Image source: headcount.org

The coming election is looking like it’s going to be the same as every one that’s come before it: the most important one in history. Election Day is approaching fast and some state deadlines for registration are as early as this Sunday! As a result, I figured I’d do my part by offering up resources for anyone who would like to double check their registration or get registered to vote. As musicians, it is absolutely integral to our craft that we be involved and active politically. What we do is informed by our surroundings, surroundings that are heavily influenced by the political happenings of the country. Our ability to continue pursuing careers in the arts is directly tied to the results of elections. There are many who don’t see intrinsic value in the arts, and sometimes argue why so much money is being wasted on it… The bare minimum way to preserve your livelihood and the livelihood of your colleagues, is to vote. 

Now I realize you’re busy, and it can seem like a lot at times to add one more thing to the pile, but I promise that this process is quick and painless, and you’ll be thankful that you did it! You deserve to have a say in your future. Besides, I’ll get all the links you need together for you below, so all you’ll have to do is click a few times and input your information. The first step, checking your registration, takes literally 30 seconds!

The place I’ll be sourcing throughout this blog is vote.org. They have a super organized website which lists out everything you’ll need. I’ll link the home page here if you’d rather just go ahead and do this on your own: (vote.org) Otherwise, I’ll walk you through step by step below.
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The first step is to double check if you’re registered. Simply head over to vote.org to do this. I’ll link directly to the form to check registration here. If you’re registered, you’re all set! The only thing you might want to set up is mail in voting or early voting. These options are super handy if you are busy and want to vote on your own time, have something going on on election day, or won’t be in your registered state during the election. I’ll include how to do both of those things in the next two steps.

If you are not registered, you should be prompted with the form to get registered. If not, I’ll link it here. ​The registration process should take about two minutes.
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This option is wonderful for students going to college away from home, and anyone else who simply would rather just vote on their own time. I utilized this option throughout college because it let me vote in my local home elections while I was away.

You need to request an absentee ballot in advance of the election. Every state has a different deadline for requesting one of these ballots. You can find all deadlines for every state at this link here.

Voting by mail means that your state will mail you an “absentee ballot" you can fill out and return on your own time - although I would recommend doing it as close to when you receive it as possible! Apply here.

After you send in your application, you should receive confirmation via email about when you can expect to receive your ballot. Upon receiving the ballot, simply fill it out with your choices and follow the instructions for mailing it back.
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Early Voting allows you to head over to your polling location on a day earlier than the election to cast your ballot. The requirements for early voting also differ by state, and some states don’t offer this option at all. You can see a full list of the requirements and deadlines for each state at this link here.
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In addition to getting registered, vote.org also offers a wonderful tool that lets you get a look at the ballot ahead of the election to have more time to look into and research the options that will be there. It includes clarifications on what party each candidate is a part of, and even links directly to their websites so you can get a sense of their policies. I’ll link to the form to check this here. 

While people very likely already know who they’re voting for in terms of the presidency. It’s less likely that people are aware of their options for local elections. Therefore, I highly recommend this feature! It’s a huge time-saver, and way easier than googling around the day before to get a clearer picture of who you should vote for.
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I believe that’s everything you’ll need! If you’re interested, vote.org also offers cool features like reminders to get registered, pledges for those who aren’t yet eligible to vote, etc. I’ll link here again to the general homepage: (vote.org).

​I hope this blog was helpful, if not for getting registered, then at least to give you some more options and tools in preparation for November 5th! I’ll see you at the polls. Until then, thank you for reading, and happy jamming!

A major point that I tend to touch on in many of my posts is the importance of arts accessibility. Concert Music Outreach Collective (CMOC) is an organization that is actively working to promote that accessibility. In today’s post, we’ll be taking a look at this wonderful organization, learning more about its mission, its impact, and its goals moving forward. The founder, Allyson Cohen, was kind enough to answer a few questions about their work, so I’ll be including quotes from her about their work.

It’s a well understood fact that concert music, especially classical concert music, has a terrible habit of leaving many underrepresented groups out of the conversation. This exclusion takes form in many ways, but the most clear are systemic barriers to access. There’s a lack of diversity on stage, from the composers that are selected to be programmed, to the musicians themselves. There’s entire groups of folks that don’t have access to this music - people in prisons and homeless shelters often never have the opportunity to hear classical music because of its extensive barriers. I think never having a chance to hear a violin, a cello, or even a piano is awful.

​It’s at this failure of traditional concert music that CMOC steps up to the plate.
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​“We perform at shelters, and prisons to share and teach our love of music to members of the community in need.” However, their tackling of this accessibility problem doesn’t end there. They also work to program pieces from underrepresented composers in their concerts as well - bringing the classical platform to new places and promoting voices that don’t often get a chance to speak from the stage. “This year we will also be launching a new commissioning project that will be open to BIPOC student composers. We will pick 5 works to premiere at our concerts and then to professionally record for the use of the student.”

