1st Orchestra Discovery Session - Now Open for Application

As I announced a few months ago, I want to make this Patreon page not just a one-directional platform with me throwing all sorts of stuff at you but want to make this into a more "immersive" community.

The long term goal is to be able to hold regular orchestra sessions from the money this page generates and always invite a handful of you guys along to record their own music.

I explain the entire idea in more detail HERE.

I'm very excited to finally get this idea started, so today opens the application phase for the first Orchestra Discovery Session.

We will record a Woodwind Quintet (1 Flute, 1 Oboe, 1 Clarinet, 1 Bassoon, 1 Horn (no doublings)) in the second Quarter of 2021 in Smecky Studios, Prague. This will be professional musicians and a professional recording that fulfills all common technical and musical standards. I can not say the exact date yet for sure as it would be depending on how Covid develops as I want to make sure that everybody who wants can travel to the session. If all goes to plan, I would say some time in May would be reasonable.

To see what is possible with such an ensemble, watch the video above which shows a spectacular arrangement of Holst's Jupiter.

The application process will close on December 31st 2020 at 11:59pm CET, however please don't wait till the last moment to apply.

In order to apply, you should have fulfilled the third consecutive payment in the 12$ or higher tier or the sixth consecutive payment in the 5$ tier on December 1st 2020. If you don't fulfill these criteria at the moment, don't worry as there will be more sessions coming in the future!

To apply, send me one of your compositions or arrangements (ideally as audio demo and score sheet) that you feel showcases your abilities best via email to ods@robin-hoffmann.com, either as attachment or preferably as link. The line-up is irrelevant. To clarify: it doesn't need to be the piece that you want to record with the ensemble yet but should just showcase your general abilities. You will get enough time to write the piece for the ensemble once the winners are picked. Also, if you use some cryptic email address, let me know your name here on Patreon so I can check whether you fulfill the conditions mentioned above.

Also, please write a few lines about yourself and your musical history (if we don't know each other already) and what you hope to take away from this recording experience so I can get a better feeling of who you are.

In the first week of 2021, I will announce the winners who get to record with the ensemble including 1 or 2 runner-ups who we will record if there is still time left or one of the winners can't make it.

I will favor two sorts of composers: A) People who I think will have the biggest learning effect from this recording and B) People who write the most attractive music but don't get to record their music with live musicians that often. So even if you don't feel fully comfortable writing music for a live ensemble yet, it might be definitely worth applying.

After the winners are announced, they have roughly 3 months to write a piece of about 2 minutes length for the line-up (two pieces that add up to 2 minutes are acceptable as well).

They must be agree to document their writing process of the pieces, either in written form, as podcast or video and agree to share these with the community here on Patreon so everybody can be part of this process, even if they didn't apply. I will guide your process during these times, giving you feedback and documenting this as well for the entire community so I hope that some form of dialogue will evolve that everybody can learn something from.

During this writing process I will let you know way in advance when the exact recording will be so you can arrange any travel plans in case you want to be there (at your own cost).

I hope to meet as many as possible of you in the studio during the recording, if you can't make it there, you get the chance to be part of the session via a live stream where you can hear what's going on and give feedback.

You will receive the entire unmixed Protools session of your piece (or a Multitrack if you don't have Protools) that you can then mix yourself or hand off to a mix engineer. The recording is a buyout and you will have the entire rights for it, so you can do what you want with it. If you release it, I would appreciate if you would mention this Patreon page that made the recording possible.  If there are any more questions unanswered, please consult this article or ask in the comments below.  

I'm looking forward to your applications! This should hopefully become a really exciting opportunity.