The Empowering Art of Music
Teaching students who have allowed the art of music to deepen their sense of humanity has been a privilege. They shared the common bond of music and learned to celebrate their uniqueness while respecting the differences of others.
Five Timely Tax Tips for Musicians
January is a great time to get ready to file your income taxes. With some planning and good record keeping, tax filing can go very smoothly. And you can manage to keep a lot of the money you earned. Here are five major tips for keeping as much of your money as possible.
And the 89th Academy Award Composer Nominees Are...
The nominees for the 89th Academy Awards have been announced, including nods in the category of best original score to composers Mica Levi, Justin Hurwitz, Nicholas Britell, Thomas Newman, and the team of Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka.
Some Stuff I’ve Learned Writing Music for Advertising: References, Briefs, and Conference Calls
Being able to look at an underscoring assignment through the lens of theory is a huge head start to writing a piece of music that gets chosen and aired. Yet most clients I’ve worked with don’t have this vocabulary, nor do they often have any vocabulary about the building blocks of music.
Speak Now: Our Job as Composers Has Now Changed
I straddle the worlds of being a composer on the one hand but also a journalist and foreign policy commentator on the other. These things unite my passions, but today I can also see them being united in other ways.
Songs of Hope
Joe Fish Dupont, curator of the Kiowa Museum in Carnegie, Oklahoma, invited me to work with him on a project to preserve Kiowa children’s songs.
Matthew Browne Wins ASCAP Foundation Nissim Prize
Matthew Browne has been named the recipient of the 37th annual ASCAP Foundation Rudolf Nissim Prize for his composition Cabinet of Curiosities (2015-16), an approximately 23-minute work for saxophone quartet and orchestra.
Speak Now: Turning Around, Turning Away, and Turning Over
Staying in a place of worry is reliable because it feels real, it comes naturally, it’s not something we have to work at. But when the worry creeps in, composer Kristin Kuster has found that its antidote is patience. And social media teaches us, and fosters in us, the precise opposite of patience.
Speak Now: It Is Time to Create
What change for good can I possibly effect with my distinctly non-political pieces? What can my small drop in the ocean of music do to help anyone at all?
Speak Now: Amplifying Our Voices
The 2016 presidential election was a seismic event for the United States and the world. Today we’re introducing “Speak Now,” a series of posts by artists sharing what they’re thinking in their roles as creators and community members.
American Composers Orchestra Appoints Edward Yim as President
The American Composers Orchestra has announced the appointment of Edward Yim as president, effective February 21, 2017, succeeding Michael Geller who held the position from 1996 to 2016.
Stuff I Learned Writing Music for Advertising—Problem Solver, Not Widget Maker
The road to the perfect score for a commercial involves a whole bunch of thinking that hasn’t been done yet. This is why the composer must become a partner in the creation of the whole piece of media.
Musical Minds
The Music and Memory program brings personalized music into the lives of the elderly or infirmed through digital music technology. Staff and family members are trained to create and provide personalized playlists using portable media players that enable residents to connect with the world through music-triggered memories.
Stuff I Learned Writing Music for Advertising—The Evolving Ecosystem and Tearing Down Walls
Some networking, research, and lucky timing got me an interview for a coveted studio assistant position at a “jingle house.” Eighteen years later, I’ve had more music on TV than I can keep track of, though hardly anyone would know my name.
Little Band of Dreamers
I had this crazy idea that music could somehow help the children at a rescue center who were victims of either sex trafficking or domestic abuse deal with their pain. I quickly learned that music making became a survival skill for them.
A Model of Generosity and Wisdom—Remembering Karel Husa (1921-2016)
As a mentor and teacher, Karel Husa was a model of generosity and wisdom. In addition to my composition studies with him enabling me to have a true artistic breakthrough, Husa was also an extraordinary teacher of conducting. The skills I learned in his class inspired me to pursue for a time a career in conducting along with composing.
Joshua Fried: Let's Dance
Joshua Fried begins each of his RADIO WONDERLAND shows with a spin of a boombox radio dial, snippets of caught commercials and DJ chatter popping out of the static and drawing his audience’s ears in on a raft of mainstream culture before he starts cutting it apart. His creative path has led him from The Pyramid Club to more esoteric new music circles, but he hasn’t abandoned his pursuit of great grooves.
Interviewing the Interviewer: A Conversation with Ethan Iverson
If you didn’t know it already, you’ll see that Ethan Iverson has an extremely interesting and idiosyncratic take on new music based on years of serious study and experience from which I think we can all both be entertained and learn quite a bit.
A Man at Home On the Road—Remembering Mose Allison (1927-2016)
I once asked Mose Allison about whether he considered himself a jazz or a blues musician, since there seemed to be some controversy about that among music experts. He laughed: “Well, I’ve been tryin’ to figure that one out too—good luck!”
Proudly Disruptive Yet Guilelessly Generous—Remembering Elliott Schwartz (1936-2016)
There is much that Elliott Schwartz (1936-2016) hoped would surprise, enlighten, and delight us all: that music can make perfect sense and be completely unexpected in the same instant.
Shulamit Ran: Music Has Magical Powers
According to Shulamit Ran, “Music seems to have the capacity to bring time to a standstill. It’s an illusion, but at the same time it’s a miracle.”
Jazz and Classical—Musical, Cultural, Listening Differences
Early next year a CD will be released featuring my compositions on Nonesuch Records. I’m very excited about the recording, which features Joshua Redman, one of today’s greatest working jazz musicians, as well as Brooklyn Rider, one of today’s most brilliant classical string quartets. (The equally brilliant jazz bassist Scott Colley and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi… Read more »
Turn the Volume Down, Now
Over decades of listening, ear parts gradually age and deteriorate. But this is not the same as what the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), refers to as “noise induced hearing loss” (NIHD). And despite both multiple causes and multiple outcomes in different people, NIHD is preventable.
NewMusicBox Mix: 2016 Staff Picks
Before we ring in 2017, it’s become a bit of a tradition here at New Music USA to give a cheer for some of the standout music of the past year. Don’t see a favorite of yours? We hope you’ll add it so we can all give another round of applause to the great work that hit our ears in 2016.
