Text
Nish Music
(sort of)
Even though I have played the flute since I was nine years old, I have never made a living from it. And yet, throughout a 30+ year career in advertising, I’m proud to say that I’ve never stopped playing the flute.
At Northwestern University I received a degree in Flute Performance after studying with the wonderful Walfrid Kujala. Some time in the middle of my career there, I decided I wanted to be in TV Production. I didn’t switch majors but 2 weeks after graduating with my music degree, I started work at Leo Burnett Company in Chicago, a large advertising agency. What followed were years of TV commercial production for national clients such as Kraft, Gatorade, SC Johnson and Bayer. I’ve worked with Spongebob Squarepants and Michael Jordan (yes, Spongebob was funnier).
As I was starting out in the ad biz, I kept up with my music by playing with a group of talented local flutists. We called ourselves the Magic Flutes and ran through the available literature pretty quickly. I think it took about a day. Being the sole amateur of the group I figured I had the time to arrange music for our use. After nearly ten years I had stockpiled dozens of pieces.
Our group eventually disbanded and I had just about abandoned my writing until the year 2000 when I was contacted by current Flute Talk editor Victoria Jicha, who at that time had her own publishing company called Music Makers. She had heard of my works through mutual friends and offered to publish some of them. I was very happy to share and a year later it was gratifying to see a couple of these pieces honored in the National Flute Association’s Newly Published Music Competition.
In 2002, Music Makers transferred its catalog to ALRY Publications in Charlotte, North Carolina, giving my pieces a much wider distribution than before. This was my inspiration to start writing more, and from 2005 to 2010, ALRY has published 8 of my arrangements.
Since 2006 I’ve been slowly transitioning from advertising producer to full-time music engraver. This change is now complete! Many thanks to my friend Joel Raney, who put me on this path to re-invention.
So that’s me and my music. Oh, and in case you’re wondering where the name “Nish Music” came from, I was going to call this site “Eine Kleine Nish Musik” ...but everyone laughed.
photo by Marc Hauser
in Music
My Life