Weathering the Recession as a Collaborator

What do you do when your work as a musical director becomes threatened by the biggest recession in 50 years? Work as a collaborative pianist, of course. David Hahn on MusicianWages.com looked at his pre- and post-recession freelance profile and detailed his strategy in Case Study: One Musician's Changing Income During the Recession. David's analysis of his work from 2008-10:

You can see that in 2008 I was working nearly full-time as a music director for regional theaters and tours. When I wasn’t working as an MD I was playing 2nd keyboards somewhere else. I made a little money from blogging, a little from copyist work and very little from selling albums.

I experienced a sharp decline in music directing jobs in the 2nd half of 2008. Regional theaters had been hard hit by the recession, and many were not hiring or closing their doors. It was clear that I would need to fill in the income gap with other work.

As you can see from the chart, I tried a lot of different gigs and had the most success with accompanying and church organ gigs. I started my church gig in spring of 2009. Around the same time I found a job as an accompanist at college.

How has the nature of your work changed over the last three tumultuous years?