Today we’d like to introduce you to Martin Morgan.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Martin. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started piano lessons around the age of 6 or 7, but music was not a main priority until sophomore year of high school. I played sports growing up, but I knew that wasn’t going to pay the bills. For whatever reason, I thought music was a more realistic profession. I started preparing for college auditions, and got accepted into the University of North Texas where I later received a Bachelor’s degree in Music Composition. When I first started school, my intentions were to continue my music education in the college world. I quickly realized that while I loved studying music, it would be best pursued outside of the security of college and I began setting myself up to be a full-time freelance musician.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely not. The thought of receiving a masters and doctorate in music sounded like the most secure career choice…but I quickly remembered that I’m not exactly a big fan of school. So I had to revamp my plan. The reality is that I hadn’t worked hard enough leading up to going to college so I wasn’t very good. I knew that I wanted to do music full-time, though, so I took a lot of classes outside of my major in order to get better at the skills I knew were necessary to do music full-time.
Please tell us about Martin Morgan Freelance Musician.
Being a freelance musician, you have to do a lot of different gigs to piece together a salary. At the end of my college career I began playing at ballet studios, and I continued doing that post college. Through that artistic field, I’ve had opportunities to play, perform, and write for a lot of different ballet companies/schools that include Chamberlain School of Ballet, SMU, and AKA Ballet. I also am an accompanist for schools in the area during UIL/solo contest season as well as consistently at the David Gaschen vocal studio (who was formerly phantom of the opera on Broadway). It’s important to be able to flow in and out of different styles and I gig with different groups that vary from country, R&B, classical, Gospel, top 40, etc. I have the “jack of all trades, master of none” mentality so I try to put myself in situations where I’ll be pressured to get better. Writing has always been a consistent factor, and it’s cool to see how the different gigs/styles affect composing and producing.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @2muchmarty
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