Dale Trumbore is a Los Angeles-based composer and writer whose compositions have been performed by ensembles including the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, Modesto Symphony, and Pasadena Symphony. She has written extensively about working through creative blocks and establishing a career in music in essays for 21CM, Cantate Magazine, and NewMusicBox, as well as in her book Staying Composed: Overcoming Anxiety and Self-Doubt Within a Creative Life.
Articles by Dale Trumbore:
In a few weeks, Dale Trumbore is publishing a book about anxiety in the creative process—Staying Composed: Overcoming Anxiety and Self-Doubt Within a Creative Life. In advance, she shares her...
Somewhere in the homestretch of writing a new composition, I become convinced—temporarily, falsely—that not only is there nothing redeemable about this awful piece, but that composing itself is meaningless, I've...
A composer's style becomes distinctive not only because certain ideas are present in many of their compositions, but because that composer has made compelling artistic choices deliberately and repeatedly across...
I'd urge any other composer contemplating a full-time composing career to ask the same questions I considered: What work do you most enjoy doing? What work of yours have others...
The time at a residency feels sacred, and for that brief period, your life is centered around the pursuit of creativity.
We don’t need to imagine that one big performance or one big award will be responsible for making our entire career. Instead, we can ask ourselves what we’ll try to...
When she graduated with her master's degree, Dale Trumbore give herself three years to try composing as a full-on career before considering any more schooling. She hasn't returned to the...
I've finally figured out how to break through the filter of self-doubt on a fairly reliable basis. For me, what works is a series of mantras—nuggets of wisdom from people...
There may be no greater way to make yourself feel like a bad composer—the worst composer, really—than watching the fluffiest of all fluffy shows in the house of one of...