The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 013 Jim Stephenson: How He Followed His Calling & Created His Dream Career

Episode Date: November 30, 2018

Today, I speak with composer Jim Stephenson.  Among many other topics, we discuss his transition from performer to full-time composer, why it's important to look inside and listen to our instinct, why we need to have the right mindset in building a career we love, and how to harness focus in our work.   Jim's story is a testament to the incredible things that can happen when one follows a calling and takes a leap of faith forward.  His approach to following a path is highly inspirational and I know you'll love this discussion!  (Not only that, but Jim graciously agreed to let me use his Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra as the Mind Over Finger Podcast's musical theme!  So his music has been greeting you at the beginning and end of each episode of the podcast!) We elaborate on: His journey, from trumpet player to composer How and why he got started composing How he moved forward with his new career Why it's important to look inside and listen to our instinct Why we need to have the right mindset in regards to building a career we love How we are in charge of defining our lives and creating the passionate story that we want to tell Why it's important to be genuine His compositional process How he has the audience and musicians in mind when he writes How he learns his best lessons from performances of his works How he harnesses focus in the work studio The importance of figuring out when you do your best work and how to organize your day in a way that suits you Why good stage presence is important   ABOUT JIM: Website: https://composerjim.com YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC18hLfX0xDhRkaUaRcKyiUA Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Stephenson-Music-95151931586/ Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/composerjim/ Twitter : https://twitter.com/ComposerJim   Leading American orchestras, instrumentalists, and wind ensembles around the world have performed the music of Chicago based composer James M. Stephenson, both to critical acclaim and the delight of audiences.  The Boston Herald raved about "straightforward, unabashedly beautiful sounds," suggesting "Stephenson deserves to be heard again and again!"  A formal sense of melody and tonality characterize his music, each embedded in a contemporary soundscape.  These qualities, coupled with the composer's keen ability to write to each occasion, have led to a steady stream of commissions and ongoing projects. Other upcoming premieres also include his 3rd symphony in April at the Frost School at University of Music, a piece based on model trains for the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in February, and a multi-media tone poem for the Quad City Symphony also in April. Additionally, Compose Yourself!, Stephenson's landmark young-audience work has now been performed over 300 times since its creation in 2002, engaging children in New Zealand and Canada and across the U.S. Additional  premieres include Carnegie Hall in May, 2017 (Chamber Music Charleston) and in the summer, 2017, a Music Academy of the West premiere of "Martha Uncaged" – with the composer conducting – and a west-coast premiere of his violin concerto at the famed Cabrillo Music Festival. The 2017-18 season will see a new "Low brass concerto" with the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä. The Devil's Tale (2013), a sequel to Stravinsky's famous "Soldier's Tale" has become a highlight of Stephenson's extensive chamber music output, having already garnered much critical praise for its recent recording ("a most remarkable work" – Fanfare Magazine) and numerous performances, including at noteworthy venues such as Ravinia and Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center. James M. Stephenson came late to his full-time composing career, having first earned a degree from the New England Conservatory in trumpet performance, and then going on to perform 17 seasons in the Naples Philharmonic in Florida.  As such, the composer is largely self-taught, making his voice truly individual and his life's work all the more remarkable.  Colleagues and friends encouraged his earliest efforts and enthusiasm followed from all directions.  As his catalog grew, so did his reputation.  That catalog now boasts concertos and sonatas for nearly every instrument, earning him the moniker "The Concerto King" from Chicago Symphony clarinetist John Yeh.  The vast majority of those compositions came through commissions by and for major symphony principal players, in Chicago, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Washington DC, St. Louis, Oregon, Milwaukee, and Dallas, among others.  A major break came from the Minnesota Commissioning Club, which led to two works (violin concertos) receiving premieres in 2012—by Jennifer Frautschi with the Minnesota Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä and by Alex Kerr with the Rhode Island Philharmonic under Larry Rachleff.  Other international soloists for whom Stephenson has composed include saxophonist Branford Marsalis and trumpeter Rex Richardson, whose concerto has been performed on five continents.  With such prolific output, Stephenson's music is well represented in recordings.  Nearly all of his solo brass works (over 50) have been professionally recorded, and in total, his extensive catalog for all instruments can be heard on over 30 CDs. James Stephenson is also a highly sought-after arranger and conductor, rounding out his constantly busy schedule.  His arrangements have been performed/recorded/broadcast by virtually every major orchestra in the country, including the Boston Pops, Cincinnati Pops, New York Pops and more.  On the podium, Stephenson has led orchestras in Chattanooga, Bozeman, Charleston, Ft. Myers, Modesto, and Wyoming, in addition to numerous concert bands.  With the Lake Forest Symphony, near his Illinois home, he has not only conducted but also has served for seven years as Composer-in-Residence. Jim originally hails from the Greater Chicago area, as does his wife Sally.  In 2007 the couple, along with their four children, returned to the region to pursue the life they now share.   If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review on iTunes!  I truly appreciate your support! Visit www.mindoverfinger.com for information about past and future podcasts, and for more resources on mindful practice. THANK YOU: Most sincere thank you to composer Jim Stephenson (our guest today!) who graciously provided the show's musical theme!  Concerto #1 for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra – Movement 2: Allegro con Brio, performed by Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and the Lake Forest Symphony, conducted by Jim Stephenson. Also a huge thank you to my producer, Bella Kelly!   MIND OVER FINGER: www.mindoverfinger.com https://www.facebook.com/mindoverfinger/   (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps cover some of the costs associated with the production of the podcast.  Thank you for your support.)

