Your Chance to Interview Mona Rejino
If you are a student composer, music teacher, or piano teacher, you will want to take advantage of this great opportunity to submit interview questions to a living composer! I’m sure you remember that last year, Kevin Costley was our featured composer and many of you sent excellent questions to which he gave very helpful answers (Costley Interview, Part 1, Part 2). Many have told me that Kevin and his interview was encouraging to composers and students and I know that this year’s composer will be as well.
This year our featured composers is Mona Rejino, a wonderful composer, arranger, and one of the authors of the Hal Leonard Student Piano Method. She has graciously agreed to answer our questions and tell us more about herself and her compositional process. Students and teachers can submit a question for Mona by simply leaving the question as a comment to this post. I will choose the best 10 questions, submit them to Mona and she will write a response. This is a great opportunity to learn how a real composer composes!
Some of the subjects you might want to ask about might include:
- How she comes up with ideas
- How she composes her themes, how she comes up with material for B sections
- What forms she likes to use
- How she comes up with titles
- How often she composes
Please tell your students to think of a question for Mona and submit it in the next 2 weeks. Please encourage other teachers and their students to participate as well! The deadline for submitting a question is September 27th.
Mona possesses many talents as a composer and an arranger for Hal Leonard. Some of her latest music includes the following:
In the Groove, a “groovy” Level 4 sheet which you can view here.
Current Hits, popular intermediate arrangements which are sure to interest any teenage student you have in your studio!
Disney Film Favorites, intermediate arrangements of Cruella De Vil • Friend like Me • Go the Distance • God Help the Outcasts • Scales and Arpeggios • True Love’s Kiss • When She Loved Me • You Are the Music in Me.
I’ll be telling you about more of Mona’s pieces in the next few weeks and I’ll ask Mona to share about some of her favorite pieces and some of the background behind them. Stay tuned…. It’s going to fun!
If you’d like to read more about Mona, her official bio is here, but she’ll be sharing a lot more about her background as a musician, her life as a teacher, and more in the next month. In the meantime, don’t forget to leave your interview question as a comment!
Read MoreFilm Scoring Opportunity
The American Composer’s Forum has announced an opportunity to attend a 2 day intensive workshop on film scoring.
HOLLYWOOD CALLING: An Insider’s Guide to Film Scoring
April 17-18, 2010
McNally Smith College of Music
Saint Paul, MN
Registration Deadline: March 31, 2010
ACF is partnering with McNally Smith College of Music to offer an intensive two-day workshop on the process of film scoring. The sessions will be led by noted Hollywood composers Sean McMahon and Christopher Young. Space is still available and participants have the option of auditing the first day’s sessions or registering to attend both days.
Complete information about the workshop–including faculty bios and registration form–click here.
Why I Love Being a Composer
I love hearing from students who have played my pieces! This is the 2nd group of pictures I have received from a student who learned my Twister piece for his recital last year. I had the privilege to hear this student play the piece for me for a state music test and he was magnificent! It was so exciting to hear a performance from a student who was passionate about the piece, tornadoes, and playing the piano. I hope he keeps sending me pictures and perhaps soon I’ll have another piece to share with him at his level, though I’m sure he has advanced significantly by now! Here is the picture he sent me last year.
It is such a privilege to live in 2010 where email and the internet makes connecting with a composer very easy. I hope all students take the time to connect with the composer of a piece that they love. I know that composers are thrilled to be contacted about their pieces.
What a honor it is to have your piece loved by a student. Thanks for sending this!
2010 Composer Institute
The Minnesota Orchestra and the American Composers Forum, in cooperation with the American Music Center, present
The Tenth Annual
MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA
COMPOSER INSTITUTE and Future Classics! Concert
ORCHESTRA HALL, MINNEAPOLIS
October 25 – 31, 2010
Application deadline: March 1, 2010 (postmark)
The Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute offers a unique week-long intensive immersion into the world of a major American symphony orchestra. Under the guidance of composer Aaron Jay Kernis, up to nine composers will have orchestral works rehearsed and performed by the Minnesota Orchestra and will participate in a series of seminars on musical, career, business and professional development issues.
Composers receive consultations with Kernis and Music Director Osmo Vänskä before and after the rehearsals. They also meet with Orchestra members and attend small-group sessions with leading music industry professionals. Composers’ travel and hotel will be provided.