​There’s more to accessibility than simply showing up to play a concert. CMOC tailors their concert experience to the audience they are approaching. While the traditional approach sees a silent audience quietly watching the performance with limited interaction with the musicians, CMOC takes a different stance. Concerts evolve from performances to communal discussions which bring down the unassailable divide between audience and musician. “Everyone in the room should feel that their voice and opinion is heard and respected, and we emphasize this democratic and communal feel at our events.” It’s this communal element of music that I feel is often missing from classical concerts, and it gets me so excited to see a group so passionate about changing that.

​The common trope of raising composers and musicians onto an unrelatable pedestal is just another barrier that CMOC is doing away with. Concerts offer an open door to connection by bringing personal stories, information about instruments, and sharing the artist's connection to the music. By encouraging comments and questions from their audiences, CMOC promotes a safe environment where the audience not only feels welcome, but that they are an integral part of the experience.
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“Many of our audience members do not feel respected or heard in this way in their day to day life, and they don’t have the option to experience this art form where the sky high ticket prices and the expected concert etiquette and attire make live performances inaccessible for most people.” This visibility on the concert stage can have a major impact on a person, especially for those who are used to having that denied from them.

“We had one woman from the Delonis Homeless Shelter say that our performances made her want to live again, and we had another say that our concerts are the highlight of the month. We also have a woman who was able to find housing after living at the Delonis Shelter, yet she still comes back every month to hear us play. It is small but meaningful experiences like this that inspire the work that we do.” It's well acknowledged that music can offer us a place to express ourselves and connect to others, but it has a much deeper impact that becomes apparent for those who are not normally able access it.

Allyson puts it best, “Music gives hope and comfort to those in need, and is a powerful mechanism for communication."
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“Our long-term vision is to collaborate with every prison and homeless shelter across Michigan, with plans to expand our reach nationwide. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that every individual in these communities has the opportunity to experience world-class classical performances and engage with a vibrant cultural community, enriching their lives no matter where they are in the U.S.”

The positive impact this organization could have on a larger scale is undeniable. The lack of access to arts in this country is a crisis. To see classical music, a section of the arts that is widely considered elitist and exclusive, brought around to be the tool for the change we need is so wonderful. As a classically trained musician myself, I am certain I’m not alone in saying that it's initiatives like this that help me to become proud of my training again. It inspires me to work toward those same goals in my own practice.
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This future of accessible classical music is only attainable through the work of organizations like CMOC. Like many other organizations, they depend on fundraising to cover the cost of their operations. “First and foremost, financial donations—whether large or small—are crucial. Every contribution helps us expand our reach, bring classical performances to underserved communities, and sustain our programs.” You can send a donation to CMOC through this link here.

If you’re currently not in a position to contribute financially, consider sharing and spreading the word about CMOC and their mission. “By sharing our cause with their networks, artists can help us attract more supporters and resources, furthering our ability to make a difference.” Follow them on Instagram here: (@cmoutreachcollective). Stay tuned for an announcement of their upcoming season dates and projects!

Additionally, CMOC is currently looking for volunteers to participate in the Ann Arbor Marathon on October 13th which they are a partner for. If you’d like to volunteer, work with them as a future artist, or admin volunteer, reach out to them here: [email protected]

I personally can’t wait to see this organization grow and flourish, and I’m certain I’m not alone! I hope you’ll consider following and supporting their work. Until next time, thank you for reading, and happy jamming!​

​My last post covered my experience investigating a scam, and as I was writing it, I came to the conclusion that there is not much difference between a scammer and a bad contract. In many cases, the current state of higher education is an example of a bad contract.

Today I wanted to discuss and provide some resources to mitigate an issue that is facing many of my friends across all disciplines, student loans. With the disheartening continuation of corrupt practices in much of higher education, I think it’s important that we look out for each other and stand together against it. A big part of doing that is communicating ways for people to hold on to their money in the face of unjust debt. We should not be afraid to discuss our situation and share any knowledge/resources we’ve found. In this post, I’ll be taking a look at the deeper causes of this problem, the best repayment plan you can get registered for to save money, and a growing movement that is fighting to get this situation resolved. 

This is, of course, not financial advice. I’m not an expert. I’m simply sharing my own experiences and what I’ve done to try and get a handle on my loans.
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For many people, especially those who opted out of the higher education path, or even for those who were lucky enough to be able to avoid taking out loans for their education, I understand that it can seem unreasonable for people who agreed to take on debt to now want to be excused from paying it back. However, the reality of schooling that many of us ended up experiencing was nowhere near worth the amount we were asked to pay. In fact, many of these institutions actively misrepresented their value, and students took out loans in exchange for experiences that were less than enjoyable, if not outright harmful. Beyond that, this issue is bigger than each individual student’s debt. There’s a deeper problem at play.

It shouldn’t have to be said, but: Those who were forced to take on loans for an education because they couldn’t afford it are not any less intelligent than those who didn’t. They also aren’t any more deserving to be saddled with debt because they decided to pursue an education when others didn’t. They are victims. And to be honest, those who were turned away by the prospect of loans are victims too. Education being this expensive is a crisis. Charging this much for something that should be accessible to all is a scam.

