Maria Schneider's Advice to Young Composers | Big Think

Maria Schneider's Advice to Young Composers
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When artists break through by doing what they think will make them famous, not what they love, expressing their “real” selves becomes far harder.
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Maria Schneider:

Maria Schneider is a Grammy Award-winning American composer. Born in Windom, Minnesota, she became widely known through the orchestra she founded in 1992. They appeared at Visiones in Greenwich Village every Monday night for a stretch of five years. The Maria Schneider Orchestra has since performed at festivals and concert halls worldwide, and she herself has received numerous commissions and guest-conducting invites, working with over 80 groups from over 20 countries.

Schneider's debut recording, Evanescence, was nominated for two 1995 Grammy Awards. Her most recent recordings have brought two Grammy Awards, the first for 'Concert in the Garden' (Best Large Ensemble Album; the first record to win a Grammy with Internet-only sales) and the second for 'Cerulean Skies' (Best Instrumental Composition). Schneider's most recent work, 'Carlos Drummond de Andrade Stories,' was commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for soprano Dawn Upshaw. She is currently working on a piece commissioned by the Kronos Quartet for a 2010 premier.
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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: What advice would you give a young composer starting out today?

Maria Schneider: I think you just stumped me. The best career advice that I could give to a—run! No, no. You know, I guess it would just be that, that doing everything you do with love and enthusiasm, you know? Music and art, I think it just has to have that passion inside of it and if you do that, I really believe things attract to that. I think one thing we’re just missing in this world are things that are just honest and true, you know, so if somebody is keeping their work, not losing sight and the feeling of honesty, the honest relationship between themselves and their music, they should really trust that and never step outside of what they should, they feel they love to do for what they think they should be doing. That’s always a step away and it’s hard to step back once you do that. I mean, once you step away and you start doing something that you think you should be doing, what happens is you end up attracting an audience to that thing. And then if you want to move back and you say, “Well, wait, this is who I really am, now I have my audience, now I want to show you guys what I really love to do.” You’re going to lose them and you’re going to have to have the courage to completely destroy all of that and start over again. So it’s the best way is just to stick with who you are.

Recorded on December 11, 2009
Interviewed by Austin Allen