Speak Now: Music of the Travel Ban
We need not move mountains to defend our values. By leveraging power and privilege within our own spheres of influence, however modest they might appear, we can all effect real and positive change.
Live Streaming 102: Hosting, Preparing, and Advertising Your Live Stream
Make it easy for your existing audience and your potential fans to find your live video by hosting it where they gather, and linking the video to as many other locations as possible.
An Ode to Pride Month
Music presents a unique opportunity for community building and self-expression that can be life-changing for a transgender child. Its accessibility could prove invaluable for trans/GNC students’ continued success, comfort, and even survival. This Pride Month is not just a celebration: it is a call to action.
The Syncopated Stylings of Charles Wuorinen
For my own private 80th Wuorinen birthday celebration, I’ve been repeatedly listening to four works from the early ’80s, when he seemed to give high modernism a proper injection of “ragtime.”
Live Streaming 101: Why Live Stream?
When Adam Schumaker jumped into live streaming in 2013, he had no idea what he was doing. He’s since gained experience managing small professional teams of videographers and audio engineers, but he’s also found ways to live stream his own events without breaking the bank.
Andy Akiho: Inside The Instrument
Having a conversation with Andy Akiho is a lot like listening to his music; it’s a high energy adventure bursting with ideas and full of all sorts of serendipitous synchronicities.
Ed Harsh to Embark on New Endeavor
It’s in the nature of what we do that we trade the safety of the status quo for the exciting possibility of the future. New Music USA is much more than any one individual. As an institution, even as an idea, it has so much potential and so many ways in which it can move forward and grow in the world.
My Year of Awkward Encounters; or, Networking at Concerts
Allow me to share some of my hard-won knowledge of best practices for navigating the murky waters of networking, in hopes that you can learn from my mistakes—or, at the very least, find comfort in the fact that I’ve probably embarrassed myself in public more than you have.
New Music USA announces $530,000 in awards to 108 projects
The awarded projects include concerts and recordings, as well as support for dance, theater, opera, and more, all involving contemporary music as an essential element. Project grants focus on responsiveness to artists’ needs and on providing a platform for the discovery and exploration of new artistic work.
Dynamic Music Appreciation
As full-time artistic creators, we should proselytize for the power of our artistic medium and how the human experience is both defined and deepened by artistic expression.
Removing Barriers to New Music
How can we create a new music concert experience that is more welcoming, more engaging, and more inclusive?
But What I Really Want To Do Is Direct!
Pop artists create video content designed to go viral and to sell albums, but musicians with far smaller budgets than mega-stars are now making videos as well. Looking for ways to get your own work filmed and distributed? Misha Penton is here with some DIY tips to help you get started.
Misfits and Geniuses
My course “Misfits and Geniuses” was a way feature contemporary music in a compelling music appreciation-style class. I started with the attractive idea of creative rebels who bucked traditional boundaries and existed on the fringe. Which composers wrote new rules, expanded the space for music, and crossed dividing lines?
Having Conversations About Diversity
Looking at the shortage of diversity in virtually every corner of the industry, it’s clear that classical music needs to discuss solutions more often, with more people of different perspectives. Here are some thoughts on productively engaging in this discussion in the workplace, among peers and creative partners, and elsewhere.
Uncomfortably Serious and Disarmingly Fun: The Irreplaceable Matt Marks
From his work as a founding member of Alarm Will Sound, to his heartfelt and hilarious compositions, to his organizational efforts with New Music Gathering, to his sardonically prolific Twitter account, it was impossible to overlook Matt or his essential role in the new music community.
Beauty Is Revolution
To make something beautiful is revolutionary (not low class, not easy, not a sign of low intelligence). Beauty is hard to make and the making is painful. You have to say yes to what comes out.
Nine Composers Receive 2018 BMI Student Composer Awards
Nine composers have received 2018 BMI Student Composer Awards plus there was one additional honorable mention.
Tragedy and Inspiration
A course I’ve named “Tragedy and Inspiration” is my solution to drawing college students in to a challenging but powerful body of music. The course couples tragic events from modern history with great pieces of music written in response to those events.
Making Connections: Helping Presenters Market Your Music
It’s important to lean in—not step back—when you have a marketing team promoting a concert (or CD release, creative project, etc.) with your work on it. When you equip people with the right information, you empower them to use their resources to push your music out broadly to new audiences.
Notes from Underground: Ivan Wyschnegradsky's Manual of Quarter-Tone Harmony
Ivan Wyschnegradsky’s 1932 Manual of Quarter-Tone Harmony rewrites the past for the future. But the 24-note equal-tempered octave is not an end, but a beginning.
New Approaches to Music Appreciation
I hold a core belief that art is relational, as we share unique and poetic visions about the human experience. I am filled with joy as a young composer discovers some bit of music that will forever change the way he or she thinks about music. I also desire to elevate the listening experience of the average person so that there is a bit more room in their lives to engage art music with meaning and joy.
An Introvert's Guide to the New Music Gathering (and Other Networking Events)
The reality about the New Music Gathering (and all conferences, really) is that we can’t space the doses of people out. Conference organizers, especially the NMG organizers, design the event to be an intensive incubator of ideas, performances, meaningful conversations, and networking.
Hey Jealousy: Social Media’s Envy Effect
Jealousy within an ensemble is something people are generally uncomfortable admitting to or talking about, and social media can amplify this feeling even among the best of friends and colleagues. Louis Levitt shares how he conquered his own fears and ditched the anxiety.
Beth Anderson: Just Dropping In
Beth Anderson has embraced serendipity and followed it both in her life and in her music. In this sprawling conversation, Anderson tells us about some major early epiphanies—as well as some things that didn’t go as well, like showing up unannounced on Lou Harrison’s doorstep one morning at dawn.
