Jenni Brandon
10th Annual Contemporary Classical Album Nominee
Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!
Record Label: Jenni Brandon Music
www.jennibrandon.com
Home Base: Long Beach, CA
Genre: My music is contemporary classical. What this means is that my particular style encompasses the classical instruments (ie flute, clarinet, horn, etc.) but I use my musical ‘toolbox’ to create contemporary music. I can draw from baroque, classical, romantic, and modern (20th/21st century) music and shape these styles in a way that is all my own. In understanding what music is out there, what came before and what is happening now, I can make music that is melodic and lyrical; angular and gnarly; joyful and expansive. I am not limited to rules and tradition; I can stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before me and look out onto the broad classical landscape and understand what shapes music and work to create my own style in this vast landscape. I love being a “contemporary classical” composer today because we don’t have to fit into a mold; we can be our own voice for our own generation.
Category Entered: Contemporary Classical Album
Work Submitted: Songs of California: Music for Winds and Piano
Artists Featured: I composed all of the music on the CD. The works were performed by past and present members of The Definiens Project (www.definiens.org) and include Greg Milliren-piccolo/flute/alto flute, Ryan Zwahlen-oboe, Jennifer Stevenson-clarinet/bass clarinet, Annie Bosler-horn, Michael Kreiner-bassoon, Kanae Matsumoto-piano.
Label: Jenni Brandon Music. This encompasses not only my label, but my publishing company that publishes my sheet music.
URLs:
www.jennibrandon.com
www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Jenni-Brandon-Music/215547043935
www.reverbnation.com/jennibrandon
Influences: I have always loved the works of Samuel Barber – I love his art songs and enjoy singing them. I also find influence in Debussy, Fauré, Britten as well as Vaughan Williams. I admire composer Jennifer Higdon not only for her music, but that she is an independent composer who is doing amazing things (winning Grammys, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and being one of America’s most frequently performed composers.)
My other influences over the years have come from being in musicals, being a drum major, singing in choirs, and conducting choirs. All of this variety of music has influenced my music and helped to shape me into the musician and composer I am today.
Describe your nominated work: The music on my CD Songs of California has been almost a decade in the making – the works were composed from 2001-2009 and represent most of my works for winds and piano to date. During this time I have lived in California and have been inspired by the natural beauties of this state as well as the urban centers and cultural wonders. Songs of California tells the stories of the many places in California that I love and that have inspired me to create this CD.
This CD will take you on a journey throughout this land of giant Sequoias, crashing ocean waves, sticky tar pits, city streets, and ponds full of frogs and goldfish. I have tried to capture my view of these wonders through music, and in creating these images I hope to capture the beauty of this diverse landscape and transport you to these worlds that I love so much.
I feel that this CD is truly so much of who I am personally as well as musically. A lot can happen over a period of years, and I think this music reflects my journey like many postcards and snapshots of time well spent.
I released Songs of California in February of 2010.
Why did you choose to submit this work to The 10th IMA’s? The IMA’s really give the independent artist a chance to shine. I saw this as an opportunity to share my work with like-minded artists and to discover more artists who are out there doing what I do – making music and sharing it with the world. I also saw the opportunity to reach a large audience that I might not reach on my own and thought what a wonderful opportunity it would be to be nominated for an IMA (and even more incredible to win!) and to have help in reaching those new fans.
Did you use any unusual effects or instruments in this recording? In the work Pleistocene Epoch: The Great Ice Age for solo bass clarinet, I have the performer singing into the instrument while playing during the first movement “Asphalt” to represent the gurgling and oozing of the asphalt (tar) at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. It really creates this great effect, and I think makes the listener sit up and say “Hey! That’s fun!”
There are some lovely, ghost-like harmonics played by the flute in Goldfish Songs, Mvt. II – “Pearlscale” representing this fish looking ‘heavenward’ as the pearlscale’s eyes are on the tops of their heads.
And in Five Frogs for woodwind quintet – the horn player removes the mouthpiece and makes a buzzing sound at the beginning of “Catching Bugs” to represent a fast-flying buzzing bug!
Were there any happy accidents while in the studio, or did everything go as planned? This was not a happy accident, but an interesting story: We recorded the CD at a church in Westchester, California with recording engineer Ben Maas of Fifth Circle Audio. What we discovered (about an hour or two into the recording session) is that we were clearly in the path of the planes coming in and out of LAX. We had four recording sessions, and about 9:30 pm of each evening, it seemed like all the planes were landing/taking off at once! We had to do some takes over because of this, but fortunately Ben is such an incredible recording engineer that none of this affected the recording! And my musicians were incredible, too – patient and willing to re-do takes to get them just right.
Did fans help you fund this project? I was very fortunate to have received a grant from the American Composers Forum to help with partial funding for this project. The Subito Grant is through the California chapter of the American Composers Forum.
Who’s sitting in your audience? People who love contemporary classical music. People who enjoy beautiful music and enjoy going on a musical journey. I also have lots of other musicians and performers in my audience.
What makes your fans unique? They are unique in that they not only love contemporary classical music but also appreciate a wide variety of music in this genre as well as other genres. They are smart, savvy listeners who enjoy being challenged through music as much as they love listening to a beautiful melody.
Are there any songs you wish you wrote? I love Vaughan Willams’ Dona Nobis Pacem both as a composer and a choral singer who has performed the work. I also greatly admire Britten’s War Requiem. I listen to pieces like these and think “I hope that someday I’ll write something as gorgeous and as powerful as these works!”
What artists are you listening to that would surprise your fans? I don’t know if this is surprising, but I do love pop-rock/singer-songwriter music as much as I love classical and new music. I’ve really been enjoying James Taylor and Carol King (it’s the singer-songwriter in me!) as well as Muse, Radiohead, and Feist.
What are your guilty pleasures on the road? One of the things I enjoy most about going to hear performances of my works is the opportunity to meet to performers. These new relationships that are formed are often the best parts of the trip – these are people who enjoy my music and who will program my works in the future. This may not be exactly a “guilty pleasure” but I think the networking aspect of these trips is definitely fun.
Should music be free? I think that we all work very hard to create our music and we are all trying to make a living at this business. And while I think that we should always look for opportunities to share our music and grow our fan base, writing music is a profession and we must be able to support ourselves and continue to support each other’s music as well.
How has digital affected your career? Digital has definitely had a big impact on my career. In the digital world I can reach fans 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I can share upcoming concerts with them, share music and scores, let them know about new releases, etc. It also makes it easy to reach fans internationally. I have made new fans through being able to offer my music digitally, and it’s always such a pleasant surprise to be contacted by people from halfway around the world who love your music and want to share this with you!
Are digital singles vs. full albums the future of music? I think both are relevant – as musicians create new works, they want to share them with their fans. In this digital age we don’t have to wait to put out an entire album – we can share a single work with everyone. However, an entire album can really tell a story, and I think that a whole album is also an important part of the artist’s identity. In Songs of California I take the listener on a journey through California and my experiences in it over almost a decade. This album not only tells the story of my time spent in the state, but also the stories of the places that I love most, and it is the album as a whole that creates this journey.
Finish this sentence: The music industry is… in flux. As artists we must be willing to adapt and change in order to stay in touch, to reach our fans, and to keep our music current and exciting. We can’t stand by old models as the industry moves forward, and I think that the IMA shows that there are so many of us working to be leaders at the front of the ever-changing music industry.