How to Share Music

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“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the wind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” – Plato

I’ve seen it on Hallmark cards, Instagram, Facebook, and journal covers. It’s the image of someone doing something gutsy like jumping over a chasm with the words, “Leap and the net will appear.”

I think I’ve found variations of this idea in every spiritual tradition and book of writing advice that I’ve studied. There is something powerful in setting your sights on something and THEN figuring how to make it happen.

Hearing someone else’s story about how they did this is pure inspirational gold. In this episode of the How to Share podcast, author and educator Nancy Shear tells her story of leaping. She was 15 years old when she first heard the Philadelphia Orchestra. She knew she had hear more but she didn’t have the price of the ticket. Through patience and pluck she figured out how to go in by the stage door – and that led to the amazing stories she tells in her book, I Knew a Man Who Knew Brahms.

Nancy and I talk about how sneaking in through the back door of the Philadelphia Orchestra opened so many fascinating doors in her life such landing the job as the assistant librarian to the Philadelphia Orchestra at age 17. We get to ride along with Nancy to meet all the incredible people she got to know including the wonderfully charismatic conductor Leopold Stokowski who starred in Disney’s Fantasia to the incredible cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

Nancy lets us in on so many fantastic aspects of the workings of an orchestra and I reveal some of the ways her book changed how I listen to a performance. Her nerve, grit, and storytelling will leave you amazed and inspired. I know you’ll love this conversation with the delightful Nancy Shear.

Here are some favorite quotes:

  • “If you have no choice, then you make a life.”
  • “Money is not necessary; it led to my going backstage and meeting all these people.”
  • “Beauty still matters in this battered world.”
  • “What is to lose? You’re walking into a room of human beings.”
  • “Writing the book was where the courage really came in.”

And here’s Nancy telling the story of sneaking in to the Philadelphia Orchestra:

Here are some ways you can watch this fascinating and delightful episode:

Please listen, watch, provide feedback and subscribe.

How to Celebrate the Try – The Life of Try: Personal growth, one try at a time.

When should we celebrate progress—only at the finish line, or all along the way?In this episode of The Life of Try, Wynne Leon explores the power of small wins, tiny habits, and incremental progress. Drawing from a personal story about preparing her home for an Airbnb experiment during the World Cup in Seattle, Wynne reflects on what it means to keep going when growth is messy, nonlinear, and full of setbacks.Along the way, she connects insights from BJ Fogg, creator of Tiny Habits and director of Stanford’s Behavior Design Lab, with the long-term philosophy of Toyota’s Kaizen culture, where small daily improvements add up over time, and the practical courage found in the checklist mindset associated with Captain Sullenberger. This episode is about personal growth, habit formation, celebrating small victories, and learning to recognize that progress doesn’t have to be dramatic to matter.In this episode, we discuss: → Why celebrating small wins can help you stay motivated even when progress feels slow or messy → How BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits approach shows that tiny celebrations can reinforce lasting behavior change → What Toyota’s Kaizen philosophy teaches about the long-term power of small, consistent improvements → How checklists and small-step courage can help you keep going when you feel overwhelmed or stuck → Why growth often looks nonlinear, and how to recognize progress before the final result arrives → How honoring effort along the way can help you build resilience, confidence, and momentum If you’ve ever felt stuck, overlooked your own progress, or wondered whether the little steps count, this conversation will remind you that they do. Small wins matter. Tiny steps matter. And trying counts, even before the big outcome arrives.🌍 Show notes and more inspiration: https://wynneleon.com🔔 Subscribe for more: Subscribe to The Life of Try for more conversations on: personal growth, creativity, reinvention, resilience, writing, and mindset.ABOUT ME: Hi, I’m Wynne Leon — host of The Life of Try, a personal growth and self-improvement podcast exploring resilience, reinvention, uncertainty, and the courage to keep trying. Through thoughtful interviews, reflective conversations, and real-life stories, I share insights to help you navigate change, get unstuck, and move forward with more intention.🌍 Website: https://wynneleon.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎥 Watch Next➡️ Letting Go Of Outcomes: The Mindset That Keeps You Moving➡️ 48: How to Get Unstuck: Michael Yang on Saying Yes, Resilience and Coming Alive➡️ How to Reclaim Fun in Adult Life | Mike Rucker, PhD, on Joy, Burnout and the Fun Habit🔗 CONNECT WITH ME:• Website:→ https://wynneleon.com/• Instagram:→ https://www.instagram.com/wynneleon/• Facebook:→ https://www.facebook.com/wynne.leon/
  1. How to Celebrate the Try
  2. How to Reclaim Fun in Adult Life; Michael Rucker, PhD on Joy, Burnout, and The Fun Habit
  3. Reinvention, Resilience and The Courage to Try| Lindsey Goldstein on Gap Year
  4. 51: Letting Go of Outcomes: The Mindset That Keeps You Moving
  5. 50: How to Write the Book You've Been Meaning to Write | Dr. Victoria Atkinson (Slivers)

