\u201cI\u2019d love to do that with my band, but it\u2019s too hard for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have all of those parts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m out of time to look.\u201d<\/p>\n
These are some of the frustrations I\u2019ve heard in the last six months from at least four music educators and community ensemble directors who want to diversify the voices they amplify in their programming. They\u2019re caught in a deeply frustrating bind: even if they could find a new piece and they could afford it, their students couldn\u2019t play it\u2014it’s too technically advanced for their developing players. And that\u2019s saying they can find a new piece from a new voice in the slim hour of the day they\u2019re not running between classes, lessons, planning, meetings, and fixing the jammed copier.<\/p>\n
These artists\u2019 and educators\u2019 mission is to nurture as many healthy musical habits as possible and share their growth with their communities. They’re invested in programming more works by living composers, especially composers from communities of historically marginalized voices. They\u2019re invested in their students and community members not seeing a revolving door of the same names in the top right corner of the page all the time. They\u2019re invested in their own growth as conductors and willing to put in the score study and rehearsal planning to learn new works, and that needs to be strategic for them.<\/p>\n
Teachers and conductors must consider the developing techniques of their players, limited budgets for their libraries, and limited time to seek out new works that are not yet available through major publishers for whom they already have vendor numbers established in their purchasing systems. These ensembles need technically and financially accessible works for their libraries from living composers.<\/p>\n
Here is a mix of practical and philosophical ideas for how you can help.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pick Your Parameters<\/strong><\/p>\n While composers love to explore ideas at the boundaries of virtuosic technical prowess with incisive beauty, these are not the works that developing players or time-pressed joyful amateurs can hope to be successful in playing.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Make It Affordable<\/strong><\/p>\n Your work and expertise deserve a fair price. Full stop. Most schools and community ensembles aren\u2019t able to commission; a commission would take a year of fundraising. No one should be arguing that composers should lower their rates or \u201cdo it for the exposure.\u201d Music educators are generally aware of the work, practice, and years of collective experience go into a single composition, and they also know that they must make their dollars go as far as possible, and many an E-copy from a major publisher is between $55.00 and $75.00 USD. Many departments and ensembles have budgets in the hundreds of dollars a year, not thousands, to add to their libraries. They will have a budget review process, a public one, and need to be able to explain the value for price and direct benefit to students of their expenditures.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Make Some New Friends, Reconnect with Old Friends<\/strong><\/p>\n Connect with Educators and Community Ensembles in your area. It\u2019s not prestigious. These students and lifelong players don\u2019t need your headshot and bio; they need you. And while there are many grants out there to help pay for visiting guest artists (and they should), an honored guest in their midst is only one of the ways that students and community members should connect with composers in-person or electronically. We are the people in their neighborhood; some of the time we should sit beside them, not in front of them. Not just our work, but our presence erodes symbolic assassination. Our engagement within these ensembles is one of many experiences for these musicians that normalize, that de-exoticize, the relationship between composers and performers, especially performers from low-population density areas. Don\u2019t let the developing technique and less than perfect rehearsal discipline blind you to the big hearts of these groups. All kinds of ensembles need nurturing.<\/p>\n Both music students and amateurs who play for a lifetime are looking forward to making music with you. Let\u2019s get better connected.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Developing instrumentalists and singers need technically and financially accessible works from living composers. Here is a mix of practical and philosophical ideas for how you can help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":873,"featured_media":414376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,222],"tags":[469,694,314,52],"nmb_categories":[6,25],"how_to_category":[],"nmb_tags":[],"internal_taxonomy":[1601,1599,1602,1600,1588,1598],"class_list":["post-414373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-toolbox","tag-chorus","tag-educational-music","tag-music-entrepreneurs","tag-wind-band","nmb_categories-articles","nmb_categories-how-tos","internal_taxonomy-amateur-music","internal_taxonomy-chorus","internal_taxonomy-composer-career","internal_taxonomy-educational-music","internal_taxonomy-toolbox","internal_taxonomy-windband"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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