Friday, March 10, 2006
Composing as profession.
I don't think I have ever considered composition as a profession. There are very few composers in this country that pay their bills by composing alone, so we resort to other methods to make ends meet. Some composers are also performers (which is pretty handy in getting your works performed), some conduct (ditto), some teach, and others work in completely unrelated fields.
The most compensation I have received for a work was a $24 bottle of tequila. It was payment for my Figment for Alto Saxophone Alone.
Since it is not my profession does this brand me as a hobbyist as Randy Nordschow suggests? (He tries to avoid the dreaded c-word.)
I guess it does make me a hobbyist.
Composition is my pastime, my leisure pursuit even though it does not often come with ease.
posted by Everette Minchew
5:11 PM
|
|
Composer Everette Minchew (born 1977) is consistently active in the creation, performance, and promotion of contemporary music. Moderately prolific, his catalogue includes small chamber pieces for violin, piano, various wind instruments, harpsichord and electronic music. Current commissions include a string trio and an opera based on an 11th-century crusades tale.
His earliest musical training came at the age of eleven when he began playing alto saxophone; it wasn’t long until he began his first attempts in composition.
He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music History from the University of Southern Mississippi, where he studied saxophone under world-renowned soloist, Lawrence Gwozdz.
Fearing that traditional university training would hinder his development as a progressive composer, he abandoned the idea of formal lessons in favor of an intense private study of modern masterworks.
Minchew's works are characterized by their intense timbral explorations and brutal dissonance. That is not to say, however, that the compositions are devoid of beauty. In the first of the Two Brief Pieces, for example, the harpsichord chimes stringent yet haunting chords evoking a sense of loss.
Other pieces, like the Figment No. 2 "Juggler's Fancy" play upon the kaleidoscopic interaction between timbres and tones. The rapid alternation of pizzicato, arco bowing, and extreme glissandi remind the listener of Xenakis coupled with a Berio Sequenza. Minchew's Invention "Two-Part Contraption" for piano owes much to Ligeti's etudes and boogie-woogie jazz.
His music has been performed around the United States, and he was the featured composer at the 2005 Intégrales New Music Festival in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
He currently resides in Hattiesburg, Mississippi with his wife, Cheryl.
CONTACT INFORMATION
| |
