The Portfolio Composer

Currently the Resident Composer for the American Studio Orchestra, Jacob Yoffee is a Los Angeles-based composer writing primarily for Film, Television and Trailer Music projects.

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Composer Jacob Yoffee discusses how thinking like a music producer will give you a leg up when scoring trailers, films, and TV.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Trailer music
• Writing on spec
• Demo fees
• Making the music sound real
• Cutting through the competition
• Writing to emotion & feel
• Orchestration & music production
• Don't sound thin
• Writing for the samples
• Invest in the tools
• Being a music major at Peabody
• Difference between academia & media
• John Corigliano
• Behave as a business
• Think like a music producer
• Develop a team & network of musicians
• Invest in yourself & your workplace

Website:

• jacobyoffeemusic.com

Recommended Listening:

• Elliot Goldenthal, "Libera Me" from Interview With a Vampire
• Jennifer Hidgon, Blue Cathedral

Recommended Reading:

• Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A brief history of tomorrow

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Canadian-born, Scotland-based composer Emily Doolittle grew up in Halifax Nova Scotia and was educated at Dalhousie University, the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Hague, Indiana University and Princeton University. From 2008-2015 she was  Assistant/Associate Professor of Composition and Theory at Cornish College of the Arts. She now lives in Glasgow, UK, where she is an Athenaeum Research Fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

 

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Composer Emily Doolittle discusses the study of animals & music and balancing parenthood with composing and an academic career.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Biomusicology
• Zoomusicology
• How animals learn
• Regional differences within a species
• Transcribing & translating animal songs
• Folklore
• Motherhood
• Life balance
• Feminism
• Tenure clocks
• Letting go of the ideal bio
• Become comfortable with uncertainty & chaos
• Thinking how differing life experiences can enrich our perceptions
• The role of confidence
• The fear of having kids
• Make yourself take action
• Investing in daycare for the sake of your art

Website:

• emilydoolittle.com

Recommended Listening:

• R. Murray Shafer, 3rd String Quartet
• R. Murray Shafer, And Wolves Shall Inherit the Moon
• Cassandra Miller
• Chiyoko Szlavnics
• Jocelyn Morelock

Recommended Reading:

• Francois-Bernard Mache, Music, Myth and Nature, or The Dolphins of Arion

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Whether he’s captivating an audience as a panelist at WonderCon or engaging ‘The 100’ (CW) fandom in weekly live tweets or Reddit AMAs, composer Tree Adams blends his passion for the art of storytelling with his ability to create ground-breaking genre scores for film and TV. Over the past 20 years, Tree has had the opportunity to collaborate with great talent in diverse styles.

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Composer Tree Adams discusses making your marketing personal, writing for the characters, and matching the tone of the story.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Storytelling through music
• Listening to the characters
• Misinterpreting the scene
• Matching the tone to the movie
• Having an opinion
• Hitting the story on the nose
• Getting gigs
• Having a team (even of two)
• Putting together a professional looking package
• Making it personal
• Make it easy for them to hear your music
• Specializing
• Get an assistant

Website:

• treeadams.com

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Sarah Hamilton is a music-lover, and specializes in digital distribution and strategy. Ditto Music is an international music company with 8 international offices and is headquartered in Liverpool, UK. Working with over 150 000 artists and labels, Ditto is committed to helping artists and labels expand their reach online by offering digital distribution, record label services, unique service 'record label in a box' to assist in the setup and management of record labels, and digital consulting services.

Join The Portfolio Composer community and support the creation of the platform on Patreon. Just $1/month to enable the creation of more great content to help you build your career!

Digital distribution and marketing specialist Sarah Hamilton of Ditto Music shares how digital distribution works and the revenue possibilities of getting on Spotify playlists.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Ditto Music
• Record label in a box
• Streaming
• Spotify
• Supporting artists & composers
• Digital aggregators
• Rising above the clutter
• Finding your audience
• Spotify audiences
• Meta data for concert music
• Building a direct relationship with your fans
• Starting a label
• Don't be afraid of streaming platforms
• Use the data
• Ask for opportunities

Website:

• dittomusic.com
• oneofone.com.au

Recommended Listening:

• Matt Corby, "Brother," on Into the Flame
• Matt Corby, Resolution
• Kardajala Kirridarra, Bardakurru Ngurra

Recommended Reading:

• Patti Smith, Just Kids

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On a twist of The Portfolio Composer's regular format this episode is from a recent Music Publishing Podcast episode where I was the host on Dennis Tobenski's show!

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Dennis Tobenski shares about his new music distribution platform for self-published composers, NewMusicShelf, and a great new call for scores he is running.

