I have no idea how to do this. I was lucky last year. I had a small amount of money left over after my audition trip. I got a surprising scholarship from the Australia Council (here is the part where I am obliged to tell you that my study at SFCM is made possible by The Australia Council). I got a small donation from James Wallace from New Zealand, and my mum generously donated an inordinate amount of money. I could have put a downpayment on a modest house with the money that my mother submitted for the tuba cause this year (an even less modest house if I sold my tubas and added that to the amount). As an international student in America, I can work 20 hours a week maximum and only at the Conservatory. My hourly rate is $11.50, which is great considering what minimum wage is, but this amount every month doesn’t pay my rent. Did I mention that I’m assuming I can fit 20 hours of work around my 20 hours of classes and 25 weekly goal for practice. Some weeks I just don’t have time to sleep and do 20 hours of work.
Unlike String players, Tuba players don’t seem to be targeted by wealthy music lovers for grants. We’re mostly not virtuosic soloists.. My dream is to play in an orchestra- I love to play with other people, I love orchestral music. I feel like my future dreams are a bit ‘meh’ to the people used to hearing “I want to be the next Midori”.
Websites like GoFundMe allow you to put up a target and have fundraising that will go to your PayPal account (of course they take a very nominal percentage or your amount raised). I guess you could give people your PayPal details, but PayPal won’t let you fundraise through them unless you are a not for profit organisation (rightly so, I guess).
What do you do to raise the money? I already teach, I’m not exactly swimming in spare time. I’m not swimming in spare chops to go busking (although we did do this over Christmas with a brass quintet and this was very lucrative).
Apart from marrying an American in a greencard marriage, so that I can get a student loan, I’m not sure what the answer is?
