Welcome to the National Orchestral Institute and Festival’s podcast series. Throughout this year’s edition of NOI we will be sitting down with visiting artists, administrators, composers, and participants in the festival for brief question and answer sessions to get their take on the state of music in 2016.

Today I got the chance to talk to Jim Undercofler about what it takes to succeed in music. Jim is the former Dean of the Eastman School of Music, former President and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and recent past director of NOI. He is currently the acting dean of the school of music at SUNY Purchase.