Short Takes for 6/24/08

MYA Saxophone Quartet featured on From The TopThe What’s Cookin’ Saxophone Quartet, made up of Midwest Young Artists members Amanda Peterson, Mira DeJong, Kateri Tumminello, and Joshua Plotner, was recently featured of NPR’s program From The Top. I do a lot of work...

Ripping Off Your Teachers

I’ve got story for you, and I promise it’s true! When I was getting started as a freelance musician at the tail end of my masters degree, I was quaking in my boots about my future prospects. After all, I was regularly buying CDs at Borders and Barnes and Noble from...

Blogging on the beach

While it may seem like a strange activity (and, looking around, I certainly seem to be the only guy with a laptop out here!), there is a certain kind of strange satisfaction that I get writing out on the beach, surrounded by nothing but Lake Michigan’s sandy...

Twelve Survival Tips for Freelance Musicians

Over time, professional freelancers develop a set of skills quite peculiar to the profession, alternately taking on the role of long-haul trucker, delivery man, cabbie, and crisis control expert. Though they share the same basic musical skills as their more stably...

Instrumental Junkies Part 2: Musical Scavengers

Author note: One of my favorite things about summer is getting the chance to finally spend some time outside, and writing on my MacBook sitting under a tree with the birds chirping and the sun shining in the sky (which I’m doing right now) has to be one of...