Musicians’ Professional Resilience as a Multi-layered Resource

Introduction

During recent years, several crises have affected the working conditions of professional musicians. The music industry was severely affected when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out early in 2020, and musicians were among the occupational groups hardest hit (Comunian and England, 2020; Kleppe and Askvik, 2021; Stampe et al., 2022). A series of restrictions prevented or delimited live music from being performed. After Norwegian society reopened in February 2022, the music industry was in principle free to return to normal. Soon thereafter, however, several new crises appeared. The Russian full-scale invasion in Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the subsequent war, the associated energy crisis and the following inflation created uncertain conditions for the music industry. During 2023, 2024 and 2025, several media depictions reported cancelled concerts due to poor ticket sales, and music festivals reported a rise in costs due to changes in the foreign exchange market (Hegle, 2025; Joakimsen, 2025). A report analysing financial flows in the music industry suggests that securing remuneration at pre-pandemic standards has become challenging, especially for musicians and artists outside the upper tier of commercial success (Menon Economics et al., 2025). Moreover, several research projects have concluded that the pandemic revealed that in the otherwise generous welfare-based cultural model of the Nordic countries, freelancers and the self-employed (as musicians tend to be) were not covered in the same way as the employed part of the population (Berge et al., 2022; Elstad et al., 2023; Grünfeld et al., 2020; Sokka et al., 2022). Altogether, this indicates that the uncertainties of professional musicians have been considerable in recent years.

Uncertain working conditions among artists are nothing new, and precariousness has been recognised as a major and persistent characteristic of cultural labour (Abbing, 2002; Brook et al., 2020; Gill and Pratt, 2008; Mangset et al., 2018). Thus far, the way artists deal with uncertain work situations has mainly been understood either in sociological terms as a question of a specific motivation for the profession or in psychological terms as a question of personality traits, such as resilience. Lately, however, resilience has been understood more as a dynamic process between individuals and their social environments, including access to cultural resources (Clark, 2024: 151; Ungar and Theron, 2020). This development opens up a more comprehensive approach when studying how musicians deal with uncertainties, difficulties and unexpected events in their work situation.

In this article, we ask the following research question: In what ways can the concept of professional resilience enhance our understanding of how musicians navigate and sustain their careers under unstable working conditions and in times of crisis? This article suggests that musicians have coped with the uncertainties related to their working conditions by drawing on professional resilience as a multi-layered resource. More specifically, we propose a conceptualisation in which sonic aspects related to the experience of what music affords is a basic element in how professional resilience is developed and maintained. Building on DeNora’s (2000, 2003, 2013) conception of music’s affordances as a situated resource for agency, self-regulation, and social ordering, we identify these affordances as the grounding layer of professional resilience. Moreover, the conceptualisation specifies how professional resilience contains intrapersonal, interpersonal (microsocial) and extrapersonal (macrosocial) dimensions. The conceptualisation we propose draws on empirical material from a large study of professional musicians in Norway during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (Røyseng et al., 2022) and findings from a follow-up study with professional musicians and applicants to higher music education conducted during spring 2023.

This article starts with a review of contributions focusing on artists’ motivation for their profession, how the concept of resilience has been used and developed, and how music’s affordances have been theorised. Thereafter is a section where we discuss the methodological basis of the article before presenting the results. The article ends with a concluding discussion focusing on how musicians’ professional resilience could be understood conceptually.

Motivation and Resilience

Three streams of research are particularly relevant for illuminating how musicians deal with crises and uncertainties influencing their work situations. First, artists’ motivation to undertake their careers is a major topic in the sociology of art (Abbing, 2002; Heian, 2018; Kris and Kurz, 1979; Mangset, 2004; Menger, 2006; Røyseng et al., 2007; Throsby, 1994; Wesner, 2018). Within this stream of research, it has been maintained that the attractiveness of the artistic profession among artists and aspiring artists must be seen in the light of an (excessively) strong belief that they will succeed (Mangset, 2004; Menger, 2006). Kris and Kurz (1979) analysed how the notion of a calling is a historically recurring feature in the biographic narratives of artists, indicating that artists have a special inner drive motivating them to pursue artistic careers. This inner drive has often been perceived as an explanation of artists’ willingness to hold out against strong competition and live on a relatively low income. Furthermore, it has been underscored that artists tend to value symbolic rewards more than economic income. The tendency to highlight symbolic aspects of artistic activities corroborates Bourdieu’s idea of the field of cultural production being an economic world turned upside down (Bourdieu, 1993, 1996). Accordingly, authors such as Throsby (1994) and Heian (2018) have stressed that the opportunity to dedicate their time to work with art is something artists are willing to sacrifice much for, even a stable and secure income situation (Heian, 2018; Throsby, 1994). Thus far, existing research has focused mainly on the motivation itself, and on how it relates to specific traits of the field of cultural production, such as financial scarcity and competition for symbolic rewards. Less attention has been given to how artists’ motivation is related to societal change in a broader sense, not least to different types of crises and the changing conditions of artistic work following from them. Moreover, the question is not only why artists stay in their profession, but also how they manage to stay given the particularly precarious work situation it often entails.

