Artina McCain
Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis
Memphis, TN USA
"For me as a performer, I’ve had to define myself and figure out ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What do I have that’s unique to give?’—in many ways, I don’t fit into the norm, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t deserve to be there."
Career Roadmap
Artina's work combines: Music, Education, and Accomplishing Goals
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Those are the things that make me unique in this field. I embrace that and use it to my advantage.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Music Performance, General
Southern Methodist University
Graduate Degree
Music Performance, General
Cleveland Institute of Music
Doctorate
Music Performance, General
The University of Texas at Austin
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
Growing up, she would always be singing around the house—turns out, she can’t sing, so her mother enrolled her in piano lessons when she was nine.
2.
Even though she started playing piano relatively late by most standards, she fell in love with it and knew early on that she wanted to continue studying it throughout her life.
3.
She attended a performing arts high school and then proceeded to complete bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in music.
4.
Suffered a performance injury in her mid-20s that delayed her doctoral studies and prevented her from playing piano for nearly six years—she now advocates for performance injury prevention.
5.
Says she often suffers from imposter syndrome and self-doubt, but makes an effort to capitalize on her unique strengths and focuses on the end goal.
6.
Believes that she has a “divine purpose” to do what she does and that it is exactly what she is meant to be doing; uses this as her motivation to keep going.
7.
Says that true success is taking whatever your skilled in and giving that back to the world—for her, being the best teacher she can be is how she pays it forward.
8.
She now serves as an assistant professor of piano at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis and enjoys an active career as a solo performer.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
You won't make it in this field because you are African-American and a woman.
How I responded:
Those are the things that make me unique in this field. I embrace that and use it to my advantage.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
An injury prevented me from playing piano for six years.