Links for this episode:

How To Share Music transcript

I Knew a Man Who Knew Brahms by Nancy Shear on Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Simon & Schuster

Nancy Shear’s website: https://nancyshear.com/

From the host:

My book about my beloved father: Finding My Father’s Faith

(featured photo from Pexels)

(quote from Jennie Fitzkee – Edelweiss)

30 thoughts on “How to Share Music”

  1. Quite a story and one that is easy for me to relate to. I also did a bit of sneaking into Chicago Symphony concerts, eventually published a few articles for an about musicians, and became the CSO’s unofficial oral historian for over two decades. Good for Nancy’s recognition that doors open and it is essential that we walk through them. Such decisions depend on our recognition and belief that we will fit in and do good on the other side of the door. Nancy’s professional success made for an interesting and satisfying life, and, I imagine, somewhat of an escape from the difficult childhood she referred to. Cheers to her and thanks for introducing us to her, Wynne.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I thought of you and your experiences with the CSO as I was reading her book and doing this interview. I know you agree that music matters and how deeply it can touch us!

      Your other comments are so true – we have to hold that belief we will fit in and do good on the other side of the door. Well said, Dr. Stein. Thank you for tuning in!

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Fascinating story. Love how Nancy tells the story. Love her quotes too. “If you have no choice, then you make a life.” Wow, so relatable. And yes, beauty still matters in this battered world. Makes me want to sneak into the next concert on my bucket list. If I get caught and put into handcuffs, I’m telling security and local police that Surprised by Joy: How to Share Music gave me the encouragement I needed to sneak in to see the concert!! Ha, ha, love it Wynne.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. This is crazy, Wynne, but when Nancy started with her story of meeting Eugene Ormandy by the back door, I instantly “saw” his name on an album that my father listened to; I know I remember that name. I love how Nancy needed classical music and her comment about why classical music matters because it can still elicit a response, a beautiful response; wow. Here is someone who needed to publish her stories for the rest of us. She is very impressive. Or, as you say, her stories are legendary. So cool!

    Liked by 4 people

    1. I love this comment, Melanie! How cool that you connected to Eugene Ormandy’s name like that – that is so cool! Thank you so much for tuning in – given the way you listen, I can imagine that there is much about these stories that you relate to! Thank so much for the generous comment!

      Liked by 1 person

  6. I look forward to listening to the entire podcast. What a fascinating story. I’m sure I’ll appreciate Nancy Shear’s story coming from a musical family and now my DIL’s family of musicians. Of seven siblings, they all went to college on string instrument scholarships. Two are professional musicians now.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Seven out of seven scholarships with two professional musicians. That’s incredible! I hope you enjoy all Nancy’s stories – she really is remarkable and the book is great!

      Like

  10. Live a life of courage and to admire the beauty that endures through time and darkness. What a beautiful conversation, Wynne and Nancy! The wonderful thing about teenage hood is that courage to do things like sneaking into the back door, figuratively and literally. What a life, career and community it opened up.

    A mature society is one that makes the arts and cultural experiences available more freely to its youth and this conversation demonstrates that so strongly. And you both also had me at librarian. 🙂 What a unique aspect of librarianship!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I love your librarian connection, Ab. Nancy has so many wonderful details about that aspect of her work in her book about being an orchestra library that I thought were fascinating. You are so right about the freedom in teenage hood. Such a great point! Thanks for tuning in!

      Liked by 1 person

  11. What a wonderfully inspiring interview!
    This quote really stuck out to me, especially now: “Beauty still matters in this battered world.” 💞
    And Rostropovich’s story of defending human rights – wow – what a price he paid.
    Can you imagine the joy of being an orchestra librarian?
    And I love how near the end of the interview Nancy says: “I really didn’t want to die with the information that I had accumulated all these years about, mainly about people and humanity and most of all about my beloved classical music. So I had to write this book. had no choice.” I think most writers ‘feel’ this, they have to write because they have no choice…

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Thanks for a magnificent podcast, Wynee and Nancy! “I was very young and someone gave me a ticket to the Philadelphia Orchestra. And I went to that one concert, and I was overwhelmed with the beauty of it. … And listening to that was one of the great experiences of my life.” – simply beautiful!

    Liked by 1 person

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