Astrid Baumgardner, JD, PCC, is the head of the Career Strategies Office and Lecturer at the Yale School of Music and a certified professional coach and lawyer who works with professional musicians, arts leaders and creative business professionals to help them achieve professional, personal and creative success.

Ms. Baumgardner is a regular guest lecturer on career development, music entrepreneurship and arts leadership at music festivals, conservatories and arts leadership programs including the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Juilliard School, The Academy’s Ensemble ACJW, Opera America and the So Percussion Summer Institute. She has spoken at Chamber Music America’s First Tuesdays series and has led professional development workshops at the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the American Composers Orchestra. Her webinars have been featured at the College Music Society. She also writes a popular blog on career entrepreneurship for musicians and arts leaders at www.astridbaumgardner.com/blog.

A life-long amateur pianist and champion of new music, Ms. Baumgardner is the past Co-Chair and Chair of the Board of the American Composers Orchestra and a member of the Board of So Percussion. She also serves on the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum Advisory Board.

A magna cum laude graduate of Mount Holyoke College and a graduate of Rutgers Newark School of Law, Ms. Baumgardner practiced law in New York City for 25 years. She then became the Deputy Executive Director of the French Institute Alliance Française of New York and an independent consultant to non-profit arts boards before founding her coaching company and assuming her position at Yale. For more information, please visit www.astridbaumgardner.com.