Check out the complete Musical Innovators series here.  If you have an idea for someone that I should feature in this series, send me an email at doublebassblog@mac.com.

We continue profiling people pushing boundaries in the world of music with this week’s edition of Musical Innovators. Check these folks out—they’re bringing great energy and ideas to our world!

Joe Conyers

Innovator No. 1 – Joe Conyers

founder, Project 440

Joe Conyers is one of those remarkable people that seems to be in three places at the same time.  When he’s not laying down the low end in his assistant principal bass job with the Philadelphia Orchestra, he can be found conducting the Philadelphia All-City Orchestra or teaching musical entrepreneurship to students through Project 440, his nonprofit organization.

I had the chance to interview Joe along with John Grillo, and we covered these various projects in great detail.  Check it out if you haven’t done so yet!

Joe is Executive Director and Founding Member of Project 440, and organization that teaches students skill sets in musical outreach and enriching their community.  Here’s a video describing what they’re all about:

Check out some sample pages from Project 440’s book A Musician’s Guide to Social Entrepreneurship, and stay tuned for the launch of that book soon!

Kathleen Heuer

Innovator No. 2 – Kathleen Heuer

podcast host, music education marketing specialist

I recently discovered Kathleen Heuer on Twitter and was thrilled to discover her podcast Marketing Music Education.  Podcasts that land in my niche of music performance and education are few and far between (A Musical Life was another great recent find), and Kathleen’s podcast has been a great new addition to the space.

Here are a few of her recent episodes that I’d recommend checking out:

• Dr. John Gallagher – John is creating templates designed for music teachers to use for PR purposes, booster groups, fundraisers
• Richard Crain – Richard is the President of the Board of Directors of the Midwest Clinic and shares his perspectives on the clinic’s role in music education.  I performed at Midwest with my orchestra in 2015 and actually put out a podcast about an arrangement I did for this event!
• Donna Schwartz – Donna has a free practice planner designed to divide practicing into 10 minute segments focused on different areas.

Like Scott Lang from Edition No. 3, Kathleen is discovering new methods of advocating for music education.  You can subscribe to Marketing Music Education on iTunes or Stitcher, or through several other options on her website.

Innovator No. 3 – hirenotes.com

gig management website for musicians

I discovered hirenotes.com recently through Facebook, and I was struck by the simplicity and usefulness of this service.  I haven’t used it to book a gig yet myself, but I have explored the interface and am impressed.  They won 2nd place in the Tufts $100K New Ventures Competition and have also partnered with the New England Conservatory Music Referral Service.

You set up a profile and can tag yourself to make it easier to find you. For example, I would tag myself with double bass, classical, jazz, chamber music, and San Francisco.  It’s easy to find other musicians and connect with them like you would in LinkedIn or Facebook.  You can also message other musicians through the interface.

The system is set up to track all the details of gigs, like:

• date
• time
• payment amount
• other musicians involved
• music being played
• deposit
• contact info for the patron

Other cool features include the ability to send a contract out to clients directly through hirenotes.com and a sliding scale to determine cancellation terms (easy, moderate, or strict) and overtime terms.

Connecting your bank account allows you to be paid by clients directly through the service, eliminating the need to ask for a check the day of the gig (which can be a chaotic and frustrating experience!).

They also have a blog that describes more fully what they’re all about and a referral program where you get $20 for every musician you refer when they confirm their first booking.  In addition to the gig services mentioned above, they offer business tools like market data and tax forms for musicians.  It looks like a very cool service—check it out and let me know what you think!

Check out the complete Musical Innovators series here.  If you have an idea for someone that I should feature in this series, send me an email at doublebassblog@mac.com.