“Calls for Scores” – The Teenage Years of a Composing Career
What is the role of submitting to calls for scores and competitions in the grand scheme of building a career? Are there wholesome and compassionate ways that calls for scores and/or composition competitions can support artists even if they don’t win the “big prize”? How do we develop from this seemingly “teenage” part of our career and move on to becoming fully-fledged professionals?
Updated: May 25, 2021
Online Score Sales for Self-Published Composers
How can you get your music in front of the right musicians in a format that makes it easy for them to purchase, download, and start practicing your pieces right away?
Updated: Jun 04, 2021
Would you describe yourself as a neo-romantic? Why (not)? 1
Alex Shapiro Photo by Jeremy Davidson I don’t think tonality and overt melody ever left the building, but in some circles they were like a couple of illicit lovers locked in a small broom closet for quite a while. Until very recently, the perceived power in the concert music world came largely from universities, conservatories… Read more »
Updated: Apr 14, 2022
At the Abyss
“Act,” the final movement of Alex Shapiro’s three-part suite At the Abyss has a freneticism and spontaneity to it that is usually associated with jazz improv, but as far as I can see—Alex features a healthy portion of the score on her website—everything in this trio for piano and two percussionists is completely written out.… Read more »
Updated: Apr 14, 2022
All The Things You Are: Five Suggestions for Composing Your Happiness
A rewarding music career begins with three distinctly non-musical concepts: positive vision, abundant thinking, and a sense of self-worth.
Updated: Apr 14, 2022
Making an Asset Out of Your eSelf
It’s never been easier to build fan bases and generate income from our work; your enpixelated interface with the world is where your income generation will often begin.
Updated: Apr 14, 2022
Roundtable: Let’s Make a List
Money has nothing to do with the quality of anyone’s music. That said, for those who choose to put together a living from composing, there are myriad avenues for monetizing one’s output—which can offer both exciting opportunities and an overwhelming career equation to solve.
Updated: Jan 13, 2022
In Response: You’re an Artist AND an Entrepreneur
No authentic, talented artist is ever going to forget the importance of the quality of the art that they create just because they wish to earn a living from it. Only once an artist has wrangled those ingredients can they attempt to monetize them.
Updated: Apr 13, 2022
DBA: Three Good Notes, Three Necessary Initials
There are two important reasons for a composer to acquire a DBA (“Doing Business As”): one has to do with money, the other with privacy. And if you are doing business under any name other than your own, it’s required by law.
Updated: Apr 14, 2022
A Helpful List
The need for greater programming of women composers is, of course, strong and obvious enough that nothing I could say could add to the argument. What little I can do to help the issue along I have done in the hopes that with information comes progress.
Updated: Apr 14, 2022
Lend Me a Pick Ax: The Slow Dismantling of the Compositional Gender Divide
Women have made tremendous strides toward parity with their male colleagues in the field of composition, but we’re not all the way home just yet.
Updated: Apr 14, 2022
When Entrepreneurship and Artistry Conflict
I don’t think that teaching some basic entrepreneurial skills is by itself a bad thing, but it’s not a cure-all for the difficulties musicians face financially. Perhaps even more troubling, though, is that in promoting certain business practices there doesn’t seem to be a discussion about how they may conflict with artistic pursuits.
Updated: Apr 13, 2022
Musings on the Media
Composers and performers today look to the media (whatever they think that might be) as a conduit between their art and the general public. As digital media and social networks continue to evolve, both the proximity and the fixed boundaries between creators and the media have been affected.
Updated: Apr 13, 2022
What I Learned About My Tiny Business From Paramount Pictures
I was invited to testify before the Federal Communications Commission in the fall of 2009 about two issues: digital piracy and rural broadband access. The former, because I am a composer, and the latter, because I am a composer who lives on a small, remote, bridge-less island floating off the coast of the United States who has created and managed her career largely on the internet.
Updated: Apr 14, 2022
As Important as the Printing Press: Net Neutrality and Artists’ Freedom
Our ability to share our creations around the world lies in our access to the necessary portal.
Updated: Apr 14, 2022
Widening Inclusion & Visibility
How can we broaden our scope to increase the visibility of the vast amount of music composed by women? At least THREE THOUSAND OF THEM.
Updated: Jan 13, 2022
The Economy of Exposure: Publicity as Payment?
Though recordings are no longer especially financially remunerative in this digital age, there does exist something uniquely valuable and not reproducible: the artists themselves.
Updated: Apr 14, 2022
An Australian in Santa Cruz: An Insider’s Report from the 2010 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
This was the first time I’ve ever experienced Marin Alsop live in concert and what a dynamic personality she is; the performance is also wonderfully precise.
Updated: Apr 14, 2022
New Music Solidarity Fund
The New Music Solidarity Fund is designed to help new/creative/improvised music freelancers whose projects have been canceled during the COVID-19 crisis.
Updated: Sep 14, 2021
Feeling Absolutely Famous: A View from Beijing
An American pianist takes a program of new music from the US to the 2005 Beijing Modern Music Festival.
