Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Loschen.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Dan. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I came to Boston after finishing at Oberlin with a degree in classical piano. I had always loved jazz and immediately started gigging with singers and as a solo pianist when I moved here in 1986. I earned my master’s degree from NEC in the early 90s, as a jazz pianist, and started teaching regularly as well as continuing to play jazz at clubs and functions.
Meanwhile, Boston Musical Theater was formed by Charlotte Kaufman, whose original vision for it was to perform old American musicals and operas. By the time I joined the group in 2003, it had grown to a regular group of 2-3 singers, piano/bass/drums. By replacing the previous pianist put the group in a much more jazzy direction, and so the repertoire started trending toward American Songbook standards, and away from operettas. When Charlotte retired, I took over the reins, and changed the group’s basic image to a small group (piano and two singers), with occasional larger shows.
We have recently done shows dedicated to the music of Gershwin, Kern, Ellington, Arlen, Porter, and other greats of the American musical pantheon. In addition to the group, I continue to teach extensively at the Rivers School Conservatory, teaching jazz and classical piano as well as jazz ensembles and music theory. Although I have not been presenting my own original jazz compositions in a while, I look forward to returning to that facet of my career in the future.
Has it been a smooth road?
I sometimes feel that I am the only jazz musician in Boston who did not attend Berklee (or teach there). As a result, I would say I have not been as successful as I could have been at networking and getting my name out there to other like-minded jazz musicians.
My successes have often felt very serendipitous. I play as a substitute for someone, and someone in the audience happens to hear me and take my card, and that leads to something regular. I played a gig with a vibraphonist who called me a week later to recommend me for a teaching position he had heard about.
On the other hand, I also had frustrations. My second CD project, “The Postmodern Jazz Quartet” included a great deal of my own compositions, and featured a group I had been working with long enough that the music seemed comfortable and “tight.” But immediately after recording it, one of the musicians moved to LA, and I lost the momentum.
I feel quite comfortable and fulfilled playing solo piano gigs, as I did at the Charles Hotel for a couple nights a week for several years. But obviously, this does not build your network of musicians to work with.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Boston Musical Theater story. Tell us more about the business.
The group “Boston Musical Theater” is primarily performing in upscale retirement communities, but also occasionally concerts more accessible to the general public. I create a new show every six months, and we are booked to perform it 6-7 times, for residents at venues such as Fox Hill in Westwood, The Village at Duxbury, Southgate at Shrewsbury, or Brookhaven at Lexington. The same show is also performed as a public concert at my home base, the Rivers School Conservatory.
In addition to this group, I also perform as a solo pianist in the typical function-type events (weddings, etc.) and also play as a pit-orchestra musician. My teaching duties are quite extensive, and take up most of my time. I am very lucky to be a full-time teacher at a well-established institution such as Rivers.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Teaching will always be a steady source of income, though never a spectacular one. The old days of restaurants all having a live pianist in the corner seem to be gone, and the same is true of the jazz trio work that used to be widespread.
I do not have a good overview of the music scene from the point of view of playing festivals and larger concert tours, but I hear from acquaintances that it is in a slow but gradual decline. People seem to have gotten used to the idea that music is something they download for free, and not something that they should be expected to pay a small cover charge for.
Pricing:
- Boston Musical Theater, single hour-long performance (piano+2 singers) $750
- Solo piano, functions etc. $175 first hour, $50 subsequent hours
Contact Info:
- Website: BostonMusicalTheater.org or danloschen.com
- Phone: 6176971820
- Email: danloschen@verizon.net
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