Time Out Chicago Article

Time Out Chicago,
Chicago, IL
September 22, 2005
By Marc Geelhoed, Classical music critic

Some musicians are taking control of getting their work into as many headphones as possible by heading to the Internet and distributing through MP3's and podcasts - essentially, radio shows that can be downloaded and stored on a composer or iPod. New York - based composer and performer Corey Dargel created a podcast of a fictitious radio show and has more in the works. Seth Boustead sends out a weekly MP3 of a work performed by his group Accessible Contemporary Music.

Boustead, a Chicago-based composer, saw the weekly MP3 mailing as a way to help other composers and himself get their work heard. He estimates that the email goes out to 1,000 addresses, most of whom signed up on ACM's website.

"I know so many musicians and composers," so why not provide "a great service, especially for people in places like Nebraska where there might not a top notch string quartet?" Boustead says. That was his rationale last summer when he first conceived the idea for the weekly MP3 email."

Boustead's latest project is an ongoing recording of Dancing in the Park an as-yet-unfinished work by Jeffrey Hoover. Hoover has been sending the work-in-progress to Boustead as he completes parts of it and ACM records and distributes it as it receives it. "People tend to think that a piece mysteriously just appears," Boustead says, "and this has allowed them to see how it develops. It demystifies the process."

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