Today we’d like to introduce you to Louis Josephson.
Hi Louis, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Music was my first language and has always been my favorite way to express myself. I started playing piano, singing, and writing songs at age three. I took music lessons throughout my childhood. In fifth grade, I started playing percussion in the school band which exposed me to a different medium to compose for. In sixth grade, I started acting in musicals at a summer camp which exposed me to yet another genre of art. In eighth grade, I joined the pre-college program in my hometown of Princeton, New Jersey, where I furthered my craft as a concert, theater, and pop composer. In my senior year of high school, I studied composition at the Juilliard Pre-College program, and a year later I started my bachelor of music at Juilliard.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
When I was younger, I would write songs in two weeks at the absolute least. Lately, it has taken me many months just to write a song. Indeed, I am working on many things at once but the songwriting process has been very difficult regardless. My most recently finished song was completed three months after receiving the lyrics. While writing, I will question every single chord and every single melodic gesture. I tend to avoid obvious solutions in order to work around a single music idea that ends up being the main idea that changes. I always seek the feeling of knowing that the song is right and that there are no problematic details or any incomplete musical details, and it can take me a while to reach that point. With my classical composition, I worry about it sounding too pretty or too ugly; too traditional or too Avant-guard; too commercial or too complex. I will sit down to write and after a few moments of being stuck, I start to contemplate myself as an artist. As a result, I tend to sketch out ideas and sit on them for many months before I actually start writing the piece.
I feel like a lot of time and emotional energy is wasted, but I have accepted that being an artist is not easy and takes patience.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a composer for the concert hall and the theatrical stage. I also explore other mediums such as pop music and film.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I use Sibelius, Logic Pro X, and Forscore.
Contact Info:
- Email: louis@louisjosephson.com
- Website: www.louisjosephson.com
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs_a7PN_A5OenKwYU9D8v6w
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/louisjosephson
Image Credits
Images consist of the following image credits: Phil Kessler David Lee Emily Josephson Isha Kumar
