Hello Everyone,
If you have not already, I encourage you to use the following link to listen to the most recent episode of the TCC Podcast, featuring the producer Ben Williams and his album On My Own.
https://www.tccollaboration.com/on-my-own-ben-williams/
My conversation with Ben was a great time, and really was pretty normal conversation that we would have about music and music production in a typical phone or Discord call. For those of you who have not yet tuned-in to the episode, Ben and I have been friends since high school. Initially, we became friends through our orchestra group and, eventually in community college, music classes. With having Ben on the podcast, a good friend that I talk with on a regular basis, there was always the risk of giving-off the impression of the typical friend-centric podcast. Which, in an extreme and cynical case, gives too much reference to things that are fundamentally unimportant and irrelevant to the audience. Although I never doubted it, I am happy to say that I don’t think this is the case at all.
As I commented in the episode, Ben holds a unique station, or at least unique in the zeitgeist of my field, in that he is someone who spent enough time around academic music to get a taste of it and essentially turned away from it. I think it is fundamentally important for everyone in academia to hear the voices of people who, although not intimately familiar with the institutional structures, experienced it and decided it was not for them. Some of this is natural taste, but Ben had many good comments and points when it comes to some of the shortcomings. The one in particular that I thought was especially poignant was the lack of proper preparation in pre-college education, primarily in high schools across the country. I would defer to this section of the episode, the last third or so, for a more fully explored context, as this subject has multifaceted difficulties which span across many sections of society, but I think Ben’s observation is quite evident in many places. And, as I pointed out, the distressing element to this was that we were fortunate enough to attend a relatively, relative to the rest of the country or even the state of Florida, well-funded high school music program. Even in it somewhat well-funded, it still failed many students in adequate preparations for post-secondary music pursuits. Now imagine you are unfortunate enough to live in a historically, or even possibly systematically, underserved zip code and school district. Regardless, it was a great conversation and I am very grateful that we were able to have it on the show.
Thank you again to Ben Williams for coming onto the podcast alongside his album, On My Own.
I am happy to preview that our next guest on the Theorist Composer Collaboration is the composer Brian Juntilla and his piece Concertino for Saxophone. I don’t want to give too much away, but Brian and I had an engaging conversation spanning over numerous topics, including (and certainly not limited to) the classical canon, the meaning of “art music”, programmatic vs. absolute music, Brian’s style of composition, and a good deal more. Brian has great insight in both different modes of composition and the “back-door” music theory ideas which make it all tick, you definitely will not want to miss this episode!
I am very excited to tease that the next guest after Brian will be the solo baroque/electronic pop project called The Housing Crisis, aka, singer/songwriter Dylan O’Bryan. I am honored to be part of the promotion leading-up to their album release (including releasing this episode about a promotional single and it publicly releasing on the same day!!) , and I am excited to share more about it in next week’s blog post.
Again, make sure to listen to the most previous episode if you missed it, featuring the producer Ben Williams and his album On My Own. Make sure to follow our social media links below and the podcast streaming platform of your choice to keep up-to-date on new episodes and blog posts from the TCC. Additionally, set your calendar and/or streaming subscriptions to this coming Monday, June 10th for Brian Junttila and his piece Concertino for Saxophone. You won’t want to miss it, and we’ll see you there!
- Aaron
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