All works selected for the Institute will be performed in a public concert, conducted by Music Director Osmo Vänskä on Friday, October 30, 2010, 8 pm.
SUBMIT
One bound and legible score of one orchestral work written within the last five years.Label the cover with your name, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number.
Recording if available (CD or cassette).
Bio/resume, including current address, telephone, e-mail, fax.
One letter of recommendation from a composition teacher or music professional (via mail or e-mail to addresses given below).
A program note and information detailing the complete performance or reading history (if any) of the submitted work, including all dates and names of performing ensembles.
A complete performance history (if any) of any other orchestral works you have written, with names of works and performing ensembles and dates performed.
A check for return postage (made out to ACF) if you want your materials returned.
ELIGIBILITY
Applicants must be U.S. resident composers at early stages of their professional careers.
Composers who have participated in previous Institutes may not reapply.
Previous applicants: Composers awarded Alternate or Runner-Up status in past years may resubmit works previously entered, or they may choose to reapply with a different work. Composers awarded Honorable Mention may not submit previously entered works, but may choose to reapply with a different work.
Only one work per composer will be considered.
Submitted works may not have received a performance or a reading by a major orchestra (over $3.6M annual budget). Preference will be given to unperformed works.
Works may be up to 15 minutes in length (sections of longer works will be considered).
Not eligible are concertos, choral works and works for strings, winds or brass only. Works with electronic elements will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Instrumentation must not exceed:
4 fl (1 doubling picc), 4 ob (1 doubling Eng hn), 4 cl (1 doubling bass cl), 4 bsn (1 doubling contra bsn), 4 hrn, 4 trpt, 3 trbn, 1 tba, 1 timp, 3 perc, harp, pf/cel (no organ), strings.
SELECTION
Composer participants and alternates will be selected by a panel of prominent composers and announced in early summer 2010. Performance materials for chosen works will be due no later than July 10, 2010.
SEND SCORE AND MATERIALS POSTMARKED BY March 1, 2010:
American Composers Forum
332 Minnesota Street #E145
St. Paul, MN 55101
Further information: Craig Carnahan
(651) 251-2833 or ccarnahan@composersforum.org
How to “Do” Music Full Time
Guess post by Bradley Sowash- composer, jazz pianist, educator, and author
I tell all my students that there are two ways to do music full time:
1. Specialist – Be among the best in the world at some aspect of music. This is the rarest professional path.
2. Generalist – Have a wide range of skills. Good readers should know how to improvise, performers need to also understand teaching, composers be able to create arrangements, soloists learn to play in ensembles, and everyone needs to bust out of their stylistic niche which means learning about unfamiliar genres (rock, Broadway, classical, jazz…) in addition to further developing your preferred style.
I’ve been a full time, freelance musician since 1983 and though it hasn’t been without its struggles, I still enjoy and look forward to most work days. When I tell people who ask what I do for a living, they often raise their eyebrows and restate the question: “So… what do you really do?”
Some are looking for confirmation to the myth that musicians sit around all day while they have to work. (I tried that after college and ran out of food in about a week.) Others are wondering why I don’t resemble the media’s image of an arts professional (wear black and sit around coffee houses all day discussing deep issues). Still others are checking to see if I have a “real” job. (It’s true that I don’t work in a corporate cubicle but music is certainly “real” work.) So, whatever your motivation, if you find yourself seeking insight into the daily life of the full time, freelance music professional, I offer this list as one example.
Things I Do and What I Wear When I’m Doing Them:
1. At the Composer’s Desk wearing old ski T-shirts and sweatpants:
Writing and editing new sheet music books
Writing commissioned works
2. At the Piano in a tuxedo, suit, jeans, pajamas depending on the setting:
Performing sacred jazz concerts
Performing public (secular) concerts
Playing worship services
Accompanying dance classes
Conducting and band leading duties
Practicing
3. In the Educational Realm with an upright bass hiding most of me or with a djembe around my neck:
Directing a weekly Jazz Workshop for high school students
Coaching student classical chamber musicians
Teaching 24 private students
Leading music education seminars for teachers
4. Da Business with a fedora on my noggin except on dress-down
Fridays when I wear my cowboy hat:
Running a business – website updates, phone calls, scheduling….
Attending music conferences
Marketing all of the above
It’s a life. I can’t imagine trading it for a “real” job!
Bradley Sowash http://bradleysowash.com
Bradley is the author of the That’s Jazz Piano Method
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