Dana Fonteneau draws on her diverse background in music, business, finance, and psychology to help her clients attain greater personal and career success. She is part performance coach, management consultant, financial advisor, and therapist. Equally comfortable in the board room and the concert hall, Dana helps individuals and small businesses succeed. Her international practice is centered in the arts where she works with top soloists, chamber ensembles, orchestral musicians, actors, dancers, and educators, as well as with leading administrators, board members, and managers throughout the music industry.
Over the past two decades, she has developed a strong track record of helping both those with established careers and rising talents clarify their goals and achieve sustainable results. Her clients have included Grammy Award-winners, Juno Award Winners, Avery Fisher career grant recipients, and Fulbright Scholars, along with leaders and board members from major arts organizations. She has also worked with members of the Boston, Dallas, and Seattle Symphonies and faculty members from the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Peabody Institute, and San Francisco Conservatory. Her work is conducted one-on-one, in small group settings, and through writing and speaking engagements to address career planning, interpersonal dynamics, performance anxiety, and financial planning and negotiations.
Dana also continues to work with select entrepreneurs, business owners, boards, and companies outside of classical music. Some of these clients have included employees at Apple and Genentech, Silicon Valley startups, and established companies including Red Oak Realty and MKI Artists. Her targeted work has enabled clients to negotiate a six-figure consulting contract with Twitter, succeed at interviews with Fortune 500 companies, and significantly increase business, profit, and fundraising results.
Dana has appeared as a guest speaker at nearly every major music school in the United States including the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, University of Michigan, Rice University, CU Boulder, The University of Houston, University of Texas at Austin, and the San Francisco Conservatory. She has presented and served as a career advisor at the Chamber Music America National Conference, Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival, for the United States Marine Band, and Eighth Blackbird’s Creative Lab. Dana’s writing can be found on her blog ‘The WholeHearted Musician‘; in feature articles for Strings Magazine and Chamber Music Magazine; and her book “It’s Not (JUST) About the Gig” which examines what success means to musicians and how to achieve it.
Dana is a conservatory trained musician who has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and as an orchestral player around the world. She holds degrees in cello performance from the San Francisco Conservatory. Additionally, she holds a M.A. in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, is a Demartini Method and Demartini Values Facilitator, and is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFC49425) in the State of California.