Second, artists’ ways of dealing with difficulties and unexpected events in their work situations have also been discussed in psychological studies focusing on resilience (Araújo et al., 2017; Kegelaers et al., 2021). The concept of resilience has gained popularity in several disciplines. Today, it is perhaps primarily associated with psychology and ecology. In ecology, resilience has been defined as ‘the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganise while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity and feedbacks’ (Walker et al., 2004). According to the American Psychological Association, psychological resilience should be understood as ‘the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional and behavioural flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands’ (American Psychological Association, n.d.). The psychological version of resilience has been applied in several studies of musicians and other groups of artists. These studies have typically focused on general mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression (Kegelaers et al., 2021), career-related issues, including underemployment and the oversupply of the artistic workforce (Siddins et al., 2016), and issues specific to the artistic and musical profession, such as performance pressure and music performance anxiety (Osborne, 2013; Osborne et al., 2014).

Sociological perspectives on resilience have extended the concept to include social groups. Accordingly, the concept has been specified as social resilience. Social resilience is defined as ‘the capacity of groups of people bound together in an organisation, class, racial group, community or nation to sustain and advance their well-being in the face of challenges to it’ (Hall and Lamont, 2013: 2). Social resilience is perceived as resulting from an active reaction process of adaptation, resistance and creative transformation, which also builds on collective resources that can take the form of institutional and cultural resources (Hall and Lamont, 2013: 2). On the basis of this understanding, Haugsevje and Heian (2024) have illustrated how mentoring programmes contribute to social resilience in artistic careers by enhancing the social capital of mentees.

In a recent publication, we suggested that it is fruitful to analyse how musicians deal with challenges in their work situation in the light of the concept of professional resilience (Røyseng and Vinge, 2022). Here, we identify musicians as a social group bound together by their profession and that this group has access to institutional and cultural resources that have been viable for upholding their resilience in the face of several challenges concerning the pandemic and career-related issues such as strong competition, low incomes and expectations of working in an entrepreneurial manner, which has been greatly resisted in the Norwegian context. Furthermore, we have underscored that the concept of professional resilience must be understood not as referring to a static characteristic of a profession, but as continuously constituted in the interplay with developments in society at large.

Crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic recession following the war in Ukraine have affected musicians’ work opportunities and financial situation to a large extent. These features are often studied with a focus on the artistic field or the music industry as micro-cosmoses. This tendency might be an outcome of what Van Maanen (2009) has argued to be a trap of autonomism with an excessive interest in the social aspects of the artistic fields rather than the societal role of art. Crises such as wars and a pandemic reveal that the working situation of professional musicians intimately relates to much broader societal changes and developments.

As indicated earlier, a sociological take on the concept of resilience is related to a growing interest in perceiving resilience not only as based on individual thoughts, feelings and behaviours, but also dependent on culturally relevant resources available to individuals in their social and natural environment (Clark, 2024). Accordingly, Ungar and Theron (2020: 446) have maintained, ‘Resilience is not solely a quality within individuals; it grows from access to and use of the resources needed to support mental health and wellbeing.’ The movement from an emphasis on qualities within individuals to resources in their environment has included a focus on cultural resources as important to resilience. In this article, we integrate the idea of resilience as a collective capacity – here understood at the level of a profession – with an emphasis on the cultural resources that shape and sustain it. This conceptualisation is further illuminated by Clark’s investigation into the multiple functions of music in wartime, which shows how cultural resources can support resilience. Here, music, is identified as a resource that can be ‘a form and expression of resilience’ (Clark, 2024: 150). In wars and other crises, it is well known that people have used music to cope with fear, anxiety and uncertainty, and numerous historical and contemporary examples demonstrate this role of music (Clark, 2024; Fackler, 2010; Gilbert, 2023). Clark underscores that to capture the nature of resilience in such situations, the sonic aspect of music must be considered. More specifically, Clark points to a form of ‘soundscaping’ where music is actively used to align sound and well-being. The argument is based on the notion that sound and images have ‘a particular immediacy with which many of us can connect’ (Clark, 2024: 151). Nevertheless, our suggestion of understanding music as a cultural resource of special significance to professional musicians facing unstable working situations in association with broader crises, requires a further discussion of what it is with music that enables it to be a resource for resilience. Thus, we now turn to DeNora’s concept of music’s affordances as the third stream of research we find particularly relevant for this contribution.