You're listening to the Mind Over Finger Podcast, episode number 13. Welcome to the Mind Over Finger Podcast, discussions on mindful music making, efficient practice, and building a purposeful career. And now, your host, Dr. Renée Paul Gaultier. Hi everyone. Today I speak with composer Jim Stevenson. I'm really excited to have Jim on because I love both his music and his story. After discovering him a couple years ago, I went to his website and found a wealth of incredible repertoire and have been a big fan ever since. I was even more intrigued when I met him and heard about his journey in becoming a

composer. I was very inspired because his story truly is a testament of the incredible things that can happen when one follows a calling and takes a leap of faith forward. Jim's music has been performed by leading American orchestras, instrumentalists, and wind ensembles around the world, and it has received both critical acclaim and audiences' praises. Jim came late to his full-time composing career, having performed 17 seasons as a trumpet player in the Naples Philharmonic. As such, he is largely self-taught, making his voice truly individual and his life's work all the more remarkable. Recent and upcoming premieres include the St. Louis and Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and Cabrillo Festival, as well as the

U.S. President's Own Marine Band. Over 150 orchestras and bands play his music annually. Not only that, but Jim graciously agreed to let me use his concerto number one for trumpet and chamber orchestra as the Mind Over Finger podcast's musical theme, so his music has been greeting you at the beginning and end of each episode of the podcast. Today, among many other topics, we discuss his transition from performer to full-time composer, why it's important to look inside and listen to our instinct, why we need to have the right mindset in building a career we love and how to harness focus in our work. I strongly recommend that when you're done listening to the episode, of course,

you visit Jim's website at composerjim.com where you can learn more about him, take a look at his impressive discography, listen to his amazing works, and look at their scores. Jim's story and approach to following a path is highly inspirational and I know you'll love this discussion. I also have two very special guests following my conversation with Jim, so stay tuned. Let's go to the show. Jim Stevenson, I'm so happy to have you on the show. Thank you, Renee. It's really, really great to be here. I appreciate this. first of all I want to thank you for accepting to have your trumpet concerto as the theme song

for the mind over finger podcast something about it made me so happy and I felt like I identified with it in a meaningful way and I was so thrilled when you gave me the green light and sent me the file I'm glad you chose to use it I mean that concerto requires a lot of mind over fingers because it's very difficult. So I think it's apropos. That's great. Jim, I was first introduced to you and your music by Holly Mulcahy, the guest on episode four of the podcast. And she was performing your violin concerto with the Chattanooga Symphony. And she built such a great anticipation online about this piece. It got me really curious about you and your music. And then a few months later, I had the opportunity to perform the same concerto with the Elgin

Symphony and Jennifer Frouchi, for whom the piece was written, I believe. Correct? Correct. Yes. And I absolutely fell in love with your music. And I think one of the reasons people and musicians like your music so much is because, as I saw on your website, you say that you have this endeavor to be a performer's composer and always remaining sensitive to the needs of those who are on stage making the music happen and and we feel it and your music is indeed so much fun to perform i appreciate that that means a lot because it um yeah i mean i spent 17 years in an orchestra myself and was a trumpet player as a kid and so i do know exactly what it's like to be on stage and

i do know what it's like to have music put in front of you that is um either just ridiculously difficult or not fun or, you know, you question why it's even there. So, you know, I'm sure I still make mistakes and I will continue to, but I do want people to enjoy playing my music as much as possible. And we do. And I'm so happy to have you on the show because in addition to being a big fan of your music, I became really, really impressed with you as a person when we met after that performance with the Elgin Symphony and your story and the way you shaped your career made a really strong impression on me and i'd love for the listeners to hear about your musical journey in your own words so can you please tell us about you how you got to where you

are today and how your artistic path has unfolded sure i hope you have a little bit of time all the time all the time yeah i mean i tell people this all the time i mean i even told it to a young orchestra I've been conducting lately. I told them this yesterday. I can't even believe, I'm still shocked that I'm either yesterday standing in front of them as a conductor or even today talking to you in the role of a composer,

because as I sort of hinted at just a little while ago, my ultimate goal from the age of 10, I think, maybe 13 when we start really thinking about these things, But my ultimate goal was to be, to put it bluntly, the first, the principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony. That's what I wanted to be, starting as a very young kid. I think you recently interviewed Paul Marcello, and he and I were young trumpet players together in the Chicago area. And we would get together on a, well, whenever possible, and just play trumpet excerpts and talk about the great recordings of the Chicago Symphony and other trumpet players. Maurice Andre and we would try to be these people and he's gone on to succeed however I don't play

trumpet anymore and so the story is that things seem to be headed in that direction for me early on I went to Interlochen as a high school kid I went to the New England Conservatory as a trumpet performance major and I was one of the very lucky ones in that I still don't know how it happened but two weeks before I graduated I got a job in an orchestra and so this was the Naples Philharmonic down in Florida and I thought okay here I go I'm on my way I've got my job I'm 21 I'm going to stay here five years I'll move on to the next orchestra and then maybe the next one and then hopefully someday that Chicago Symphony dream will come true however a funny thing happened on the way to the I don't know it it uh it never it didn't work out that way um at least

as far as trumpet is is concerned I started arranging music simply because we needed it I was uh in a brass quintet that did a lot of educational shows uh we'd go to schools 25 schools a year down in Naples Florida and demonstrate our instruments you know how that goes weird i'd say here's a trumpet here's a trumpet i can play high and fast and the tuba player would say i'm a tuba player i play the low notes and anyway um after a while you get sick of doing the same old demonstrations over and over and over again and so somebody said we should arrange something fun for these kids to play and and uh i for whatever reason i don't know why um i guess i do know why maybe we'll get to that but i raised my hand and i said i'll do it i'll

arrange it and so I arranged some songs for us to play and we played them and kids enjoyed it and but more importantly for me is my colleagues enjoyed playing them or at least they told me they did and so that little that little pat on the back got me to arrange more and more I started arranging for our orchestra we had a very famous pops conductor who has now passed away his name was Eric Kunzel and I started arranging for him and he started taking my arrangements all around the world and recording them with the Cincinnati Pops and playing them with you know Chicago Symphony and Boston Pops and all these wonderful orchestras and so this was suddenly getting very interesting to me and I had more power than I did as a second trumpet player suddenly I was writing

the notes for people to play and for them to express you know what's inside their souls and inside their hearts. And so I started, uh, just making the switch to composing. I thought to myself, well, if I'm arranging other people's music, what would happen if I started writing my own and let's see how that goes. And so it really was all just a very organic, but unexpected development of a composing career. And, uh, eventually the composing got so busy that, knock on wood that something had to give and so at this point my wife and I had four young children and we were both playing in the orchestra and I was doing this composing thing and we just needed some space somewhere so we quit cold not cold not totally cold turkey we took a year off

