07/07/2022
‘’I didn't grow up in the world of classical music, but I always knew I wanted to be a musician. After playing bass in metal and indie bands during my high school and college years, for some reason I decided that going to music school might be a way to achieve the dream of making music the center of my life. I had no formal music education at that point in my life, so I was starting with learning what the treble and bass clef were, the notes on the staff, and had only heard classical music in films (and didn't know who'd written any of it). When I managed to successfully audition into a 4-year university after 2 years of study, I couldn't believe it. Imposter syndrome was omnipresent. Even now, after having established a composition career that is, by many definitions, thriving, from time to time I still wonder when I'll be found out as an imposter.
Looking back, I realize when I first decided to go to music school, I didn't realize that meant almost exclusively studying the music that came from Western Europe and its descendants, and as such was written by mostly by dead white men. Don't get me wrong, I've found music in that canon that I really love, but it did strike me as strange that that should be what constitutes a college-level degree in music in the United States. Through my work, I hope to increase the dialogue between that canon & other musical practices both here in the U.S. and throughout the world, with the hope that American classical music and its institutions will start to treat other musical traditions (both more modern and more ancient) with a higher degree of value, and in doing so, make music institutions more welcoming for BIPOC artists to see that there are many valuable ways of making music, besides those started by white men from Western Europe.”
~ Anuj Bhutani, Composer
2022 Morton Gould Young Composer Award recipient.
www.anujbhutani.com