Music, Affordances and Resilience

Inspired by ecological psychology, affordances are understood as emergent between a subject and the environment (Gibson, 1966). This implies that music’s affordances must be understood as relational – between a person or a social group and music. Music’s affordances arise in the interaction between the sonic properties of music, such as rhythm, tempo, timbre and intensity, and the person or group. Following DeNora’s theorising – which contrasts with Gibson’s to some extent, as Gibson treats affordances as properties of objects themselves – music does not cause behaviour but provides resources that people can draw upon (DeNora, 2000: 40). In her seminal work on music in everyday life, DeNora (2000) focuses on examples such as how people use music to regulate mood and energy, structure routines (exercise, commuting etc.), shape identity and create atmospheres. DeNora (2000: xi) seeks to ‘describe a range of strategies through which music is mobilized as a resource for producing scenes, routines, assumptions and occasions that constitute “social life”’. This conceptualisation is of particular interest for our discussion of how resilience can be fostered by having access to cultural resources of different kinds. DeNora maintains that:

Music is active within social life, it has ‘effects’ then, because it offers specific materials to which actors may turn when they engage in the work of organizing social life. Music is a resource – it provides affordances – for world building. (DeNora, 2000: 44)

Accordingly, music’s affordances are defined as the possibilities that emerge when individuals engage with musical material in specific contexts. Music affords certain actions, feelings and orientations, not through intrinsic properties but through situated interaction. Music is not understood as containing fixed meanings or effects. Affordances refer to the action possibilities that music offers. As DeNora states, the concept of affordances:

posits music as something acted with and acted upon. It is only through this appropriation that music comes to ‘afford’ things, which is to say that music’s affordances, while they might be anticipated, cannot be pre-determined but rather depend upon how music’s ‘users’ connect music to other things; how they interact with and in turn act upon music as they have activated it. (DeNora, 2003: 48)

Although DeNora underscores that musical affordances are not fixed in advance, it remains important to recognise that certain features of music nonetheless influence how affordances can emerge. Here, we focus on three such features – materiality, temporality and non-representativeness – drawn from DeNora’s broader set of ‘aspects of music’s emotion-inducing capacity’ (DeNora, 2003: 99).

Music’s materiality derives from its existence as sound. Its physical properties of sound are inseparable from the bodily actions through which music is produced and the bodily reactions it may elicit. This materiality is inseparable from temporality: as music moves through time, it becomes capable of conveying subjective processes, rather than static emotional states, giving it a distinctive expressive force. Moreover, music’s non-representational quality can afford emotional response, as listeners may identify with its unfolding sonic material – bodily or cognitively – and thus encounter expressions that mirror their own feelings (DeNora, 2003: 99–104).

DeNora’s concept of affordances has primarily been applied in studies of music in everyday life and in music therapy, in both cases with an emphasis on listening practices. As we shall see, music and its sonic properties are also an important resource for professional musicians in developing and maintaining their professional resilience. Interestingly, a study of non-performers in the performing arts sector in England during the pandemic, found that this group did not experience resilience (Nixon and Davis, 2024). This, of course, might relate to aspects other than not experiencing the music in the same way as performers, but it is still a finding of interest for this study. The concept of affordances may help illuminate music’s role in musicians’ professional resilience. This also includes performing music, in addition to listening (which of course is intertwined in music performing situations).

Method

To investigate in what ways the concept of professional resilience can enhance our understanding of how musicians navigate and sustain their careers under unstable working conditions and in times of crises, we build our analysis on three data sources (DS 1–3). First, in DS1, we build on qualitative in-depth interviews with 57 professional musicians in Norway that were conducted in an early phase of the pandemic, more specifically between August 2020 and February 2021. The sample covers a breadth of musical instruments, genres, life situations, ages and places of residence and is balanced in terms of gender. Moreover, the informants in the sample occupy a wide array of professional roles within the musical field. Some work exclusively as performing musicians, whereas others combine performance with teaching, production, organisational work, and related activities. Their forms of labour-market attachment also vary considerably, most of them are self-employed, often in combination with more stable work contracts, for example, in the Norwegian School of Music and Performing Arts.

The interviews revolved around themes such as work situation, work processes, competition and collaboration, financial aspects including their economic situation during the pandemic and perceptions of the good and bad parts of being musicians. Unsurprisingly, reflections on the pandemic also surfaced in many interviews when the questions revolved around themes other than just the financial situation.

Second, in DS2, in May 2023, we conducted follow-up email interviews with 11 of the 57 initial informants. The aim of the follow-up email interviews was to gain insight into how the conditions and motivations for musicians’ work had developed during and after the pandemic. An invitation to respond to four open questions was sent to 45 professional musicians. The questions focused on the informants’ work situation during the last two years regarding projects, the economy, concerts, their motivation for their profession, whether it had changed in the period, how the music industry had developed in the period and how this affected their work situation, as well as whether they experienced societal recognition as having changed during or after the pandemic. An obvious weakness of this data source is the few responses we received. It is difficult to speculate whether those who responded had special experiences or motivations related to experiencing crises. Here, it is also worth mentioning that the sample did not include informants who have dropped out of their profession. Including dropouts of the profession in the sample would undoubtedly have added other – perhaps contradictory – perspectives of how musicians deal with challenges, difficulties and unexpected events. Thus, when we speak of professional resilience in this article, we must be cautious that this part of our data captures only those who continued in the profession during the crises of recent years and not those who exited it.