from the Naples Philharmonic to move to Chicago to see if the composing career might have a chance And as soon as we arrived in Chicago, we knew we were here to stay. And so that's the beginning of the rest of my second career. And now I'm a full-time composer and trumpet is in the case. So that's why I'm still shocked to be talking to you as a composer, because I never thought I'd be doing this. That's such a great story, Jim. And I think it's a story that's so important for people to hear. because, you know, of course you worked really hard at your craft and you are where you are

today because of your dedication, but not everybody has the guts to follow their dreams, to take that leap of faith and just dive in. You know, it's so easy to just cruise and stay on the course. We're on just by default. It takes courage to, you know, do it the way you did. You put your cards on the table, you quit everything, and you really gave this composition thing a go and can you speak more to that can you tell us about what went in this thought process of moving forward with the idea and what emotions and trials you went through yeah that's a great question um or it's great for me to think about what was interesting to i the the light went off in my head or the bells started ringing in my head

uh, when I suddenly thought of, and I just want to remind anybody who might listen that this does not have to be, you know, what anybody else has to do. We all have our own paths, but for me, when I, so I got in that orchestra when I was 21 and I was the second trumpet player. And, um, when it started to hit me that let's say I retired at the age of 65. And so that would have meant i sat in that chair for 44 years um and it just hit me i was like is that really if i'm to look 44 years in the future or at that point of it maybe it was 27 years into the future is that really what i want my career to be known as uh sorry that's a really poorly formed sentence And that's just when it hit me that, hey, wait a minute, maybe I have something more to say about music than what I'm currently doing.

My father was an entrepreneur. He started his own business. So maybe that's in my blood. And I know when I started composing, I realized why when I was 11 sitting in a youth orchestra and we were playing Night on Bald Mountain. and I was really struck by the harmonies that Mussorgsky used. And I thought they were so cool, so much cooler than any rock music I'd ever heard as a kid. And why I would cry during some classical music concerts even

and recordings and whatever, is because I was just so enamored by the sounds that were being created. And so now this newfound dream or passion of trying to create those sounds that other people might hopefully enjoy that just really took hold and so that's i mean every day when i sit here at my computer writing music or sitting at the piano that's what's going on in my head is how can i try to create those sounds so so to get back to your question um everybody else thought we were stupid or they or they question you know you know why are you leaving florida to move to chicago and why are you quitting your jobs i mean you have two salaries what are you

thinking i never ever ever thought of it that way not once it was just like all right this is where i'm at how can i move forward what's the next thing i have to do to try to move forward and and make this career happen and i mean that's honestly that's still something i think about uh daily i mean this is not a salary job that i have so i have to create my own work but um It's a challenge I enjoy and maybe some people enjoy that challenge and others don't. So for me, it's just something that seemed invigorating and inspiring. You know, I'm inspired by so many things of what you're saying, but you said that, you know, we all follow our own path, but it takes so much courage to actually look inside deeply

at what we truly want and go for it. And it's so easy to just follow this beaten path. So the fact that you had this courage to really move forward and give it a go is really something that I want, especially the younger generation, the people are early in career to hear because everything is possible, especially these days, 2018, with all the technology that we have. there are so many new avenues that are available to young musicians what would your advice be to these young musicians who might have this dream to maybe move towards a transition and you know in regards to maybe what the mindsets that are necessary you mentioned that your family has some entrepreneurial blood in it and you know maybe some concrete steps that they can or maybe should take or things that they should do or avoid what are your thoughts on those things

that's a lot of questions well i mean well i think it's just a it's just a mind shift i mean you have to shift your thinking into so that everything you're doing everything you're about uh all your actions all your connections are about that dream that is in your head um once i became a composer um everything i did was you know going to conferences or contacting people or my thought process during the day i was now thinking about you know structures of a piece and whatever it's everything you do has to be about that goal i was i was talking with a uh i was doing an interview with a young student yesterday at a college actually and um we were talking about him i mean he was interviewing me but i always like to flip the interview and talk about him and um so i said

to him so he's a percussionist and i said you know so close your eyes and he did i said all right it's 20 years from now what are you doing and he said i i think this even surprised him because uh he had this look of um shock on his face after this happened but he he said all right i'm on a stage. It's not a huge stage. It's maybe a small recital stage. And I said, okay, what instrument are you playing? He said, well, I got it. I have a marimba. And is there anybody else playing with you? No, it's just me. And I said, all right, what music are you playing? He thought about it. He said, I'm playing video game music. And I said, all right, go do that. Don't wait, but don't wait for 20 years. Do a recital, right? Plan one right now. Play video game music on your marimba,

invite your friends to come i would come see what he was saying was so interesting to me i it it already grabbed me and i'm just one person i was like i would be there if you program that recital i would be there tomorrow because he had such passion about what he was thinking about i could see it in his face and so i would just invite people to think about where they might want to be in 20 years maybe 10 years whatever and then take steps that very day towards that goal don't expect that it's just going to happen to you you have to define your own life you have to create that path and there are so many opportunities to for people to to do unique things and and to create a passionate story that others latch on to but if you're trying to do

somebody else's story it's not going to work but if you create your own and are committed to it people will people will follow it and they will become your fans so i thought that was interesting that yesterday I had that experience with him because I just saw this fire light underneath this, this maybe 20 year old kid and sorry, kid to me. So I'm hoping he'll do it. I might follow up with him because it was there. And so that's sort of what I would recommend. I would suggest that just start now. Jim, that's great. Thanks so much for sharing this story with us. You know, I'm really convinced that it's, it's such an important message. And I know that people will be inspired by how you negotiate these turns. And I love how you say it's a mind shift and

that you have to create your own story. It's so true. It's just so easy to go with the tide. And you know, we need to narrow our focus and have our eye on what we truly want. This is really, really, what you just said is so inspiring to me. And it's so easy to be swayed by other people's stories, right? I mean, you see somebody else having success and, and the temptation is to want to like copy what they're doing. And if you do that, it's just going to be fake. And people will see right through that. You know, it has to be authentic. It has to be your story. Yes. You know, we all look different. We all look different. And so we all have to have a different

