#9: John-Thomas Burson—Being a Musician During COVID-19

Exploring Kodawari

Our guest for this episode was Los Angeles based trumpet performer, composer/arranger, and teaching artist John-Thomas (“JT”) Burson. JT has collaborated/performed with Chicago’s Fulcrum Point New Music Project, the Flauto d'Amore Project, Festival Napa Valley, Aspen Music Festival, Sunset Blvd Brass, and the Georgia Symphony Orchestra.

In the episode, we talked about JT's philosophy of practicing and teaching, and how he has adapted to musician life during COVID-19. We also talked about his more recent interest in composing music and how he approaches the concept of creativity.

Overall, it was a good episode and it left me with a more hopeful mindset about the future of art, music, and creativity, and how we can all adapt to the weird times that we're in.

Timestamps (clickable on webpage)

• [05:32] What it's like to live in different areas of the country/adapt to new situations.
• [09:59] Musicians adapting to COVID-19
• [12:47] JT's philosophy of always practicing with a purpose and moving away from the aiming at technical perfection.
• [21:15] How JT began his musical path
• [25:22] JT's teaching experience
• [30:19] JT'S philosophy of teaching music
• [39:19] How did JT get into composition
• [41:47] A short clip of a new composition that features a sample taken from a previous episode of Exploring Kodawari!
• [49:34] Meditation and sensory deprivation
• [55:32] The Westworld Scoring Competition
• [01:06:29] Bonus questions

Links Discussed:

• JT's Youtube Channel
• JT's TEDx Talk: Finding Musical Inspiration Through Poetry
• JT's Westworld Scoring Competition
• The concept of "constrained creativity"
• Paul mcCartney's 2018 Grand Central Station concert

JT's Music/Social Links:

• Website
• JT on Spotify / Apple Music / iTunes / Tidal
• Twitter/Instagram: @JTBtrumpet
• Facebook

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