On Building a Concert Hall or a Career

Greetings again. I hope you’re doing well.

This week I drafted my blog post early so I could visit a music festival on the day I usually do blog posts. I have long enjoyed visiting this festival, both to hear the music and to see how the concert hall has progressed. Let me tell you the story.

In 1971, concert pianist James Dick started the Round Top Festival Institute in a small Texas town named Round Top. Construction of the institute’s concert hall began in 1981. Year by year, as funds became available, construction of the concert hall progressed.

I first attended attend a concert at Round Top in summer 1989, when I moved to Texas. At that time, the concert hall was still in the early phases of construction. If I recall correctly, we sat essentially outdoors on portable chairs.

Over the years, walls and a roof and air conditioning were added. Also added were comfortable seats, beautiful woodwork, and elegant chandeliers. In 2007, the concert hall was completed. It is lovely and has excellent acoustics.

The Round Top Festival Institute has grown and developed throughout much of pianist James Dick’s career. And the development of Round Top's concert hall, step by step, reminds me of the growth of a research career.

If you’re an early-career researcher, your curriculum vitae might be as scant as Round Top's concert hall once was. But with hard work year after year, your publication list might well grow and develop as Round Top's concert hall has done. The result may be similarly splendid.

Until the next post—

Barbara