Image source: www.msnbc.com

There’s another group of people who don’t want debt canceled, and this group I have less sympathy for. You might recognize them, they’re the beneficiaries of PPP loan forgiveness that the government dished out during the COVID pandemic. You might have heard some of these names before: “Reps. Vern Buchanan of Florida, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, and Markwayne Mullin and Kevin Hern of Oklahoma.” (nbcnews.com) All of these representatives have spoken out against the prospect of forgiving student loans. “Greene, who said on Newsmax that ‘it’s completely unfair’ for student loans to be forgiven, had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven. Kelly, who tweeted that Biden's move was poised to benefit ‘Wall Street advisors’ at the cost of ‘plumbers and carpenters,’ had $987,237 forgiven. Buchanan, who according to the White House had more than $2.3 million in PPP loans forgiven, tweeted that Biden’s move was ‘reckless’ and a ‘unilateral student loan giveaway.’” (nbcnews.com)

I wonder, does anyone reading have $2.3 million in student loans? Mind you, these loans were taken out well past the age of 18… They should really know better, right? The idea that our loans can’t be forgiven is laughable. I urge you to look into any representative arguing against loan forgiveness. This is not an uncommon backstory.

But that’s not all! These hypocritical politicians actually have someone in their corner egging them on. You know those lovely loan servicers that you wait on hold for 3 hours with? They actually pay the hypocrites to vote against loan forgiveness. “Student-loan companies spent nearly $4.5 million on lobbying efforts last year [2021], according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks campaign-finance and lobbying data. The industry lobbied against student-loan payment pauses during the pandemic, along with student-debt issues in Biden's COVID-19 stimulus package last year. In 2020, the industry spent about $4 million on lobbying.” (businessinsider.com) ​Even worse, the top recipients of some of this money is incredibly alarming. “Biden was the top recipient of contributions from student-loan companies in 2020, with $38,535, followed by his opponent, former President Donald Trump, who got $25,716.” (businessinsider.com)

Image source: opensecrets.org

In the U.S., this is called “lobbying” but anywhere else, or at any other time in history, this is called, “corruption”. I highly recommend taking a look at OpenSecrets for more details on some of the exact companies who are participating in this corruption.

​So isn’t that heartening! There’s major corporate interest in keeping you buried in debt, struggling to make ends meet. They make money, their whole careers, off of people’s debt–off of your debt. Pat yourself on the back, you’re a major employer! Now do you see why this is a bigger problem?
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Image Source: debtcollective.org

You might now be even more pessimistic about getting out of this debt, but worry not! There are a couple little tiny baby candles of hope!

The most immediate thing that I have personally done is getting onto the SAVE plan for any federal loans you may have. This plan sets a low monthly payment based on your income (which can be as low as $0), and then as long as you make these “payments”, all accrued interest over the period of the month is forgiven. Essentially this could allow you some breathing room without stressing about the total amount of loans snow-balling out of control. You can apply here. 
**Just a little heads up, a recent injunction from a federal court has blocked the functioning of the SAVE plan. However, I would still consider submitting an application in case they resume once this injunction gets resolved.**

Another action you can take is being spearheaded by an organization called The Debt Collective, the nation’s first debtors union. “The Debt Collective has its roots in the Occupy Wall Street movement. In 2012, some of the founders of the Debt Collective helped write the Debt Resisters’ Operations Manual and launch the Rolling Jubilee, a mechanism for purchasing portfolios of people’s debt on secondary debt markets — and canceling it. Using crowdfunded donations, the Rolling Jubilee abolished more than $32 million of medical, student, payday loan, and probation debt.” (debtcollective.org) In their effort to help organize and unify folks with student loans, they have created the “Student Debt Release Tool”. This tool allows you to easily draft a letter to the Department of Education to demand that they use their authority to cancel our debt. By joining in this collective demand, you’re given a chance to strengthen your request by amplifying it alongside millions of others.

​You can check out this link to learn more about the tool and the organization.

With all of us standing together, even with corporate interest against us, we can get out of this mess. It’s time for these vultures to start looking for other jobs… Until next time, thank you for reading, and happy jamming!

​I’ve been receiving scam messages and emails for a long time, as I’m sure every other person on the internet has. It’s an age-old tactic, but I find that there are some techniques that are particularly effective against artists, musicians, and composers. My recent contemplation about this was interrupted recently by a particularly elaborate scammer. Rather than simply ignoring the message as I normally do, I decided to follow along and see where these scams lead. If nothing else, I figured I’d waste the scammers time thinking they had a fish on the line. The following experience inspired a new series of posts that I’d like to call “Scam Alert”. Buckle up.
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​Our epic tale begins where many scam stories begin, SoundCloud. For whatever reason, the place is overrun by bots and scammers. This could be due to the easy access of the site, which is actually something I admire about it, but of course there’s a downside. I received a message from a fellow named “Sean”, a decent name, I’m a fan of it at least. For the sake of anonymity, I’ll be leaving out last names/company names because there are quite a few victims in this ploy (namely, the innocent folks that get their identity used for this nefarious purpose). I don’t want to contribute to the damage the scammers are already causing. The message from this “Sean”, was about using my music for an ad campaign. They were asking for permission, how nice!

​I actually have gotten legitimate work opportunities via this method on SoundCloud, so I don’t automatically consider messages on there to be scams. However, as I continued communications with them, it was clear what was going on here.

