Roundtable Discussion with Ryan Truesdell

A roundtable discussion with composer, copyist, and producer Ryan Truesdell (MM '06) that will explore the path to building a successful portfolio career as a freelance musician. Truesdell will discuss best practices for networking, building freelance work, and forging fruitful artistic collaborations. 

Ryan Truesdell is a composer of diverse musical tastes and influences with a healthy reverence for jazz tradition and an ever-broadening sonic palette. He received his Masters degree in Jazz Composition at New England Conservatory of Music and immersed himself in a broad range of musicals styles while studying composition with Bob Brookmeyer and Lee Hyla. He composes and arranges music for an eclectic variety of ensembles ranging from small ensembles to big bands, wind ensembles to string quartets. Recent commissions include arrangements for trumpeter Ingrid Jensen with the U.S. Air Force Band of the Pacific, new music for pianist Frank Kimbrough with the University of Minnesota’s Jazz Ensemble, and a new piece for Bob Brookmeyer’s 80th birthday concert at the Eastman School of Music. Ryan was also awarded the First Music commission from the New York Youth Symphony’s Jazz Band Classic, and conducted its premiere at the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2009.

Ryan is also an accomplished and in-demand copyist. He is Maria Schneider’s primary copyist and also copies for Jim Hall, Geoffrey Keezer, Luciana Souza, and Miles Evans and the Gil Evans Estate, among others. His work has been published in Rutgers University’s Annual Review of Jazz Studies and Chamber Music America’s Chamber Music magazine.