Third, in DS3, we conducted qualitative interviews with applicants to higher music education. This third part of the project aimed to understand what characterises the motivation of those who aspire to enter the music profession in times of crises. The last sample was constructed through a survey of applicants to the bachelor’s programme of music performance at the Norwegian Academy of Music. There were 27 applicants who expressed interest in our project, and nine of those eventually chose to participate. The informants in this part of the study included applicants who did and did not gain admission to the Academy. There was also variation in musical instruments and genres. Because higher music education has an international scope, this sample consisted both of some Norwegian informants and some informants from other countries, such as Lithuania, Vietnam and Iran. All three datasets were collected jointly by the authors of this article. In addition, the research team comprised two research assistants who conducted interviews in the first and main part of the data collection. All interviews were recorded and transcribed.

When analysing the data, we were inspired by what Eggebø labels as ‘collective qualitative analysis’ (Eggebø, 2020). This means that summaries of interviews have been discussed jointly by the research group in several phases of the project. During the joint discussions, analytical categories emerging from the material were identified and developed. It was through our collective analysis of the data in the first phase of the project that the concept of professional resilience emerged as an analytical category. When we introduced the concept in a previous publication, we pointed out four cultural resources and strategies that were important to the professional resilience of musicians: strong and meaningful experiences related to the music, creative adaptation to changing working conditions, reducing vulnerability in a competitive environment by anchoring their identity in aspects of their work they felt confident about and resistance against cultural policy expectations on becoming entrepreneurs (Røyseng and Vinge, 2022). In follow-up studies, we aimed at understanding more about how musicians’ professional resilience developed over time when the pandemic persisted and how new crises affected their work situation. We also wanted to deepen our understanding of professional resilience and how it unfolds within and among musicians. The analysis of our threefold materials demonstrated striking similarities between the different groups of musicians interviewed in the study. Thus, our findings from both music students and professional musicians are presented together in the next section of this article.

Professional Resilience as a Multi-Layered Resource

When trying to grasp the characteristics of what constitutes resilience for musicians and discuss how resilience matters in the professional lives of our interviewees, we found that different aspects and resources were simultaneously at play. Hence, we find it useful to discuss professional resilience as a multi-layered resource. This conceptualisation specifies how different elements integrate into the development and maintenance of musicians’ professional resilience. According to the suggested conceptualisation, we divide the following empirical analysis into three main categories.

First, we present how music affords resilience on a personal level for the individual informant, what we have labelled as intrapersonal aspects of resilience. Here experiences of joy, enjoyment and fun related to musical practices are highlighted. Then, we address how our informants also find meaning in being a musician when they see how music affords personal joy and meaningful experiences for others. Hence, the material is analysed according to the interpersonal aspects of resilience. Finally, the extrapersonal aspects are analysed when the material reveals how our informants express a belief in music’s ability to do good and to change society at large. As we shall see, music’s affordances play a crucial role across all three categories, which adds to our point of discussing professional resilience as a multi-layered resource.

The Intrapersonal Layer of Professional Resilience – the Joy and Pleasure of Music

When informants discuss why the music profession appeals to them or the best thing about being a musician, various combinations of the expressions joy, enjoyment and fun are prominent. The terms appear when the informants talk about playing at concerts, recording music or rehearsing or composing alone or with others. A well-established guitarist with over 25 years of experience as a freelance musician expresses how playing and practising music contribute to a sense of individual well-being, emphasising the sheer fun of it:

[The best thing about being a musician is,] of course, it is playing. Practising is always fun. And, it’s probably always been the case that I’ve been a bit like that [. . .] I haven’t been the kind of person who sat for hours practising scales and such, but if I’m practising a song and I come across a technical problem, then I can sit and practise on it for quite a long time. But then it’s fun precisely because it’s a song or it’s in a context somehow. (Andrew, DS1)

As we observe in this quotation, it is the music’s materiality, the notes, the rhythm and the harmony in context – the sonic aspects of music – that create the drive and joy to practise. This resonates with DeNora’s (2003) argument about the material aspect as potentially important for music’s affordances. The temporal nature of music is also indicated as Andrew emphasises that he can practise for longer periods because it is a song. His statement, along with all informants who express music’s strong source of personal joy, shows how musical activities afford well-being for the individual musician. Similarly, as a well-established jazz saxophonist remarks when describing her entry into music:

I started playing piano at home with my grandparents. I played without anyone pushing me. I was very interested; it was just so much fun. Then I started playing the flute when I was around 10 years old, and then I started singing in a choir. Then, I had a few years in a marching band. Then, I started to get a little bored and thought about quitting. But then I got access to a saxophone and got a try on it. When I found the saxophone, I knew that there was something that really spoke to me. I started to feel that this was so much fun that now I may have to continue a little more seriously. (Kim, DS1)