​The first thing that I did, and I’m sure most people do, is search up the names of the companies that Sean claimed to be working with. A good idea! When I did that, I saw that they are legitimate businesses. This is done to reassure anyone who they may be reeling in with the ploy. Seeing all the legitimate branding and pretty photos makes you feel you can trust the people you’re talking to. However, it’s important to remember that anyone can “say” they work with anyone. I personally used to play vibraphone with Mac Sabbath back in the day. 

So, what did I think? A lot of things. My next thought was to ask about this renewal term… an interesting detail for a potential scam to include.

​Okay… I guess it adds legitimacy if nothing else. I’ll throw in another question, just to waste a little more time. I’m really interested, after all!

​No time for questions : ( this kind of pressure to keep moving is common for scams because they don’t want you to stop and think before making an impulsive, and possibly tragic, decision. Always stop and think! So what was my response?

​And yes, I gave them my contact info… risky, but hey I was determined to follow this trail! Sean told me that someone named Matt would be in touch. In double checking the website, there was indeed a Matt working for them.
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​The next morning, I received the ping of an email in my inbox. Sure enough, (insert company name here) was contacting me. With a rather official looking contract! Again, my first step was to go to the website of (insert company name here) and compare the email address and phone number that I was provided in this email. Red flag! They didn’t match. This is another good thing to check!

​The contract appeared legitimate enough aside from one very specific clause in the “Payment Terms” section:

​Fishyyyyy! I found it admirable that they would at least lay out how they were going to scam me in a contract I could sign. I wonder if that could serve as a legal defense? “But he signed the contract, your honor!” News flash, that wouldn’t hold up.
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​Then my phone rang. It was Matt! Matt had a very thick accent, which alone wouldn’t raise any eyebrows, but considering Matt's picture and bio on the website, things were rapidly not adding up. I proceeded to ask Matt if they could clarify the questionable “Payment Terms” in the contract. After a few roundabout answers and follow up questions, I told them that I wouldn’t be comfortable sending money in any form. He responded by telling me that he needed to go ask the company if they could change the terms of the contract, and that he would call me back in 10 minutes.
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So after never hearing from my dear friend Matt ever again, I put together the plan for the scam. From what I understand, the way this works is that they would send a spoof payment of $5,000, as stipulated in the contract, which would be initially accepted by the victim's bank/Venmo/PayPal. I would see that notification and go ahead and pay the $3,740 to the “Agency” because I’m an honest, good Samaritan. Suddenly voila! I’d have just paid the scammers for nothing, never to hear from them again.

​It’s actually a pretty smart system, and I’m sure it gets a lot of people. The bank transfer bit especially, because it seems like a done deal. I hope that more people become aware of this tactic.
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​As soon as I finished up my phone call, I drafted an email to the real (insert company name here) and let them know what had happened. I let them know that their company and employees were being impersonated as a part of a scam, which led to a short exchange with the owner. They explained that they’d been trying to get the scammers accounts deactivated, but because the scammers were using an outlook address, and the company used Gmail, they were having trouble. I also use Gmail, so I hope that flagging the email for phishing was enough… It’s a real shame that these corporations only collaborate in a monopolistic sense and not in a consumer benefit sense, almost like monopolies don’t work, but that’s for another blog.

I let them know the information about the spoof SoundCloud account as well, and wished them good luck.

​I think the most important takeaway is that as a musician, where most of our job opportunities can come from calls and emails out of the blue, it’s important to be extra vigilant and aware of the latest scam tactics.

​This experience also made me consider the fact that there really is little difference between a bad contract and a scammer. Ultimately, it’s being hyper aware of contract terms and always watching out for predatory clauses, that is most important. As artists we can get scammed by stereotypical thieves working out of basements and dingy rooms, but we can also get scammed by the owners, CEOs, and Presidents of the wealthiest organizations on Earth. Both are often operating from the same mindset. Unfortunately, the law currently only cares about the stereotypes, so we’ve got to look out for each other, share the latest tactics, and watch each other's backs! I hope this blog made you at least more aware of one potential scam to avoid. I’ll be sure to make follow up posts of more as I come across them. Until then, stay vigilant, thank you for reading, and happy jamming!

Great! You’re now an ASCAP member! If you’re not and you’d like to be, check out my run-through on how to get signed up here. After you join, the next thing you’ll need to do is register your beautiful music with them so they can keep track of anytime you get a piece performed. Once your works are registered, ASCAP will be able to credit royalties to you anytime your music receives a performance.
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After logging into ASCAP, you’ll want to click on the “Works” tab on the left side of the page. This will open a list (or soon to be list) of your works that are registered with ASCAP. Each of these piece registrations will include information about the work, and an assigned Work ID which ASCAP will use to help track down performances. 
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Click on “Register a Work” and add in the title of the piece. If your piece happens to have an alternative title, you can add however many exist by clicking the little plus next to “alternative title”. You may end up with other titles if you decide to change the name of a piece after it’s already been included in a program, if there’s a subtitle, or even if a program ends up having a typo. The important part is that ASCAP will be able to connect a given performance to your piece even if it has gone by other names.

