Adriana Paler, piano

Bernhard Kerres is THE coach you need to have in order to get your artistic socks together. A fine human connoisseur, he leads the BYOM courses with the perfect dose of humor, warmth, and strictness. He is a wise source of practical insights in the (normally highly secretive) concert management routine, as well as an endless inspiration in terms of growing and finding the best way to express your artistic self – and bring it on the market. In the twelve weeks of my Base Be Your Own Manager course, I delighted myself, for example, with questions – and answers – about how to write a bio that survives the trash bin of the concert planners; where to find devoted fans among the thousand immaterial followers – and how to delight them in order to gain value, and sold-out performances; reading the minds of my next promoters; undressing myself of needless emotional turmoil; banning the nasty inner critics and just DO the (musical) job; deal with the challenges of this historical time, learning to be flexible, build a creative muscle, and so much more. One of the best exercises was learning how to plan and stick to it – time, concerts and, of course, how to spend the huge money that we’ll dare to have in 3 or 10 years. I enrolled in the follow-up program in order to stay on course and accountable to my workgroup on the path of further developing my pianistic career.
The biggest win of all? The network. There is no music without a network, there is no network without great people – and you find them in the BYOM course. Thank you, Bernhard!

www.adrianapaler.com