Jonathan Newman, part 2 of 2

Scoring Notes

Jonathan Newman is back for the second part of his two-part conversation with Philip Rothman, discussing everything from the profession of music copying to the importance of education. If you didn’t hear the first part, have a listen as Jonathan recalls his early days coming out of school and making ends meet as a copyist, becoming an expert in music notation software.

In this part, Jonathan emerges from the copyist wilderness and gets back to composing. He tells us about his decision to self-publish his music, what it means to be self-published, and how to do it. From there, we talk about the inception of BCM International, a collective of like-minded but stylistically different composers who had a mission to write wind band music that was different than anything anyone had ever heard before. We discuss the educational importance of introducing young instrumentalists to both the repertoire and the composers that write the music, and Jonathan’s days touring the globe working with student ensembles at all levels.

Finally, he parlays that into his current role as an educator himself, bringing both his academic and practical knowledge to bear in working with the next generation of students. We bring it all home to Scoring Notes and how — and how not — to work with music notation software as young composers find their own compositional voice.

Photo: Tina Krohn

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