The next section will cover the royalty split between the writer of the work (you), and the publisher (also probably you). This is why it’s so important to set up your own publishing name in the initial registration of the work. Again, if you’d like a run through of how to do that, check out my past blog on it here. If you only register as a writer, you’ll only be able to receive 50% of your royalties, so make sure not to miss this step! Go ahead and search up your writer name and then your publisher name. For writer, I set my role as “Composer/Author” unless I’m using someone else’s text in the work. For publisher, I set my territory as “WORLD”.
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I often skip the recording and performer information as I usually register the work before I get a performance/premiere. If your work is part of a film/TV/commercial score, you’ll be prompted to insert that information. If it’s a concert work, you can skip to that section and specify if it has movements or not. If the work is complete in a single movement (no movements) you’ll be prompted to include the instrumentation and the approximate duration of the piece. For the instrumentation, first check that your instrumentation is unavailable, if you can find your standard ensemble, you can simply pick it there. This is great for string quartets, trios, orchestral works, and choirs. If you don’t see it there, you should pick from the menu below that. This section is specified for each unique instrument in the score. For example, if I have a work for 4 cellos and 1 didjeridu, I would select “Cello” and specify “4” in the “Number of Parts” section, and then “Add Instrument” to select “Didjeridu” and specify “1”. If you have multiple movements, you’ll be prompted to include the approximate duration of each individual movement of the work.

In the next section, if your work is an electronic piece and you sampled anything you need to credit, you can do that here. The following section touches on mentioning any public domain elements. If you’re using a public domain text, this is where you can include that.

Lastly, I usually skip the performance time on initial registration. I’ve already given the approximate duration, and because I often haven’t gotten a performance yet, this isn’t pertinent.
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​A couple final notes, it can be helpful and more reliable to file each of your performances manually. This can decrease the chance that a performance of one of your works gets missed in performance reporting. You can do this here by submitting a PDF of the concert program that you were a part of, along with the venue information. I would also advise that you keep track of all your performances each year so you have a record to refer to.

Should you receive your royalty check and find that there are missing performances that haven't been credited, simply click the "Contact ASCAP" button and explain the details of the missed performance that was not credited to you. ASCAP is amazing, but nobody is perfect, communicate issues you encounter and they will do their best to help you!

Congratulations on officially joining ASCAP. I hope this post was helpful! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out anytime. Until then, thank you for reading, and happy jamming!

Recent events in the political and arts spheres have made me want to briefly contemplate the connection between the two – how the state of our political and social climate is clearly reflected in the arts world, and why the answer to making the arts better lies in political participation. 

Before we start, I realize that getting involved in a political process that can feel broken beyond repair seems like a waste of time. In fact, I’ve often found that there is an inherent pressure for artists to “stay out of politics”. For some reason the two have been made out to be incompatible. If musicians get politically active they are sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong, and alienating a portion of their audience by “picking a side”. However, this separation of arts and politics doesn’t reflect the truth. I believe what artists do, creating and reflecting snap shots of the human experience, is inherently political. The yucky word of “politics” is simply a description of how we as human beings govern ourselves and make decisions. It’s actually a really great thing! In a world where it seems like every news headline is screaming to not bother voting, I ask that you stick with me. It’s intentionally made to look daunting and wasteful. I promise that voting and participating is worth a try, even if it seems pointless.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are all artists. A massive part of being human is to want to create and consume art. However, only a very lucky few are given permission to do this as our main form of livelihood. The main determining factor in whether or not we are able to do this, is wealth. “Someone whose family has an income of $100,000 is twice as likely to become an artist, actor, musician or author than a would-be creative with a family income of $50,000. Raise annual income to $1 million and $100,000, respectively, and the stakes become even higher, with members of the first household nearly 10 times more likely to choose a creative profession than those from the second.” (smithsonianmag.com)

With current economic trends of wealth being increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small minority of the current population, the effect is an increasingly inaccessible arts world.

Source for financial info: stlouisfed.org

​The ability for us to do what we do is being gradually stripped away. It’s getting to the point where if I was born a few years later, I’m not sure I would be making music. That’s terrifying to me.
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In the arts themselves, we see this playing out in real time at the very institutions which gatekeep access to successful careers in classical music. All across the country, program cuts and layoffs haunt hard working faculty members while CEOs and Presidents take massive pay raises. One of the most emblematic schools of this problem might come as no surprise to you if you’ve been reading my posts. CIM (Cleveland Institute of Music) is a school filled with wonderful teachers and students, who are currently facing immense precarity in a deluge of firings and cuts under the leadership of Paul Hogle. The faculty senate at CIM stated it perfectly in their vote of no confidence, “President Hogle accepted a raise of $111,282 (26.3%) between the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years while simultaneously guiding CIM into its first deficit in 30 years and advising faculty that merit-based or cost-of-living raises would not be expected for several years.” (ideastream.org) Sound familiar? Actively siphoning off wealth, subverting worker’s agency, denying education whenever possible…

​To further underline this leadership’s disregard for its faculty, CIM advertised an opening for a new piano faculty position in 2023:

Source: slippedisc.com

Considering the kind of education they require, this was a blatant announcement of how out of touch leadership really is at that school. Although, with a salary of over $400,000, being out of touch doesn’t surprise me.

