I had the great pleasure a few weeks of ago of making my first trip to Brooklyn to meet and interview Peter Seymour of
Project Trio. If there's one guy out there I've met that really knows what it takes to work hard to create your own opportunities, it's Peter. I hope you will all check out the work he does with his group.
Also, for you Philly folks. He and his group will be performing at World Cafe Live later this month. Info can be found
HERE.
Check them out on
YouTube too!
Enjoy!
Seth: Hey Peter, would
you mind introducing yourself to the readers and giving them some background
info on Project Trio?
Peter: Sure. My name is
Peter Seymour and I am the bassist, manager, and CEO of the chamber ensemble,
PROJECT Trio. When we started the Trio
we were all in the same place. None of
us had won full time orchestra jobs and we found ourselves unsatisfied with our
musical situation. We’d always thought
that having our own group was something we wanted to do and we decided to take
one year to fully commit to the concept.
We didn’t know if it would work, but we knew we had to devote the time
to trying it out. And fortunately,
through a lot of hard work (some lucky breaks, and some tough breaks) we have
been able to make it a fulltime gig.
Seth: How do you guys
divide up the work? Does everyone have
specific responsibilities or how does it work?
Peter: Everybody
contributes. At the beginning we didn’t
have specified jobs. We all got together
and wrote the music and brought different ideas to the table. Over time, I assumed the full time roll of
business manager, booking agent, and travel agent….basically doing everything
that needed to get done. It is important
for ensembles to have one person who is going to be the voice outside of the
rehearsal/office space. If there is too
much going on and too many voices (too many cooks in the kitchen), it can be
detrimental to the group. I’ve always
had a unique energy for doing this stuff and quite frankly, I enjoy it.
With that being said, all three of us are constantly coming
up with concepts and direction for the group. Together we brainstorm tons of
ideas and then my job to implement the strongest ideas. For example, when we were first discussing
the group, we decided to make the trio a non-profit organization. I spent the next 6 months studying and doing
the paperwork required to establish us as a non-profit; which was great,
because now I not only understand how that works, I can do it again. Of course, you can pay someone to do this
job, but we fully believe that you can do anything that needs to be done to
further your ensemble and your group will be stronger because of it.
Seth: So once
everything got off the ground, what kind of gigs were you guys doing?
Peter: Ah, the first
gigs……I remember them well. The first
thing I did was get in touch everyone I knew that could somehow help us get
performance opportunities. I originally
scheduled three gigs for us. The first
was in Detroit at a chamber festival a friend of mine was running. Second was in Boulder, Colorado at a small
arts center that we actually paid to do.
The last gig was at the Jewish Community Center in my hometown of
Dallas, Texas. We all came in town and slept at my parents house!
The first gigs were all very random and spread out, but very
important. I have always believed the
perception of something happening is something happening. If you’ve got a CD, shows, a website….you’ve
got an ensemble! Once you’re doing gigs
and getting out there, it leads to more gigs and more opportunities.
Seth: Would mind
elaborating on Project Trio’s CDs and how they’re recorded?
Peter: All of our albums are self-produced and we have had
different situations for each one. The
first album was recorded in a crazy little studio that we got through a
friend. It was a wild session because we
didn’t really have any money, so we did the entire session in 2 days.
The second album we actually did in Eric’s mom’s house,
again to save money. But hey! It still works and it’s got a nice homey feel
and interesting qualities to it. And for
the last few we’ve had a larger budget to record, but we still self-produce and
self-release. That means doing
everything from finding or making the art work, finding the space and the sound
engineers, and everything else that goes into recording an album. Recording CDs is extremely easy these
days. Releasing it and PR’ing it is a
different story.
Seth: Could give a
quick overview of how the group handles the finances that fund these projects?
Peter: Starting out
we financed most things ourselves and with some help from our family. Now it all comes from shows, residencies,
grants, and selling merchandise. Now we
have 4 CDs, a DVD, T-shirts, and the whole deal. We’ve sold thousands of CDs
over six years, and that provides income for the group and the ability to keep
making music.
