Justin Taylor Interview January 2011

A short interview with Justin Taylor January 2011
by Victor Shedd
SHEDD-Thank you for sharing your time with us to do this interview Mr. Taylor.
TAYLOR-It is my pleasure really.

SHEDD-So, I'll start off by asking the question that is on a lot of classical music lovers' minds at the moment. How did you
manage to write so many works so far in such a short time? Your opus list is nearly at 60 works and you've only been publishing
since 2007.
TAYLOR-Yea. I'm not sure why. I guess firstly there is passion involved.You see, when I was a child I had always wanted to be
a composer secretly. It is terribly important to follow your dreams, in my opinion, otherwise one will never be truly happy
and completely successful at life. My dreams right now are to write a lot of music! Secondly, the object of time. I've barely slept (laughs) and
have devoted my life to music the past few years. I doubt it will continue at this rate forever but I guess we'll see.

SHEDD-You are one of the most prolific composers of this century so far.
TAYLOR-So I've been told. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing. All I can say is I'll keep writing music for
as long as I feel I should.

SHEDD-Can you share some information about your upcoming Bassoon Concerto?
TAYLOR-Well, it is written for a fairly large orchestra, which I have tended to do a lot these days. It is quite a fun piece,
lots of counterpoint. The second movement is sort of mysterious sounding. The third movement shifts around quite a bit and
is taken at a breakneck tempo. An all-out Tour De Force at the end.

SHEDD-Do you have any information on the premiere?
TAYLOR-Not yet. We'll see in the future. I'm just concentrating on the score and making sure everything is where it should
be and it sounds how I want it to sound. This is a lengthy process in and out of itself.

SHEDD-What does the future hold for Justin Taylor?
TAYLOR-I will be putting out an album for 2011. We're going to do a press release for it soon. I will be up at my studio
next week mucking about with knobs and such. I'm hoping to get most of my chamber works from fall of 2010 on there. My
publishing company, Lake of Songs are also expanding distribution wise and web wise. They will be getting a new website-lakeofsongs.com
and they've just started distributing most of my scores through Amazon, which is probably the biggest web retailer going
right now. They're also going to be distributing SheetMusicPlus in the near future on top of that. 2011, I believe will
be a year for expansion and promoting, but I'll try to manage to get some music in there somewhere. I've also had a number
of musicians contact me with commissions, which I will have to sort through. I think it is unbelievably important to keep progressing
and perfecting you craft. I still am learning to this day about music.

SHEDD-Thank you for your time. It was pleasure meeting you and chatting with you.

TAYLOR-You kidding? The pleasure was mine.

Taylor's official website is www.justin-taylor.ca