When I saw recent news coming out from Slipped Disc that Hogle and his executive vice president, Scott Harrison, had taken yet another raise in 2023, I wasn’t surprised. All I can say, if it’s not already glaringly obvious to you, is that this is an incredibly dangerous path to continue going down.

Source: slippedisc.com

​The situation at CIM is just a specific example. Look across all industries, you’ll see the same exact pattern. There is a clear parallel here between the accumulation of wealth inside and outside of the arts. The solution is political. If we don’t do something, our ability to do this as a living may be completely extinguished.

We need to remove the mental barrier that the arts are supposed to be apolitical. They are political. That’s a good thing! Artists should be politically active. If we’re not, we’re abandoning the fight to ensure that our craft continues and expands to include all people. 

As I’ve touched on before, in addition to shouting out organizations actively participating in making the arts better, I will be creating new resources for voting artists and folks who want to get more involved. Time scarcity is a wonderful way to keep us all complacent, and I want to donate a little bit of my time for those who don’t have it. Leading up to November, I’ll be doing a breakdown of Project 2025 – demonstrating exactly what the stakes are in this election, creating a how-to for registering to vote, and a guide on getting a mail-in ballot. If you have questions about these things, or just want to follow along with someone else through the process, stick around! It looks a little bleak at the moment, but we can turn this around together. Thank you for reading, and happy jamming!

​I recently had the pleasure of meeting with the Vice President of Concert Music at ASCAP, Cia Toscanini. Our discussion about the music industry and how composers receive royalties inspired me to go ahead and break down how exactly a composer registers for a PRO. The following is not financial advice. I’m simply sharing my own experiences, and resources that I would have found helpful early in my career as a composer.
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​The first thing to touch on is why registering with a PRO is so important. PROs or Performing Rights Organizations collect and distribute royalties to registered composers anytime their music is played. That’s right, in case you aren’t aware, you are supposed to get paid royalties for all performances of your pieces! Whether it’s played on a student recital, at a restaurant, or on a radio station, all these different venues pay license fees to PROs who then collect the money and distribute it to their registered composers, authors, and publishers. If you’re getting performances of your work and you aren’t registered, you’re leaving a good chunk of change on the table! I may do a future post that gets more into the nitty gritty of how this works. If I do, I’ll link it here.
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There are three PROs in the US: ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. SESAC is an invite-only PRO, so I’ll leave that out of my coverage. In choosing between ASCAP and BMI, that is up to personal preference. As far as I’m aware, BMI tends to offer more benefits tailored to songwriters while ASCAP offers more for live performances and self-published composers. However, I have composer friends who are registered in either camp, ignoring these genre-based benefits, and all seem content with their respective choices. My personal inclination towards ASCAP was a result of a greater familiarity with it through my teachers at Fredonia, and the fact that they offer a cheaper registration fee – being completely free for self-published composers. Due to this personal leaning, I’ll be giving a run down of how to register from the ASCAP perspective. If you’d rather go with BMI, the process should be fairly similar, just go over to bmi.com and fill out their application form!
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One thing that I found very helpful as a student, if you’re currently in school, was to sit down with my teacher and spend one of our lessons together joining a PRO. This gave me a chance to ask questions as they came up and get a good run down of how the whole system works. They’ll be able to guide you through the process of applying and how to get your pieces registered. If you don’t have a teacher, feel free to reach out to me anytime with any questions.
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The process for registering is quite easy, but I’ll include a little step by step you can follow here. Again, if you have questions, I’m happy to offer insight on my own experiences, reach out anytime.

  1. Go to the ASCAP website, or you can go directly to the application landing page: https://ome.ascap.com/en it should look like the image I’ve included above.

   2.  If you’re a self-published composer (you are currently writing your own music without a separate publishing deal with an outside organization) Then select the "Writer & Publisher" option.

    3.  Select “Individual / Sole proprietor or Single-member LLC” unless you’ve set up a company with a different structure. (If you’re writing music alone and are self published you can automatically consider yourself a Sole proprietor – this means you’ll file taxes for your business normally as a part of your regular income. If you want more info on that, I’ve made a post going over how I file taxes here.

      4.   Fill out the form with your personal information.

     5.   You’ll then go on to create your writer profile and then your publisher profile. This is important as you’ll receive your royalties split between these two profiles. Writers receive 50% of earned royalties and publishers receive the other 50%. Your writer account should simply use your own name. Your publisher account should be a name you can see yourself being happy with for a long time. I personally chose “Penzo Publishing”. I know, real creative. You can later connect both of these accounts to whatever bank of your choosing in order to receive your royalties. Make sure you connect both accounts with a way of receiving your royalties so you can get 100% of your earnings!

Congratulations! The next thing you’ll want to do is start registering each of your works with ASCAP. I’ll be making a separate post that goes over how to do that soon. I’ll link it here when it’s available. Until then, thank you for reading. I hope this was helpful. Happy jamming!

