Since this auspicious (or inauspicious) start, Alex and Graham have found ways to work together. Always being entrepreneurial, always hoping to bring great music and ideas into people’s ears and imaginations, always looking to make a difference. They won some awards, had a lot of laughs and so far, no disagreements… apart from the flip flops (Alex won’t let it go).
Instrumate.io is born of a desire to bring their shared love of music, that was kindled in the playing of instruments, to as many folks as possible. To make their experience of discovery, joy, learning and friendship that comes with playing an instrument, available without geographic or stylistic barriers. We hope that you take that leap to find a teacher and unlock something inside yourself that you have been waiting to express. You won’t regret it. And if you do it in shorts and flip-flops, you will make us (or Graham at least) especially happy.
I wanted to be James Galway. Why, because in England in the 1980s and you were a bit of a classical music nerd, “Annie’s Song” was the #1 on the Top Ten, and James Galway was a flute god. And, I fancied myself James Galway. So, learn the flute I did.
I was lucky enough to be able to find a teacher through my high school, and went on to being a pretty OK flute player. I ended up stopping playing the piano (massive mistake to my later ambitions of being a conductor) as the flute became my life. I didn’t go full flute-nerd, but I will admit to playing in an all-flute orchestra, writing arrangements for said all-flute orchestra and nerdfest of all nerd-fests, and fell in love playing bass flute! Maybe I am a flute nerd….
My career and life has blissfully been spent working in the music industry – working with orchestras, leading a big radio station and then president of a lot of classical record labels. I call composers, conductors and soloists friends and can look back with pride on a lot of projects I helped bring to life. But, the seed of all this joy and success was playing an instrument. For me, both piano and the flute. They gave me joy, friends, travel, laughter, frustration and even some applause after a decent concert. I would never change all those hours I devoted to learning to read music, get fingerings right, breath control, tone exercises and the rest. It gave me purpose and discipline and so much joy. I hope you find the same in your own Instrumate.io journey.
I really wanted to play the trombone. It was just so damn shiny and imposing. It had the most majestic, backlit placement in the music store window that I passed walking back from school every day… But in a decision that was probably for the best, given our tiny Manhattan apartment, my parents said “um… no.”
I did begin taking piano lessons however at Manhattan’s Turtle Bay Music School (rest in peace), and I can remember vividly my first piano teacher, one I had for almost a decade. I can see how (ahem) instrumental his patience and contagious enthusiasm was for awakening my love for classical music, even if I wasn’t destined to become a concert pianist. That love for music, nurtured so early, has inspired every step of my career, from crafting playlists for classical radio stations, to starting podcasts and producing live concert series, to connecting with international composers and musicians as a talent scout for record labels.
As a father now, I find myself returning to the piano, with the discipline to practice regularly, and the hope that in doing so, I inspire my six-year-old daughter to enjoy the act of creating music herself, regardless of instrument (…even trombone). I also hope that with Instrumate, we inspire other new and lapsed explorers of music to lose themselves in the simple, limitless joy that comes with making and sharing music.
