Working Artist's Statement: Draft 2

I slept on it, reread it the next day, and made some revisions. Here's the second draft:

I have been playing music for ten years. Beginning first with the clarinet, I now also sing, play saxophone, guitar, and piano. I compose and play many genres of music, but my focus is jazz; I play jazz because it is a style unlike any other that contains structure and rules, but allows freedom and creativity at the same time. Organization is one of my core values, but as an artist, I also desire freedom and room to explore; I see jazz as the only music that grants me that possibility and through that mindset, my passion for it has developed. In addition, I play jazz because of its versatility; jazz contains sub-genres within itself, so it is nearly impossible to become bored with it. I aspire to follow my bliss and make a living as a professional jazz musician, playing gigs and composing original music. I play because I am compelled to be a performer; I must perform. In my work, I make decisions based off of what I feel needs to be improved to perfect the piece. I know that if there are imperfections in the piece, I will not be satisfied with the end result, so I find the most efficient ways to eliminate them.

I am concerned with and interested in ethnicity and the intimacy that it results it. My studies of American jazz, gypsy music, and bossa nova reflect my desire to be part of a group whose members identify with each other through a common heritage. Although I am most often playing other people’s music and not my own, I seek to convey the relationships of melodies, instruments, and musicians with each other, and how these relationships make the song special. Since I am not only a musician, but an actress, a visual artist, and a writer, ethnicity is a recurring theme in all of my work, ranging from writing a musical revolving around the mafia to using foreign accents in theatre improvisation.

I usually work on several pieces concurrently. My current work has been preparing for college auditions by recording a demo in a studio and practicing jazz standards and transcriptions for live auditions. Currently, I have also been working on scoring my second children’s musical with the help of other musicians and writers. Rather than repeating something that everyone has already heard, I aim to make a bold statement with all of my work, giving me a sense of accomplishment and recognition.

WORKING Artist's Statement

Mind you...this is a work in progress. Anyone's feedback and constructive criticism would be very much appreciated, so please, I encourage you to comment! Here goes:

I have been playing music for ten years; most of my life. Beginning first with the clarinet, I now also sing, play saxophone, guitar, and piano. I compose and play many genres of music, but my focus is jazz; I play jazz because it is a style unlike any other that contains structure and rules, but allows freedom and creativity at the same time. Organization is one of my core values, but as an artist, I also desire freedom and room to explore; I see jazz as the only music that grants me that possibility and through that mindset, my passion for it has developed. In addition, I play jazz because of its versatility; jazz contains sub-genres within itself, so it is nearly impossible to become bored with it. I aspire to follow my bliss and make a living as a professional jazz musician, playing gigs, composing original music, and perhaps teaching at a university.

In my work, I make decisions based off of what I feel needs to be improved to perfect the piece. I know that if there are imperfections in the piece, I will not be satisfied with the end result, so I find the most efficient ways to eliminate them. For example, if there is a difficult phrase in a piece of music that I am having trouble playing, I take it note by note, piece by piece and play it over and over again, starting slowly and then increasing the speed until I can play it perfectly. I select techniques such as this based on efficiency and their success in the past. When selecting a song to learn or even writing an original piece, I simply choose sounds that appeal to me and mesh well together.

I usually work on several pieces concurrently. My current work has been preparing for college auditions. In a sense, every practice session, private lesson, concert, and competition I ever played was preparation for recording my demo and applying to college for jazz performance. My demo is complete, but I am now preparing for live auditions. This is a challenge because I am stepping out of my comfort zone; I am no longer just playing for an evaluation or an audience, but to gain entry to colleges that will foster my pursuit of jazz as a career. Currently, I have also been working on scoring a children’s musical with the help of other musicians and writers. Writing songs for a musical is a challenge in and of itself because so many things are required of the songs; they must further the plot in some way by developing characters or relationships, giving exposition, or introducing key points in the plot. In addition, they must make sense as individual songs as well as within the context of the show. With all of my work, I aim to make a bold statement that will interest people, rather than repeating something they have already heard before, giving me a sense of pride, accomplishment, and recognition.