MFM Presents “Music Is Essential,” a Zoom Roundtable Discussion Vol.1 Among MFM Members Speaking on Composing Careers: Navigating Opportunities in the Modern Music Landscape

Date: Thursday, January 30th, 2025 – Time: 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm. ET – Venue: ZOOM                        

Ticket: $5 (free for members) – Register and pay here: https://mfmassociation.thrivecart.com/composing-careers/

Zoom Host and PR Campaign Manager: Adam Reifsteck

Produced by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi E

Event Description:

Join us for an insightful ZOOM Talk Event, first MFM event of this kind, moderated by Adam Reifsteck and Roger Blanc exploring the many pathways to a successful career as a composer.  Our expert panelists will cover opportunities across a wide spectrum of fields, including contemporary classical music, film and TV scoring, theater, dance, songwriting, and electronic music. This conversation will delve into how composers can adapt to a rapidly changing music industry, collaborate across disciplines, and leverage technology to expand their reach. Whether you’re an aspiring composer or an established professional looking to explore new avenues, this session will provide valuable insights and inspiration to help you thrive in today’s multifaceted musical landscape. 

The Panelists are: 

Adam Reifsteck

Adam Reifsteck is a New York-based music producer and owner of Teknofonic Recordings. With over 350 releases on the label, many of which have charted in the Beatport Top 100, he has helped hundreds of electronic music producers launch and grow their careers. As a composer, Reifsteck has written award-winning compositions for small ensembles and produces electronic music under the studio alias Sonic Fear. The Huffington Post has described his music as “a testament to the timelessness of classical music, keeping it alive within the millennial generation.” Recipient of grants for his projects from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, and the Kalamazoo (MI) Community Foundation, Adam holds a master’s degree in music composition and a bachelor’s in music technology. He is a member of Broadcast Music Inc., Recording Academy, Society of Composers & Lyricists, and serves on the board of Musicians for Musicians. https://adamreifsteck.com

Roger Blanc

Roger Blanc completed a master’s degree in composition with teacher David Diamond at the Juilliard School, where he was an assistant teacher in Ear Training and Theory for five years. He has had concert music performed at venues including Alice Tully Hall, CAMI Hall, The Whitney Museum Sculpture Court, The New School, Brooklyn College, Pennsylvania University, the Juilliard School, Connecticut College, and various locations overseas. He has arranged, transcribed, composed, orchestrated, produced, contracted, or otherwise prepared/organized/supervised music for media including television (the Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Arsenio Hall), film (ca. eighty feature films including Frida, The Untouchables, Wag The Dog, Flirting With Disaster, Fargo, The Stepford Wives), the recording industry (many artists including Barbra Streisand, Yoko Ono, Michael Jackson, John Lennon, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Bette Midler, Luciano Pavarotti), and live performance (venues including Carnegie Hall, City Center, Radio City Music Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Madison Square Garden, the United Nations; events including Comic Relief, the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and the 2006 Super Bowl). He lives with his wife and son in New York, his instrument is the guitar, and he performs frequently in clubs around the city. https://www.facebook.com/rogerblanc 

Peter Wetzler

Peter Wetzler is an award-winning composer-musician-music director who has been scoring for film, theatre and television with uniquely diverse musical background. Peter has played in gamelan and avante garde ensembles while writing music for post-modern choreographers such as Bill T Jones, David Dorfman and Susan Marshall and touring Europe and North America with Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians. The strong rhythmic drive of his music blended with the raw experimental influence of the “downtown” New York City music scene has made his style much sought after for unique film and television scoring ranging from animation and films featured at MOMA and PBS Great Performance to National Geographic’s permanent multimedia installation in Washington DC. An avid electronic music pioneer, Wetzler returned to acoustic piano solo music with the 2 CD’s “Falling Awake” and Green and then “Black and White” which combines acoustic piano with cutting edge electronic enhancement. Wetzler scored his first feature film “The Warboy” in Toronto 1984 and performed at the Music Gallery, Gladstone Hotel and Arraymusic while living in Toronto. His ensemble “The Repeatos” opened the 2007 Baltimore Jazz Festival and played in Toronto’s “Ambient Ping” series while scoring all three seasons of the hit comedy series “Rentagoalie”. Returning to the US Wetzler performed and composed new music for the Catskill Gamelan Ensemble which premiered “First Love” dedicated to Pauline Oliveros Memorial Concert @ McGill University and has focused his musical attention in his home city of Kingston where he performs regularly with different ensembles, has a radio show called “Classical Music and Beyond” and curates concerts. He was the recipient of Kingston’s first “Distinguished Artist Award” and serves on the board of Musicians for Musicians (musiciansformusicians.org) and TEMPO, a Arts Center/Performance venue in Kingston. https://www.peterwetzler.com/ 