​In my last post, I mentioned the list of fantastic organizations that I was able to meet at the Yale Innovation Summit. This week, I want to focus on one of these groups in particular: Art Pharmacy, “a tech-enabled healthcare company that works with managed care plans, health systems, and community partners to address the mental health crisis through social prescribing.” Using access to the arts as a vehicle for well-being – I’m all about that! I was even able to get in touch with the founder, Chris Appleton, and COO Brian McGrath Davis, to get some of my questions answered.
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​One of the most crucial aspects to understand in learning about Art Pharmacy is what “social prescribing” is. Conveniently enough, they define it on their website. “Social prescribing is a practice through which health care providers prescribe social care or social interventions as supplements to traditional clinical and pharmaceutical care.” In recent years, I’ve personally noticed a trend amongst my friends and myself of increasing social isolation. In many cases it’s this rising isolation and accompanying loneliness that exacerbates mental health issues. It seems incredibly difficult to find time to go out and meet new people. Money is tight, and going out can seem like a great effort when most people are spending all their energy on simply paying bills. 

Art Pharmacy presents a solution. “By leveraging the power of arts and culture engagements, Art Pharmacy provides an effective way to address social isolation/loneliness and mental health concerns. Traditional treatment for mental health concerns, for instance, can suffer from stigma (still), time to care (due to availability of behavioral health professionals), and compliance (e.g., to medication). An arts prescription directly addresses these challenges to the behavioral health side of US healthcare. Our services effectively increase the behavioral health workforce and provide effective, relevant, culturally-grounded care for patients suffering from various health concerns.” Essentially, by recognizing the importance of the arts in addressing this “Loneliness and Isolation Epidemic”, treatment can be provided by simply granting people access to arts and cultural events that they wouldn’t normally have the spare finances to afford.
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So how does this work? It’s actually quite simple. You can get a look at an example of “the patient experience” on the Art Pharmacy website. I’ll include a break down of it here:

1. Referral - “Your healthcare provider identifies a need, and writes a 'prescription' for engagement with an arts & cultural activity.” This works the same as any other diagnosis and prescription. The only difference is that rather than traditional medication, you are being prescribed an activity to attend. 

2. Care Navigation - “A dedicated Care Navigator contacts you to connect you with smart-matched arts & culture engagements.” In determining which engagements would be best for a patient, Art Pharmacy uses a “proprietary software” which utilizes information gathered through those Arts & Health studies we discussed earlier. Through this software, Art Pharmacy is “able to find specific arts engagements in the patient’s community that have been verified by research and align with the patient’s preferences.”

3. Participation - “You attend monthly arts & culture activities with protective and therapeutic benefits to your mental health.” These activities range from “museum visits to ceramics classes to dance, theater, and live performances.” “Arts & culture” is a broad category indeed!
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4. Monitoring - “Your Care Navigator monitors your progress and shares that information with your referring provider.”

5. Refill - “At the end of your prescription, visit your healthcare provider to get a refill!”

Isn’t that amazing!
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The evidence for the positive impact that access to arts can have is extensive. From addressing loneliness due to its inherent social implications, to benefitting childhood development, to being able to engage with marginalized or hard to reach groups that the current health system neglects. Art Pharmacy offers ample evidence on their website including studies which backup the efficacy of their organization. They also offer a handy “Research Summary”. I’ll link it here.

In their responses, Chris and Brian touched on the overlap between their work and the field of Arts & Health. “Arts & Health is a well-established field with several decades of research focused on the specific benefits of arts and culture engagement. Centers for arts and medicine/health exist at some of the world's leading research institutions, including Johns Hopkins, Duke University, University of Florida, and UCLA. Researchers at Harvard, the World Health Organization, and beyond have made clear that engagement in the arts can improve patients’ health outcomes.” In cultures across the globe and throughout history, we’ve witnessed the crucial communal importance of the arts. This social prescribing model could serve as a way to connect people to communities of support that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

Patients are not the only potential benefactors of this approach. Your mind may already be jumping to the impact on artists themselves. With Art Pharmacy, access to the arts has its barriers to entry lowered. This means new audiences will finally be welcomed into the halls and galleries that have been so eager to meet them. The most fascinating part for me is that this new revenue stream is entirely beneficial to all parties involved. Artists will have access to greater financial support, patients will receive care that can help them heal, and even the insurance companies footing the bill can benefit from reducing health risks brought about through successful treatment.
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I’m so excited for what this organization can mean for the health world and the arts world. Long-term, “Art Pharmacy has a goal of bringing arts-based social prescribing to US healthcare.” As of now, social prescribing is unheard of here in the states. To underline this, an alarming assertion can be found on the Art Pharmacy website: “Art Pharmacy is the sole commercial social prescribing company in the United States.” This is a new and exciting road here! “Our goal is for the next generation to associate our health outcomes, in part, with our engagement with the arts – just as previous generations learned to associate exercise with health outcomes.”

In asking about ways that artists can support this wonderful initiative, Chris and Brian simply had this to say, “Art has been prescribed from the beginning of culture itself. Art has always been a beneficial component of society. Artists have always had a hand in healing their communities. Artists need only continue to share their art with their communities, to continue to do the good work they are doing.” You hear that? Keep at it! A beautiful sentiment.

I hope this idea was as encouraging for you as it was for me. Thank you for reading, and happy jamming!

