When it comes to peak performance and innovation, music shares several lessons with business, from the importance of finding the right collaborators to stirring a hunger for creativity.
Organizations that try to build an innovation culture realize early on that peak performance and innovation are not overnight pursuits. It takes time and focus for musicians to be at the top of their game and, often, the height of their creativity. It might look effortless when the right opportunity comes along, but it is all about preparation and practice.
Louis Levitt, founder and bassist of the ground-breaking string quintet Sybarite5, shares it was a 鈥渞eal necessity鈥� for the group to disrupt the current classical paradigms before they could express themselves in new ways, which had not been available to previous generations of composers and performers. He said it took several years to build the team to its current state alongside Sami Merdinian and Sarah Whitney on violin, Angela Pickett on viola, and Laura Metcalf on cello.
To find the right teammates, musical excellence was a given. For an ensemble to exist for the long term, Levitt said each individual member needed to either be passionate about innovation or open to it.
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Before cellist Laura Metcalf first joined Sybarite5 a decade ago, Levitt asked her and his other recruits two important questions. The first was: 鈥淎re you interested in a career in performing chamber music?鈥� This might seem like a given, but it was something Levitt really wanted to know. There are many different kinds of musical careers and small ensembles, which all need to be fueled by passion.
Levitt鈥檚 second question was: 鈥淎re you into playing Radiohead and Led Zeppelin?鈥� This was about sounding out whether potential ensemble members were open to trying new things. If they had heard of those two bands and said yes, great. If they had not heard of them but were willing to learn, that was fine too. The only red flag for Levitt was if they knew the bands and said no. That kind of attitude was not aligned with Sybarite5鈥檚 ambitions, which were ground-breaking down to the ensemble鈥檚 basic structure.
Many people are more familiar with string quartets 鈥� a chamber music ensemble of two violins, a viola, and a cello. As a quintet, Sybarite5 is unusual and constantly finds itself collaborating with composers just to get enough music to play. Innovation must be part of the plan.
Organizations that are relentless about innovation tend to look to an open ecosystem of collaborators and influencers. 麻豆原创.iO Foundries, a program with a global network of startups that feed new ideas and technology to 麻豆原创, functions the same way.
鈥淲e started playing different types of music that we just weren鈥檛 allowed to play anywhere else, and that led to a great deal of satisfaction and excitement for us because we could do new things and we didn鈥檛 have rules that we had to follow, like we did with Mozart and Beethoven,鈥� says Levitt.
That includes Sybarite鈥檚 album Outliers, which contains only new music written for the ensemble and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart.
But with an often-grueling tour schedule, how does the ensemble maintain the kind of peak performance that got them to No. 1 on the Billboard chart? For one, said Levitt, the ensemble stays in shape physically, mentally, and emotionally. He adds that 鈥渄iscipline is actually a liberator.鈥�
鈥淚f you鈥檙e able to be disciplined in what you鈥檙e doing, it actually will liberate you and free you up to be able to have control over more things and be more relaxed about the things that come at you in whatever situation,鈥� Levitt explains. That means being disciplined with one鈥檚 instrument, 鈥渟o that you feel like your chops are really good,鈥� even when performing outdoors in 50-degree weather at the Aspen Music Festival, as both instruments and people are changed by the cold.
When asked what lessons businesses could learn from musicians, violist Angela Pickett says, 鈥淟istening is everything.鈥�
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e having musical discussions and talking about different interpretations of a piece, there鈥檚 not really a right and wrong answer,鈥� violinist Sarah Whitney shares. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not like, 鈥楾hat note is wrong.鈥� There鈥檚 a lot of room for interpretation, so I think it鈥檚 really important to know that we could have five ideas that are all right, in a sense.鈥�
The members of the ensemble work hard to collaborate, especially since they are 鈥渧ery different鈥� people with strong personalities, according to Metcalf. 鈥淲e understand what other people need, we understand what other people bring to the table. And just through the work of playing together, of traveling and being on the road together for 10 years, we鈥檝e taken five really different people and we鈥檝e figured out how to work 鈥� it鈥檚 going to sound cheesy 鈥� in harmony.鈥�
Bringing together independent, skilled collaborators to make something new is what contemporary artists struggle with every day. This is equally applicable to the business landscape where the one thing companies cannot afford to do is what they did yesterday. Collective innovation is tough, but just as it is with music, it is something you can learn with practice.
String quintet Sybarite5 is a dynamic chamber music ensemble that has defied musical genres and styles for the last decade, performing in front of audiences around the world. Its newest release, 鈥淪ybarite5: Live From New York, It鈥檚 Sybarite 5,鈥� showcases highlights from shows at The Cell Theatre in New York City.
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Kirsten Allegri Williams is chief marketing officer at 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors.