Trumpeteer Composeer

The escapades of a modern musician and composer in this chaotic world https://katiergorman.wixsite.com/krgmusic

[trumpetcomper]

The Glory of Music

I just completed another summer festival. Everytime I have a new/different experience I think “this has changed my life.” Again, as I leave for home all I can think is “this has changed my life.”

What started as a piece about rejection in death with my piece “Point of No Return,” revealed itself as a feminist anthem, giving edge and catharsis to the SSA choir it was written for, allowing us to make sounds and use timbres often treated as “too aggressive “ or “too ugly” to be suited for a female-presenting choir. We truly asserted our power through the music. The experience was visceral.

Quick warning for headphones volume, and flashing lights

Give it a listen here: https://www.youtube.com/live/Ee_vBSe7btQ?t=1848&is=bnV9OAHThhu4e2b5

ExplOratorio: At the End of All Things - 2026 N.E.O. Voice Festival

An annual concert that premieres a new major work written and performed by N.E.O. composers and singers.N.E.O.’s eighth Exploratorio will fo

[trumpetcomper]

Project overload lol

Happy New Year! Quite a list of accomplishments behind us (6 performances/premiers, 6 new compositions, 2 summer composition festivals)… but it’s going to be a very exciting, yet very very stressful few months ahead of us.

I am collaborating on the music for another dance choreographer this year, I have my thesis piece to write, I have my comps project to produce, and a forthcoming pet project to recruit participants for.

I’m nervous about the dance collab piece for many of the same reasons I was nervous about doing the project last year: finding willing performers is a challenge (even at a conservatory), I’m doing something I haven’t really done before (this time around I’m messing with electronics), and I’m letting another person in on the creative process to collaborate and give them music they’ll be satisfied with. I’m excited to take on these challenges and come up with an interesting piece by the end of it.

I’m nervous about my comps project because there is a lot to get done and I don’t have a lot of time. I will be recording and producing some music, turning it into a sort of multi-media video recital. I’m also nervous about recruiting participants (same difficulty in finding musicians and organizing rehearsals). I’m excited for the finished project, as many other are to see it.

I’m not nervous about getting my thesis piece composed, of everything going on this is honestly the easy bit.

I have a special pet project I’ve been sending out calls-for-participation for. I’m nervous about getting enough (or any) responses. I won’t share more details since I want it to be a surprise (and I’m not certain I’ll be able to get it done).

In all, a fuck-ton of work to do. Then I get to look for a full-time job after graduation. Crazy.

[trumpetcomper]

Keep Going

Sometimes... it's really hard to continue with your day to day. Sometimes it's really hard to be creative. Sometimes it's really difficult keeping faith in humanity and the arts, especially as more and more people succumb to the laziness of AI, offloading the hard part of living and thinking to a machine created by people who only care about hoarding wealth.

It's hard to keep going in a world that constantly prioritizes profit over thriving community and communal safety.

Keep going, keep creating, keep committing to the difficult parts of life; keep putting in the work. The work is what makes life worth it. Keep going; be it out of spite, or love, or both. Keep creating; for the process of it, not the outcome. Just... keep going.

[trumpetcomper]

Summer Adventures!

In such an era of change and development, I find myself attending my first summer festivals for new music. I will be attending highSCORE and Impulse New Music Festival this July! Composing music for each, I find myself both excited and nervous. I can't help but languish over the mistakes in my first score, weighed heavy by the knowledge it will be my first non-academic premier. I look forward to all the musicians and composers I will meet, and all the places I will visit!

[creepozoid-temple-of-viv]

[trumpetcomper]

Impatience

Trying to move through the world faster than it wants to let you. Forever wading waist-high in waters that would otherwise nourish you…

As I start to push for performances and deliberate with performers, I have noticed an impatience within myself. An eagerness that turns to despair when someone inevitably says they can’t perform or would if they had the time (but ultimately have little interest). Swells of motivation that turn to discouragement when I realize just how bad I sound in the practice room. A flurry of ideas I can’t write fast enough to remember… until someone pulls through, until some project reaches its next stage. Then I laugh at how foolish I was to descend into such hopelessness so quickly.

That’s my update for now

[mousoumanager]

Music is the soul of love, the sigh of the heart, the most sublime of the arts. It is the most extreme expression of what cannot be expressed in words and about which it is impossible to remain silent. The one and only true language in the world, together with kisses, music and looks.

[trumpetcomper]

Finish What You Started

Lists grow longer, taped together, and my pens run dry without ever crossing anything off.

I really just need to finish what I started.

[marcsoucymusic-deactivated20260]

HUMAN CREATORS FIRST

NOTE: NO AI has been used in the creation of this post. This is 100% my writing. The same is true for my music and audio creations.

United States Copyright Office Endorses ASCAP’s Statement about A.I.

This week, the U.S> Copyright Office issue a report on copyright and artificial intelligence

To paraphrase the intent of the statement:

The intellectual property rights of human creators supersedes all other considerations. Using a person’s creation to teach artificial intelligence how to “create” themselves is a violation of copyright law.

I wholeheartedly endorse this view, and hope my fellow artists will MAKE THEIR VOICES HEARD!

[trumpetcomper]

I’ve been a cowardly musician. I started a new program last year, moved to a new state, but lost all courage to follow through with projects and recruiting performers. I never thought anything so mediocre could feel so scary and shameful

[trumpetcomper]

Musicians' Luck

I had to give an interview for my music entrepreneurship class, talking to someone in our industry. One of the bits of infinite wisdom I parted with was "Always be ready at the top of your game; sometimes you get lucky and things just fall into place."

I can confirm

[trumpetcomper]

There's this ongoing project I've been working on...

multi-dimensional chamber music with an entire storybook concept behind it: fleshed-out descriptions and backstories, character models and designs (paintings and simplistic clay figures and all).

I haven't really done much with it in a while. It's called Village of the Silhouettes. There are three chamber works to this project so far and one in-progress: Healer, Storyteller, Witches' ceremony, and Gatherers.

I want to turn it into something more serious. It started out as a cutesy little thing during my undergrad, but I want to do more with it in these next couple years.

[trumpetcomper]

My current list of future projects:

Bassoon Sonata; SWE symphony or of the same vein; Brass trio; Wrap up trumpet etudes and duets, format for possible publishing...

I have the rest of the list somewhere, it's buried in all my stuff from moving

[trumpetcomper]

I've had this list of potential an ongoing projects for several months. There's so much I want to do but I never have any motivation or energy to make any progress.

I feel like I haven't been able to write anything since my concert back in September 😢

[trumpetcomper]

Bots

Pretty sure almost all of my "new followers" are those catfishing spam bots, goodness

[trumpetcomper]

Over again

Fresh page, empty slate of a blog.

Instead of catering, I think it would be more effective if I used this as a timeline journal of sorts.

As of today, I have applied to several graduate schools for music composition, and so far have interviews at two. No spoilers.

Last semester I had my senior recital, a compilation of most of my music from the last several years. Despite this, I don't have any kind of finalized paperwork or music for publication or print; I don't have a pretty and finalized resume; I don't have any kind of online documentation of my music, which is what gets you off the ground.

There are so many projects I want to finish or redo, that everything I have seems half-baked and I can't stand to look at it anymore.

In one of my classes, we did an exercise to examine what brought us to the present point of our lives. "When did you start playing music? What made you want to continue? When did you know you wanted to make a career out of it?" These questions really helped me get control of my existential crisis as I try to wrap up my undergrad studies and face the real world.

I might share my answers to the questions later, if I feel like it, if I keep up with posting.