story just by the fact that we all look different. So, um, go for it, you know, create your, create your persona create your but it can't be fake you can't hype yourself you can't say things that aren't true you have to just stick to what you believe in your heart and people will feel that yes 100 now um for a little bit of a pivot to the composition part of your life as a performer who's never composed a thing in her life this whole creation part is kind of a mystery to me i i would love to understand better what it is so can you please talk to us a little bit about your creation process i mean you don't have to give away all of your magic tricks of course but how does music go from an idea to a final product how does that

work for you wow you might have to rein me in on this one um it's i mean because i'm not sure i know the answer i mean let's let's not forget uh that i'm not a quote-unquote trained composer right i mean i used to be embarrassed to say that but um i did not go through the proper channels if you will i didn't study composition in college i don't have a single teacher who has ever looked at my scores and and told me what to do um my career is completely uh so i don't say self-taught I say self-learning because we never stop learning so mine is just uh always being curious and and always just uh seeing what happens next but uh so in that sense what I'm trying to say is that my compositional process just like when I was an 11 year old kid see sitting in an

orchestra and my ears were tickled by the the chords of Mussorgsky that is what I'm always doing i'm i'm just using my ear to find sounds and melodies and rhythms and textures and colors that are where my own ear is tickled and intrigued and and i try to keep a sense of momentum throughout the music um so the the very the very nuts and bolts of it is i will either get an idea in my head um i hear something in my head and i'll i'll write it down or sing it into my phone so i won't forget it um and it's always in a particular key i don't have perfect pitch but i once i hear something it has to be in that key i don't switch anything based on whether somebody can play an A double sharp or not. So it goes from just a concept into my head. And then I do

a lot of thinking about the shape of the piece, the emotion of the piece. I always imagine myself sitting in the audience, listening to my own piece. That's like, I visualize myself sitting in about the 12th row and there are people all around me and I'm actually watching the conductor seeing how he or she is responding to the music I'm looking at the musicians on stage I'm thinking about their parts whether or not they're involved these all go into every note I write and so it's not just me creating notes on a page and throwing it at musicians it's like when I'm composing I'm really, they're with me. The conductor is with me. The audience is with me. So it's a very image-based form of composing, I suppose. And once I get rolling, the piece kind of tells me

where it needs to go. I do not, I don't compose theoretically. I don't ever say, okay, I need to get to F major, so I better hit a C7 soon so I can get there. It's never that. It's just music flows and okay it needs to go here so now i'm going to take it there and we'll see where it goes uh there is some negotiating that happens with form and all that with regards to that but it's a very organic process which either starts at a piano or me sitting in the and singing into my phone or mowing the grass and i have a great idea and i run to the computer and get it down oh i told you there's no proverbial napkin in here somewhere in the restaurant oh no oh no i've got a couple of those uh let's see uh i'm looking around my desk right now is

littered with scraps of paper uh little sketchbooks and things but um it usually it i'll sketch something and then it's it goes into the piece and i don't ever go back to the sketchbook the piece then takes over and it goes where it needs to go i'm really fascinated by how you say you have no formal composition training yet you are so masterful at what you do right now what kind of training did you put yourself through between your first attempts at composing and now yeah that's a good question it's um it's been difficult to be honest because my schooling is sometimes the performances themselves I was never in a college situation where I could have trial and error you know write something and it only stays within that school and a teacher says that's

terrible you need to fix that no my my lessons always come when i'm sitting in the audience and i'm having a world premiere and i get a sense of whether the players and the conductor and the audience uh are liking it or not so it's kind of a it's sometimes a very painful process uh i've had certainly had some failures and i i'm sure i will continue to have failures but uh you know it's not it's not win or lose right it's win or learn so if if something doesn't go well that's I see that as opportunity to really fix that for next time as best as I can so you know my unfortunately my schooling comes whenever I have a world premiere and which isn't every day of course so I go from and not just a world premiere it could be any performance that I'm at of my

music where I can sit and take in whether or not the flow of the music seems to be grabbing people or not, or grabbing me most importantly. And then I never go back and edit works I've already written. I just don't have time, unfortunately. So my, the next piece has to be better. The next piece has to fix problems that I'm experiencing in the current piece. And do you reach out to other instrumentalists? For example, in the case of a violin concerto, because I hope the listeners go and listen to this piece. It is so wonderful. How do you write for instruments that you don't play? Another good question. It's, well, it all comes from my sitting in an orchestra for, well, literally since the age of 10 until I was 38. In case I didn't say this, I wasn't a full-time

composer until i was 38 so all the time before that was uh sitting in an orchestra and uh boy there is a lot of learning that goes on when you sit there and you watch and listen to your colleagues and you see them move uh and and when they enjoy music that they're playing you can feel it you see them moving together you can feel it in the energy in the room and conversely of course you can tell when they're bored out of their minds or hate what they're playing or we talk about you know we hate what we're playing you know this right and so um so maybe i'm too uh sensitive or insecure i don't know but i i don't want to write music that results in that with my musicians i want them to love what they're playing so uh in the case of a violin concerto for example um

i wrote mainly uh with what i knew from listening to a lot of violin concertos My wife is a violinist, so of course I hear her play all the time. I did not really consult her, I have to say, when it came to writing this violin concerto, because I was just sort of in my mindset of just writing what I heard, and then I knew that if I wrote some things that were impossible, people would let me know. So there's always that process, you know. So in the case of the violin concerto, by the way, I have two. So we're talking about the one that's called Tributes.

Yes. It's a violin concerto. Um, so this one written for Jennifer Fauci, I sent her the music. And then I always say this to my soloists. I say, look, uh, I'm not dead set stuck on any of this. If any of it's impossible, let me know. I you're the soloist. I want you to feel comfortable. You're the one putting your life on the line up there. Front and center is the life on the line, but you understand what I'm saying um they're the ones in the spotlight and i want them to feel happy and comfortable with what they're playing so uh jennifer sent me maybe four corrections out of a 30 minute piece i think that's

okay i did okay but uh yeah i had written some double stops that were just ridiculously stupid and she just said you know let's let's change that and and i was fine with that that's what i want to do uh same thing right now i'm writing a bass or i just finished a bass trombone concerto And it's been a lot of interaction between me and the soloist to get it to where he wants it. So very collaborative process. Yeah, this is great. And, you know, for corrections, that's not bad. I could send Paganini about 50. Don't go compare me to Paganini.

