arrange • compose • conduct
On my morning walks this week, there’s one piece on a loop in my head. It’s the cherry blossoms around every corner that call to mind the timeless A.E. Housman poem, “Loveliest of Trees.” And I love the version I was lucky enough to commission for the Rockford Aces from […]
I love premieres. As a composer and arranger, you would think it goes with the territory, but the truth is that developing my craft was focused so much on the work I do in my studio – selecting notes, rhythms, orchestration, voicings, etc. – that it took me years to […]
For the past 5 or 6 years, I’ve had an annual Tip Jar in which I accepted donations from readers to help support my costs of maintaining the website. Many people were very generous in their encouragement of my writing. In 2020, I skipped it – it was a time […]
I had an interesting arrangement challenge recently – it was for a flash mob-style performance at a wedding, and had some very specific requirements, not least a very limited amount of rehearsal time. Since the commissioning party is an excellent singer but not a professional musician, I thought carefully about […]
Besides “Who is it for?”, one of the most important questions to ask with any new creative endeavor is, “How could I fail?” If your new creative endeavor has no possible way of failing, then it isn’t very creative. On the other hand, if the stakes are so high that […]
I support artists on Patreon because of what’s in it for them. I love that a few dollars pledged monthly can give artists a steady income, enabling them to devote more time to their craft. But it’s easy to understand the “What’s in it for me” mindset. Like any voluntary […]
“Who is it for?” is one of my top animating questions for any artistic project. The more specific you can be about who the art is for, the more decisive you can be in crafting the art. Who, then, is my new Patreon experiment for? It’s for people who want […]
Why did I choose to experiment with the Patreon direct-patronage model? First, I think the model is really good. Working for a patron when patronage was prevalent in the Baroque and Classical eras correlates with some really remarkable music being written. Moving away from the single commission model can light […]
I’ve been creating music as a career for a long time – my first paid commission came about 20 years ago, and my work is now fairly evenly divided between teaching/conducting and writing for choral ensembles. While virtually all of my work over the last 10+ years has been on […]
I tend to be less particular about texts than some composers. I know many composers who don’t involve the commissioning ensembles at all in selecting the text, or who retain final veto, or who control the text decision in some other ways. I personally think of myself as a hired […]