Ep 136-Paul Henning on Breaking Through

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Composer and multi-instrumentalist Paul Henning enjoys a versatile career. He has orchestrated over 50 feature films, including Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Chocolat and has performed on the soundtracks to Rogue One, Frozen, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Furious 7, Moana and many more. He has also played violin for Barbra Streisand, Michael Bublé, Neil Young, Aretha Franklin, Andrea Bocelli and Josh Groban. Paul has served as Concertmaster for the Golden State Pops Orchestra since 2004. In 2016, he released a debut solo piano and orchestra album, Breaking Through.

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Composer and orchestrator Paul Henning discusses his new album Breaking Through, life as a Hollywood composer and orchestrator (including orchestrating for John Williams!), and key networking strategies.

Topics discussed in this episode:

Growing up in Eastern Washington
From farming to living in Southern California
Relationships
Christopher Young
Helping a friend & getting opportunities
The Force Awakens
John Williams & his sketches
Orchestrating for Williams
Mark Graham at Joanne Kane
Being surprised by what happens
Breaking Through
Self-funding the album
Releasing the album
Selling, marketing, & fundraising
Union politics
Keeping the momentum going
Showing up to events & doing network maintenance
Clive Davis: The Soundtrack Of Our Lives
Keeping up & staying relevant
Introducing yourself
Keep practicing your instrument
Learn the piano

Website:

paulhenning.com

Recommended Listening:

The Podcast Mission

To help composers with the business end of writing music through mindset, marketing, and business skills.

The Philosophy

I believe that composers are self-employed small business owners. In order to succeed in getting our music in front of people who are interested in hearing it we need to know essential business skills such as marketing and networking. Building a successful career as a freelance composer is possible and thinking like an entrepreneur will help composers make a living writing music.

The Promise

I promise to deliver high-quality free content through the podcast and newsletter that will help you build your career as a composer. I want my free content to be better than other people's paid-for content. I also have online courses and am available for speaking and coaching.

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Kurt Knecht

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Timothy Tharaldson

What a wonderful way to use composers as resources for others!

Tina Davidson

This podcast is an excellent resource for composers at all stages of their careers. It is composers talking shop to other composers, addressing the issues that matter to our careers. It is so well thought out and executed—a total class act. Bravo to Garrett Hope for creating this much needed and well curated hub of knowledge for our community.

reeesm

Hey Garrett, again, this is so generous—to offer contemporary composers, conductors, and innovative thinkers in the new music field, the opportunities to talk about music. Really enjoyed doing a segment with you and the exchange of thoughts in talking with you about my reflections about being a composer and the paths taken toward releasing this orchestral CD, Dream Vapors. Thanks!

Rain17

By taking the time from his own life as a composer to offer the rest of us a window on how our peers work, Garrett is a truly wonderful musical citizen! Through the preparation he does for each interview, and the intelligence of the resulting conversations, Garrett has created a tremendous archive that will encourage and inspire countless music-makers. Thank you for this series, Garrett!

Alex Shapiro

Garrett Hope's series gives a wonderfully colorful and dynamic insight into the world of new music, featuring many important and diverse voices in the community today. A must-listen for anyone working within the field.

Maetstra | Maestro

A wonderful podcast and a great resource!

mgnumes

I don't even know where to start describing how incredible and important this podcast is. As a podcast aficionado who already has a long playlist of my tried and true favorites, I didn't anticipate this one completely knowing the others out of the water. In terms of helpfulness, this podcast is a must for composers today. Here are a few reasons I love the show: *The consistent format serves to highlight the content, trends, and differences between each guest. *The host, Garrett Hope, has ample experience as both a working composer and as someone who has spoken with hundreds of composers about their own career experiences, so he really knows what questions to ask and which subjects to delve into. *Practical, specific recommendations. I leave almost every episode with at least one concrete thing I can tweak or try in my own practice, promotion, business, or approach otherwise. It's not just BS, generic, arrogant sound bites from people not wanting to discuss the nitty gritty; the guests are great about giving valuable, honest perspectives. *The guests span a pretty diverse range, and it's great to see how different kinds of people of different ages and experience levels, with different interests, abilities, and dictates carve out their own careers. It's not just a monolithic image of what a composer needs to be. There are also non-composer guests as well, which is helpful, because we composers obviously need to be aware of other colleagues (like performers)! *Each episode really flies by. The episodes range from 30–60 minutes, but it's always the most riveting, inspiring, thought-provoking hour of my day/drive. Thanks for this wonderful gift you're giving to the new music world!

Chrysanthe Tan

A must-listen podcast for composers, performers, or any independent artist.

Anthony Lanman