I think we know where I stand in that regard. But yeah, no, I was, you know, I was happy that I'd gotten most of it right and not right, but you know that it was um for the most part playable uh yes it's difficult but um everybody everybody enjoys a challenge right yeah i think the main point and of course this goes with performers too is just i think being open to the collaborative process is um something that people respond to um if you and i know there are composers and performers and who are very um stubborn in what they've created and they want it their way or no other way and they've

been successful i'm not saying it can't be that way but just for me i like working with people and keeping the channels open for collaboration that's so great jim and you know what i love about this is it can be mapped onto our approach to practicing and performing so for example when you're talking about this visualization i had never realized that something that composers did But I love how it really is reminiscent of how we visualize performing the works. And I love what you said about you win or you learn and these lessons that you get in performance because it's so much of the same for us. Once you leave school, that's when the learning begins up to a certain point. You know, when you lead a life in music, there's so much to be learned when you perform and what you're talking about, this power of, you know, drawing from your experience and learning by osmosis in a certain way by observing your colleagues.

I find this answer that you just gave us so inspiring. And as you know, my whole mission is centered around mindful and deliberate, efficient practice. How does that translate in the composition studio for you? How do you harness focus in the workroom while you work? I have better days than others, but it is crucial to, well, first of all, I'm very routine-oriented in that um my i know that i work the best in the morning so everybody in my house knows that i'm going to be working starting at 8 a.m in the morning um there's no sitting around watching a couple tv shows and then deciding i'll start at 10 30 or something i already because if i do that

i know i've already missed my most important hours of the day so i'm always at it at eight in the morning and then um to the best uh of my ability i will turn off distractions and i think we all know at this point what those distractions might be whether it's your phone or or uh you know the facebook window open on your computer or whatever um i try to turn those off when i really need to dig you know it's it's amazing what you can get accomplished in three hours if you just focus on one thing whereas you can probably um get more done in three hours with no distractions than you can in eight hours with little distractions so i just try to to um give myself a chance actually every day to accomplish what i need to accomplish um rather than um sort

of self-destruct by allowing other things to seep in um and for me i mean composing is almost like meditating it's just like trying to get into that zone um and it's such a great place to be if you can get into that zone it just kind of gives you energy for the rest of the day so that's it's i'm almost selfish in that regard and i just want to get into that zone it's all it's uh it's a need i have. I'm addicted to it. I think my students are going to think I told you to say all of these things. That's funny. It's so true. You know that if you really take the time to understand how you work best and you develop a routine that works for you and figure out, you know, what you respond to the best, I agree with you on this uninterrupted focus. This is really excellent. Yeah. And it's

amazing. Like how I'm actually surprised what sort of, uh, um, how much time I end up actually having to do other things. Um, because just like everybody else, I love to watch TV or go to movies or, uh, for the adults who might be listening, you know, have a glass of wine at dinner, blah, blah, blah, uh, go out with friends. And if I really focus during the day, I can then just turn my brain off and enjoy those other things that are so important in life as well you know going on vacation you know if i make us if i make myself a deadline that i have to get this done before i go on vacation then vacation is so enjoyable i don't have to think about my work so um like i said earlier it's all uh it's very selfish of me and and you know i i force myself

and and enjoy that zone that i can get into so that that allows me to have the free time later And people wonder how I write music as fast as I do. Again, it sort of surprises me because I have more free time than I think I do oftentimes. But it's all about discipline and prioritizing our work over our fun. Yes, I had Denise try on on the show a few weeks ago, and she gave the advice of paying yourself first. So she has this thing she tells her students to do 55 minutes and out. So to just get in the practice room first thing in the morning and get it started. And then you can, you know, have the rest of the day and dedicate time to other activities.

Jim, I'm enjoying everything about this conversation. How about a round of rapid fire questions before we wrap up? Okay. Do I have to prepare for this? Let me think. All right, I'm ready. So for the people who are dreaming of a career that maybe resemble yours, Can you tell us a little bit about what your life looks like?

You already gave us a little bit of an idea of your work ethic. Yeah, you might, on a daily basis, you would, as I said, you would see me sitting at my desk writing music pretty much from eight until four or five. And then it's a very normal life after that with dinner and time with family and things like that, going to kids recitals and whatever. The other business part of my life is I do quite a bit of college residencies or conducting jobs and or attending world premieres and performances and sort of acting as a consultant in those regards. So I do travel quite a bit. There's several months coming up in the spring where I know that I won't even really be home for more than a couple of days at a time. Um, so that's why I'm really busy composing music right now, because I know my spring is going to be rather difficult with travel. I don't write very well on the road. So you might see me conducting, you might see me, as I said, I love doing college residencies. This is something that I've recently kind of discovered and just the opportunity to work with. and high school kids too just working with young people who are discovering this love and passion

for music it is so addicting to me I love interacting with these these people so that is something I try to gear my career towards more and more as well as composing for top-notch professional orchestras and bands as well so that's that's my life in a nutshell I would say I left out the family personal stuff, but you can all assume that I do what other families do as far as vacation and timeless kids and things like that. And I love what you said about this planning, having performances coming up, therefore you get a lot of work done now. So this recurring theme of planning comes back again and again with all the guests. I think that sometimes people think that, you know, I'll practice when I have time, but that's not how it works. It's quite the opposite, actually.

It's plan the practice ahead and then the rest of the life happens. Yeah. And I mean, I think you know this too. We all have to learn our own routines and our life priorities and cycles, if you will, the rhythms we all work in. I had to learn that I don't write music very well on the road. I can't sit in a hotel and be creative. So this, in turn, has informed me enough to I know now that I have to write the music when I'm home so that when I'm on the road, I do because when I'm at a college or with an orchestra, I mean, I'm so on with the people I'm working for at that point.

