Building bridges between cultures through music with the French Connection Academy 

Michelle Lynne: Hey everybody and welcome back to the fearless artist. My name is Michelle Lin and I’m your host of this podcast. And today I’m very pleased to have my new friend, Emily Callison Doulcet on. Hi, Emily. Thank you for being here.

Emilie Callesen: Hi, thank you for inviting me.

Michelle Lynne: So we connected on Instagram, where I find all my new friends, and I was interested in talking to you because you are the director of the French Connection Academy. You’re a classical violinist. You’re also doing project management and you work together with your husband. So I’m looking forward to getting into your story and learning about what you guys do more today.

Emilie Callesen: Wonderful.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. So do you want to start with a little bit about your training and how you started the French Connection and what it actually is?

Emilie Callesen: Yeah, I took, uh, I have a master’s in classical violin that I took in Copenhagen and also one year in Paris.

Michelle Lynne: Where you are now?

Emilie Callesen: Yes, exactly. I live here with my husband, and then I, uh, yeah, I made this academy called French Connection Academy because I live in France. I am Danish, and then it’s built on these French and Danish values, uh, in order to provide educational support for developing young talents between 14 years old and 32. So it’s a very large bridge building between generations; it’s made to create some more holistic support for classical young musicians, because recently found a nice sentence that I feel resonates very well with me, which is like, “I don’t think we are all made to be the biggest soloist name in the world, but we can all become great artists, finding our way, finding how we function best and where we are the most happy and where we have the most fun.” So, so this academy is made for all classical musicians wanting to be professionals.

Michelle Lynne: Okay, that’s beautiful. Tell me more with the Danish French connection. Are you specifically targeting those two countries, those two nationalities?

Emilie Callesen: It’s completely global, like anyone can apply. It’s just more that the values of the academy is kind of reflecting these kind of schools and thinkings. Um, like the, the Danish, culture is very, very social. Uh, nobody is left alone. It’s very, it’s a small country. We try to take care of each other. And, um, we’re known for a lot of trusts, which is quite unique. I think, the more I traveled, the more I see is, something very unique for the country. Um, so we try to, and put this forward. And then, of course, France is one of the biggest schools of culture somehow, you know, one of the biggest exporters of culture, and I think it’s super interesting to see how they make, crazy big classical festivals, and I think we can really learn how to sell culture from, from France. So there’s a lot of good things, and of course there’s also a really interesting culture in Denmark.

Michelle Lynne: You’re combining the cultural values and heritage.

Emilie Callesen: Yes.

Michelle Lynne: With this, I’m hearing trust, openness, community of Denmark.

Emilie Callesen: Exactly.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, that’s really interesting. So you did your master’s in Copenhagen and then you said you studied one year in Paris?

Emilie Callesen: My last year of master’s.

Michelle Lynne: Okay, so you got to see already in your studies, maybe some of these values coming in through the pedagogy, or how was that for you?

Emilie Callesen: Yeah, well, I think the biggest difference between the two was maybe the size somehow. Like, well, it’s both big schools, but being in a bigger country, I kind of found myself in a bigger country in the way that I could explore my role. Like, somehow being in a small country, you can very fast become that person that has this kind of set of values and is like that, and who has these kind of friends, and the moment I moved to another country, I just, I kind of found my feet to stand on. And I think that’s kind of also one of the big things I bring with this academy is this exchange, which I found. Endlessly, there’s so, there’s endless amount of resources in doing some cultural exchange. And then the personal point, uh, like the reason why France, Denmark is of course also—my, my husband is French. And in this case we can really meld together our network. We can really make a lot of things with that. So it’s also has this kind of personal. Um, interesting that you feel boxed in a certain role…

Michelle Lynne: As you’re saying, in Denmark—like, people associate you more quickly. Do you think that’s because people like to label each other or put them in, like, “Okay, you belong here, you belong here, and now everybody has a place,” or… you said you found your feet in France. I’d love for you to talk more about, like, what did you discover?

Emilie Callesen: Yeah, well, I, I don’t know if it’s like a—I think it’s a small country thing. Uh, because basically the environment is small, and then if you grew up in one city playing a classical instrument, you will know everyone who plays a classical instrument, and the, the, the chance of having gone the same places and known each other since you were 11 years old or 7 years old is just very high.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Emilie Callesen: So I think it’s, it’s more that.

Michelle Lynne: I think the music world is small in general too. I mean, Canada is a huge country, but the music world is small. So you just know everyone who’s playing. And

Emilie Callesen: Of course.

Michelle Lynne: Spread out and came to Europe, you still find people that like where they ended up.

Emilie Callesen: Yeah, and it has a lot of beauty to it as well because everyone is evolving and changing with time. Sometimes it just takes moving to another country to dare, you know, stepping out.

Michelle Lynne: Okay. So how did you dare to step out?

Emilie Callesen: Uh, well, actually a lot of it is meeting my husband, actually. He was a bit like, “I was on my way to Poland in the first.” Jean Baptiste, will say away. Yeah, it could be, could be. Um, so, uh, well, he’s pianist, we met each other, and I was on my way to Poland, and he was a bit like, “Well, have you thought about applying in Paris?” And I was like, “Do you think I can do that? Is that, am I good enough?” You know, yeah.

Michelle Lynne: Sam, you had a good experience.

Emilie Callesen: I had a great experience because, like, every meeting with a teacher is always interesting, but every teacher bring different things depending on where we are also. So I was in a moment where I really needed somebody to believe enough that I could learn everything I had to learn. Like, I often have considered myself being a little bit behind, on technical aspects, and I’ve never been very Paganini violinist. It’s never really been my, my thing. And violin as an instrument, I don’t know why the repertoire is like that, but there’s so much crazy stuff we have to be able to play on this wooden instrument.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Emilie Callesen: And, and it’s amazing as well. It’s just that, you know, I— that’s also one of the things for my academy. Sometimes there’s a little tendency in the classical world, I feel in general, that if somebody is not just moving, thriving, developing by themselves, being super active and just, you know, rolling with the punches, then, if there’s somebody who’s a bit struggle or a little bit closed or not knowing really how to—it’s very easy to avoid learning or avoid playing concerts or avoid getting yourself out there because the environment is not going to help you necessarily in the schools to really face these things, and, um, so I, I made French Connection Academy because I myself, I was very insecure and I needed a little bit somebody to say, “What do you want to do? How can I help you? Uh, this might be good for you,” you know. And then I went to CNSM and I, I had a teacher who was like, “No, but this is your level. You have to be able to do this. Let’s go.” No complicated—oh, she’s a bit fragile or something. It was just pure formation, education, like dig, dig, dig, no scare. Let’s just work. And it was a liberation for me, actually.

Michelle Lynne: Wow. Yeah, that rational…

Emilie Callesen: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: Like, here’s the level—we need to get you to this level without it sounding like it didn’t come in and touch your identity or touch shame.

Emilie Callesen: Yes.

Michelle Lynne: You for not being at the high level, but then

Emilie Callesen: Yeah, exactly.

Michelle Lynne: For me too, I also had so much insecurity and I think my teacher also like stripped me down and built me back up, but I’m not sure that it didn’t touch my identity. I think it always did until I, years after I left school, had to kind of undo, like, “Wait, I need to stop associating myself with how I am or if I feel good enough or all,” you know, had a few rejections that like really crushed me. So I think that identity is so important that we can hear, like, “Okay, this is an objective work.”

Emilie Callesen: It is. It’s craftsmanship; it’s building a table.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Emilie Callesen: I think it would be nice if we could demystify classical music a little bit, and then be like, “There are things you learn—technique, how to do physically, like how to play a scale of thirds and how to apply it well, and why do we do this—and if you cannot do it well, then learn from what you do well and how to apply that into the techniques that are scary for you to go into these kind of things.” So this is a bit more easy going, low practical work, letting students find their identity, like, supporting, trying new things. But it’s just, you know, every student is so, so different and we all need different things. Some students thrive super well under a very strict old school structure, and other students need a little bit more talk, more different angles of looking at challenges. And I think the classical environment is on its way to embrace these things more. Um, on our academy, for example, we really try to create an environment that is safe for people to face also some of their maybe insecurities that keeps them from moving or being active.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. I think, like, there’s so much that’s emotional in our playing, in the interpretation, in the communication, and so I think we bring that into the technique aspect, as you’re saying that, like, “Oh, your technique is poor,” and then instantly it’s like you’re not good enough. There’s all this emotion that comes in.

Emilie Callesen: Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: How have you brought that into the French Academy? And I’m also curious why such a wide age range from 14 to 32, because those are like ends of the spectrum. And just, just for clarity, it’s a week program in the summer.

Emilie Callesen: It’s from the 1st to 6th of July. Uh, for the moment, we would like to expand to the 1st to the 10th of July, so we can also have, like, chamber music. Well, we try to remove the responsibility of the personal development from the professors, and then we put it over on a trust person that we have there that has some background, some capacity, uh, to, like, some real human resource capacity to really work. So our students can go and talk to this trust person if they have some kind of insecurities, problems, or, like, we can all be in a bad moment of life and then we need somebody to talk to, to unload that on. And so we create a space where people can go with that to someone. And then, uh, even if we have, like, an injury, we take care of these kinds of things. Like, last year, we also had an osteopath that was there, that just gave free, uh, treatment, and that also means that even if you, for example, you’ve signed up for the Academy, a week before you have, like, an injury or a pain that makes it not possible for you to play, well, that doesn’t mean that you cannot be a part of our Academy. It means you come with whatever you have, and then you can also simply use it to, um, go and listen to lessons, be there, be part of the community, get treatments and heal together, you know, instead of isolating yourself until you’re good again with your injury and keeping it a secret nobody should know. And, you know, because it can happen for everyone—anyone to have pains. Classical musicians, what is the statistics again about orchestral musicians and pains? It’s like super high.

Michelle Lynne: 85 percent of musicians get injured.

Emilie Callesen: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: What, yeah, that was when I was in university, they taught us that in school. Yeah. Yeah. That’s really good. It sounds like you’re trying to create, like, a whole environment for the artist to come in and thrive, not just getting the lessons.

Emilie Callesen: Yeah, we have opportunities because we really believe that the only way you really learn how to be a musician is also to have the practical experience and to build that. It’s not something like standing on a huge stage, playing a big program of one hour in front of thousands of people. It doesn’t happen overnight. It happens with building the experience of smaller stages—little by little building that kind of capacity. So we provide a lot of opportunities and different festivals with different partners, different sizes of stages also. So there’s ready for those that have built it up a bit more, shoulders to carry it, and then we also have, uh, smaller stages for those who need to take the first steps into it, or have maybe some more problems with, uh, nervosity on stage, so there’s a bit of something for everyone, um, and we have, last year we gave prizes to our 42 students.

Michelle Lynne: Are performances after the festival, is that?

Emilie Callesen: Yeah, like in the year after, in different places in Denmark and France, Sweden, uh, francophone countries as well. You’re in the third year of the festival, and how many participants are you having?

Michelle Lynne: And also, coming back to that age gap, like, are they working together, are they separate?

Emilie Callesen: Well, everyone has their solo lessons during the day, but all lessons are open for students to go in and listen and to be there and observe. The youngest students come with their parents, so the ones who are below 16, and between 16 to 18, we have them in a house with the trust person of the academy, and the rest is like living together in Airbnbs. So we really try to make sure that everything is going on in a good, safe way. And, um, well, the age gap is there because when you’re very young, you can see where you can go, and the fact that you’re in contact or at least eating food together with these older students makes it, I think, less far away. And, uh, for older students, it’s a huge gift to see how much you accomplished. Like when you look at a 14-year-old and you see, “Wow, okay, that’s, I did a lot of work actually.” So it can really create a lot of gratitude, I think it’s very important, and in the end, when we get out on the market after the conservatory, we will most likely play with musicians that are not all just our own age. And if you sit in an orchestra, there will also be age gaps.

Michelle Lynne: It sounds like you’re reflecting the values of community in this, where they can learn from each other and kind of

Emilie Callesen: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: Share experiences and spark conversations.

Emilie Callesen: Yeah. Um,

Michelle Lynne: What are some of the things that surprised you as you—this is the third year of the festival—so when you were coming up with the idea, the conception story, what was challenging for you? What, what took you by surprise?

Emilie Callesen: Well, in the beginning, making this project, I had, you know, I—I’m somebody who starts with big dreams. I’m like, “I want this and that,” and I’m not scared to call somebody I don’t know and say, “Hey, would you like to lend us your house for free for this amazing project?” But, in the end, we end up being a bit all over this third biggest city in Denmark called Odense.

Michelle Lynne: Okay.

Emilie Callesen: It’s quite perfect, because we have the symphony orchestra—they lend us their practice rooms and their canteen.

Michelle Lynne: Okay.

Emilie Callesen: We have the city halls, a beautiful old concert hall, and then we have the music school that lent us the whole building. And this year we’ll also have a school lending us some more practice rooms for the students. So there’s, like, in the end, it’s like we pay almost nothing for renting of places, and the city’s super happy to have us there. It’s a great relationship we have with the symphony orchestra and with, you know, everyone working in culture in the city.

Michelle Lynne: So you started with the minimum viable festival, and then how did you manage to grow over the next, what, second edition and now this coming third edition?

Emilie Callesen: Well, we have grown in the way that the first edition was: there were thirty-six students and there were six teachers. Second, we added a class, so we had seven teachers, and then we could fill all our classes with the forty-two students. We are still waiting to adding the days. Um, but this year we prioritize, for example, having a safer economy in a way, like to make sure that everyone—that means myself, my husband, and our third founder—can really get our salary paid this year, because building something takes time and you cannot expect to be paid always in the first years of building a company. And, uh,

Michelle Lynne: I mean, for everyone listening, Deanna and I didn’t pay ourselves from TFA for the first three years. And so now we’re in year five, and now it’s like, “Okay, we can actually pay ourselves now.” So

Emilie Callesen: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: Totally understand what you’re saying.

Emilie Callesen: You know, everyone says that the first three to five years of a company you cannot expect to pay yourself. And it, it makes completely sense when you’re doing it because you have to make people trust that you’re a staying business, that it’s actually meaningful for society, that there are people to buy your product.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah,

Emilie Callesen: It’s quite funny sometimes. And that brings me to the next thing, which is: this kind of development happens, of course, with our own good ideas, but also with talking to people that have different backgrounds than ourselves, which means lawyers, business owners, uh, people working in diplomacy—um, creating a good advisory board with people around you that you can ask for questions, also looking into how other companies works.

Michelle Lynne: These kinds of things are just so important as long as you don’t copy, please—like, like having a business plan, you mean?

Emilie Callesen: Like, yeah, having a good business plan, but also listen to people around you that have seen things happen—somehow like people 20 years older that can see the value in your project and deeply want to help. That can, that can be really great. So, for example, sometimes you can be so scared of inviting people into, for example, your board because, at least myself, I felt like I could potentially lose my project if there are people coming in and changing things. Um, but you have to let that go if you want to grow, and then make sure to legally protect your rights of intelligence and your rights of concept that you can protect yourself with while inviting people in to really invest themselves in your project.

Emilie Callesen: So these kind of things, I think, is, you know, find a good lawyer friend. If you don’t have one, uh, begin to hang out in a cafe near a university for lawyers. Like, I don’t know, do, do something to, to find friends outside of music because it’s—musicians for now are not educated in running businesses, at least in our education. We need somebody who, who has that kind of background…

Michelle Lynne: So you were talking a bit about letting go so that you could grow. Can you expand on that?