Also, when we go on tour we are working as much as
possible. We don’t travel to a city and
only play the evening concert. We may
get up at 4:30am to travel, make it in early and head to an elementary school
for an AM education concert. After that
we could do a high school show in the afternoon and then relax a bit before the
concert that night. Then wake up and do
it again somewhere else. And you know what?
A lot of the times education concerts pay more than the concerts we are there
to play.
All of these things are sources of income that we pay to
ourselves and also pay back to the group.
Seth: Now, when you
guys go to these distant cities, how do you get in to so many schools and
places to perform?
Peter: Well at first,
if we were booked in a particular city, I would start making calls and sending
emails. Now that we’ve been doing it for
6 years, we are building a strong network.
At just about every single show we’ve done, we have been offered some
other kind of opportunity. Maybe it’s an
offer to play at the Horticulture Club, the VA hospital, another school….these
show may not pay well, or maybe don’t seem important, but it’s a performance
opportunity and I stay in touch with everyone. It’s important to utilize your entire network.
Wherever we go, I reach out to
performers and teachers in that city.
I also looked at where other groups similar to PROJECT Trio
might have played and I find who is in charge of booking those shows. At first I probably sent out a hundred
emails and probably only got two responses.
But you know what? I could
probably write another hundred emails tomorrow and still only get two people to
write back. That’s just how it is and
why it takes all the hours to book a season.
Seth: Now, at what
point did Project Trio make the jump from doing smaller concert series
performances and education to doing performances with orchestras?
Peter: It’s been
gradual and we still try to do everything.
We have always done more education shows than evening concerts, because
you CAN do more education. Concerts
usually only happen a few nights a week, but we can do an education concert
anytime. The orchestra concerts are something all of us wanted to do, because
that is our background. I just started
emailing every orchestra, especially the education directors, because I knew
our family and kids show would be a blast. The first orchestra to write back
was the Brooklyn Philharmonic. We set up
a meeting and he asked me what kind of music we had for trio and
orchestra. At the time, we didn’t
actually have any music for orchestra, but I told him we had a bunch of great
stuff! Then, I went to the guys and said
we had to get some material! Eric, our
cellist, jumped on it and arranged one of our trio tunes for orchestra and that
was how it started.
After that show, I started writing everywhere again, but
this time I could say that we had recently performed with the Brooklyn
Philharmonic. Then more bookings started
to happen, which meant the repertoire was going to have to grow. Currently we have 8 pieces for trio and
orchestra…5 originals and 3 arrangements of William Tell Overture, Brahms
Hungarian Dance, and our version of Peter and the Wolf.
Seth: Awesome, thanks
so much for sharing all of this with me!
So what’s next for the trio? Is
there anything new and exciting on the horizon that you don’t mind sharing?
Peter: There are
definitely things brewing! We are right now
in talks with an amazing composer about doing our first big commission, which
will be a concerto for PROJECT Trio and orchestra. This is a few years down the road…we are
looking at the 2015-16 season. More details coming soon….
We are also excited about our second annual Summer Music
Festival, PROJECT: The Camp! Last year
it was in Bay View, MI and this year we are looking to have it in NYC in
July. Should be fun!
And we are pretty much booked through 2013 and working on
new bookings for 2014. We are going to
be traveling the world, going as far as Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine with the
US State Department and also performing with orchestras like San Diego
Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, and many more. So, we are staying busy!
Seth: Cool. So to wrap up, do you have any words of
wisdom you could offer the next generation of musicians and artists?
Peter: Work hard.
I know its cliché and obvious, but it’s true. No one is going to do anything for you and
your ensemble. You’ve got to do it
yourself. Think back to your early years
of college and how hard you worked at becoming a great player. You’re going to have to work that hard, if
not harder, at doing the business. When
you are a musician in a chamber music ensemble, you must put as much creative
energy into the business side of things as you put into the art you are
creating.
Work really hard! Keep track of everything and write all of
your ideas down. Dream as big as
possible and conceptualize what you want to be.
Then, when you put the plan into action, if you can get some of your
dreams in, you’re doing pretty good! It
is a long process and if you stay at it, you can make all of it happen. We are still working at getting our vision
out, but we get closer every day.
The main thing is that you absolutely can do it. Good luck!!
