A Renaissance Man: An Inquiry into a Musician’s Unorthodox Career Choices and Navigating between Contrasting Field

Modern-day opportunities allow musicians to divert from normalised, widespread perceptions of their artistic needs and pursue diverse career paths. This thesis uses autoethnographic methods to explore a classical pianist's navigation between contrasting
fields, such as international relations, higher education management, and music and performance.
Artistic citizenship and discourse theory have been used as the theoretical framework of this inquiry. The objective is to draw a holistic picture through a musician’s self-reflection on professional decisions. Various projects and artistic and academic activities are analysed, and the findings are thematically categorised.
The inquiry asks: How do I navigate between diverse academic and professional paths? To what extent and in what way is my identity as a classical pianist shaped based on the unorthodox nature of my career choices? The paper outlines short- and long-term challenges, such as time limitations and ambiguity in relation to belonging and identity, as well as opportunities: wider network, unique experiences and diverse connections.