Emilie Callesen: I think if you want people to help, sometimes they have to feel that they also have ownership. It’s very important for them. If they have to invest beyond a paycheck, or even for no paycheck, then they have to feel that it’s, in some way, giving something back to them, and it can be in the way of, use whatever you do to invite their network for them to network over art, for example. But it can also be in the way that you find somebody working in economy—that’s, that’s that finally gets to work with a more creative field that they lack in their everyday. And then on the part time, they get to be inspired by whatever you’re doing. So then they want to help, and in order for them to want to help, sometimes being in a board of that gives them value. So these kind of things, I think, is very important to, to think a bit about how can you serve while also grow your own business. Um, this

Michelle Lynne: When I first had to make my board, then one of the original members of the board also wanted to come in and start programming. And I was like, “Well, no, like, I started this series because I want to pick the programs and I want to choose the musicians that I’m working with.” And I was doing it strategically, where I was inviting people from Paris and Cologne and Amsterdam, and then I would get invited to go play with them in those cities. So for me, it was a way to expand my network. And so when people come in and they start like, “Oh, well, let’s do it like this,” and you’re like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Like, I mean, how do I navigate this?” And so, yeah. And, and while—

Emilie Callesen: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: You’re saying about ownership because

Emilie Callesen: Mm.

Michelle Lynne: With that person, it couldn’t go forward anymore because

Emilie Callesen: Mm.

Michelle Lynne: Wanted control over the programming.

Emilie Callesen: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: Had a conflict of job roles. Um, but then luckily now the current board that I have, we have much more open conversations around, like, how can we support who’s invested, who—like job descriptions in a sense of

Emilie Callesen: Mm.

Michelle Lynne: For what?

Emilie Callesen: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: Everyone feels like they’re being a contribution.

Emilie Callesen: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: Of the day, we’re creating a beautiful concert. And that’s really what everyone’s coming together to do: to celebrate great music, great—

Emilie Callesen: Mm.

Michelle Lynne: People, together, which sounds like it’s the values of French Academy as—

Emilie Callesen: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: So how are you giving other people ownership while still retaining your artistic vision of the festival?

Emilie Callesen: Well, I think it comes with, um, little by little by beginning to feel your own authority in a way. It’s a mix of things. First of all, by adding people to a team that has different qualities with yourself, you also remove the potential fear of losing what you’re doing because they would never suggest to do your program because that’s not their competence or skill. Uh, so already inviting people who doesn’t do the same is already a natural, nice synergy. I think it’s very important that you also, before going into working together—like, you can go on Google, how to clear each other’s values before going into group work—and, and you talk about what is your values, because that’s often what makes people conflict at some point. Like, for example, if you think friendship is super important and that you love working with friends, and another one says, “I will never work with friends because I’m scared to ruin my friendship,” then when one begins to invite a lot of friends in, the other one might disagree and it will turn into, like, even though you love the project and you want to do the same thing, this could be just a game over for the collab.

Michelle Lynne: I love, I love that you said that because when I invited my current chairman of my board, he’s a former piano student. He’s 70. I love him,

Emilie Callesen: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: You’re listening. And he’s like, “I don’t want to come on your board because we’re so close and I don’t want to risk—

Emilie Callesen: Mm.

Michelle Lynne: Our relationship. He’s kind of like my Dutch dad. And I was like, “And I was like, that’s crazy to me because this is only going to bring us closer.” But both of us were right in the sense that there have been conflicts. There

Emilie Callesen: Mm.

Michelle Lynne: Of tension where it was like, “Okay, this is affecting our relationship.”

Emilie Callesen: Mm.

Michelle Lynne: Had to learn to navigate conflict, but I mean, how has that been for you learning to navigate conflict? I believe there’s always a way forward if both people are open and—

Emilie Callesen: Yes. Yes, that’s the most important thing. But that’s also when you clear values, you know—you ask each other, like, “How do you react in conflict?” Because I do that with our new, like, everyone we get in that is in closer contact with the bot, because we all react differently. Some simply know they don’t like conflicts in general; like, nobody likes to have a conflict, but they are more prone to, like, just shy away or not talk, or, so then at least you, you know, will know it in the collab before you even start dealing with conflict. I think what I learned more and more is the importance, like, even—especially when you’re good friends—to have things written on paper. Like, contracts, contracts, contracts. And even though you seem like a crazy person now—are you like, really? We have to do a contract? I, I assure it’s not too much. Actually, it’s just because it’s not so much the contract paper in itself; it’s the conversation you have when you make the contract. It’s like,

Michelle Lynne: Hmm. Hmm.

