Lectures and Residencies

Ambition, Adaptation and Risk: Staying on top of your craft
As artists in the creative field, we need to make sure we are embracing the right mindset to make sure we're always learning, growing and being as effective as we can be with our work. Timothy C. Takach has co-founded the professional vocal group Cantus, music publisher Graphite Publishing, and his work as a composer has risen fast in the concert world. In this session Takach will draw on his own experiences as he identifies the important of risk in one's work, and how the ideas of risk and challenge exist as a pair. He will talk about how to maintain your artistic vision while staying relevant and accessible for your audience. He will also talk about the relationship between ambition and excellence, and how to keep your craft in peak form.

I've got my Composition Degree. Now what?
Young composers who venture out into the world have been trained in their craft but have rarely learned about the work of managing a freelance career in composition. This lecture will focus on the logistics of commissioned work, contracts and agreements, publishing your music, the benefits and maintenance of being with a PRO, copyright dos and don'ts (setting text, licenses and arrangements) and how to carefully modify your goals and objectives to meet the needs of grants.

The Art of Collaboration (can be given in collaboration with Jocelyn Hagen as well)
Working together is hard. Working together in the arts is harder. How do you effectively communicate your ideas, stand your ground when it matters, let go when it doesn’t, and find a compromise where everyone is truly happy? Takach will dissect collaboration as artists and administrators using his experience in chamber ensembles, working with other musicians and artists, working as a project leader, running a publishing company, and co-writing large choral works.

Arranging for Choir
Many musicians get their creative start by adapting and arranging other people's songs for their own ensembles: contemporary a cappella, younger choirs, church choirs, and so on. Takach will talk about getting started, how to find and treat subject material, copyright issues, arranging popular music for publication, keeping your singers and audience satisfied and surprised, and also using arranging as a bridge to writing your own original music.

Words and Music: Text Setting in the 21st Century
Choral music is hungry for new music from emerging composers, and yet setting poetry to music can be one of the hardest parts of learning the craft. Takach will illuminate common problems when setting text for singers while also pulling the curtain back on his own process of starting with the task of finding the words and ending up with a finished piece that is natural to sing and easy to understand. Learn how to find and set words that resonate with singers and audiences alike.