So my head is all towards the job that I'm there doing. So composing and that don't really go together. And I mean, I'm looking at my list right now. I have about 12 pieces that are due in the next six months. so this is what i have to do while i'm home otherwise they won't get done and i'll make people very mad at me and nobody likes to have people mad at them jim is there a performance that stayed with you throughout the years oh my gosh um i assume you mean you don't mean a performance of my music something i might have been a part of no it could be a performance of your music um i'll name three things that come to mind um the first two have nothing to do with me being a composer uh or involved as a composer i should say i was at tanglewood as a young trumpet player and um copeland and bernstein were on stage together doing copeland's third symphony

um i wasn't a composer at that point but kind of witnessing those two musical giants in the same place at the same time was really really incredible wow that was amazing um and then i remember this is going to sound silly but i was in boston well maybe it won't sound silly but it's very specific i was listening to the boston symphony uh this is when i was a student at new england conservatory and they were doing mahler's second symphony and there's a spot where they had decided it's in the final movement um i can't remember if it's b flat minor or b minor anyway the um the choir it arrives at this big moment and like i'm singing a trumpet part so that's what i used to do but the choir all stood exactly at the same

time and I'm still getting chills thinking about you know it's like 150 people and somehow they have been trained to stand exactly at the same time at this moment and I tell you I'm shivering right now thinking about it I had chills just for so long I'll never forget that moment and my kids know that uh Mahler 2 always makes me cry at the end so that that's a that's a big one um something I hope to do as a composer someday to give other people that feeling um and then I think the third one was um kind of my first big piece as a composer a large scale piece was my first trumpet concerto and boy these all have a Boston tie I flew to Boston from Florida at that point and it was just one of those situations where the soloist for whom I wrote it Jeff Work

now principal trumpet out in oregon he was a longtime friend of mine i wrote a really difficult piece for him that he just knocked out of the park uh the orchestra was great the conductor was great and the audience loved it and the reviewers loved it and it was kind of my first big moment as a composer and so that those sort of things kind of give us courage to to keep going on and on but um i mean there are several moments but those are those are the three that kind of pop into my head and the second movement of that concerto is the theme song for the podcast oh my gosh you're right yes that's right so the funny story about that i know we're probably running out of time but that second movement was an add-on that was never supposed

to be there i was originally asked to write uh kind of a 15 minute piece and and jeff the soloist wanted it to end he wanted the music to end kind of with a question mark and be very mystical and and and not your typical trumpet ending you know we all think of fanfares when we think of a trumpet and and i love the ending of the first movement of the concerto i'm really proud of what i did but when i got done with it i just thought to myself you know this piece needs like a tchaikovsky violin concerto last movement you know i need something to really show off what this soloist can do because jeff the trumpet player he's just fantastic he can play anything you write so that's how that second movement got born it was really just an add-on and now it's uh now here we are

it's on your podcast yeah and i remember i remember the first time i listened to it is shortly after um holly was talking so much about you and i went on your website and you had a link to a youtube performance of this and this movement started and i just loved it so much there something about the interaction of the strings with the trumpet that just really spoke to me awesome yeah that and that video that youtube is me conducting jeff so again life um life continues in these meaningful ways i finally got to conduct one of my very good friends playing my music which was a highlight of my life as well i'm so glad that resonated with you we composers never know what people are going to like and what they're not going to like and so to hear you say that

a piece that wasn't even written for your instrument really a trumpet concerto uh that you enjoyed it so thank you i appreciate it thank you what skills do you think young musicians studying today should acquire in addition to learning to play their instruments i don't want to sound cliche but you can't really overestimate people skills for sure um just being able to to work with people and collaborate and choose words that aren't offensive and i mean we're all musicians uh we are very stubborn and can be headstrong but we also have to work as a team so that's important um something we didn't know as a kid that uh when i was a kid at least uh we didn't know that we'd have to learn how to also become marketers of ourselves um

this is sort of something i've had to learn and and business skills um Um, we, again, when I went to college, I never dreamed that I would have to learn how to speak of myself in a business sense or in a marketing sense and think about how I appeared publicly. Uh, we all thought, Hey, just practice your notes and things will take care of themselves. You get a job and, and the rest is history. You get your paycheck and make music. It's all great.

Right. But there's so many, right. Yeah. I mean, there's so many other things. even down to just learning how to speak on stage about the music you're going to play and how you look you know and whether your pants are frumpy and if your shirt is ironed and your hair you know all these things they have and i hate to say it because i remember when people said this to me when i was young i said oh be quiet it's all about the music um yes it's mostly

about the music but our body language and and the words we use to speak and convey our message to audiences these all leave an impression and there could be just one person in that audience that might really move your career forward and you never know when that's going to be so if you can be prepared with all these other things in mind uh as well it can help um and it can also hurt so just something to consider oh i agree with everything you just said i mean even just the way you walk on stage and the way you engage the audience as you walk on if you smile at them and establish a connection with them it i feel like it makes the whole performance different for them it's so true i was at a uh i keep talking about yesterday i was at a recital uh because

my daughter was singing and um it was high school students and there was one student um who sang and then at the very end when she was done singing and the pianist was sort of finishing the little tag at the end that's when she smiled because she was done it made such an impression it's like why couldn't you smile the whole time you know it would have changed the whole performance so much But instead, we got the sense of, oh, phew, it's over. Now I'm happy. So, yeah, it's hard to do. I remember walking on stage and you're thinking about so many things.

