Focus on the present and what you can do right now to improve the things you have control over. This is one of the topics that was discussed with clarinetist, composer, and instructor Erin Cameron in episode 4 of the Making Noise Podcast.
Erin Cameron enjoys a diverse career as a clarinetist, composer, and educator. She serves as Instructor of Clarinet at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Her clarinet playing has been heard in performances across the country, including appearances with the North Texas Wind Symphony, Dallas Winds, Toledo Symphony, and on the recent CD release “Love Songs/Duets” by Kory Reeder on Wandelweiser Records. Erin is an active educator and has also served as the Clarinet Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas and previously maintained an active clarinet studio in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
An avid proponent of new music, she has performed over 30 world and regional premieres of new works by Kirsten Broberg, Amy Dunker, Weston Olencki, Adam Kennaugh, and many others. Her compositions have been performed in collaboration with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Chicago’s Zafa Collective, and Pittsburgh’s Kamratōn. Recently, she was invited to perform at the International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest in Reno, Nevada; at the Victoria Bach Festival in Victoria, Texas as Winner of the 2020 Emerging Artists Competition; and as a participant in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in Lucerne, Switzerland (these events were canceled due to COVID-19). She is currently completing her doctorate in clarinet performance at the University of North Texas; she also holds degrees from Bowling Green State University and Northwestern University.
Erin and I met while in graduate school at Bowling Green State University. We collaborated together to create Spate, a piece for bass clarinet which disconnects the actions of the embouchure and the fingers using tablature notation.
Erin recently became a full-time professor at Arkansas State University, which she talks in length about in this episode.
Some of the things discussed:
“Wherever you live, you’re always an active participant in creating the culture there”
“This is going to be a controversial statement: I don’t think it’s a bad time to be in school”
Focusing on the present and immediate things you can control
Pissing some guy off at Grounds for Thought because Erin and I were too loud
The line between being a music student and becoming a music professor is very blurry.
The differing generational experience of female teachers in academia