Kim decided to pursue a career as a professional musician when she felt that playing the saxophone was so much fun that she had to ‘continue a little more seriously’. The saxophone ‘spoke to’ her. However, seriousness was not on the mind of Hannah, a classically trained brass player, even when she entered higher music education. Rather, her commitment emerged from the immediate and affective engagement that the music afforded, well before any conscious professional trajectory had taken shape:

My thought was just that it was incredibly fun to play and incredibly fun to play together with other people. I wasn’t fully aware of what it would lead to or what kind of job it would end up in. It was just the desire to play and do music that drove me. The music, itself. (Hannah, DS1)

Our material quite prominently displays these expressions of strong personal joy and sheer fun of performing music. These experiences are presented as key to the choice of the music profession. Thus, the quotations indicate that the affordances of musical engagement operate not only as present-moment enjoyment but also in shaping one’s sense of potential within a future career trajectory (DeNora, 2013: 42). Implicit in Hannah’s statement, these aspects of music performance stand out as something that far overshadow an approach that emphasises the profession’s many challenges. When informants are asked what the worst thing about being a musician is, most discuss the uncertainty linked to making an income, the stress of having a half-full calendar a few months into the future and the tiring nature of travel. When we ask young informants who are applying for higher music education why the music profession appeals to them, we find the same expressed joy of what music affords as described by our professional musicians. When their motivation is challenged by stories about the profession’s many uncertainties, uncertainties catalysed by the current societal crisis, the joy of doing music also trumps these. Here are the words of an applicant for classical performance studies:

I just really enjoy playing classical music. I like the sound of it. I like watching other people play and listen to it, and I always had an interest in it [. . .] I just genuinely enjoy, even, you know, tedious aspects of learning within a deadline, even though it can be really challenging and even a little bit stressful. I still find it so fun. Like, it’s genuinely always been fun for me [. . .] And that’s kind of all there is to it. I just really want to pursue a career where I genuinely derive joy from it [. . .] I’m not even necessarily looking to make a lot of money because, you know, my family, we don’t have a lot of money now. But I would just want to be able to make a living out of it. Even on the spectrum of a lower income, by almost any means possible. (Olivia, DS3)

Olivia’s account demonstrates how music affords joy both when she performs and when she listens. This affective experience is closely connected to music’s materiality, as bodily knowledge can be assumed to shape how she perceives and values musical labour (DeNora, 2003: 100). The well-being she derives from musical engagement is so central that she imagines even a low-income existence as worthwhile, provided she can continue to make music. Moreover, the statement also depicts that this way of valuing the music profession is already integrated at the stage of applying to the music academy.

An alternative, more critical interpretation is also possible. From a Bourdieusian perspective, Olivia’s downplaying of economic insecurity could be taken to indicate a prioritisation of symbolic capital over material concerns. Her narrative may further be taken to reveal how someone from a low-income background can misrecognise structural constraints as freely chosen passion, thereby reproducing existing class hierarchies (Brook et al., 2020). Nevertheless, when placed within the broader pattern across our interviews, the account consistently highlights how the personal joy and pleasure of musical practice function as crucial intrapersonal resources. As we have observed in the foregoing extracts, the meaningfulness of performing music is linked with a personal joy and pleasure of pursuing a ‘life’s passion’. When music offers this emotional and bodily resource to the extent that it far more importantly functions as a buffer against the more demanding aspects of being a musician (DeNora, 2000, 2013), the fun and enjoyment that music affords become a cultural resource that form the basis of multi-layered professional resilience.

The feelings of joy are shared experiences among our informants; however, they still have intrapersonal significance, as emphasised by this quotation from a singer:

The best thing about being a musician is the applause. Not just the applause, but the experience that you get when you walk off the stage, and just wow, now, it flowed. Now, I got that really crazy feeling. You know, it was good; it was really, really good. The fun thing about being a musician is being able to get in that flow and just be able to create something. Forgetting the time and just. . . (Tim, DS1)

Tim’s account also highlights the temporal dimension of musical performance. His description of ‘flow’ points to how music unfolds in a way that structures attention and shapes bodily engagement. This temporal immersion is central to the joy he describes and functions as a powerful intrapersonal resource in sustaining professional resilience. Here the temporal element aligns with Csikszentmihalyi’s (2008) concept of flow. However, Tim also connects flow to the applause – the physical response of the audience.

When our informants also highlight the strong personal enjoyment of contributing to others’ joy through their musicianship, the cultural resource has corresponding interpersonal significance.

The Interpersonal Layer – the Joy and Pleasure of Music and its Social Bonding Effect

As we have already witnessed, a sense of intrapersonal enjoyment and well-being can be fulfilled through performing, creating and rehearsing music, alone or with other musicians. A consistent feature of our material is that our informants also find a strong sense of meaning in performing music for others. Through that, they contribute to others’ joy and meaningful experiences.

