MONDAY BYTES—September 21, 2015
Welcome to part 2 of our mini series on Bios. Last week we covered 5 key elements for bios, and today we’re deconstructing an excellent example bio from The Westerlies, looking at what’s effective and why.
Here’s their opening paragraph: the first things we find out about them:
“The Westerlies (“prevailing winds from the West to the East”) are a New York based brass quartet comprised of four friends from Seattle, Washington: Riley Mulherkar and Zubin Hensler on trumpet, and Andy Clausen and Willem de Koch on trombone.”
With this opening we get an explanation of the group’s name and why it makes sense for this group (we find out where they’re from and where they’re now based). We learn the instruments they play, and we find out they are friends. This is in some ways a provocative opening because it’s anti-hype—we aren’t knocked over by all their awards, acclaim, etc. At this point we don’t even know what kind of music they play, but we DO get the human essentials. The message is that friendship is a key element of their DNA and it’s an example of vulnerability (being human!) in a bio—they demonstrate that friendship is a priority by putting it at the opening.
What’s next?
“The Westerlies re-imagine the chamber music experience through boldly personal performance, recording, collaboration, education, and outreach. Since their inception in 2011, they have cultivated a new brass quartet repertoire featuring over 50 original compositions as well as adaptations of Ives, Ellington, Bartok, Ligeti, Stephen Foster and numerous traditionals. Their music exudes the warmth of their longstanding friendships, and reflects the broad interests of its members.”
In the 2nd paragraph we find out their mission “re-imagining the chamber music experience,” what they do (perform, record, collaborate, outreach), what they are geared towards (expanding the repertoire), and how long they’ve been together. Then they clarify the type of music they perform: not by labeling themselves as a post fusion something, but by stating what their repertoire includes which makes them quite distinctive. The 50 originals is impressive and what’s perhaps even better is the wildly diverse range and the order of composers cited—this really captured my imagination and motivated me to check out their sound clips. An effective bio is a call to action: your bio should create the curiosity and motivation to get the reader to listen or watch your sound or video clips.
3rd paragraph:
“The Westerlies navigate a wide array of venues with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family folk ensemble. The Westerlies have performed at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at University of Maryland, The Festival of New Trumpet Music, Juilliard in Aiken Festival, The Juilliard School, Music in the Mountains (Durango, CO), the Vancouver Jazz Festival, Constellation Chicago, the Seattle Art Museum and Earshot Jazz Festival. Active collaborators, they have worked with artists in a variety of disciplines, including Vieux Farke Toure, Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, visual artist David Foarde, Choreographer Garth Johnson, and Juilliard Dance. Their debut album, Wish The Children Would Come On Home: The Music of Wayne Horivtz, was released on Songlines Recordings in May 2014, and was immediately met with praise:”
The bold above is my emphasis to what I see as the best line in this excellent bio. Why? Because it conveys the answer to the key questions of what their performances are like, and what their audiences experience.
The rest of the paragraph has impressive credentials that solidify their credibility: specific venues where they’ve performed and a terrific range of collaborators, followed by info on their 1st album.
What follows this? Two terrific quotes that give you even more a sense of what’s distinctive about them. And then a final paragraph about their educational work and their upcoming 2nd album—the invitation being for readers to be on the lookout for it and to check out how they sound now on their website.
Read their whole bio here.
This week: Notice the bios you encounter this week. See if you can identify any particularly great sentences—ones that vividly convey what the musician’s performances are like and make you want to click “play” to check them out. I’d love to get any examples you’d like to share—looking forward to reading your favs!
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