Dear Alma,
A close and trusted friend who is a professional musician invited me to write a short chamber piece for his ensemble. I agreed to write it for no fee if the concert was not subsidised. I wrote the piece and sent it in, it was received, but I have since heard nothing. The day of the concert came and went, with no information. My 2 attempts at communicating with my friend went unanswered. My best guess is that the concert never went ahead, my friend forgot to inform me, and that, it being the summer holidays, my friend is halfway up a mountain with no internet access. But I do feel let down. I am owed an explanation. What should I do?
Yours sincerely,
Frustrated Composer
Dear Frustrated Composer,
Frustration. A never-ending part of being a musician. Allowing it to overtake us can thwart our ambitions, but channeling it can help us achieve new levels of achievement.
Webster Dictionary:
Frustration –
a deep chronic sense or state of insecurity and dissatisfaction arising from unresolved problems or unfulfilled needs
What is your ultimate goal in this project? To have your piece performed? To foster a long-term musical collaboration? To have this moment lead to more collaborations? For me, I try to have every opportunity lead to three new opportunities. This opens my mind, gives me some perspective, and cools any hot emotions.
Having been on the opposite side of your predicament, I can offer some perspective. One member of an ensemble, in good faith, can begin a project without consensus from the group. Projects run by an external organization can be delayed, changed or cancelled. A group can disagree about the perform-ability of the score received.
From your query, I can assume that this group doesn’t have a manager or a director to contact, and that the group doesn’t have a website where you can check their concert schedule. This makes it more difficult to assertion the situation.
Frustrated Composer, you would like to keep your relationship with your friend, and yet would like to have your piece performed. I agree with your assumption that the piece was not performed. Keeping this in mind, don’t worry about the timeline. Let the summer take its course, and in the fall, contact your friend one more time, with a friendly subject like “catching up” or “hope you had a great summer”. Be friendly, and say how you enjoyed the process of writing the piece. Ask for any feedback on the score, without adding pressure of details of a performance. You want to reach out without giving pressure or guilt to your friend.
If he does write back, then you can follow up with offering to make any changes they might want, or meeting with them to workshop the piece. Things like this.
Clearly this project did not go as you planned, but that does not mean that it is dead in the water. Take a step back, cool your heels, and think of the future and what can come of the hard work you have put in.
Questions for Alma? Please put them in the comments section or send to DearAlmaQuery@gmail.com
The post Dear Alma, I’m a composer and I don’t know if my piece was played or not appeared first on Slippedisc.
