LIFE

“Life is what happens...

I was 14 when I organized and conducted my own school chamber orchestra and wrote compositions for them. It was local news in my town of Palos Verdes, south of Los Angeles. Already I somehow knew that a composer was exactly what I wanted to be. Juilliard was the next logical step and I was thrilled to be accepted in their composition department at only 17. For the next 8 years, I studied with some of the most famous American composers of the time including David Diamond, Roger Sessions, and Elliott Carter. But, as the saying goes, “life is what happens when you're making other plans.”

Love happened. I got married to a wonderful woman and, to make a living, we invented our own company producing promotional videos. All of that, combined with an existing fascination with astronomy, culminated with us producing an award-winning documentary (2011) on the great American astronomer George Ellery Hale called “The Journey to Palomar.” I certainly never expected to walk down the red carpet as a filmmaker but that also happened. The film won 1st Place at the Temecula International Film Festival which led to several national primetime broadcasts on PBS.

Then, again somewhat by accident, I got into computer animation and photography and ended up being the go-to person for artistic simulations of the world's biggest future telescopes. My renderings and animations are still featured around the world. The New York Times, CBS Evening News, NBC News, and practically every major popular and academic science journal published my artistic renderings. It was thrilling and, though it wasn't exactly composing music, I was being intensely creative and learning how to reach people with stories of human challenge and aspiration.

But I ultimately decided to come home - back to music - because music has always contained irresistible magic to me, and I now compose full time. My unplanned route has given me enriching experiences and life discoveries that I probably would not have had on a more direct path. I discovered that true creative freedom comes not just from technical mastery but also from sometimes unlearning what one has been taught. I also rediscovered that music tells stories beyond words and images: important stories of love, sacrifice, determination, and loss. Music takes us on a journeys of discovery to new places.

Around this time, I was Composer-in Residence at the Astoria Music Festival in Oregon, and I had a new string quartet composition performed called “Elegy,” drawn from real life. After the performance, a woman came up, looking purposeful and emotional, and said “I want to thank you. Listening to your beautiful music, I realized that I'm not alone.” It was the most meaningful reaction I'd heard because I knew I had reached another human being in a profound way. It crystalized something in me as a composer –– that the highest purpose of the music is to communicate, beyond words or a particular musical style, our shared human experience as we strive and hope and dream and navigate in this mysterious universe.

-Todd Mason

An interview with Mason discussing the essential purpose of music.