Chris North

Christopher North is a composer (Film, Theater and Dance), singer/songwriter (eclectic albums, songs for children’s TV and for Films), multi-instrumentalist (Carnegie Hall, Newport Folk Festival, CBGBs, Grammy award-winning recordings) and conductor (Hollywood Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Space). A Texan in NYC since 1997, he’s thriving in Brooklyn, having released 20 genre crossing albums, composed scores to over 60 films (inc. distributed, award-winning and Grammy Nominated) and a growing opus of arts songs, chamber music and symphonic works. A Sundance Institute Lab Fellow, collaborating brings out his best, for which VARIETY says he’s a “notable asset” to work “well served by a fine soundtrack.” Also a sideman, he has played bass for Quincy Jones, with The Chicks and Rosanne Cash, in orchestras and on Broadway. He’s been heard as a singer (in choirs with NY Phil and on Grammy Award Winning Recordings), whistler (for Disney) and multi-instrumentalist on countless scores, albums, video games and commercials.  A 2019 Composing in the Wilderness Fellow, he kayaked in Alaska, inspiring chamber work “Nellie Juan’s Scratchiti” that premiered at Federal Hall, NYC. His favorite creation is teenager Koi and his hobbies include photography, painting, biking and walking in cemeteries. www.christophernorth.com  www.imdb.me/christophernorth

Keith Levenson

Keith Levenson’s career has run the gamut from Broadway’s Annie to Meatloaf, from the London Symphony Orchestra to The Who. He is equally at home in a regional shed, Broadway theatre or a large arena. In 2018 Keith helmed a very successful tour of the rock opera “Tommy,” with band and symphony orchestras across the country. It resulted in the 2019 release of “Tommy Orchestral” album produced by Keith and Roger Daltrey. The album went straight to the top of Billboard magazine’s classical crossover chart. He is the music director and takes the podium conducting a 50 piece orchestra and an 8 piece band for icons The Who on their current 2022 tour. https://www.keithlevenson.net/ 

Joe Carrol (RMA)

As a producer, composer, ad executive and serial entrepreneur, Joe Carroll has spent a lifetime innovating and challenging boundaries in music, media and education. An award-winning composer, songwriter and lyricist, Joe Carroll specializes in music for kids and is Composer/Lyricist for the Emmy nominated Kermit’s Swamp Years (Columbia Tristar/Jim Henson: 2002) and Music Director for the TV series Zoom (PBS/WGBH: 1998-2003). He’s written and produced hundreds of songs for TV and film including award-winning projects for Disney, Nickelodeon, PBS, Sesame Workshop and The Jim Henson Company, as well as commercial music for Toyota, L’eggs, Wendy’s, Helene Curtis, Wrangler, General Mills, Nabisco and Proctor and Gamble. He has won numerous awards including The London International Advertising award and several Clio nominations. Born into the entertainment business and literally raised in a booking agency, Carroll grew up in the midst of the New York music scene. Surrounded by a Broadway Danny Rose cast of musicians, comedians, singers and entertainers he first performed professionally at age 12. His career highlights include performing with Zippy the Chimp, a tuxedo-clad chimpanzee whose skills included drinking bourbon and roller-skating, sometimes simultaneously. He was once offered a job to play guitar wearing a pig suit and sing songs about bacon in shopping malls. http://www.linkedin.com/in/joecarrollsinfo

About MFM (https://www.MusiciansForMusicians.org) 

MFM seeks to bring together musicians from all disciplines, styles, traditions and localities in the cause of their mutual self-betterment. Whether through education, networking or political action, MFM’s ultimate goal is to elevate the work of all musicians to the level of a true profession.