You're nervous about one lick or, you know, this. I know that if you're a trumpet player like I was, that's what you're thinking about. And an audience can tell if you're not thinking about, you know, the entire performance as a whole from the moment you walk on stage. It's so true what you say. Yeah. They feel like they're in good hands or they feel nervous. Yeah, exactly. It's so true. Jim, do you have a favorite book that you would recommend to our listeners? And it does not have to be a music book. I don't really have a favorite book. I don't get enough chance to read. I'm

always either writing my own music or maybe I'm reading about other people's music or reading a biography of a composer or something um but i treat books differently than i think most people when i read a book i'm really intrigued by how authors write the book rather than the book itself because i i i think of composing like an author would think of a book i'm always thinking of character development and and what when a book gets boring i think oh why is this boring right now and you know i i read books differently than other people because i'm i'm inspired by authors uh to figure out how i can write my music in the same way they might write a book it's really really interesting yeah i mean this the the real short story the

short answer is any book well most books i read i really love and so i can't really it's like when you're in an orchestra right you you play strauss and you're like oh there's no better composer in the world and then the next week you're playing brahms oh my gosh this is the best composer ever and then you play mozart and you say of course mozart is the most famous and the best i mean every everybody has something to say their own unique voice so i usually just kind of get if i am reading i get totally into it at the moment and then when i'm done with it i if i happen to start reading another book i get engrossed in that one and that becomes my favorite so it's same thing with movies too they all become my favorite while i'm watching it and

then when i'm done i get back to work doing something else so that's great here's that's presence for you right there what about a piece of advice that you've received and that you would like to pass on to our listeners um okay so when i was when i was 14 i was um uh lucky enough to win the i think i said earlier i went to interlochen for high school so it was the interlochen arts academy and i just showed up for school and i was very lucky i won the concerto competition i was playing the the humble trumpet concerto and i'll never forget um my trumpet teacher was in the audience and he listened to the dress rehearsal this is gonna sound so basic but it these things just happen they happen to us at various points in our lives uh he was at the rehearsal he came

up to me quietly at the end of the rehearsal i still remember exactly where i'm standing i'm stage and he said jim you know it's okay to make music once in a while and it just happened to be at the moment he said i was like oh my gosh you're right it doesn't matter if we just get the notes we can actually say something about the music we're playing and this is something i'm trying to something i'm trying to convey uh to this chamber orchestra i'm now conducting it's like we have this luxury this gift to be able to be in the present and make music for that moment every rehearsal every performance is different and music is so special that way so it's okay to just convey what we're feeling at that moment and put it into the music and hopefully it takes

music somewhere where it hasn't gone before and so I would just encourage uh others to to um get outside that box a little bit and and express more than they think they should again going back to to showing their own personalities and then something I have to say this this is a very basic thing uh it's again going back to me being a trumpet player I once crashed and burned on stage crashed and burned and i was doing a different concerto somewhere and somebody came up to me afterward and and said nice job and i proceeded to go oh my gosh it was so awful i did terribly i ruined this i blew this i couldn't get the high note i you know my lips were dry and so i couldn't get a lot of notes out and he looked at me and he just said

Jim, just say thank you. Here I gave you a compliment, and you totally ruined this conversation. You took it and made it all about yourself, and I gave you a compliment. Just say thank you. And this transfers also to a lot of times nowadays, I do interviews like we're doing now, or people will send me emails, and they'll ask me a lot of questions. They'll interview me through emails and i'll spend a lot of time i'll invest myself and and send them responses and i pour my heart into it and i never hear from them again and it would mean it would mean so much if they would just say thank you i know i'm an old fuddy-duddy in that regard but it goes so it just makes a difference so if somebody gives you a compliment or if somebody does work for you

and spends time please just say thank you please not you renee but i'm just i'll send you some chocolate oh that's good that'd be awesome but you know i want to say i love your first answer so much i love the second one too but oh this first one is a keeper it is so true so true oh about making music you mean that in the moment yes i i'm gonna challenge myself and and everyone around me to think this way in the coming days and the rest of my life maybe hopefully well yeah we have to remember what got us into this business in the first place and it's usually we're sitting in a concert hall or hearing something on the radio and somebody did something that grabbed us you know

it's that it's that unexplainable that thing we can't define that somebody did through their instrument or with their voice or or just something they they transferred across the airwaves or from stage to audience and it hit us and so now we have to be the vehicle we have to do that ourselves we have to go the extra mile so that we might reach somebody else in our own unique way yes well these two tips are really great but do you have another one a quick actionable tip that the listeners could implement today in their musical lives don't be afraid to practice slowly my students please practice slowly yeah my students don't think i paid you to say those things uh okay i'll say for the record she did not pay me to say these things this is the first time

we've talked in this interview scenario so jim i know because i follow you on social media and by the way i hope everybody starts following you because your posts and your presence is so engaging and entertaining and so i know there's a lot of really exciting things happening for you right now i'd love for the listeners to hear about them you want to talk to us a little bit about that sure um this is uh for me uh our composing lives kind of go in cycles we have various projects that sort of come all at once and um this is kind of an orchestral year for me uh i write for all sorts of things bands choirs soloists what have you but this is a big orchestra year uh the the uh biggest at least personally because i mentioned earlier how my dream was to

someday be a trumpet player in the Chicago Symphony. That dream is being realized not as a trumpet player but as a composer. I'm having my first world premiere with the Chicago Symphony in June of 2019 and I just delivered the score last week to Riccardo Muti who will be conducting and I actually got to sit in his office with him for about 30 minutes and it was a really surreal experience to have him looking at my score page by page he didn't just glance he really was like studying it there on the spot um nodding at times uh saying bene which i think meant that he liked it um and just and then he would start telling stories about his musical life and just it was it was great so the dream of being involved with chicago symphony is now

going to happen in june and i'm really excited it's a bass trombone concerto for charlie vernon and and then that I have a few others writing a piece for the Quad City Symphony which will premiere in April which will be a multimedia piece where I'm using spoken word and video and other things multimedia things pictures and paintings all interacting with a musical score that I am writing I'm also writing my third symphony which will be premiering in April down in miami my first two symphonies are for bands so this symphony being for orchestra is fun for me because that's how i grew up as an orchestral musician and then i'm also writing a chamber music piece for the river oaks chamber orchestra down in houston and they are um they've

commissioned like 80 new pieces they're they're very active in the new new music world so i'm glad to be included on their program so that's what i'm doing over the next six months are those day four orchestral works um so yeah that's uh in addition to some other things but uh that that's that's what i'm doing hope to see you all there isn't it funny how childhood dreams have a way to become reality when you listen to your instinct and you move forward i just love that yeah i i I can't even, I can't quantify or qualify. I can't, I don't know how it's all working out that I'm getting a piece played by Chicago symphony, but I couldn't be more thrilled. I grew up, as I said,

listening to their recordings almost daily and I'm from Chicago originally. So I went to hear them all the time. And so to now be the one who gets to write the music that they will, that will be on their music stands, uh, kind of, as I said, surreal to me, I'm not going to take it lightly, not going to take any of it for granted. I feel very lucky. Jim, thank you so much for being here today. You've been so generous with your time and your story is absolutely inspiring and your

message is such an important one to hear. Again, I'm so grateful that your music, which I love, greets my guests every week. Thank you so much. Absolute pleasure, Renee. Thank you for your thought-provoking questions for your time as well. And congratulations on this wonderful podcast that you're running. I think you're inspiring and a very joyful person to spend time with. So thank you.

