Episode 54 - Michael Markowski

Composer Michael Markowski joins the show to offer a thoughtful conversation about his very unique career as a musician and composer. Topics: Michael's background including the revelation that despite having a career as a composer able to support himself he does not possess a degree in music! Michael's early experiences with Manhattan Beach Publications and the move to self-publishing. Traditional pre-printed scores vs. PDF downloads. Some advice for commissioning a new work including one thing to avoid when approaching a composer. Links: Michael Markowski Manhattan Beach Music World Adult Wind Orchestra Project Michael Markowski: Shadow Rituals Michael Markowski: Joy Ride Biography: MICHAEL MARKOWSKI (b. 1986) is fully qualified to watch movies and cartoons. In 2010, he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 'Film Practices' from Arizona State University. While Markowski never studied music in college, he did study privately with his mentors, Jon Gomez and Dr. Karl Schindler, and has continued his education by participating in a number of extracurricular programs, such as The Art of Orchestration with Steven Scott Smalley (2008), the National Band Association's Young Composer and Conductor Mentorship Project (2008), and the NYU/ASCAP Foundation's Film Scoring Workshop (2014) where he was named one of ASCAP's Film & TV "Composers to Watch." Mark Snow, composer of The X-Files and one of the workshop's guest mentors, says Michael's music was "extremely sophisticated" and "complimented the mood and emotion of the scene with unusual maturity and sensitivity." Most recently, Markowski was invited to join the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop (2015) as a composer/lyricist. He is a member of ASCAP and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.