The Hidden Work That Builds Success – A View From the Conductor’s Podium
Garrett Keast is a Berlin-based American conductor known for galvanizing performances and championing American repertoire. He is the conductor and founder of the Berlin Academy of American Music and a frequent guest with major orchestras, opera, and ballet companies worldwide.
We like to imagine success as the result of obvious things, talent, intelligence, timing, maybe a bit of luck if we’re being honest. In music, leadership, business, and almost every ambitious pursuit, we talk about excellence as if it naturally leads somewhere. Do good work, do it well enough, do it long enough, and eventually something meaningful will happen.
But that’s never quite the whole story.
What actually moves possibility into reality is quieter and far more human. It’s not simply the brilliance of what we can do, but the willingness to step toward other people, again and again, with curiosity, courage, and an openness to what might unfold. The hidden work that builds success is a genuine, sustained desire to connect. Not as a nice extra or a pleasant bonus, but as the infrastructure everything else depends on.
I understood the beginnings of that truth long before I had language for it. I watched it in my father as he built a business from the ground up. His optimism wasn’t a posture, it was an activity. He didn’t simply believe good things would happen, he created motion by talking to people, asking questions, following up, adjusting when needed, and staying engaged with the world rather than waiting for it to discover him. That was my first real lesson in how possibility expands, not through certainty, but through participation.
That understanding stayed with me in rehearsal rooms, backstage conversations, and the spaces between performances where there is no applause and very little spotlight. So much of creative and professional life is shaped in those in-between places. We like the idea that excellence speaks for itself, reality is subtler. Most of the time, excellence needs somewhere to go. It needs introduction, relationship, and trust. Those things don’t appear on their own. They’re built.
That truth became impossible to ignore during the pandemic, when so much of the musical world went still. There was no roadmap, but there was a question worth following, "What could be built if connection came first?" Instead of waiting for normal to return, I reached out. I initiated conversations and gathered ideas, possibilities, and people in seemingly impossible circumstances, not as a passive observer of connection, but as an active builder of it.
Out of that intentional work emerged the Berlin Academy of American Music. What began as a hopeful idea became an orchestra, a community, a cultural bridge, and eventually an artistic presence that exceeded every early expectation. BAAM didn’t simply “happen.” It was created through deliberate, sustained human effort, through listening, inviting, collaborating, and choosing not to stand still.
What that experience affirmed for me is this, "Connection builds what talent alone can’t."
Talent and excellence matter deeply. But neither of them travels without relationships to move through. They don’t open doors by themselves or sustain momentum through uncertainty. The things that last are built between people.
And if there’s a misconception that follows many people well into successful careers, it’s the belief that initiative somehow becomes unnecessary once notoriety, reputation, or recognition arrive. In my experience, the opposite is true. Leadership doesn’t excuse you from connection, it requires more of it. Titles don’t replace human effort. They simply give you a larger responsibility to remain engaged, to invite, to listen, to collaborate, and to keep reaching outward instead of collapsing inward.
The encouraging news is that none of this is reserved for the especially charismatic or the naturally bold. Connection isn’t a personality trait. It’s a practice. It looks like asking instead of assuming. Like staying curious when it would be easier to stay silent. It looks like extending a hand before certainty exists. Often it feels small in the moment. But over time, those gestures shape everything.
Success rarely begins with being chosen. More often, it begins with choosing to engage with people, with possibilities, and with the unseen network of relationships that turn vision into impact. The hidden work that builds success isn’t glamorous, and it doesn’t always show up in headlines. But it’s where meaning lives, and it’s where most of what truly matters is built.
Read more from Garrett Keast
Garrett Keast, International Conductor & Founder of BAAM
A desire to unify hearts and minds through the spirit and messages of music is at the core of Garrett Keast’s work. Known for his ability to inspire and connect with musicians and audiences alike, the Berlin-based conductor is widely recognized for his musical depth with a wide range of repertoire both in the concert hall and opera house. Keast has become known in recent years for his symphonic conducting and expertise in American repertoire as well as for his rise as founder and conductor of his critically acclaimed orchestra, the Berlin Academy of American Music.
