Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Theo Schmitt. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Theo, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I feel so lucky I can sustain a comfortable life in Los Angeles working exclusively in the music industry. I come from Switzerland and I started conducting amateur orchestras there at 16 years old. It was my first paid gig in music. I also composed for these orchestras at that time, and people started slowly to pay attention to my work, which led to my first paid commissions a few years later. I guess that because I always delivered the best I could and put a lot of myself into my compositions, commissioners just kept coming.

When I arrived in the US to study at UCLA and USC, I was still working on multiple projects at the same time. It was very intense to study in these prestigious universities while fulfilling my commissions. But thanks to them, and I’m very proud of that, I was able to graduate without having to pay back any loan!

Being now established in LA, I have more sources of income, such as film scoring and assisting senior composers. To not rely on a single job makes me feel more free and I love the diversity in my work.

Although it might feel sometimes unsecure to earn money only in music, simply because I never know if the projects will stop coming at some point, I know at the same time I’m doing what I dreamt to do when I was a kid, and this feeling is so amazing. I’m just living my best life!

Theo, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a composer and conductor from Switzerland based in Los Angeles. I’ve been composing as far as I can remember, which is a little odd coming from a non-musician family. But I stuck to my passion for music and I studied orchestra conducting in Switzerland and then moved to the US to study composition at UCLA and film scoring at UCLA.

I was lucky to find opportunities to conduct amateur orchestras in my home country when I was 16 years old only. It helped me to craft my skills, to learn a lot of repertoires and to grow as a human being. It also provided me the opportunity to compose for these orchestras and have a safe space to be creative.

Thanks to that, I had a fairly successful start, especially with my project “La Légende du Château de Chillon”, a movie I wrote, directed, scored and conducted live with a gigantic orchestra! But I’m addicted to challenges and hate the “comfort zone” so I decided to move to the other side of the world! Here in LA, I’ve deepened my musical knowledge and my composition tools, especially by blending electronic music to my orchestral writing. More importantly, I’ve met amazingly talented artists, cinematographers, choreographers and musicians with whom I’m working today. I write music every day and feel so lucky!

Here are a few words about my work: First, I love telling stories. This is why I think I love to compose music for visual media. I always imagine pictures over my music, even if there aren’t any. Second, I have many different influences. As a conductor, I’ve studied the great musicians of history and I have been very influenced by classical and romantic composers. But I also like more modern and popular music such as rock and pop music. I like to compose every kind of music, so I try to encompass my love of varying genres and create a sort of universal language in my music to touch as many people as possible, while developing an interesting soundscape. People have described my music as colorful and intricate. Finally, and most importantly, my compositions allow me to create connections between people. I have had many opportunities to conduct my own compositions, and I have never felt anything as profound as seeing all the musicians converging towards the same goal: transmitting emotions to the audience with my music. In other words, with my music, I like to create links between musicians and myself, between emotions and the audience, between reality and dreams.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Finding my voice as a composer in today’s world is very challenging, but also very motivating. We have never been so many to write music, thanks to the rise of new technologies and we can have access to all the music from all around the world in one click. It’s very overwhelming but also an endless source of inspiration. My goal is to get my voice heard, and create a musical language that is elaborate and true to myself, while bringing a wide audience together. It’s not an easy task! But it keeps me working every day.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I am my own boss, I do what I love the most every day, and I get recognition for this!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theoschmitt.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/theoschmitt_composer/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theo.schmitt.94/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/th%C3%A9o-schmitt-2369a518b/
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@TheoSchmitt_composer