Emilie Callesen: How many hours do you want to put into this? Because that’s natural—that something you put in a contract, remote on site. Uh, what would you like to do as roles? And what is your role? What will your day-to-day task be? That’s things you put in a contract, and what would you potentially like to have back for what you do? If I’m not paying you, would you like to have your picture on a website? Would you like to have a social media post, collab, these kind of things? That all gets out in the open when you do these kind of things. And, and it’s just very healthy.

Michelle Lynne: I think what you’re sharing right now is so crucial, and obviously, Deanna and I—we’ve been working together now; TFA is five years old this month.

Emilie Callesen: Wow. Congrats.

Michelle Lynne: So we had five years. Thank you. We’ve had five years of being best friends and co-founders, and so we’ve had to navigate, I would say, a minimal amount of conflict, mostly because Deanna is amazing. But more recently, there have been things that come up. So I totally love what you said about, it’s not about the contract, it’s about the conversation you have to…

Emilie Callesen: Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: Get things done… because then you ask great questions like, you know, her and I—we came to a point where we really had to agree: how many hours are we committing to? What are we committing to? What are we accountable for? How are we going to hold each other accountable without having a conversation? Uh, horrible tens conflict, which we luckily have never had, but it’s like, sometimes somebody has dropped the ball and things need to be addressed. And both of us, if you just want to be friends, you’re like, “Oh no, we’ll just shove that under the carpet and like pretend,” but then, you know,

Emilie Callesen: Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: I have a business coach and she’s always been like, “You know, KPIs—got to track, you have to know the data, like, is it happening or not? Is the content going out or not?” If it’s not, this is a problem. This is why you’re not selling. This is why your membership’s not filling up. You know, it’s like being strategic, and then you have to really face the data and you’re like, “Oh no, this means that I need to have a hard conversation. It’s like, okay, something’s not working between us.”

Emilie Callesen: Mm.

Michelle Lynne: One thing that’s helped us is like, “Okay, it’s us against the problem and it’s not us versus each other.”

Emilie Callesen: Very important.

Michelle Lynne: You’re mentioning about teamwork, I’d love for—

Emilie Callesen: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: A bit about, like, ’cause I know you work with your husband.

Emilie Callesen: Yes.

Michelle Lynne: Obviously, I mean, not to overshare, you know,

Emilie Callesen: No.

Michelle Lynne: Comfortable with, but like, how is that for you—to, are you guys doing contracts? You’re writing things down.

Emilie Callesen: We don’t do contracts, but we have been doing clarification of roles, and we do it on an ongoing thing, and sometimes there has to be a little bit of cleaning up because, of course, when you’re in a couple, it’s so easy to, like, “Can you do this now?” “Yeah.” “Okay. Sure. Can you do this now?” And then, you know, we end up also working 24/7, you know, it’s not selfie.

Michelle Lynne: Work boundaries in the evening. I was wondering—wait, how do you guys do that? Yeah.

Emilie Callesen: We have made, sometimes, like as a ground rule: after six o’clock, the office is closed. So then we don’t have work—that’s a ground rule. But then there are… you know, today, for example, we are going to launch our website for applications and everything. And that means, of course, yesterday evening was until late evening to really fix it, because sometimes you can postpone and postpone and postpone. And, you know, sometimes you just have to do it.

Michelle Lynne: Yes.

Emilie Callesen: Even though it goes over normal working hours. And so, so these kind of things—I can really recognize what you said about your friends and that you said this thing that you are together against the issue and not each other. That I also can recognize this kind of conversation sometimes because it’s super important to remember that it really doesn’t help putting guilt on each other’s shoulders. Sometimes it’s about a little reconstruction or reflection about, “Can we optimize something here? Is there a way in our communication we need to optimize so that you feel more motivated to do it all by yourself without me even saying anything?” Or, you know, sometimes also one person is more into being in control, like, checking up on things, uh, which can stress the other one out.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Emilie Callesen: Not gonna mention names, but like these kind of things can be, uh, issues. And then you have to deal with finding new systems and better communication to do these kind of things. And then I’m going to, of course, mention that it’s, as you said, you have a business coach. It’s so important to invest in support for yourself. Like, um, I have, of course, in the last 10 years, I’ve done therapy—a very, very big and important investment I’ve done in myself that I will, I will never stop recommending it to people. Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: Happy to hear we have a lot of aligned, aligned thoughts on empowering others on leadership, on ownership.

