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Independent Composer Profile #9:

This is the last in a series of Independent Composer Profiles by Barton McLean. The editors would like to take this opportunity to thank Barton for his time and commitment to this project. -The Editors

Over the twenty years I have known Michael, I have marveled at his versatility and success in so many areas related to composing, and how he has managed to keep his unique works coming through it all. His comments below ring particularly true, coming from one who has deeply experienced all three sides of the fence-as a struggling composer, as an academic, and as an arts administrator. He holds a Ph.D. in music composition from Washington University, and was Composer in Residence at Fontbonne College for nine years. Dr. Hunt served as the Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and presently administers the Music, Dance, and Literature Programs for the Missouri Arts Council. Here is his own story:

I have spent two extended periods of time as an independent composer, the interim being interrupted by nine years of full-time college teaching as a Composer-In-Residence.

The first IC period followed my completion of a Ph.D., the second following the demise of the music department where I taught after the administration declared financial exigency, closed all of the arts departments, and "released" the faculty.

Upon graduation, the need to make money came crashing down on me. I assumed that with good grades, a record of successful graduate assistant teaching, published works, and the fact that my dissertation had been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, getting a teaching position would be easy. It wasn't. At the time (1974), there was an average of 400 applications for every position advertised. I turned to the only area I had been trained to do: writing music.

I have written for solo instruments, chamber groups, orchestra, dance companies, jazz, and electronics. I have even done ghost film scoring and commercial orchestrations of other composers' works. My works are primarily written for professional musicians and have been performed across the United States, Ireland, Yugoslavia, and Tasmania. The general climate of acceptance of, or demand for my music has always fluctuated. There were periods of overwhelming demand, and periods of total neglect. I expect these cycles to continue, as all cycles in life do. My publishing royalties and ASCAP royalties will not support me, but provide great entertainment when royalty checks arrive.

As a full-time, independent composer, I wrote music for any ensemble or performer that asked. However, I only wrote for commissions, tending to dislike "drawer music". In addition, I lectured, performed in professional classical ensembles on trombone and piano, did "pit" conducting, performed as a side-man in jazz ensembles on trombone, was a side-man for recording studios, produced studio recordings, was the token white in a twelve-piece, black jazz band in East St. Louis, performed for Young Audiences, worked with Artist-In-Education programs, was a Composer-In-Residence at a local high school for one year, and accompanied dance classes. The majority of my income came directly or indirectly from my identity as a composer, even the school residencies. However, probably 40% of the free-lance income came from lectures, residencies, and performing. In very lean times, I worked as a carpenter's assistant, and helped an artist do environmental installations in restaurants.

My first big break came through my composition teacher in graduate school. When I was finishing my dissertation, (a work for orchestra), Leonard Slatkin approached my composition teacher about an opportunity he was offered in a "Young Conductors and Young Composers Symposium" with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. My composition teacher gave Slatkin my dissertation score. I received a call "out of the blue" from Slatkin asking if I would accompany him to Los Angeles where he would conduct my work. I was convinced this was all a prank. I stayed up all night trying to figure out which one of my friends had a voice like Slatkin's. However, it was true. A teacher, who had become a friend and colleague, had spoken on behalf of my music.

It is very important to form alliances with others. Your creative work will seldom speak for itself. It needs other people to speak on its behalf. If you have a large circle of composers, performers, and artists working with you to help promote your music, your music has a much greater chance of being performed. I had hired some St. Louis Symphony musicians to do a studio recording of one of my pieces. After the recording was released, one of the symphony musicians recommended the piece to his friends in other symphonies around the country, which resulted in more sales for the publisher and more performances for me.

While working totally free-lance, a substantial amount of my income came from talking about my music. It never ceased to amaze me that people who never came to concerts that featured my music were very interested in listening to me talk about it. Many acquaintances and contacts were very useful in helping me to find social clubs, fraternal organizations, music clubs, school programs, Oasis programs, and the like that were looking for speakers.

Besides writing and playing music, I also supplemented my income by being a dance accompanist. This sideline led to dance commissions, and many rewarding collaborations, including lecturing at dance conferences. After giving a lecture at a dance conference on music for dance, I was approached by a woman who asked for my business card. Since I did not know who she was, I was very polite, smiled, and thanked her for her interest. Six months later, she hired me to be director of music for choreography camps in New York and Los Angeles.

During a conversation with a visual artist, we discussed the typical collaboration between artist and composer. In most instances, an artist would ask a composer to view his work and write some music to accompany it. I admired his work and he admired mine. I suggested that the whole procedure needed to be turned upside down. Later, he privately raised the funds to support a commission for his gallery opening. However, the commission came first, then a studio recording of the work, followed by a commission to a choreographer to produce a dance for the piece, which was in turn filmed. The artist then based all of his paintings on the dance film. There were funds left over for a live performance of the commission (music and dance) at the gallery opening. Gallery viewers listened to the music that inspired the dance, which in turn inspired the paintings. Collaboration with other artists is always rewarding.

Most commissions came from 501c3 not-for-profit organizations. These included new music presenting groups, professional orchestras, community orchestras, and dance companies. A few commissions came from individuals, and school systems. The most unusual commission came from a martial arts school that was celebrating its 10th anniversary. One of the most lucrative contracts I wrote was to arrange the music of another composer for full orchestra and chorus, record the music in London (I hired London Symphony and Philharmonic musicians), and then issue a commercial recording of the works in the United States.

