We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrew Denicola. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrew below.

Andrew, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

The first time I knew was when I was Sixteen Years Old. I had played the saxophone for a few years but didn’t know if this would be my career. After a terrible first-year experience in my regular high school band, my mother found a magnet arts program that helped my development. At the time, I was already taking private lessons, attending jazz camps, and playing in an after-school jazz program. But, this experience in particular helped push this decision. The program’s name was Regional Center for the Arts (RCA). It was a great school not only for learning different styles of music but also because I was surrounded by people who wanted to play music and respect each other. This to me was both eye-opening and encouraging. Towards the end of my first year of the program, one of the teachers wanted to feature me on a jazz ballad. He told me I was ready. I took this as the initiative to practice for my featured moment. The concert arrived soon enough and it was time to perform. I will never forget it, I closed my eyes, and suddenly the music started flowing through me. Then, the magic happened when I took a musical cadenza and was improvising off the top of my head. I didn’t worry about time constraints or the future. My mission was made clear to me then. After the performance and a standing ovation, I told my parents I wanted to pursue a music career. I have not looked back and have pushed forward because of my innate love for music.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Well, I am primarily a musical composer and jazz saxophonist. I got into playing music at a young age, and have had the good fortune of attending both Berklee College of Music and Queens College. Both of these programs have helped me develop my craft tremendously. I provide people with my skills as a performer and composer. What problems I would solve for people is my ability to sub into any musical group, or arrange music to fit the needs of a specific group. I have been trained to play music in any context. My background in studying jazz has laid a solid foundation for this. One day I will be playing a wedding gig and the next day I will be playing straight-ahead jazz. I also have the opportunity to arrange music for someone’s band or project. What I mean by arrange is take a piece of music, and fit it to the individual or group who will perform for their needs. For example, I recently arranged backing tracks for a TV star, where she will perform for a huge pride event in Cape Cod. The necessity for this was based on a strict budget, and being able to simulate the other instruments without bringing 4-5 people to the performance. Overall, I can work under pressure and make quick changes. This is why I keep getting work and can stretch myself. Overall, I am proud of my work results, and I can add the flavor of jazz to any project you have.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I knew that you had to hustle more. That way I would have started much earlier in figuring out how to promote myself.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Society should give artists more credit than they deserve. We are the ones that develop the culture the most, and have the responsibility of communicating messages that can affect the most change. Unfortunately, the arts are also associated with scarcity. This forces all of us to hustle constantly without any rest. If I had a say, I would raise the pay for artists. That way they can live sustainably on their earnings, and focus on developing their craft constantly. But, artists have to be 100 percent committed. If you aren’t, this profession is not for you, sorry!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andrewdenicolamusic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewdenicolamusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrew.denicola.3/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-denicola-aa2037170/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaaAgUlE1I-2RON-Bvm-u6A
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/andrew-denicola-909647840

Image Credits

Fabio Rojas, Mason O Donnell, Larry Davis, Bentley Lewis, Matthew DeNicola