Emilie Callesen: Hmm.

Michelle Lynne: We have two girls working for us now and today we have our staff meeting, so it’s like, how do we empower them? How do we make them really feel? And I think we already have done this, but like, it’s always on my mind. Like, we’re building a culture

Emilie Callesen: Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: So how can we transfer this culture where they represent us wherever they’re going and they’re not just putting in their number of hours per month in exchange for content or whatever?

Emilie Callesen: Yeah, like, we understand the vision behind

Michelle Lynne: TFA…

Emilie Callesen: Exactly.

Michelle Lynne: And so the vision behind the French connection of bringing people together and sharing these values and what you said earlier about

Emilie Callesen: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: You know… leaving the small country, this, you know, different mindset you learned when you’re going to France. I mean, obviously I recognize that Canadian living abroad for, for almost 12 years. So like

Emilie Callesen: That’s wild.

Michelle Lynne: Powerful to have other perspectives, other cultures,

Emilie Callesen: It’s huge.

Michelle Lynne: Other pedagogy.

Emilie Callesen: Hmm.

Michelle Lynne: Where do you see this going? Like, what is the—if we go back to the big dream—what would you like to see French Connection Academy

Emilie Callesen: Well, um, we are in a big situation of development right now, because actually I found this amazing, uh, guy—he’s called Martin Mendelssohn Andersen, very Danish name—he is going to make this big, uh, like creative Europe application. And, uh, of course it’s limited what I can say about what’s going to happen in that. But the idea is that we will have a lot of partners in different countries and that we’ll begin to be able to offer French Connection Academy in mini versions, going to other countries and other institutions. Um, yeah, I’m really excited about it. And also that the idea is that that is a very holistic package of, like, masterclasses with instruments, but also financial health, law, branding, storytelling, these kind of things. And we come out and then we do this full thing for a weekend and then we move on to the next country. And that’s, it’s going to be a fun tour. So that’s, that’s at least on the drawing board for now. And, and we will begin before we do this creative Europe thing to begin to offer that through our website, that institutions can contact us for these things. And we do this to have more—I would call it outreach. So it’s not only the students that come all the way to Denmark, but that we can also offer this to a wider, uh, amount of students during the year. And then also we would like to create more of a community so that year around our students would have access to materials such as, for example, this podcast and interviews with important people in the cultural world, so we can have more information as musicians about other things than how to play your instrument.

Michelle Lynne: I literally just had someone write me today and say, “What do you guys actually learn at conservatory?” And I was like, “Don’t get me started. They didn’t teach us anything for after school. It is changing. I can’t—”

Emilie Callesen: It is changing.

Michelle Lynne: I, I’m on faculty

Emilie Callesen: Hehe.

Michelle Lynne: A university where I teach entrepreneurship. So it is changing and like super happy.

Emilie Callesen: Hmm.

Michelle Lynne: Uh, but, but the interesting issue now is that the new students don’t recognize the importance of this subject. So I just—

Emilie Callesen: Oh!

Michelle Lynne: New year ones last week, and already I got like five messages of, “Is this course mandatory? I’ve got rehearsal. I can’t make it. Should I, you know, do I have to be there? Is it graded?” And I’m like, “Oh, I got, I got to nip this in the bud right now.” So I was like, “Listen, I promise you, this is the most important course that you will take at this institution besides your main instrument lessons. Like either you get this information from me now for free, or you pay me in 10 years for me to teach it to you at TFA,”

Emilie Callesen: Exactly.

Michelle Lynne: Learn this. So like, please just come to class, you know?

Emilie Callesen: Uh.

