Courting Performers

I’ve writ­ten before about the impor­tance of get­ting your piece out to per­form­ers. There’s an added some­thing else to con­sider: find per­form­ers who are get­ting gigs for themselves.

Some­times per­form­ers wait around until some­one gives them a call and hires them. This means that if they are hold­ing your score in their hands, they won’t likely per­form your music. They’ll be busy wait­ing around for some­one to call them. And when they get that call, they’ll per­form what­ever is asked of them instead of your piece.

Instead, you want to seek out per­form­ers who are actively get­ting their own recitals together — who are busy with their careers. Get involved with these per­form­ers! These are the peo­ple you want to know. Your com­po­si­tions will be con­tribut­ing to their suc­cess, and their suc­cess will be con­tribut­ing to your career.

(Per­form­ers read­ing this: don’t for­get to keep work­ing at your career and push­ing your­self! This always attracts good attention.)