A few days ago we visited organist, cellist, and composer Claire M Singer at her workplace, and venue, Union Chapel. It was a very insightful visit as it allowed us to gain direct insight into the life of a working, successful artist. Her work with the church’s organ, and her focus on its varying timbres, harmonic tones, overtones and textures as opposed to its pure function in traditional classical music, helped her garner enough attention through writing minimal style experimental albums and scores. Her mention of a performance with Chris Watson at her festival ‘Organ Reframed’ was super interesting, as it shed some light on techniques of I might be able to perform with field recordings – using multichannel diffusion. As well as this her experience with film composing was insightful too. As someone who has composed scores for a few short films, mainly using either orchestral plugins, and/ or recordings of myself iteratively a studio setting, it was helpful learning how much it costs to hire an orchestra such as the London Contemporary Orchestra. (A few 1000 pounds for 30mins to an 1hour!!). While a little expensive, she advised to apply for various funds that could cover these costs. Citing her experience, she told us of how she managed to secure £50,000 of funding, most of which she used to hire musicians and pay for film-related overheads and expenses. A period in her life she claims was more a creative investment than one of financial security. It is worthy to note that once such funding is attained, it is up to the artist to effectively portion it out – for e.g. knowing how much to pay oneself from a fund to cover living costs.
She struck me as someone consistently active in the arts, working as a musician, teacher and workshop facilitator before her recent success. One might say that her experience with union chapel’s organ was serendipitous, having acquired a part time job at the chapel at a time when the organ was not in use. But her dedication to the instrument and consistency is certainly what manifested her current recognition and accomplishments. I remember her recalling staying in the chapel to play the organ until 3am every night. Here we see an example of an artist with an evolving practice, who over time became more and more grounded in the ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘who’, when’ and ‘where’s of her practice. Something that she learned experientially.
Some other key takeaways from Claire included information on copyright law, i.e. PRS and MCPS. Acquiring membership to PRS would allow us to be paid royalties when our works are broadcast on TV or Radio, performed or played in public, and streamed or downloaded. MCPS on the other hand enables us to gain royalties when works are copied as physical products (i.e. CDs and DVDs), streamed or downloaded, or used in TV, film or radio. She also pointed us towards the funding body ‘Arts Council’ – after checking out their website I found their ‘Developing your Creative Practice’ fund, in which one can apply for up to £12,000. This is something I am considering to apply for help source new equipment, masterclasses, and mentors, in relation to my field recording and composition practice. Deadlines to apply are the 22nd May.