The Portfolio Composer

Composer Alexandra Gardner creates music for varied instrumentations, often mixing acoustic instruments with electronics. Praised as “highly lyrical and provocative of thought” (San Francisco Classical Voice), and “mesmerizing” (The New York Times), her music has been featured at festivals and venues worldwide, and it has been commissioned by acclaimed ensembles and musicians such as Percussions de Barcelona, ETHEL, pianist Jenny Lin, NOW Ensemble, SOLI Chamber Ensemble, and The Seattle Symphony

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Alexandra Gardner discusses the art of reaching out and taking non-traditional paths as a composer.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• John Luther Adams, "Made all the wrong choices."
• Taking a non-traditional path to being a composer
• Not staying in school
• Making your own opportunities
• Writing music for dance
• Living in Europe
• Releasing Ego and insecurities
• Working to live vs living to work
• Reaching out
• Networking
• Overcoming our fear
• Worse-case scenario
• Email script for reaching out
• Making it easy for them
• New Music Box
• Tipping point
• Getting repeat performances
• Contracts
• Ask for what you want & need
• Be professional
• Make it easy for people

Website:

• www.alexandragardner.net

Recommended Listening:

• Michael Gordon, Timber

Recommended Reading:

• Cal Newport, So Good They Can't Ignore You

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This is a special episode where the script has been flipped and I am put on the hot seat. This episode is a re-broadcast of Ep 10 of the Clarineat Podcast hosted by Sean Perrin. Sean Perrin was featured in Ep 70 of this podcast.

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Garrett Hope takes a turn on the hot seat to discuss the podcast, why we need to learn business skills, and composer collaborations.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Composer on Fire
• Thinking businessly
• Your music has value
• What you do has value
• Mindset
• Creating opportunities for yourself
• Taking action & facing fear
• Being an entrepreneur is hard work
• Valery Young (Ep 15) on the impostor syndrome
• What you focus on grows
• Aprille Janes (Ep 25) on writing better bios
• Sean Perrin (Ep 70) on adding value
• Having a collaborative relationship with a composer
• Lori Freedman's interview on the Clarineat podcast
• How to speak with composers
• Why we need to know business skills
• Coaching
• Selling ourselves

Website:

• garretthope.com

Recommended Listening:

• Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring
• James MacMillan, Seven Last Words From the Cross

Recommended Reading:

• Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

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Daniel Spreadbury is the Product Marketing Manager for Steinberg's in-developing professional scoring application, Dorico. Before joining Steinberg, Daniel and many members of the Dorico team worked for many years on the Sibelius music notation software. Prior to that, Daniel studied music at Oxford University, and, outside of his work on Dorico, keeps his musical hand in both as a choral tenor and a choir director.

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Steinberg's Product Marketing Manager for Dorico, Daniel Spreadbury, discusses how Dorico will meet the needs of composers, arrangers, engravers, and music publishers in the 21st Century.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Why Dorico?
• User interface
• Self-publishing
• Front material
• Multi-movement works
• Staff sizes
• Five modes:
  • Set-up mode
  • Write mode
  • Engrave mode
  • Play mode
  • Print mode
• Writing ametrical music
• Polymeters
• Native file formats and importing Sibelius and Finale files
• Versions & pricing structure
• Color schemes
• The name

Website:

• blog.steinberg.net
• Steinberg's Dorico Forum

Recommended Listening:

• Johannes Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45

Recommended Reading:

• Elaine Gould, Behind Bars

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Marie Incontrera is a composer, conductor, pianist, and bandleader whose multi-genre work spans opera, big band, heavy metal, post-modern orchestra, and chamber music. As a composer, Marie's work has been hailed as "deftly woven jazz and gospel elements" and "beguiling" (NY Times). Marie is the bandleader of the Eco-Music Big Band, a multigenerational and unique big band that performs the work of its late founder Fred Ho and provides a platform for the next generation of composers.

