Ep 206-Alexandra Harwood on Making Yourself Discoverable

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Alexandra Harwood is a BAFTA Cymru Award-winning composer whose films have screened worldwide. She is a classically trained composer with degrees from The Royal College of Music and The Juilliard School. Most recently Alexandra scored Mike Newell’s film The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society starring Lily James. The original soundtrack album is released by Decca Records.

This episode is sponsored by Dorico by Steinberg, the future of scoring. Visit www.dorico.com/tpc for a free 30-day trial version.

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Composer Alexandra Harwood shares how she built her career and took advantage of every opportunity.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Alex’s portfolio
Being commissioned with no pay
Having a passion for film
Composing for free as an investment
Animationmentor.com
National Film & Television School
Leveraging the free work into paid work
Getting a call from Disney
Putting yourself out there
BAFTA
Transitioning from free to paid
Hustling
Persevering & Working Hard
Getting an agent
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
The politics of film music
The responsibility is yours
Work on your craft

Websites:

www.alexharwood.com

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This episode was edited by E.J. Sadler at Studio184.

Garrett2019-03-14T15:48:45-05:00

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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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!

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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!

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

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