Composers learn early on—with hard experience as their teacher, rather than anything in the music-school curriculum—that they have to be their own impresarios. In the new-music world, you make many more opportunities than you’re given: You recruit your own players, make your own recordings, stage your own concerts. I’ve sometimes wondered if it would be more helpful for music departments to skip the fourth-species counterpoint and teach students how to quickly and quietly move music stands and stack folding chairs.
Composer/clarinetist Beth Fleenor, equally energetic behind the scenes as onstage, is a good example, not only running her own career but working for other musicians. In addition to her day jobs in communications and outreach for the Cornish College of the Arts, she’s the founder of the Frank Agency, an arts-management company specializing in new music, taking care of grant writing, booking, concert production, and promotion for clients like Wayne Horvitz and the Degenerate Art Ensemble. The DAE’s Joshua Kohl raves about her rare combination of musical and administrative skills, calling her “absolutely quirky, creative, and unique, and at the same time the most driven, organized, and on-top-of-her-game person you can find.” Read more