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Composer and band leader Marie Incontrera reveals how anything is possible by committing to work harder than anyone else.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Multi-genre music
• Avant-garde big band
• Leading an ensemble
• Starting an ensemble
• Having a mission
• How to manage money
• Organizational skills
• Having a fiscal sponsor
• Being willing to work harder than anyone else
• Anything is possible
• Pivoting & not letting failure define you
• Accept that you have to relinquish control
• Eliminating ego
• Finding people you trust
• Jazz economy
• Keeping the hustle going
• Focusing on the positive

Website:

• www.ecomusicbigband.com

Recommended Listening:

• Cal Massey, The Black Liberation Suite

Recommended Reading:

• Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life

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Composer/conductor Jonathan Sheffer's career covers classical, opera, dance, and film and television. His compositions includes works for orchestra, solo piano, concertos, two musicals, the opera, Blood On The Dining Room Floor, and scores for television, Hollywood, indie and documentary films. He founded the Eos Orchestra in New York, Red {an orchestra} in Cleveland, and conducted the New York City Opera, American Ballet Theatre and at international festivals.

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Composer and Conductor Jonathan Sheffer discusses how and why composers need to provide meaningful experiences for their audience.

Topics discusses in this episode:

• It all begins with casual conversations
• Putting yourself in front of the right audience
• Finding like-minded individuals
• Building ambition
• The Conference of The Birds
• Crafting accessible music
• Engaging the performer
• Composer as conductor
• Providing meaningful experiences
• Alarm Will Sound
• The Knights
• Composer as curator
• Classical music as a niche
• What is success?
• Be open, be willing, be generous

Website:

• www.jonathansheffer.com
  

Recommended Listening:

• Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes

Recommended Reading:

• James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
• Charles Rosen, The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven

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Julia Torgovitskaya, President of iCadenza & CEO of Cadenza Artists Management, is a trained opera singer who relates first-hand to the ever-changing challenges facing performing artists. She has extensive consulting experience, and her writings have been published in international publications. Having earned a Master of Science in Executive Leadership from the University of San Diego, Julia is passionate about helping musicians pursue their careers with an entrepreneurial mindset.

Jennifer Rosenfeld, CEO of iCadenza and President & Principal Manager of Cadenza Artists, has extensive experience working with musicians of all genres on identifying and pursuing their professional goals, and overcoming the obstacles that come up along the way. She has also worked with organization leaders on creating a culture of innovation and developing promotional and strategic initiatives. She received her JD/MBA from Stanford Law School and Graduate School of Business.

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Musicians turned coaches and artist managers Julia Torgovitskaya & Jennifer Rosenfeld discuss their business iCadenza and book Awakening Your Business Brain.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Art vs business
• Business & music skills
• Mindset
• Nathan Cole
• Providing value
• Assumptions about business
• Artist management
• Networking
• Approaching managers & presenting yourself professionally
• Waiting for perfection
• Taking an active role in your business
• Having a vision
• Who, what, & why?

Website:

• www.icadenza.com

Recommended Listening:

• Cy Coleman, On the Twentieth Century
• Giuseppe Verdi, Il Trovatore

Recommended Reading:

• Julia Torgovitskaya and Jennifer Rosenfeld, Awakening Your Business Brain
• Nancy Kline, Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind
• Steve Chandler, Reinventing Yourself: How To Become The Person You've Always Wanted To Be
• Hal Elrod, The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)

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Garth Edwin Sunderland is director of the Lost Dog New Music Ensemble in New York City, and producer of the Nørgård in New York Festival. A composer and interdisciplinary artist, his work encompasses the fields of music, dance, and theater. He also serves as Vice President of Project Development for the Leonard Bernstein Office, in which capacity he has overseen productions of Bernstein’s work on Broadway, and with major performing arts presenters around the world.

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Composer and music director Garth Sunderland discusses the ins and outs of producing concerts and doing them well.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Producing concerts
• Maximizing the resources you have
• Doing small things well instead of big things poorly
• Where is the money coming from?
• What resources do you have?
• Looking for grants all over the place
• Picking up the lower-hanging fruit in grants
• Casting the broadest net that you can
• Start working to get through overwhelm
• Start with the money
• Budget
• Crowd funding
• Building an audience
• Marketing & PR
• Pushing the concert by leaning on people
• Social media
• Using established relationships
• Being positive all the time to help a project
• Managing composers is like herding cats
• Composers as a different class
• Sean Perrin
• Nørgård in NY

Website:

• www.norgardinnewyork.org
• www.lostdognewmusic.org

Recommended Listening:

• Per Nørgård, Symphony No. 3

Recommended Reading:

• Thomas Wolf, Managing a Nonprofit Organization: Updated Twenty-First-Century Edition

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Arthur Breur is a composer & business owner in Portland, Oregon. He has been composing for more than three decades & received his degree in piano performance from Millikin University. He started his web design & development company in 2001 in Tampa, Florida, & has helped hundreds of customers plan, build, & maintain their online presence. Prior to starting his company, his experience included working as a senior graphpic designer in the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Visual Communications Department.