​Last week I was lucky enough to be asked by Samuel Hsieh to come along on a trip to the Yale Innovation Summit. East Zodiac, the new music commissioning organization I work on with Sam and Vanna Tsiknias, was slated to give a presentation through the University of Michigan EXCELerator program. In the presentation, we discussed our goal of better representation for AAPI composers in the classical concert space, and introduced our new initiative to bring our program to music students in early education. If you’d like to support this venture, you can find our website here. Everything went well, but this presentation which had been at the top of mind for Sam and I leading up to the Summit, ended up being only a small part of our trip. I wanted to make this post as a sort of recap of what happened, and to share some exciting new resources I’ve been inspired to create.
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Left to right: Gala Flagello (Connecticut Summerfest), Alexis Lamb (Refugia Festival), Samuel Hsieh and I (East Zodiac), Allyson Cohen (CMOC), Sasha Gusikhin (NeuroArts Productions), Jonathan Kuuskoski and Gabrielle Piazza (SMTD EXCEL Program)

To anyone granted the opportunity to attend this summit, I can’t stress how much I encourage it. It’s a place filled with people with a passion and drive for their work that is infectious. Before attending, I’d found myself in a place where I felt quite defeated about the state of the arts, and the world in general for that matter. As much as I was finding examples of clear problems in the arts, I was having trouble understanding what solutions might be, and what exactly I could do to help push for them. While many of the discussions at the summit did touch on these problems, they also began to present potential solutions. There were organizations raising money to support artists – similar to East Zodiac, some worked to create performance spaces in places where they didn’t exist before – bringing the arts to the people who need them most, some found the connections between music, health, and the environment – healing people and the earth with art! In talking with these wonderful minds, and learning more about their projects, I realized that I was staring at the solution. It was dependent on the success of all of these ventures. After many of my recent formal music experiences, this was a breath of fresh air. People valuing this craft we all spend so much time on, but in a way that is not elitist, in a way that is practical in its belief that the arts are a human right.

One of the briefest conversations I had at the summit ended up being the most valuable. It happened shortly after a panel on Art Pharmacy – an organization which allows doctors to prescribe arts consumption and participation… and have insurance cover it! (I KNOW! – I’ll do a post focused on this at some point too!) After the panel ended, I went up to talk with Michael J. Bobbitt, one of the speakers, and asked him for specific avenues that artists could take towards pushing for the progressive changes that artists need from their government. In addition to being a playwright, Michael is executive director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council and has recently been advocating for the implementation of Art Pharmacy. His response was to get in communication with representatives, an option which I was already aware of, but then he added a little tidbit that was new to me. Apparently, there is a threshold that can be reached in the number of communications received on a specific issue. Once that threshold is reached, the representative must act on the request from their constituents. This means that if enough people can push for a given issue, they can not be ignored. When he pointed out that this threshold can be as low as four communications on a given issue, alarm bells went off in my head.
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What if there was a way to provide people with all the tools they need to press issues they care about? Emails drafted and ready to go, the exact names and contacts of recipients they need to go to, and research into proposed policy in support of progressive change done and presented in a way that is easily accessible? Suddenly each person's capacity for political influence would be supercharged. This is my new plan with Musician Coop. I’ll continue my bi-weekly posts, but included in a few of these posts will be coverage of tangible political policy. I’ll summarize the points of the policy and discuss potential benefits, find contact information for representatives that could use a little pushing on the issue, and provide a drafted email you can copy and send to them as desired. My goal will be to make every artist's voice amplified in a call for a better world. To make it easy to push for the changes we could all benefit from. Now, I realize the readership here is not that significant, but four communications?! We could do that. 

Stay tuned for future posts exploring some wonderful music-related ventures and initiatives. Until then, thank you for reading, and happy jamming!

So what’s my point? Discredit the American magic of good ol’ hard work? Make people sad and upset? Well, not entirely. I do think this is a problem, and so a certain amount of discontent is appreciated in fueling any change. The answer to why the arts are so selective in who they consider to be a member occurred to me as I was looking into the history of education.
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There’s an interesting correlation between social movements and students throughout history. In fact, social movements almost always have their roots in schools in some way. I have yet to learn about a major revolution or social movement that has not had students (current and former) involved in some way. It’s almost as though receiving an education helps you better understand the state of the world – shocking. This is a trend that is especially prevalent in the liberal arts and humanities. I think this is because the arts teach us about ourselves and each other. As soon as you start seeing yourself in others, you start to understand their perspective. Humans help the humans they know.

Image source: (educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college-by-year)

In fact, if you look up when the price of higher education started drastically increasing. It was almost directly in response to the social progressive movements on college campuses in the 60s. It seems the government realized that this whole education thing was making people question the way lives were being led at the time. Their solution of raising the cost of attending was a way to ensure that the only people with the knowledge and perspective to change the system would be the least likely to recognize it. The current system works okay for those who can pay their tuition out of pocket, not so much for those who struggle to do that for groceries.
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Working class families face the prospect of having their children take on extensive debt if they want a degree. At the same time, job prospects for those without a college degree are dwindling. Education is no longer about learning and the betterment of the self, it is about getting a return on an investment – an investment that obviously turns many but the most wealthy away from the arts as a feasible option.