I’m going to let you in on a little secret (okay, maybe it’s not such a secret): for the better part of the past decade, I’ve been fascinated with arts philanthropy. Ever since I was a low-level staffer in the development department of the American Music Center, I wanted to know why grantmakers made theRead More
Around the horn: government shutdown edition
Comings, Goings, and Mergers The nation’s three largest composer-focused arts service organizations have announced a major realignment. The American Music Center and Meet The Composer will merge into a new entity called New Music USA, while AMC’s membership and professional development programs will be transferred to the American Composers Forum. This is the legacy ofRead More
New article at NewMusicBox.org
Yesterday, the good folks at NewMusicBox (the web magazine of the American Music Center) published a rather massive article of mine called “Composing a Life, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dollar.” It’s my plea to composers and the new music community (which is the world I come from) to getRead More
Around the horn: picking up the pieces edition
Obviously, the big story this week has been the effort to get the NEA funding through the Senate, which as it stands doesn’t look in very good shape with the Coburn amendment having passed. However, Americans for the Arts is taking out a series of full-page ads in several political newspapers and organizing a letter-writingRead More
Professionals vs. Amateurs
Back when I was working for the American Music Center, one of the most common and maddening riddles that would come up with respect to our members was “what does it mean to be a professional composer?” The normal sense of “professional” implies earning one’s living from one’s work in that field; but only aRead More