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Composer, entrepreneur, and web designer Arthur Breur discusses website must-haves and having an online presence.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Being in the moment
• Mindfulness
• Announcing yourself as a composer to the Chamber of Commerce
• Deciding to be a composer
• You are what you do
• Valuing what you do
• Receiving money for the value you bring to the world
• Websites
• Communicating to your audience
• Website must-haves
• Online presence
• Websites ARE your marketing plan
• Audio/visual servers
• CMS (content management system) and Wordpress
• Email
• Domains
• Shopping carts

Website:

• www.arthurbreur.com
• www.firespike.com

Recommended Listening:

• John Williams, Star Wars
• John Williams, Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Recommended Reading:

• Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
• Daniel Coyle, The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How.

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A native of Boston, Patricia Leonard’s early musical training began with piano studies. She received a degree in Composition from The Boston Conservatory of Music. Principal composition teachers include Larry Thomas Bell and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici. Ms. Leonard is the recipient of the 2015 Opera America Prize for her latest work MY DEAREST FRIEND, a song cycle to be mounted as an opera in summer 2016 in Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

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Composer and fundraising expert Patricia Leonard gives a masterclass on fundraising for the composer.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Grant writing
• Princess Grace Foundation
• Fundraising
• Having a thoughtful story
• Being goal oriented
• Budget making
• Opera America
• Networking
• Marketing Yourself
• Fundraising
• Rain Worthington
• Giving not asking
• The John Adams Project
• Dreaming of a big project
• Making it happen
• Accounting for problems
• Have your project well thoughtout
• Researching foundations
• Corporate sponsorships

Website:

• www.patricialeonardmusic.com

Recommended Listening:

• Richard Wagner, Tristan und Isolde

Recommended Reading:

• Aaron Copland, Music and Imagination
• Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

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Sean is an active teacher and performer on both clarinet and percussion, is the host of the clarineat.com podcast, and is the founder of Rubbato Music, Inc. He has played with numerous local ensembles, including the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Red Deer Symphony, and Bow Valley Chorus, and has appeared on stage with pop acts including Keith Urban, Diana Krall, and Shania Twain.

Sean’s playing can be heard on three commercially-available CDs with the University of Calgary Wind Ensemble, two as a substitute player for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and he was recently awarded a substantial commercial recording grant from the Alberta Foundation of the Arts, to pursue his first solo project called “Dreamsongs.” As one of Calgary’s most in demand teachers and clinicians Sean teaches privately and is regularly contracted for music workshops by dozens of local schools, The University of Calgary, Mount Royal Conservatory, The Banff Centre, Vic Lewis Music Festival, and the Department of National Defence.

Sean obtained a Bachelor of Music Performance Degree from the University of Calgary in 2009.

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Clarinetist, entrepreneur, and podcaster Sean Perrin discusses how living composers can add value to their work and engage with their audience and performers.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Podcasting to solve a problem
• Lori Freedman
• The 52 week job project
• The appearance of competition
• Grant writing
• Offering something to the grant
• Not being focused on yourself
• Difficulty of networking with composers
• Composers as a different class of musician
• Pet peeves of composer behaviors
• Adding value as a composer
• Frank Ticheli
• Writing program notes
• Terminology

Website:

• www.clarineat.com
• www.seanperrin.ca

Recommended Listening:

• Philip Glass, Truman Sleeps
• Radiohead, Kid A

Recommended Reading:

• Ellen Highstein, Making Music in Looking Glass Land: A Guide to Survival and Business Skills for the Classical Musician
• Thomas Bernhard, The Loser: A Novel
• Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

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