New Interim Choir Director position, and Organists Wanted

I am pleased to announce that I accepted the job of Interim Choir Director at Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Tremont, Ohio!  In related news, I am selecting skilled organists to accompany Sunday rehearsals and service.  Please contact me directly at webguybrandyn@gmail.com if you are interested.

Transgendered Individuals wanted for Interview/Research

So, in continuing the work of my song cycle, I would like to interview a few people about their life and what love/dating/relationships/experience growing up has been about.  If you are transgendered or have loved/dated someone who is transgendered, and would be willing to be interviewed online, please contact me at webguybrandyn@gmail.com.   This is part of my research for "A Place for Gay Men and Straight Women to Mingle", a song cycle written for mtf trans high voice and piano, and will be premiered by Alexandra Stjames Gray later this year.

The Recording Industry Association of America and Music Piracy

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade industry that supports the creative and financial aspects of American recording artists.  They do much work in protecting the intellectual rights of work created and provide standards for the licensing and distribution of digital music.  They also provide educational programs for classroom use in order to communicate the importance of intellectual rights with regards to media and how students can avoid piracy and enjoy music legally.

One of the many services they offer include the Why Music Matters website, dedicated tot the promotion of legal digital music and educating the masses about proper licensing and how to obtain music legally.  There is an about section that explains the categories of legally available digital music and a very cool directory of videos in which one artist discusses the music of another artist, presenting a unique perspective on their music.

Piracy is a huge issue worldwide.  Without the help of organizations like the RIAA to monitor and educate, musicians lose out on revenue and the arts economy suffers.  RIAA is doing some great work by giving music consumers the information and resources that they need in order to legally and appropriately access music digitally.

How Basic Chords Work -- Basic Music Theory Lesson

This is for my conducting students this week to review/learn their theory, but is also a great video for any musician to review their chords or who is interested in learning it.

New Song Cycle: "A Place for Gay Men and Straight Women to Mingle"

I am composing a new song cycle "A Place for Gay Men and Straight Women to Mingle". This work is being written for transgendered (mtf) voice and piano, and will be premiered by Alexandra St. James in Chicago later this year.  To hear samples of the work as I write them, visit https://soundcloud.com/brandynn-equality/sets/a-place-for-gay-men-and 

Thank you to my new sponsor-patron, Steve Drury

I have secured my first ongoing sponsor-patron as a composer and appreciate that so much!  Thank you, Steve Drury!  In exchange for monthly financial support of my work Steve will be getting regular compositions of varying types and the joy that comes from supporting the arts.

If you are interested in becoming a patron of my composition work, please contact me at webguybrandyn@gmail.com or message me on facebook.  Thank you again, Steve for your support!

Conducting Ensembles: Cues

New student?

Have a new saxophone student starting in a couple weeks.  Also, I'm taking new students still-- what have you always wanted to learn?

(I teach from my home studio on the West end of Cleveland, Ohio in Lakewood.  216.630.0468 for bookings, lessons, or to commission me for composition works.)

Sirena Huang: a master of violin-- and storytelling for brand management.

Sirena Huang may give one of most the dazzling violin performances you’ve ever heard from an eleven-year old, but her playing isn’t the reason I find her magical.  What captivates and inspires me about her is her own storytelling and branding ability.

She not only plays her instrument beautifully, but she has researched its construction and the physics theory behind it in order to find beauty in the sixteenth century technology.  She admires its elegant design--not just a musical instrument, but also as a innovative lightweight compact structure capable of large sound production ad a wide variety of timbres.

Huang speaks of the entertainment value of finding humor in music—she speaks of enjoying bow “swordplay” early in her musical career and relates anecdotes of humorous musicians she has had the pleasure of meeting.  However, I am most impressed with her own combination of lecture—a clear entertaining explanation of why she does what she does—with her performance.  Being able to speak about her art so eloquently and on a basic level that relates to her audience gives her a character far more memorable than so many other musicians who may surpass her in virtuosity.  Combine this with the fact that she is only eleven years old, and has learned how to brand and market herself and speak about why her work is important, and we find that Ms. Huang is an entertainment delight to be reckoned with.  Today barely a teenager, she gets the entertainment business as a total picture.

So, what can we artists and creative professionals learn from Sirena Huang?  We can learn that being amazing at what we do is only part of the battle.  We need to not only continually hone our craft, but we need to be able to market ourselves effectively in order to make sure we have a career.  And, it's really helpful if we can take time to stop and recognize the beauty and elegance of technology and design that go into creating the tools that we use to make art.

Gay Games as Community Renaissance

The Lesbian/Gay Band Association(LGBA) has been instrumental in helping its member bands develop community resources and provide safe spaces for musical expression in cities across the United States for nearly two decades.

In the midst of the current political climate surrounding gay marriage and rights quality, the LGBA is focusing on the future.  The 2014 GayGames in Cleveland, Ohio promises to be the largest LGBT cultural and sporting event the world has ever seen.  This event will provide increased visibility for LGBT culture, music and sports and show the LGBT community not just as a struggling group fighting for rights, but as an established group of individuals that has found strength in numbers and celebrates its successes and culture widely. 

This event will bring together hundreds of musicians and choristers from around the globe and unify them in music-making.  The event will be attended by millions internationally and will be a life-changing experience for many.  Some of the attendees will experience their community in ways they may have never before imagined and find reassurance in their identity. 

The Lesbian-Gay Band Association continues to be a beacon of culture and show people that no matter what the political climate, nobody is alone, and, in the words of Dan Savage, “it gets better.”

Music... For Those Who Will Never Hear It

So many people enjoy orchestral music, but often we take this art for granted.  Is it possible for the deaf to enjoy orchestral music as much as the hearing?  

Early attempts at solving this issue include projecting visualizations onto large screens so the deaf may see the music.  But, there are other ways the deaf may enjoy the symphony.

One way is just to be in the same room as the hearing while a concert performance is going on.  Imagine walking into a room just after a heated argument has taken place.  You can feel the ethereal energy left behind.  In the same manner, those without hearing can feel the energy of what a performance is like whether or not they experience the performance.

More concrete ways have been developed by certain orchestras.  The BBC National Orchestra of Wales has created a unique technological solution:  a soundbox.  This box projects music and sound waves that are input through microphones.  Deaf (or hearing) listeners may put their hands or other body parts on the box and experience the music through sympathetic vibrations.  Another symphony orchestra in Cardiff invites deaf listeners to sit in on rehearsals with the musicians and place fingers on instruments while played in order to experience the feeling of the instruments' sonorities.

Organizations such as Music and the Deaf support this type of work and regularly commission projects to include the deaf in musical endeavors.  Unfortunately, most of the breakthroughs in including the deaf community have been in Europe.  Perhaps soon North America will catch up.

Better playing through chemistry?

While most people are aware of the issues surrounding performance-enhancing drugs in sports, this issue is lesser-known but just as prevalent in other industries, including orchestral music.  The use of performance-enhancing drugs by musicians is not new, but often not known or talked about by the general public.  Musicians might take a beta-blocker such as propranolol or Inderol for stage anxiety.  Before this medication, many musicians alcohol or valium in order to cope with stage fright.

Unfortunately, about 70 percent of musicians take these medications without proper medical supervision, obtaining them instead from their friends and colleagues.  Some criticize the practice of taking drugs in order to perform because it may deaden their performance or that they feel that ethically if they are unable to do their job without the use of drugs then they should not be involved in the field.

While definitely an issue worth considering and talking about, I find it amazing that almost nobody is aware of these issues that are not classical musicians.

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."

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.