I often feel that I’m doing something meaningful; I’m out doing something that touches people. And that must be the best thing you get to experience. (John, DS1)

In this way, John emphasises music’s ‘emotion-inducing capacity’ (DeNora, 2003: 99). A well-respected composer expresses similar ideas, albeit in a somewhat more philosophical manner:

I work with something that is completely invisible, completely perishable, and useless. Music is only tremors in the air, and then, it’s gone. And yet, it goes so deep in us. Music then becomes like a bridge into the invisible with us, with being. It says something non-physical, actually, something about our non-physical identity. (Mary, DS1)

Here, the sonic, temporal and non-representational qualities of music are highlighted as central, even as they are shown to generate non-material effects by affording access to a deeper, more existential sense of identity. Additionally, here music’s affordances are indicated as something that works on the interpersonal level. The belief that music can have such an emotional, and sometimes transcendental, significance is highlighted by several informants, often linked to situations where words fall short. A jazz musician highlights how this aspect of music is prominent in funerals:

When someone has lost someone who is very close to them, you can come and say a few nice words by all means, but there’s not much to say. What on Earth are you supposed to say? Then it’s so good when someone starts playing, because then you get to say what you can’t say in words. And that’s probably the best thing about music – the language we are allowed to use. (Charles, DS1)

This illustrates how music’s non-representational character provides an alternative means of communication and becomes especially salient in social contexts where words fall short. Similar to Charles, several informants have experienced playing at funerals and express a strong sense of meaningfulness in providing music that eases others’ grief. The abstract language Charles talks about points to music’s capacity to appeal to the emotions and the body in ways that sometimes exceed other media (DeNora, 2003: 83). An informant who has achieved great success by touring the world with a popular rock band tells about his greatest concert experience:

The greatest concert experience I had was when I played [. . .] at the funeral of my friend’s father, who passed away quite suddenly. We did it in the church there, and when you just see the relatives in the front row, how much they love it, then I feel that the music takes on a completely insane meaning. And then you can easily say that ‘yes, it’s a cover, and yes, it’s kind of cheap’, but think how many people and emotions it touches? It was the first time I cried on stage. It was damn strong. My friend was completely shocked. You see how much it eases their grief that we get a worthy musical performance [. . .] To be able to evoke emotions in that way. Clearly. (Tommy, DS1)

The strong sense of meaning expressed here also functions as a kind of buffer in the face of the difficulties that accompany the profession. As we have presented in this article, music’s affordances work on both an intrapersonal and interpersonal level. In the presented quotations, we see how the musicians describe their interpersonal relationship with their audience. The interpersonal aspects are also present on stage or in the rehearsing room when the musicians perform or rehearse together. As we have already seen, several of them express how playing with other musicians contributes to a strong sense of meaning and community – an interpersonal layer – that can be identified as a resource for resilience. However, the intrapersonal and interpersonal layer should not be understood as separate. They can be present at the same time. We end this section with a statement from a classical string player describing how music can be both things at once, though emphasising the more ‘egocentric’ perspective:

You kind of take part in giving experiences at the same time as you give yourself an experience. My impression is that the best place to experience music is from the inside. An audience member will never come as close to the music as we do as performing musicians. We are extremely lucky. We are luckier than the audience who experiences it. (Amy, DS1)

By this, Amy argues that musicians occupy a privileged position in relation to music’s affordances. They do not merely listen to music; they also produce the very soundscapes in which they themselves participate. This creates a particular proximity to music that she highlights as an important advantage.

The Extrapersonal Layer – the Belief in Music’s Power and Value in Crises

The final main category in our conceptualisation of professional resilience concerns the extrapersonal layer. This refers to how music relates to the social world and, more specifically, how musicians perceive its affordances in relation to crises and challenges in today’s society. In our conceptualisation, the extrapersonal layer thus concerns how musicians situate their work within broader societal narratives about the value and functions of music. Unlike intrapersonal or interpersonal dimensions, this layer relates music’s affordances to collective beliefs, cultural imaginaries, and socially circulated discourses about music’s role in times of crisis.

A central feature of our material concerns the belief in music’s ability to ‘do good’ and to change society. Although they are not necessarily directly involved in such activities, our informants point out, know about and strongly believe that music can afford well-being at the societal level. They refer to music used as therapy, community music concepts and music used for outreach projects. In the conversations, they also discuss music that serves a good cause, binding people together, learning to respect and acknowledge others’ culture and providing alternatives to the darkest thoughts. Tommy proclaims, ‘[M]usic is the healing force of the universe’. Analytically, this points to an extrapersonal dimension in which music’s sonic and participatory qualities are believed to afford forms of social repair that exceed individual agency. Charles elaborates on the meaning of this:

The beauty of being a musician [is] how easy it is to get to know other people: how to communicate with other people through music, how many problems can it solve. With fear of being too pompous, then – to make the world a better place. When you look at the racism that is spreading in the world, if only they can get to know each other. If a white man and a black man can just start playing together, then that problem is solved. (Charles, DS1)

