Thread by @AriadneGreif

Composers/administrators/conductors/musicians:
1. Don’t be bitter/defensive in an artist statement. No one finds you lacking because you are not more famous than you are or you don’t write atonal/tonal/trendy/untrendy music; you will make yourself unattractive by being defensive.

2. If you run a small and cash-poor group and you have a max amount you can pay someone that is probably low, tell them that amount first thing, don’t ask their fee, hoping against hope they will lowball themselves! I see this going badly many times a year, three times this week!

2b. To explain, I believe this promotes disappointment and hurt on both sides EVERY TIME. I suspect it also promotes gender disparity (men price themselves higher, negotiate w/ better results). Better: respectfully offer the total you budgeted, allow the artist to accept or not.

2c. We are aware you are hoping against hope we will lowball ourselves and it actually feels disrespectful. Come at us with a fixed offer like a contractor if your budget is small.

3. Composers, you need a website with a searchable works list (by instrumentation and title) that has perusal scores when possible and as many sound clips as you can possibly muster, warts and all. You also do still need business cards (sorry!).

3a. So many reasons for this! We love to look through your work in anonymity! We don’t want to have to contact you to see something we may not be able to use! Other composers have everything organized and available so we will give up and move on to them!

4. Composers! You need to be able to send pdf even if you make a beautiful physical score as well!

4b. Don’t bother making a singer a part EVER! We need a score or a piano vocal reduction!

4c. Your instrumental parts should have lots of cues in them!!! And maybe some cues from the voice part too if there is one!

4d. When you give us a very badly formatted/rough-looking score we worry that it is all arbitrary and are anxious that it might be a lame piece even during the first rehearsal. You end up having to prove yourself to us with your brilliance instead of being on the same team.

4e. If your score isn’t done and the concert is getting closer, send little snippets to learn even if they look bad or aren’t complete. Make sure the notes and rhythms you send are correct though—hard to unlearn things.

4f. If your score from the 70’s is still handwritten, invest in having someone engrave it or take the time to do it yourself. We are less good at reading handwritten scores than we used to be and we all know how clear a typeset score is! Eliminates the step of deciphering!

5. Composers! If you work with singers, don’t ask, just make midi mock-up and send it. I think that it can make people a little wooden or less rhythmically organic, but most singers will not ask for it and many will struggle to totally learn your score and could benefit from it.

6. Composers—first time through your piece in rehearsal—put your anxieties out of your mind and find something you liked about it to say before you try to fix things that were awful. “Your voice is so so beautiful” works even when the piece was a total train wreck.

7. Conductors! Don’t be too proud to count out loud in rehearsal when things aren’t coming together! Don’t talk too much even if you think of a really funny joke! Keep the rehearsal moving—and compliment people on things you actually enjoyed; they will play better in general.

8. Conductors...and teachers...sometimes people just need to play a few more phrases at one time instead of stopping each time a thing could be fixed!

9. Conductors, if you work with singers, ask them to put their consonants before the beat and a lot of your tempo wars will melt away.

10. Conductors, it is cute when you sing with your conductor voice and you know the words but pronounce them with a big American accent! Whatever! It is actually awful when you can’t sing a little example because you are afraid to reveal you don’t know/can’t pronounce the words.

10b. Know the words and know what they mean! We mistrust you if you don’t meet us there as a basic first step!