I appreciate it very much. Thank you. Thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this chat with composer Jim Stevenson. Let me know what your favorite takeaway from today's show is by joining the conversation on social media. I'd love to hear about what inspired you what specific questions you have about mindful practice

and what other topics and guests you would like to hear about in future episodes I am Mind Over Finger on all platforms If you're looking for a community of mindful practice enthusiasts join the Mind Over Finger tribe at facebook.com slash groups slash Mind Over Finger tribe There you will find inspiration, motivation and support as well as information and discussion on how to take your practice to the next level and enjoy the process.

Next week, I'll be discussing hands-on creation and music making with bass player Kavi Rastegar, member of the band Knee Body, and currently on tour with singer John Legend. And now, something a little different. So, my kids have been fascinated by the concept of a podcast, and they've asked me to be on the show since the beginning. During the holiday break after their piano practice, they saw my recording equipment set up and asked me to record an interview with them. I did it to make them happy, but then they made me promise to include it in the next episode. So here I am, fulfilling a mother's promise, and I introduce you Aiden and Evelyn.

I hope you'll enjoy their unprompted, candid answers to my questions. It certainly made me smile and laugh. Hi, so I have two friends with me today. I think you guys are my number one fan, even though maybe I'm not sure you've listened to one episode of the podcast, but that's okay. You're still my number one fans, right? Yes. What's your name? My name is Evelyn, and I'm six years old.

What about you? My name is Aiden, and I am eight years old. Tell me, Evelyn, do you play an instrument? I play the piano, and I've always wished of playing the violin like my mom. That's good. What about you, Aiden? I play piano, too, and I also dream of playing the violin like my mom. And who's your piano teacher? Our mom.

Our mom. Is she nice? Yes. All the time or most of the time? Most of the time. And although our mom is the host of these podcasts, that's right. That's right. Hey, so Aiden, tell me, what do you think mindful practice is?

Mindful practice is never giving up. The only real limit to your practice is quitting. You always work hard and keep trying and trying again. Take it like a grizzly bear trying to fish. And lots of times it fails to catch a fish. But soon a fish flies right out of the water and catches it in his mouth. That's pretty good. You did it.

You did your goal. And you can always keep trying on what your goal is. Because if you quit at what you're trying to do, you'll never know if you might have succeeded in the future. That's good. What about you, Evie? What do you think mindful practice is? I think mindful practice is that you practice a lot and you think of what it might be about and how it is and if you like it or not. And if it's some things that you don't like and some things that you do.

Mindful practice is something that brings people together. So what do we do when we practice mindfully? We practice just calm and relaxed. Oh, yeah, calm and relaxed. What about sometimes when we'll take just like one measure and we do it many times? And you need lots of dedication. Yeah. What else do we do?

Well, we work hard and try our best. And if we don't do it, just keep trying until you think it's, well, good enough. Or if you think you don't want to do it anymore. Yeah, that's pretty good. And that, not doing it anymore, would be quitting. And we don't want to quit during mindful practice. We want to keep trying until we get it. Yeah, I like this attitude.

Yeah, really much. You know, when I started doing piano and I started doing it with two fingers at the same time, I was doing this song called Sleep Little Baby and I thought it was going to be really hard. I kept trying and trying until now I'm past that piano lesson. And now I'm on to way higher ones. Yeah. And is this because we practiced mindfully? We went slowly?

Did we practice each hand separately? Yeah, so, like, if we play two at a time, there's one above and below. So first we practice the ones above, which is the main chorus melody. And then we have the bottom part that I don't know about, but that's, like, the rich tone part. That's the accompaniment. That makes the sound of the melody stronger and stronger. That's what the accompaniment, the left hand in the song, is for, to strengthen the bonds of the song. So we practiced. We did like little chunks, and we did it faster and faster, and now you can play the pieces.

Does that feel great when you can play the piece? Yeah. We practiced well, and my last concert, I didn't get a note wrong. That's pretty good. Yeah. All right, what would you like to tell the listener? What's a good piece of advice you would like to tell the listener? Well, you people got to keep practicing and keep doing what you love and want to be when you grow up. Oh, that's really great. What about you, Aiden?

Work hard, give dedication, I mean dedication, never give up, and always believe in yourself and show integrity. That's great. You know, my guest this week on the podcast was a composer. Do you guys sometimes, like, compose music? Do you guys improvise? You do that, don't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Evie, what happens in your head when you're improvising?

Well, what I do is that I just think, look at the notes and hear their sounds. And then when I make music, I hear that, well, that doesn't really sound like a real song. but it does sound like a pretty one like I don't need to make it real like twinkle twinkle little star or jingle bells or anything like that so you just you hear things and you try it on the keyboard and you see if it sounds good I just play a note I feel like if that's the right sound then I play the next one and maybe that's the right sound and that's the thing that I want to start with so I keep pressing notes and feeling like huh that's a pretty sound huh I don't want to use that that's pretty good how about you Aiden what happens when you improvise when I improvise

it feels like I'm making my own song up or I'm just making a song that's already made even better and better and better oh that's a lie yeah but it doesn't matter one more reminder don't quit if you like to do it because you really want to do it and you gotta keep doing it all right thank you guys for being here today and there you have it don't forget to keep trying and trying like a grizzly bear you can find the show notes for this episode and more information about jim at mindoverfinger.com if you enjoyed this episode please take a minute to head over to itunes to rate and leave a review it's very much appreciated again thank you and à bientôt