Jay C. Batzner (b. 1974) is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida where he teaches music composition and technology courses as well as coordinates the composition program. In his first year, Jay received two prestigious grants: one to create collaborative works with visual artist Carla Poindexter and the second to initiate electroacoustic music concerts in Orlando. Prior to this position, Jay was an active adjunct professor at several colleges in the Kansas City area while he completed his D.M.A. in Composition at the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory. While at UMKC, Jay received honors including a Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship and a Dean's Doctoral Scholar Fellowship.
Jay's music ranges from instrumental chamber works to electroacoustic compositions. He has participated in numerous national and international festivals including the Wellesley Composers Conference and the International Young Composers' Meeting in the Netherlands. His music is published by Unsafe Bull Music and has been recorded on the Capstone and Vox Novus labels. Jay is a frequent contributor to the new music website Sequenza21.com and a founding member of the composers organization The Collected.
Jay is a sci-fi geek, an amateur banjoist, a home brewer, and juggler.
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3/24/2006
Definition
I've been mulling over the whole "composer/hobbyist" debate in my head for a while now. Even though I make more money working at a liquor store than I do as a composer, I still tell people that I am a composer first. Teacher comes second. That is only when people ask me for a description of my job. Actually, when someone asks "What do you do for a living" I say that I am a father. That is the most important thing for me to be right now.
The whole need to "self-define" ourselves is really puzzling to me. Uptown/Downtown. Academic/Populist. Neoromantic/Post Modern. I don't know that these kinds of distinctions are for us to determine. And, as an artist, I don't think it is a good idea to spend a lot of time discussing it. All we can do is write what we need to write. History will give a label to it, if necessary. Students will learnt the label and, if they are really interested, find out why the label doesn't really apply. History is like that.
The problem with labeling is that the label often precludes the notion that most composers are contradictory. At least I am. Maybe I'm not, but I think that I am. We will talk about "What Our Music Is Like" and then, invariably, write something that cuts against what we just said. At least I do. My own style, if such a thing there be, is so amorphous in my mind that I cannot succinctly state my artistic purpose. Yet I am supposed to label myself so that others can know which camp I'm in.
When the whole Uptown/Downtown talk starts up, my eyes just glaze over. Maybe it is because I'm a Midwesterner. We really don't give a shit about who is Uptown or who is Downtown. All we really want to know is: Is the music any good? Our lives are so full of eclectic artistic experiences. Must we really nitpick over the different camps? I listen to Boulez, They Might Be Giants, Carter, and Bela Fleck. Do I worry about what artistic camps they are in? Heck no. All I know is that I like the music. I can figure out why I like it and seek to find more like it, but I don't buy into any one artistic camp at the exclusion of others.
So, if I don't care about the labels of others, why should I care about a label for myself?
posted by Jay C. Batzner
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