Michael Garman

If you’ve seen us perform, you’ve probably heard us perform Michael Garman’s “Video Game Entourage.” It is one of our most popular pieces, especially when we play in the subways. Read on to learn more about Michael!

WSW: When did you start composing?
MG: I started seriously composing in 2004, before my junior year of high school.

WSW: What drew you to composing?
MG: I first felt the urge to create my own sounds when extemporaneously harmonizing to music in my middle school band, and felt compelled to author my own sounds. My first “work” was a song I wrote in orange marker on lined notebook paper as a Mothers’ day gift. I performed it on my clarinet, and have since keenly stashed away from the world. After that, I could no longer quell my desire and my “composition habit” was born.

WSW: Do you play an instrument or sing?
MG: My instrument is still clarinet, and any pitch approximations of which I am capable would hardly be deemed “singing.”

WSW: Where do you usually compose?
MG: I alternate between handwritten and electronic data entry for whichever piece I am working on, and that helps dictate where I am composing. Often at school or in my living room, but if I am using music notation software to organize my thoughts I would be in my office. A more accurate answer might be “in my head” as I often like to walk around when composing.

WSW: What has been your biggest challenge in composing?
MG: My greatest challenge in composing is also my greatest professional detriment: I don’t care to hear my own music. I began composing “to have created” something, not to create directions for which performers could replicate sound. If I were a carpenter, it would be akin to creating a satisfactory chair, shipping it to a lonely warehouse where it is never used. This apathy towards my created works drains my motivation to seek out performers.

WSW: Which composer do you admire?
MG: I really admire composer/violist Brett Dean. He started as a player and began composing, and most of his works are some of the most colorful and inventive music I have heard from a living composer. I am also convinced that everyone has the ability to compose within them, and he sets a good example for performers branching out for themselves.

WSW: What do you do in your free time?
MG: I spend as much time as possible with my wife, which is often the entirety and focus of my little down-time while working. Otherwise, I enjoy watching and playing sports, as well as various card, board, and electronic games.

WSW: Tell us a little about the Videogame quintet – what inspired you to do it, what should the audience know, etc?
MG: I wasn’t actually very familiar with video game music, having only really began playing at the end of my undergraduate degree. WSW former bassoonist Anna Morris is one of my dearest friends, and so I was thrilled to be asked to make this special work. I wanted to include many of the favorites and classics in video game literature, and had several requests from ensemble members. I wanted to avoid simply lining the themes up back to back, so I tried to integrate the material in a way that would for the listener evoke all of the memories of playing those games, but not simply be a playlist. In my approach to composition, I also try very hard to ensure the music is fun to play for the performers as well, as they spend more time with it than anyone else, so I truly hope WSW has a blast every time they play the work.