Music Ed Mentor Podcast #044: As a Woman in Music Education

Today we are continuing our celebration of Women’s History Month. My guest is Adriana Linares, a professional violist, music educator, entrepreneur, and mother. A member of the incredible Dalí String Quartet (pictured above), she’s also one of the most positive and encouraging people I’ve ever met.

In today’s podcast, Adriana and I discuss life as a woman in music education. We handle tough questions, like:

• Why do we feel like we need to wear so many hats, and collect so many titles?

• What motivates us to be over-achievers?

• Do we feel like we have to work harder to be regarded as legitimate?

• How often are we marginalized?

One of the takeaways of our conversation is that we cannot control others or the way they see us, judge us, or marginalize us. All we can control is our own reaction. We can choose to just be our own awesome selves, head down, working at the things we love, or we can choose to feel marginalized and act as such. As for me, I’ll take the former – just like Adriana.