Jul 24, 2026 · 53 min · 13 segments
Met clarinettist and Juilliard professor Jessica Phillips shares her MBA insights on music careers. Learn to shift from a scarcity mindset to "making the pie bigger" in negotiations, embrace lifelong…
Jessica PhillipsGuestMichelle LynneHost
Diana PetreHostWhat's something that you learned about negotiation? You said you did an MBA at Harvard, right?
Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Business School all offer, you know, like certificates in specific learning modules.
Actually, I was just looking up the Harvard Business School one on entrepreneurship two days ago because somebody in our community is interested in that.
So coming back to the negotiations, what was something that you learned that you thought every musician needs to know this, but we don't receive this training?
You can get this in Getting to Yes, the book, the kind of seminal work by Roger Fisher and William Ury.
And the kind of the thought of instead thinking about interests is a way to bargain and think about getting away from the scarcity mindset that I think we all have in the nonprofits and the arts, at least in this country, and thinking about how we can work together to actually make the pie bigger, make value.
So that is something I really wish every musician understood because, you know, the theory, and I could go into it, but the theory is that over time, collaborative negotiations create more value for everyone.
So I think we tend to get this really contentious negotiation atmosphere in many orchestras in this country And it just doesn't serve any side in the long run.
What's something that you learned about negotiation? You said you did an MBA at Harvard, right?
Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Business School all offer, you know, like certificates in specific learning modules.
Actually, I was just looking up the Harvard Business School one on entrepreneurship two days ago because somebody in our community is interested in that.
So coming back to the negotiations, what was something that you learned that you thought every musician needs to know this, but we don't receive this training?
You can get this in Getting to Yes, the book, the kind of seminal work by Roger Fisher and William Ury.
And the kind of the thought of instead thinking about interests is a way to bargain and think about getting away from the scarcity mindset that I think we all have in the nonprofits and the arts, at least in this country, and thinking about how we can work together to actually make the pie bigger, make value.
So that is something I really wish every musician understood because, you know, the theory, and I could go into it, but the theory is that over time, collaborative negotiations create more value for everyone.
So I think we tend to get this really contentious negotiation atmosphere in many orchestras in this country And it just doesn't serve any side in the long run.
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