Call for Scores:

• NewMusicShelf call for scores: 2017 Art Song Anthologies

Website:

• newmusicshelf.com

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Sarah is an arts marketer, activist, and enthusiast who in 2015 left her 'day job' in arts administration to launch Goddess of Win Music Business Solutions. Goddess of Win provides business support to freelance composers—everything from filling out pesky vendor paperwork to fulfilling sales and rental orders to customers.

Join The Portfolio Composer community and support the creation of the platform on Patreon. Just $1/month to enable the creation of more great content to help you build your career!

Assistant to a conspicuous list of composers and entrepreneur Sarah Meals discusses the how and why you should hire an assistant.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• BCM International
• Becoming an assistant
• Going full time
• Seeing opportunity & taking it
• When to hire an assistant
• Managing revenue
• Different licenses
• Residencies
• Commissions
• Emails
• PR & branding
• Websites
• Sales
• Retailers
• Hiring an assistant
• Have a functioning website:
  • Catalog
  • Scores
  • Recordings
  • Contact
• Responding to emails quickly
• Keeping up on your social media

Website:

• goddessofwin.com

Recommended Listening:

• Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 2

Recommended Reading:

• John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
• John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Help composers find the podcast by giving The Portfolio Composer a review on iTunes!

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This interview was originally released as Ep 117-David and Matthew Maslanka on Showing Up & Doing the Work.

David Maslanka is best known for his more than 40 works for wind ensemble. His music is deeply informed by meditative explorations of dream spaces. Matthew Maslanka is the owner and general manager of Maslanka Press. He publishes many of David Maslanka’s works and manages David's residencies and commissions.

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Composer David Maslanka and his son Matthew discuss the creation and operation of Maslanka Press and building your self-publishing business.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Self-publishing
• Showing up
• Taking it one step at a time
• Persistence
• Working like a demon
• Having faith in choosing a composing career
• The self-study Harvard MBA
• Follow the money
• Have a book keeper and accountant
• Getting back to people timely
• Making a good visual presentation
• Building a team
• Hiring an assistant
• Black Ribbon
• Sell, don't rent your music
• Asia Pacific Band Director's Association
• One person/director/performer at a time
• Maximizing your options

Website:

• davidmaslanka.com
• maslankapress.com

Recommended Listening:

• Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring
• Bela Barok, Concerto for Orchestra
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Le Cog d'or
• Philip Glass, Koyaanisqatsi

Recommended Reading:

• Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols
• Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

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Matthew Curtis, Tenor, has performed around the world with internationally recognized choral ensemble such as Chanticleer, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Philharmonia Baroque, American Bach Soloists, and the Rose Ensemble. He is now the voice and vision behind ChoralTracks.com, the highest quality rehearsal tracks on the market. Since it's founding in 2012, the ChoralTracks.com catalog has grown to near 10,000 pieces of music. Matthew works with hundreds of choirs and ACDA/NafME choir festivals.

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In this episode Matthew Curtis of Choral Tracks discusses how composers can find opportunities if they learn to look for them.

Here's a demo recording Matthew created for me of my SATB w/piano and soloist piece, I Greet Thee. The text is by John Calvin.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Choral Tracks
• Seeing a need in the market
• Helping composers
• Recording all the parts
• Subscription services
• Learning the ropes of running a business
• Taking the non-traditional path
• Hard work pays off
• Getting laser focused
• More opportunities
• Know your market
• Marketing yourself & building a brand
• Work harder than anyone else
• Treat your work like you're running a business
• Save your money

Website:

• choraltracks.com

Recommended Listening:

• Franz Biebl, Ave Maria

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The music of Michael Torke has been called "some of the most optimistic, joyful and thoroughly uplifting music to appear in recent years" (Gramophone). Hailed as a "vitally inventive composer" (Financial Times) and "a master orchestrator whose shimmering timbral palette makes him the Ravel of his generation" (New York Times), Michael Torke has created a substantial body of works in virtually every genre.

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In this episode Michael goes deep on synesthesia, intellectual pursuits, writing music for self-glory, being debt free, process, failure, commissions, and more!

Website:

• www.michaeltorke.com

Recommended Listening

• Edvard Grieg, Piano Concerto No. 2 in A Major

Recommended Reading

• David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years
• Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Help composers find the podcast by giving The Portfolio Composer a review on iTunes!

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A review of On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King.

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A Must Read episode with lessons learned from Stephen King's On Writing.

From the back cover:

"Long live the King" hailed Entertainment Weekly upon publication of Stephen King's On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999—and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recover. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it—fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.

Four lessons from this book:

1. In the end your work belongs to the people who receive it.
2. Art is a support system for life.
3. Build your toolbox and the muscles to carry it.
4. Making art is about enriching the lives of others.

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Purchase On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King on Amazon.com.

You can find all the Must Read episodes here.

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