Charles’ account illustrates a long-standing cultural imaginary of music as a universal language capable of dissolving social boundaries. The statement clarifies that music can be understood as a cultural resource that works through its sounding qualities, implying that the sonic and non-representational aspect of music affords resilience on the extrapersonal level. Similar views were also presented among the younger informants. When applicants to higher music education are asked about the importance of music and the future of the profession in challenging times, they often paraphrase well-known statements about music as a universal and socially binding language, about music’s unifying function and about music’s calming and comforting effect. As with many of our older professional musicians, they uphold a strong belief in the power of music. An applicant who is a singer–songwriter acknowledges the troubling times while asserting the meaning of art:

As a musician in a world that is going to hell, you at least have a lot more to write about, a lot more to create about. What would you have written songs about, created theatre about, or written books about if everything was great and nice and everything went smoothly? So perhaps it’s all the more important in terms of writing something, creating something that people can identify with, which gives them joy and which gives them an experience. (Susan, DS3)

Susan’s reflection highlights how crises can intensify musicians’ creative drive, positioning artistic work as a meaningful response to a world marked by uncertainty and difficulty. Susan’s perspective also aligns with Clark’s argument that artistic expression becomes especially vital in contexts of crisis, where music functions as a resource that helps people navigate fear, uncertainty, and emotional strain (Clark, 2024).

In the follow-up study (DS2), a general observation was that despite the pandemic being challenging and creating significant uncertainty about sustaining a career in music, several informants reported that their motivation had strengthened in the aftermath.

My motivation is stronger than ever. It’s perhaps when things are at their limit that you realise how much you want to do your job. (Nancy, DS2)

According to Nancy, the pandemic and other societal crises serve as a wake-up call, heightening their awareness of the importance of being a musician. This sentiment is elaborated on in the following quotation:

I think I’ve realised more than ever that I just have to be a musician. That it’s such a big part of my identity that when I don’t get to be a musician, I become a less happy version of myself. It almost becomes a little identity crisis – who am I and what can I do when I can’t do music? I don’t have the qualifications for any other job. So, the pandemic has actually made it even clearer that it’s music that I have to do. (Bill, DS2)

The power and value of music, the extrapersonal significance, are also highlighted when informants discuss why the pandemic strengthened their motivation for their profession.

The pandemic taught me to appreciate being a musician even more. I feel privileged to be allowed to still be a musician and that I was not one of those who fell off the wagon. I know many have found it demanding in more ways than one. I love my profession and have gained renewed motivation and greater insight into what this is really about, what music and art mean in society and for the individual. (Sahra, DS2)

A crisis such as the pandemic revealed several informants’ convictions about how music does good both at the societal and individual levels. The notion of music’s affordances does not stop at the personal level for the informants. A similar view was expressed by one of the applicants to higher music education. In troubled times, music can have a lingering effect on the well-being of individuals, as this young classical singer upholds:

I think that if we only focus on things that are bad, all the time, as society tends to do now, I think that we are not going to be well with ourselves. So, now you see psychological problems and other similar things increasing in society. Not just in Norway, but also in Europe and the world in general. And there, historically speaking, music and art have been a very important part of preventing or reducing that occurrence. I think you can already see that many people make music to make their lives better, and I think that we, as professional musicians, will have an important role in that development going forward. (Lara, DS3)

The foregoing statements reveal how musicians anchor their professional identity in wider cultural narratives. Music is positioned as a resource for social cohesion, emotional repair, and ethical engagement, relating to cultural narratives that are part of the extrapersonal affordances of music. These accounts suggest that crises such as the pandemic intensify musicians’ sense of societal purpose, reinforcing an extrapersonal logic in which music’s perceived social value becomes a source of professional resilience. Taken together, these excerpts demonstrate that the extrapersonal layer of musicians’ professional resilience is grounded in culturally shared beliefs about music’s societal significance. Whether articulated through narratives of healing, community building, or emotional support, musicians draw on these wider ideas to situate their work within a larger social framework. In doing so, they activate cultural resources that reinforce both their professional resilience and their sense of purpose in times of crisis.

Concluding Discussion

The aim of this article has been to illuminate in what ways the concept of professional resilience can enhance our understanding of how musicians navigate and sustain their careers under unstable working conditions and in times of crisis. Based on data from a study of professional musicians in Norway, we have proposed that professional resilience should be understood as a multi-layered resource that makes it possible for musicians to cope with challenges and unexpected events in their work situations. As the analysis of our data illustrates, professional resilience is developed and maintained through processes at the intrapersonal, interpersonal and extrapersonal levels. Central to these processes is the musicians’ engagement with musical materials, including their sonic, temporal, and non-representational qualities, which illustrates how music’s affordances provide resources for well-being and sustained professional engagement. Recall the informant stating: ‘It was just the desire to play and do music that drove me – the music, itself’. Yet another stated: ‘I just really enjoy playing classical music. I like the sound of it’. The sonic aspect of music is a resource that affords joy and well-being at the intrapersonal and interpersonal levels. It serves as a means of communicating hope and for expressing meaning at the extrapersonal level.

