Portfolio Careers in Music and Ministry: A Conversation with Anwar Ottley

Best Practices for Adventist Worship (BP): How do you view the increasing trend of musicians pursuing portfolio careers—combining performance, education, worship ministry, and more—as a sustainable and rewarding path? Could you share about the different roles you hold within your overall vocation as a musician, educator, and pastor?

Anwar Ottley (AO): Overall, I believe this is a positive trend. The traditional path of a student specializing in music studies has aligned itself with a few key areas—performance, pedagogy, and education. However, as a society evolves, so do the needs of its people, and this has posed a broader pool of professional opportunities for those seeking a career under the umbrella of music. This has also encouraged musicians to be multi-faceted with their approach to music prior to and during their studies, which is now considered a necessity. Today, the needs of the musician entering the workforce not only include performance, pedagogy, and education but also encompass skills that overlap with business, worship, theology, education, technology, therapy, and possibly more. I do think that the blending of music and a secondary area is a sustainable path to pursue for students, as needs for these and other areas will continue to diversify. 

I currently serve as the Pastor of Worship at the Takoma Park Seventh-day Adventist Church in Takoma Park, Maryland.  I also serve as an Assistant Professor of Music at Washington Adventist University (WAU), where I lead the choral program within the department and teach classes on sacred music and worship. The blending of these two roles couldn’t be more ideal.  At Takoma, I plan and oversee the weekly worship service. This includes the liturgy as it shifts periodically, based on what the focus is for a particular season, the participants involved in each weekly worship gathering, and the musical components for each week. At WAU, working with the students in the rehearsal space and in the classroom setting has been rewarding. While there are opportunities for the choirs to sing all over the world, they frequently serve in the local church augmenting the music for worship services.  Additionally, the courses in sacred music allow me an opportunity to share the theological meaning of music in our worship services.  This enables students and choir members to connect the dots between knowledge and application in the classroom and in their faith.   

BP: Can you discuss some of the significant areas of synergy between your various roles, as well as any challenges you've faced? How do these different roles complement and strengthen each other? Could you share any examples, perhaps how your work with the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers has influenced your work as a choir conductor?

AO: There has been positive synergy when merging my two roles between the two institutions.  In each case, each entity “wins.” The church benefits because they are able to receive the talents and services of students within the worship service on a frequent basis throughout the school year. This is especially meaningful on the two significant holidays on the Christian calendar that happen to fall within the school year—Christmas and Easter.  To a lesser degree, the University benefits as they can share that students are able to acquire an immersive experience, especially those who wish to pursue worship ministry or pastoral ministry. The university also gets exposure and recognition for offering a unique type of training or service for students to take advantage. Lastly, the student benefits from gaining real life experience in this field—a field that once required a specific skillset (those of a keyboardist, vocalist, choir director), but now appeals to a much broader array of skills incorporating the aforementioned but also including praise team leader, worship producer/coordinator, chorister, audio engineering, pastoral ministry—all of which can be directly linked to knowing and creating music.

Working with the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers (JMFS) has been a joy.  Aside from ministering in some of the greatest spaces across the country, the ensemble has had the opportunity to work alongside some of the leading talents of our time including Donald Lawrence, Cold Play, and Jacob Collier, despite being formed only two years ago. JMFS is a faith-based organization that focuses on bringing change to the community through exposing young minds to musical excellence and offering unique musical experiences to the music community. It has been notable to see how God is using the ensemble to bring a Christian presence to these various circles of influence. In addition to that, it is a blessing to be in JMFS as its membership includes music ministers, music educators, professors, and a host of people in other professions (dentists, business owners, police officers, etc.), which add to the diversity of thought and skillset represented in the musical ensemble.

BP: If you were advising a student interested in pursuing a portfolio career in music and worship ministry, could you suggest three specific steps or experiences they should seek out to prepare for the professional ecosystem they'll enter after graduation? Could you explain why you think these would be important?

AO: Know Yourself—Each student should take an honest inventory of their current skillset and examine where/how it aligns with the needs of the area one wishes to pursue. Knowing your personal strengths and weaknesses are key prior to heading into the professional sphere. Once those are determined, identify steps on how your strengths can continue to grow setting measurable benchmarks for continued success.   

Diversify Skillset—Many of the individuals working in music specialize in a specific area, but also have a secondary area of similar (but not equal) strength.  In these cases, the secondary areas tend to inform and enhance the primary areas of skill. Some singers are also producers, some conductors play instruments, some preachers are into technology.  Finding your field and cognate area enhances your uniqueness to employers.

Keep Growing—keep yourself accountable to your continued growth.  Avoid the plateau that often comes when in an area too long and allow yourself the intentional space and time to be creative. Oftentimes, the rhythm of work and life robs us of the moments needed to continue in our creativity.