… the oboe experience might help you.

Kerr, who majored in oboe performance and economics at the University of Michigan, called the job “occasionally a close second” to the most stressful situation she has ever had: playing in an orchestra with “really demanding conductors.”

“I spent many, many years of my life preparing for performances and thinking about all the different things that could happen — if my reed was going to be bad, or if there was too much humidity in the room,” Kerr said.

“On-the-record experience, especially live on-the-record experience, is just like that. So I just drew upon my music training to help me.”

After campaign season wound down, Kerr hoped to work for a freshman lawmaker focused on financial or energy policy. She found just that in Himes, an investment banker who beat former Rep. Christopher Shays (R) in November and won a seat on the House Finance Committee.

Though this is her first Washington job, she spent two and a half years as an aide to new Rep. Mark Schauer (D-Mich.) when he was in the Michigan Senate, and also campaigned for Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) in 2004.

One thing she has left behind is her oboe.

“This is what I tell everybody: The world doesn’t need another great oboist,” she said. “The world needs people with money and power who support the arts.”

RTWT