“I wasn’t ready for the real world.”
I hear this sentence over and over again from recent graduates of conservatories, even those who seem “successful.” Although many attribute this lack of skills to institutional deficiencies, I empathize with the schools. The amount of knowledge and history in music to impart upon a student in four or even six years is gargantuan, let alone fitting in mastery of a difficult instrument. Coupled with the travel and outside time investment necessary to allow students to take auditions, attend competitions, and apply for summer festivals, it is a miracle that students in conservatories know how to write in complete sentences.
Regardless of who is to blame, the problem remains that artists often leave school with a dearth of “real world” skills. How do I make a budget? What should I invest in? What is investing? This mountain of unlearned skills can make an artist feel helpless—as if money management is simply unlearnable. But what could an artist’s life look like with personal finance skills?
Twice a month, National Sawdust Log takes a closer look at the unconventional, interviewing musicians with degrees in music, prestigious or otherwise, who are propelling their career in unconventional ways. Today, we zoom in on the life of one violinist, whose self-taught personal-finance savvy, clever positioning, and hunger for learning made him a landlord.
Wynton Grant was once like the rest of us.
As an undergraduate, he was “terrified” about his career trajectory. “My first couple of teachers were old school,” Grant said. “I think most teachers have a different idea about what’s possible with music. Win competitions. Get degrees. Win an orchestra job. When you’re young and look at the big names, they’re all steeped in that tradition.”
Now, the 25-year-old violinist has his music degrees from the Lynn Conservatory and Yale School of Music, but he lives life pretty far away from tradition. Currently, Grant is gearing up for a North American tour with Rostam, the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist formerly of Vampire Weekend, and recently performed with Shawn Mendes on MTV Unplugged and with Sabrina Claudio on James Corden’s Late Late Show.
While that on its own would be impressive, Grant also managed—after six years of self-education and research—to move to Los Angeles with the capital to purchase his own four-bedroom house, writing his own lease for his three artist roommates, whose rent currently covers his mortgage in full.
“My biggest discovery the past few years has been that there is no ‘one’ way. I knew from my first years as an undergrad that I didn’t want to be just anybody. I wanted to be legit.”
Grant’s impressive ability to purchase a house in Los Angeles on his own at the age of 25 — aside from his targeting only schools that offered full scholarships — started with a personal finance course in college.
“I had never had tools like that before to give me that kind of autonomy on my money,” he said. Grant’s newfound frugality strategies would save him thousands of dollars over his undergraduate years. Eventually he would stumble into real estate websites, which gave him the expertise he needed to declare one day, “I think I should buy a house.”
As he settled in at Yale, Grant began to take this ambition more seriously. Saving for the house also meant making money in unconventional ways, often by taking on numerous side gigs.
“The number one takeaway that’s been useful from learning personal finance is to set a tangible goal, and then find ways to achieve it as easily and efficiently as possible,” Grant explained. “You’ll probably realize that it may require sacrificing certain things. So if saving money is a goal, set a target number, and then do everything you can to get there. The easiest/best way to do that is by reducing expenses and increasing income, so you’re winning on both ends.”
Grant recalls how he filled the ‘increasing income’ part of that equation: “My last year at Yale, among other things, I was a waiter, bartender, nude model, stage/house manager, a teaching assistant, pianist, church choir member, and violinist. Even as a musician I’ve always been working—my first job was at 16 in the movie theater. I’ve always tried to figure out how to use time I wasn’t able to make music to augment my income.
“The pay is pretty good with jobs you can do, considering that the job is where school is,” he adds. “If I’m going to be at school, I might as well get paid, too.”
More importantly, he says, his frequent hours working in school got him entrenched in the institution, building relationships with students and faculty that he never would have otherwise. He has a hunch that this was what led to his winning Yale’s Dean’s Prize, the music school’s highest award of excellence, upon graduation.
The house was within reach. Between his jobs, award money, and endless scrimping and scrounging, the pennies began to add up. (Grant also received a sizable donation from a hometown benefactor.) Thus, after graduating, Grant risked a mammoth undertaking: he found a house, negotiated a small down payment (needing 20 percent is absolutely a myth, he insists), wrote his own 4,000-word lease from scratch, and found three reliable roommates.
While the process was certainly not without hiccups, Grant has settled into his dream city in an ideal financial situation—since his mortgage is covered by his roommates, Grant estimates his monthly expenses at $800 total as he continues to hone his skills in USC’s Artist Diploma program—tuition-free, of course.
“I’ve always wanted to be in Los Angeles, ever since I was a kid. It’s unbelievable being here now.”
Now that Grant has his feet wet in L.A.’s music scene, he looks forward to finally focusing on his personal vision as an artist. Between gigs, he has been documenting his own music on YouTube, recently releasing a music video in which he beatboxes and sings while playing his violin.
“I have so many different visions in my head of what I can create. Do I just want to be a pop artist? How much do I still want to hold on to my classical roots?”
Whatever direction Grant’s career takes—his ambitions include a Grammy—it will be fueled by the transformative ripple effects that trickle down from performing to new audiences. “One particularly powerful moment I keep with me was when Mark O’Connor played in my hometown with Edgar Meyer and a student violist who had ‘taken the semester off from Juilliard’ to come on tour with them. I was only 15, but it left a huge impression on me: That seemed like the coolest thing to be doing.”
The kicker?
“At the end of this month, I’m taking a semester off of school to go and do literally the same thing.”
Wynton Grant can be found on Twitter @WyntonGrant and Instagram @wyolinist.
John Hong, a trained clarinetist, is copywriter and public relations manager for National Sawdust, and holds a Master of Music diploma from The Juilliard School.
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