MusicBrandyn: Composer, Conductor, Teacher and Musician: April 2013

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Video: Jon Sims, LGBT Community Leader

Jon Sims was is the father of LGBT Community Music. He was also an inspirational leader. Here I discuss his life and achievements in the context of John Maxwell's "Developing the Leader Within You" and Greene's "48 Laws of Power."

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Essay: Yo-Yo Performance, Passion, and Finding Your Own Way

I recently watched a performance-lecture by the yo-yo artist BLACK and was impressed by what I saw. I was impressed not only by his artistry and proficiency with a device so often regarded as a simple toy, but moreover with his drive, his passion, and the story of his journey that relates an important message.

BLACK began studying the yo-yo at age 14. He wasn’t very good at it. But, over days and hours of practice, he became better. Within a single week he realized that bringing people joy through the yo-yo was his passion. At 18, he reached what was currently the top in his field; he won the World Yo-Yo Championship. However, nothing in his life back home changed. He was not a celebrity. He was not seen by society as a hero or a star. He received no sponsorships, no television appearances. He was a boy with a yo-yo.

BLACK returned to college to study a more practical profession, but was miserable. While most people would have stayed defeated, BLACK took his misery for opportunity. He realized that if being at the top of his field is not enough to make a career of bringing people joy with the yo-yo, he would have to create the awareness and respect for this unique art himself. He practiced for years until his art won him the world championship again, but this time in an artistic category. He expanded his work to include elaborate routines set to music and including dance, design and sport aspects to them. One of these routines got him recognition when he used it to audition for Cirque du Soleil, and now he makes a living as a yo-yo performance artist.

What can we learn from BLACK’s journey? We learn that no matter what field we are in, we can benefit from creating our own path. We discover that a dead-end is not the end of the road, but a reminder to look for a different path entirely that better meets our end goals. We find that having passion is sometimes not enough; we must not only pass on our passions, but create that passion in others even when they may not know where their passions lie.

Diana Rivera gives another perspective on this in her blog post about creative schema. She says that most artists struggle when society’s restrictions to what art should be are placed upon their work. We often make the excuse that we’ve tried over and over again with our work, and yet are career just isn’t taking off. Perhaps we don’t need to try over and over, she finds. Maybe we just need to try something new entirely that will give us inspiration for finding the real path to our creative goals.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Concert Review: Music at Noon - Youngstown State University's String Department

On Wednesday, April 10 I had the pleasure of attending the Dana Concert Series "Music at Noon: String Department" concert at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. The concert opened with a movement from Dvorak's "American" String Quartet, followed by Philip Glass' String Quartet No 5., Movement 5. Rounding out the program with some popular tunes was "Nintendo's Legendary Heroes Medley", arranged by one of the violinists playing (Zack Weese) and a quintet arrangement of Bob Marley's "Don't Vorry, Be Heppy". Overall the concert was lovely, despite a few very minor intonation issues. The Dovorak was moving and exciting, and captured the passion of the work exquisitely. The Glass has always been one of my favorite pieces, and they did a good job with keeping the work exciting, which is a regular challenge for musicians when playing works by minimalist composers. The Weese piece was well orchestrated and beautiful, but did not include many of the most memorable Zelda and Mario themes as one might expect, but rather focused on lovely less-heard lyric melodies from the games. The Marley piece was cute and charming.

The concert included violinists Abigail McLaughlin, Patrick Strasik, and Zak Weese, violist Leslie Dubiel, and Cellist Stephanie Zitkovich, all students at Youngstown State University's Dana School of Music. Overall a lovely afternoon lunchtime break, and a wonderful venue with artful beauty all around you.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Share: Introduction to Electronic/Dance Music Sub-genres

The following is a great introduction to the various sub-genres within Electronic/Dance music. Highly recommended.

http://pigeonsandplanes.com/2012/04/introduction-to-electronic-dance-music-breaking-down-the-genres/

Monday, April 8, 2013

My Biography

Brandyn Metzko, conductor/flute/clarinet/saxophone/vocalist/teacher/music producer, obtained his B.A in music at Cleveland State University in 2006, where he studied flute with Sean Gabriel, voice with William Dempsey, and conducting with Betsy Burleigh. He is working on his Master’s Degree in Entertainment Business at Full Sail University, to be complete in early 2014.

Brandyn has had a thriving private teaching studio in Central Florida, New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles, preparing students for milestones ranging from Conservatory and Opera auditions to American Idol performances. Brandyn teaches voice, flute, piano, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, French horn, trombone, violin, viola, conducting, music theory, and music history. His performance credits include solo and chamber works; studio recording; sacred, operatic, Broadway and popular vocal music; wind band, orchestral and flute choir ensemble work; and concert and marching band direction and performance. He currently performs and teaches as a freelance musician throughout Northeast Ohio.

Brandyn helped to found the Queer Urban Orchestra in New York City in 2009, the BayArea Rainbow Symphony in San Francisco in 2007 and the Blazing River Freedom Band in Cleveland in 2003, and has served on the board of the Lesbian/Gay Band Association as Membership Services Chair. Brandyn was artistic director of the Blazing River Freedom Band from 2003 until 2007, co-artistic director of the Queer Urban Orchestra in 2009-2010, and was the assistant music director with the Central Florida Soundsof Freedom Band in 2012. He was an active performing member of the Space Coast Flute Symphony and the IndialanticChamber Singers in 2012. Brandyn has also arranged countless works for concert band and chamber ensembles and has composed a number of original works. Brandyn has resumed his post as Artistic Director of the Blazing River Freedom Band as of December 2013. Brandyn is now expanding his skills by attending Full Sail University for the Master’s in Entertainment Business program and learning to mix and produce music in electronic, pop, rock, and ambient genres.