A distinctive strength of how we have conceptualised professional resilience as a multi-layered resource is that it contributes to the growing understanding of resilience as a dynamic process between individuals and their social environments, including the access to and active use of cultural resources (Clark, 2024; Hall and Lamont, 2013; Haugsevje and Heian, 2024; Ungar and Theron, 2020;). Resilience is perhaps best understood not as a result of individual or internal traits, but as access to, and enactment of, cultural resources. As has emerged from our analysis, musicians’ ongoing engagement with musical materials, practices, and environments is inseparable from their resilience. As DeNora has noted music is ‘a ‘mirror’ that allows one to ‘see one’s self’, it ‘may serve as a repository of value, of self-perception’ (DeNora, 2000: 70). Through musical action and experience, musicians access resources that facilitate their continued engagement in the profession. Music affords joy, stability and hope in musicians’ professional lives. This conceptualisation not only illuminates why musicians stay in the profession but also how they manage to endure and adapt in the face of uncertainty.

This perspective offers a counterpoint to dominant approaches in the sociology of art that emphasise motivation, symbolic rewards, and prestige-seeking as core drivers of artistic labour. It is worth noting that a central theme in several contributions to the sociology of art is that artists often attribute such high symbolic value to their artistic practice that they are willing to work for free or to postpone, or even dismiss, plans of starting a family (Brook et al., 2020). While this focus on motivation is important and has been highly influential, it does not tell the whole story. Such perspectives do not fully account for the role of sonic, material and experiential dimensions of musical practice. By foregrounding these aspects, we move beyond a hermeneutics of suspicion (Ricoeur, 2008) focused on uncovering hidden assumptions and power relations, and consider how musicians’ encounters with sound may themselves constitute vital resources for professional continuity.

Furthermore, the multi-layered conceptualisation integrates understandings of resilience as an individual phenomenon, with understandings of resilience as something found in social groups. With experiences of resilience as an intrapersonal process, an individual understanding of resilience is included in our conceptualisation. This conceptualisation extends beyond the classic individual–structure dichotomy by offering a more integrated perspective. In addition, we emphasise that the resources on which musicians draw when they develop their resilience are, to a great extent, cultural resources. More specifically, music and its material, temporal and non-representational aspects seem indispensable. This resource is shared by all musicians and forms the basis for what we have termed musicians’ professional resilience. Here, the striking similarities between the different groups of informants are interesting, with experienced musicians at one end of the spectrum and aspiring musicians applying for admission to higher music education at the other. The powerful experiences with, and understandings, of what music affords in their own lives, in the lives of others and in a world undergoing a series of crises bind them together as musicians and aspiring musicians. In short, it binds them as a profession.

A further implication of our study is that the affordances of music may be more strongly activated for musicians than for listeners or audiences. As Amy noted in an extract quoted earlier, musicians occupy a privileged position in relation to music’s affordances. Musicians’ dual position as both creators and experiencers generates a particular proximity to music that intensifies the immediacy and availability of sonic resources. Through bodily engagement, co-performance, and real-time interaction with sound, performing musicians access affordances of vitality, agency and emotional alignment that might be less directly available to listeners. This may therefore help explain why performing musicians, compared to non-performers, often describe music as a primary source of well-being and a crucial foundation for their professional resilience.

Another strength of our conceptualisation is that it is not affected by the common critique of the concept of resilience as serving a neoliberal agenda (Nixon and Davis, 2024). Introducing the concept of professional resilience may raise questions of whether we create an impression of musicians as a group that tolerates (or even thrives) in the face of difficulties and that it is an individual responsibility on the part of musicians and other members of the cultural labour force to find ways to cope in times of crises. Developing an integrative approach means that resilience – or the lack thereof – is not attributed to a single person. Rather, it is understood as a resource that is continuously constituted in the interplay between the different layers of our conceptualisation. Significantly, resilience is a processual phenomenon. It is always an open question how the resilience of musicians and other groups of artists are affected by unexpected events and developments in society.

Our study also has limitations. Our sample mainly included informants who had stayed in the profession. To expand our understanding of how substantial crises affect the resilience of professional musicians and other cultural workers, it would be interesting to focus on those who have left the profession. It would also be interesting to explore what the perspective of professional resilience as a multi-layered resource can offer to understand how other artistic groups, such as visual artists, actors and writers, cope with uncertainties in their professional lives. Following DeNora’s concept of affordances, it should be acknowledged that these art forms rely on capacities different from those afforded by music, and that they need to be studied as practices acted with and upon rather than as properties given in advance.

Finally, it would be valuable to investigate the degree to which the conceptualisation of professional resilience as a multi-layered resource is relevant beyond the welfare-oriented context of Norway.