Ep 91-Margaret Brandman on Focusing on What Needs Doing

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Australian composer Margaret Brandman’s career in music spans more than 45 years. As composer, pianist, music educator, author and arranger she has combined her compositional interests with her interest in music education. She composes for a variety of instrumental ensembles and voice in styles ranging from Contemporary Classical to Jazz many of which can be heard on the recently released albums -SENSATIONS and ABRAZO.

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In this episode composer Margaret Brandman shares how she’s build a portfolio career of over 45 years comprised of composing, teaching, music publishing, and releasing albums of her music.

Topics discussed in this episode:

Writing pedagogical music
Wearing many musical hats
Parallel careers
Publishing
Distribution
Promotion
Balancing writing with business activities
Legal entitites
Having a CD released
Getting the first publication
Placing music in the schools
Putting in the hours
Managing the family/life/work balance
Being passionate about it
Music for healing
Music Therapy

Website:

www.margaretbrandman.com

Recommended Listening:

7 Comments

Margaret Brandman October 3, 2016 at 11:01 pm

It was a pleasure doing the interview with Garrett Hope and having the opportunity to speak about some of my musical passions and interests. I hope my answers will provide some insights to the music industry for upcoming composers.
- Garrett October 4, 2016 at 3:26 pm
  
  The pleasure was all mine! Margaret, I really appreciate your time and sharing your story. 🙂
Ksenija Vojisavljevic October 3, 2016 at 11:52 pm

Beautiful interview, thank you and all the best wishes Margaret.
- Margaret Brandman October 8, 2016 at 3:32 am
  
  Thank you for your comments Ksenija. I am glad your enjoyed the interview.
Benita Rainer October 6, 2016 at 5:53 pm

From listening to this podcast I can see that Margaret Brandman is an inspirational composer, performer, and music educator, and an expert at juggling parallel careers, having also been a mother and carer for a sick first husband. Her career shows us that experience is essential and perseverance paramount! I like the way she encourages us to engage in the two universal modes of connection: music and smiling!
- Garrett October 6, 2016 at 9:14 pm
  
  Thanks for listening! I agree, Margaret is definitely an inspiration.
Maurice November 27, 2016 at 5:59 am

Oh Marget Brandmen is very nice composer an entreeprener I greatly inspired by her story.

Comments are closed.

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.

I think this is such innovative and important work. I love it. It really helps to have a composer asking questions to another composer.

Kurt Knecht

If you have any interest in composing, song writing, or the process of music making from start to finish you need to subscribe to this podcast. It's run by a wonderful composer and he has wonderful guests of the highest level.

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