MPP #20: Marc Peloquin on Recording and Rolling with the Punches

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In June 2005, my composition teacher at the time, Daron Hagen, told me that he was having his Pianos Variations premiered by a pianist named Marc Peloquin at the Bloomingdale School of Music, and that if I was interested, I should go. I arrived rather early, met Marc, and ended up helping him to set up chairs for the recital. The concert was wonderful, and in addition to Daron’s Variations, included some works by Virgil Thomson and David Del Tredici.

Afterward, I was invited to a post-concert dinner a few blocks away with Marc and his partner (now husband) Seth, Chester Biscardi, and David Del Tredici, and the five of us have been good friends ever since. (I like to tell the story of how I only ordered french fries, claiming that I had eaten before the concert, when in fact french fries were all I could afford at the time. The life of a young artist!)

Nine months after that concert and dinner, Marc and I performed together for the first time on the inaugural Tobenski-Algera Concert. We perform together regularly, have toured together, and formed a small record label to release our recordings of new vocal music. Marc was also the Best Man at my wedding last year.

During this week’s conversation, we talked about:

• The value of recording previously-unrecorded works
• Approaching promotion from a project-oriented standpoint
• KeyedUp MusicProject
• Curation
• Community
• The economics of recording
• Finding a label or self-releasing your recordings
• Collaboration
• Learning from experience
• How we run Perfect Enemy Records
• “Life Rolls”
• Rolling with the punches

Links:
Marc Peloquin
KeyedUp MusicProject
Perfect Enemy Records
Kristine Kathryn Rusch: One Phone Call from Our Knees