Michelle Lynne: ‘Cause all of us on the other side are like advocating for, like, we need to teach this in university, but it’s, maybe it’s more like—like, no, we need to teach the 18-year-olds like this is so important, right?

Emilie Callesen: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: Even though they’re—the focus is so strongly on, like, just being the best violinist that you can be. So it’s, it’s interesting for me—

Emilie Callesen: I would say there’s a bit too, because we also see that students like practice, practice, practice and never go out, and the socializing is like an extra. And I remember also hanging out at the conservatory until midnight sometimes and, you know, having this kind of “feeling cool” because you really go into it and you really practice. I practiced a lot also. I was a big perfectionist back then—um, not in the good way also—and I think what many students— that’s also something we really advocate in FCA—remember that among your fellow students, there would be a good handful of them that would be your potential job employer, like being in charge of a festival, academy—like my former fellow students can potentially be employed in my academy, for example—so it’s important to socialize.

Michelle Lynne: The two girls that work for us were my students at Code Arts, so that’s exactly, exactly

Emilie Callesen: Exactly the situation.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Emilie Callesen: That’s exactly enough to go out of the practice room and hang out or go to a cinema club or something—do something beyond, uh, working all the time. And I think the more students see that, you know, that’s also what we say in our academy: like, this is real life. We try to give you real life, which is social, which is very, very dependent on how active you are in approaching others and asking each other favors, information, learning from each other. Like, social skills are so important. And I think really we have to demystify, because for many years it’s these big names, you know—you have the big maestro or you have the biggest soloist; you have Hilary Hahn, or Hilary Hahn is a good example because she’s demystifying.

Michelle Lynne: Yes… We love her… Yes… 100 days of practice

Emilie Callesen: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: Um, but, but, uh, but these big idols have always been there. And if you don’t become a big soloist, what do you do? It’s a bit too bad, you know, you have to feel a bit shameful about that. You just, just teach. I’m like, “What is that? Like, we need every single musician out in the community. We need everyone.” And the world has never needed artists more than today, where there’s war and instability and weird social media. And I don’t know, you know, we have to be there. We have to be in contact as many as possible. And the more musicians that have jobs, private concerts, teach, are in contact with other parts of society, the better—we need it. It’s absolutely important, and it’s a huge success, no matter what career, if you can live from it, if you are enjoying it, if people feel that you’re serving your community, it’s a huge success.

Michelle Lynne: I couldn’t, yeah, I couldn’t agree more. You put it so beautifully. Thanks for sharing that. Yeah. Yeah.

Emilie Callesen: I wish somebody told me that 10 years ago, like,

Michelle Lynne: No, I know. That was beautifully put.

Emilie Callesen: Well,

Michelle Lynne: Emily,

Emilie Callesen: Thank you.

Michelle Lynne: Sharing so much about your French Connection Academy. I know applications are open today, so

Emilie Callesen: Yes.

Michelle Lynne: Who wants to go check it out? Go check out the website, which is

Emilie Callesen: FrenchConnectionAcademy.com.

Michelle Lynne: Perfect, nice and easy. Go check it out. How can people find you and follow you?

Emilie Callesen: Uh, on my Instagram. So my name is Emilie Kellesen, username on Instagram, and there I also will begin to post more advice and also I do some consulting. So if you would like to have received some mentoring, I also give hours of that.

Michelle Lynne: Perfect.

Emilie Callesen: Yes.

Michelle Lynne: So we always finish our episodes with one action point—one thing that our audience can take away. Do you have something in mind you’d like to share?

Emilie Callesen: Oh, I think if you have a dream that is really a big dream that you want, remember that nobody arrives to it themselves. Most likely you need to gather a team—even if it is to become a big soloist. You might need somebody to do your storytelling. You need support and personal development. Everyone. So, go for it.

Michelle Lynne: Amazing. Thank you so much. This has been such a great episode, and looking forward to seeing more about the festival in July when it comes out.

Emilie Callesen: Thank you so much.

Michelle Lynne: We will be happy to share what’s going on with you guys. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you in the next episode of The Fearless Artist. Be fearless.