try a different way, try a different route and take a plunge into something that’s not very comfortable for me, necessarily,’ he said.
King’s early career was shaped by pragmatism; he freely admits the viola was not his first love as an instrument, having started out as a violinist.
‘I started to play the viola because I found that I could get more gigs that way, because there weren’t a lot of great violists around at the time. But then I actually decided to get serious about it and my deferred my architecture degree.’
Read: When the dance is over
A quarter century of professional practice later, King explained that one of the things spurring him to take on a new role with the ASQ was curiosity.
‘I know I can play the instrument and it would be great to keep doing that, but would I feel – when I come to put my bow away that final time – that I’d actually plumbed the depths of what was possible, of what I could do?’
MANAGING TRANSITIONS
Stepping away from a role that has come to define one’s sense of self can be hard, but King isn’t prepared to hang up his bow just yet.
‘I definitely want to continue performing, and that’s why I haven’t taken on this job as a full-time job, because I need to spend time doing that and I also need to spend some time with my instrument every day,’ he explained.
That said, King is aware that for many artists – as with professional sportspeople and others whose lives have become closely identified with their work – transitioning out of their career can be mentally challenging.
‘I think the process of performing, the adrenaline of it and the reward of it – sharing something so intimate so publicly, is all part of performing, and so to leave that…’
After pausing for a moment, King spoke excitedly about a new project he’d been working on, a collaboration with composer and didgeridoo player William Barton which recently premiered at ILLUMINATE Adelaide, before returning to the question at hand.
‘It hasn’t really had time to sink in yet, exactly what I’m missing, because I’ve still been very busy … I haven’t quite reached a place yet where I’ve had time to grieve what I’ve left, because I’ve been so busy with what I’ve come to,’ he explained.
King is not fully confident about his future, but he’s excited to see what happens next.
‘I’m quite happy to fail at this venture, and at the same time, I don’t want to fail,’ he laughed. ‘But you know, the possibility is there. And I’m very lucky that the Australian String Quartet has been so supportive. We haven’t even come up with an exact job description, to be honest with you.
‘At the moment I feel like I’ve been given a bit of breathing space to throw a lot of things at the wall and see what sticks, which is very generous. And I know that period won’t last very long but it’s not often that a musician will change their role this significantly, I guess,’ he continued.
‘I mean, I might have gone into some sort of artistic management role or something with an orchestra or something, I don’t know, but it’s interesting to see what I can do in an organisation that I already know. I know all the patrons very well and I have a wonderful rapport with them, and so, hopefully because of those sorts of things, we’ll be able to do even more with this role than if I was just coming in from the cold,’ King said.
