We were lucky to catch up with Eitan Prouser recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Eitan, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

Music was a relatively late endeavor for me. I started playing piano at a very young age for fun, but never truly took it seriously. I always had a musical mind and my elementary school music teacher, Laura Deutsch, once told my mother to make sure I never stopped doing music. As a result, for most of my time growing up, my mother always told me to play the guitar. However, I didn’t even begin until I was halfway through my junior year of high school.

In my professional life, I was late too. I did not go freelance until I was 33 years old. The pandemic hit, and I saw all my lessons go online or to the side of the road. I also saw that in the company I had been working at for close to a decade that I had gone as far as I could go. Most of all, I saw that there would be a need for live music and knew I needed to perform and could not hold it off anymore.

That first year, I performed on three national tours. I always wonder what would have happened if I started earlier, but I do think that I might not have had the same opportunities and I very much love the work I have been doing and the people I have been doing it with. I might never have found my work with circus. I might not have found these same tours. I think I did it exactly when I was meant to, but I will always wonder how things could have been different.

Eitan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a freelance musician for music of all kinds, composer, music director, and private music teacher. I got started playing around the time Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott was shot and killed on stage. I remember spending many hours watching VH1 and MTV and seeing clips of him, and I got so inspired. I got a guitar on eBay and practiced all day, every day, as much as I could spare.

I got my degree in music performance and went into teaching for a number of years. In 2021, I went full-time freelance, and I have taken every possible type of gig I can since. I play everything from weddings, galas, and private events, to musicals and circuses. Circus has really become a passion of mine over the last couple of years.

Ive done three North American tours – once as just a musician and twice as a music director – and I have also performed in numerous circus acts in the NYC area. Most recently I wrote, arranged, and music directed for an innovative trapeze company out of Brooklyn called Coup de Foudre.

My dream is to write music/soundtracks for every situation I can. I have written for full length shows, but also for engagements, wedding ceremonies, and even contributing parts to new musicals. I love working with people to find the feeling they want to convey with the music and the emotions they want their audience to experience during these special moments and situations.

I love the challenge of putting notes, chords, and melodies to their feelings, emotions, and passions. My work with Coup de Foudre is my proudest work. It was over an hour of nonstop trapeze and aerials, with over a dozen individual sections, each with their own character. We had so many discussions trying to tell a story with both the choreography and the soundtrack. The result was a stunning collaboration. I would love to tell more stories with more acts and find new ways to convey peoples feelings to the world.

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

It is always a funny question, addressing the rewarding part of being a professional with your craft. Once money becomes involved, it is very easy to become jaded and to lose that feeling. This is one reason I always try to have passion projects and then work for a living.

There is one thing that I will always feel, working, that is the greatest reward of it all: it is the sound of audience experiencing something they’ve truly never seen before.

In my work with Cirque Musica, there was one act I always loved to watch. It was two brothers, the Hermanos Vivas, doing an act called either Risley or Icarian Games. Basically, one of them lies on their back and juggles the other with his feet. It is an INCREDIBLE act. Without fail, the first time people realized what the act was, the whole audience would gasp. It is the most incredible sound. It is my favorite sound in the world. It is the most rewarding feeling – getting to look out over an arena audience, seeing these lights, playing this music, watching these incredible artists, and hearing that sound. It always brings a tear to my eye. No amount of money will ever feel as rewarding as that sound.

All the work I do so that I can experience that is worth it.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My biggest change in my career was deciding to leave my teaching job. It was the most stable job I have ever had. I worked at a music shop called Bach to Rock in Port Washington, New York. In my time there I went from working just Saturdays teaching only guitar to teaching lessons on 6 instruments, in addition to running the rock band program overseeing over 30 bands. In that capacity I personally taught 16 bands leading to many accolades across regional and national Battle of the Bands competitions. I am very passionate about kids doing music – and especially about kids making music together. It is so important.

As the pandemic hit and I approached a decade of teaching, I realized there was no further I could go with the company. I was so proud of my work, and I cared a great deal about my students, many of whom I continue to follow in their own musical endeavors.

I just needed to follow my own passions, and it was the scariest change I have ever made. I made a jump from the biggest fish in my little pond to what felt like the tiniest fish in a massive ocean. Luckily, I understood that discomfort facilitates growth and I was determined to grow.

I needed the change, and I put myself through many uncomfortable situations in order to make that growth. Once I realized I needed to pivot my professional life from teaching music to making music, everything changed and I could not go back.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Eitanprousermusic.com
• Instagram: @eitanprousermusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eitanprousermusic/ (@eitanprousermusic)
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/eitan-prouser (I don’t really use this)
• Other: Can stream on every major streaming service under the name Eitan Prouser.

Image Credits

Leslie Horn Photography

Libby Martin
Libby Martin Photography
@LibThruALens