It is hard to convince people that you make a living by writing music. Many people look at composers as playing. When introduced as a composer, many people ask, "But what do you do for a living?" A free-lance composer needs to develop negotiation skills. The smartest thing that I did as an independent composer was not to compromise. I always negotiated for a fair commission. Many people felt that composers should give away pieces, and were offended that I would ask for fair compensation. My fondest memory is one of negotiating a contract with a major dance company. I had presented a contract that covered forty minutes of music for orchestra with a piano soloist, which then had to be arranged for touring with two pianos, (essentially two complete forty minute works). I was placed in a room negotiating with the dance company's artistic director, the technical director, the business manager, and the company 's lawyer. After fielding questions from everyone, the business manager said he did not understand my fee structure. He questioned how I could charge the same rate for the two-piano version as I was for the orchestra version. Without hesitation I answered, "You know you are right, I should double the orchestra rate". He immediately accepted my original offer.

My residence in St. Louis, Missouri was both a help and a hindrance. St. Louis is a small market. This means that there are not a lot of commissions and opportunities. However, since it is small, once one has established a name and a reputation, it is possible to be considered for the commissions that are available. It is also possible to travel around the state and meet people connected with the music world. Once connections were established in St. Louis and Missouri, it was possible to widen the search outside of Missouri, and use previous commissions and performances as a basis to beg for more. As an independent composer, I was also having my music performed at regional and national meetings of SCI (at that time ASUC). Because I was using primarily professional performers and was not based at a school, I could not reciprocate with performance opportunities for other composers (which seemed to be the way to secure other performances at the time). I was getting some performances at universities around the country, but I had no university or performing forces to offer to other composers. As I concentrated my efforts to the professional arena, my contacts at universities began to dwindle. I miss these university connections.

In the beginning, I tried every strategy available to try to secure performances and commissions. Some of these strategies involved grant proposals and the "calls for scores" which were advertised in various journals. I soon found that writing grants was time consuming, expensive (in relation to duplicating tapes, scores, and the number of copies of applications required), and yielded very few results. Most "calls for scores" ask for very strange instrumentation, or require that you sign in blood that the work has never been awarded another prize, was never performed before, or that the concept was never conceived until the moment that you read the "call". I opted to create my own venues.

A self-employed, independent artist has two options in dealing with a space to create art. Either one rents space or works at home. Renting space requires that one have significant income to cover monthly expenses, (which do not fluctuate, even if your free-lance income does). An outside space also requires necessities such as office furniture, telephone service, answering machines, instruments, etc. Establishing a workspace at home is easier and cheaper. Working at home with children is a two-edged sword. It is great not having to commute. It is wonderful to be able to work at any time. However, it also means that you are available at any time. Calling a special room an office does not mean a lot to small children. You are there, so you are available. You are also available to help run the endless taxi service. Working at home also requires some investment in equipment. I factor these costs in the commissioning structure.

It would be difficult to return to being a totally independent composer. When I was, I spent 90% of my time scaring up the next job or commission, and only 10% actually writing music. I felt that my main job was in public relations and research. Businessmen talk about every contact resulting in more contacts and more spin-off business. However, a commission by an organization seldom resulted in another commission by the same organization, or by another organization in the same vicinity. (Personality saturation does not work for drawing audiences, even if you are a superstar, who I was not.) One soon learned that if an organization had commissioning money, it also had the obligation to spread those commissions among as many composers as possible. The next commission for me from that same organization could be ten years away. Some organizations raised funds for special events in the organization's history, and would never be in the commissioning market again. Also, I had become keenly aware of arts organizations' budgets and the economic climate. Everyone's budget was shrinking, public funding was diminishing, and commissioning was not on the tips of their tongues. After a few years of paying all the bills as a free-lance composer, (I just didn't always know when), I decided that my family needed more security than I was providing. Yes, I was providing food and shelter. However, solvency depended on the next rabbit-out-of-the-hat. There was no health insurance, (I have three children), no savings, and no retirement. It was time for a change. Since I had spent a considerable amount of time applying for grants, I opted to sit on the other side of the desk. I now work full-time for the Missouri Arts Council where I administer grants for music, dance, and literature. There seem to be more people smiling at me now than before.

Now that I am in arts administration, I spend a lot of time thinking about how the arts funding community relates to the individual artist. Many states, like Missouri, are prohibited by state statutes to give funds directly to individuals. (The state of Ohio should be held up as the ideal model for state agencies that deal with individual artists. Composers who reside in Ohio are very fortunate.) In most states, it is still up to the individual artist (composer, choreographer, painter, writer, etc.) to convince a 501c3 not-for-profit organization to apply for the funds on the artist's behalf. The application was written by the organization, the grant was awarded to the organization, and the funds were sent to the organization. One can only speculate on the amount of persuasion needed to convince an organization to do this for you. The "artist" (for whom the program was written) had to appeal to the organization for their commissioning funds, (some checks spent a long time accumulating interest before it made its way to the composer). There are even fewer opportunities available from foundations and corporations. The standard line from the majority of foundations and corporations is "no funds to individuals". The National Endowment for the Arts no longer has programs for individuals, except in literature. When the Endowment had programs for composers, the funded rate was approximately 10% of all applicants. The present "climate" in arts funding being pushed by the anonymous "they" is concerned with relevancy. The newest buzz category is social relevancy. Since the private sector and government have failed, the arts are being looked to as agents for social change. The outlook for composers and public funding is not bright. I reiterate my previous statement: "Make your own venues".

I have three things to say to anyone who wishes to be an independent composer. First, learn as much about as many different kinds of music as possible. One never knows what opportunities will knock. Second, be as flexible as possible. And third, make the time to take some business courses. Everyone talks about the business of music. However, very few schools allow the time to learn about the music business. Performers spend all of their time practicing. Composers spend all of their time writing. Actually, producing is just part of the whole picture. If the monetary rewards are not great, I think the personal rewards are. The most rewarding event for me is hearing one of my orchestral works performed by a professional symphony. The next most rewarding event is being introduced to a stranger who says, " I know you, you are a composer."

© 1997 Barton McLean