Check Out Jack Lanhardt’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jack Lanhardt.

Hi Jack, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My grandpa initially got me introduced to music, specifically jazz, at a very young age. Ever since then I’ve been completely enamored by the world of music and how I can use it express myself to the fullest extent. While I had my start playing saxophone up until my master’s degree and still love to play whenever I am blessed with a call to play any and all woodwinds for a recording session or a live show, I eventually found that avenue of total personal expression through the art of composing and arranging music. There’s nothing quite like having the ability to pinpoint exactly what emotions I want a piece to express, especially when words fail me to describe them in such complex aspects of my life like my autism diagnosis and my Catholic faith. I have all the thanks in the world to my composition professor at North Texas, Rich DeRosa, for the constant support, guidance, and wisdom he provided me throughout my formative years of being a new composer/arranger.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would say for the most part, I have been blessed with a relatively smooth road for my career with the opportunities that God has provided for me. I would say one of the biggest struggle for me, however, was my transition into becoming a composer and arranger in 2023. Before this, I had dedicated pretty much the entirety of my musical career to performing, with the exception of a few “just for fun” big band arrangements I would do throughout my undergraduate degree at North Texas. When I felt that strong itch to get into the world of writing music and make it into something serious, I made a big decision to basically cut out saxophone from my career for the majority of my master’s degree in Jazz Composition so that I could focus on becoming the best writer I possibly make myself to be. Throughout those two years, I faced financial problems, identity crises, and overall anxiety on if this was the right decision for me. Thanks be to God, it all worked out in the end and I’m grateful and blessed to have accomplished this much so far.

The other big obstacle, was actually getting back into playing the saxophone after 2 years of neglecting it. When I came back to California after completing my master’s degree in Texas, I became close friends with a composer/pianist in LA named Harlan Hodges. With the additional praise of my professors at UNT, he found out that I was at least a halfway decent baritone saxophonist and trusted me with a recording gig for Fred Voglar. It was a standard horn line recording session, but the lineup was full of the people I had looked up to throughout my years of learning music. Thankfullly, the gig went great for me and I then realized the immense pull to get back into playing. But this came with the challenges of forcing myself back into a practice routine as well as the financial burdens of purchasing/renting all the woodwind instruments that I now play on different gigs. It also came with the VERY slow waiting game of waiting for the phone to ring again, with a wait as long as 5 months between gigs. Thankfully things are picking up for me but it was a while where I was very anxious about if I would ever play again or if I just got my one time lucky gig.

With both of these challenges/obstacles mellowed out, I’m still grateful that I went through them, for they were some of the most transformative parts of my life and career.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a jack of all trades! (Pun intended) I’m a copyist for multiple music educational companies, I record/perform woodwinds and saxophones, I write for ensembles all around the country, and I give a masterclass here and there. I really don’t see a lot of differences between me and other saxophonists out there but as a writer, I feel like I am most proud of my ability to write with the instrument’s needs in mind. So many times I see writers go all out and write as much as they can in every single measure, while completely neglecting the performers that will play this music. And I think it’s my experience as a player that gives me this insight of writing the best parts for each individual instruments. Because overall, I want people to WANT to play my music and have FUN while doing so!

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up on the autism spectrum was hard, no question. Had a major stutter throughout grade school and was the slightly more awkward/off-putting kid in any social scenario. Because of this, I was never a part of the popular groups in school and only had a few true friendships that lasted more than 1-2 years (shoutout Nick and Logan, love y’all) But I feel like where that hindered me, I was blessed with special musical abilities because of my diagnosis. I was always able to instantly latch on to new musical concepts that were taught to me and quickly dispose of any mistakes that I was unknowingly making as soon as I learned the correct way to do it. Though I was never a child prodigy by any means, I do feel as if this was a blessing that gave me a much easier route to excel within music and learn new ways to express what I was truly feeling either through my instrument or through my writing.

Outside of music, I’ve always been a huge fan of computers, so much so that it was actually a choice I made between majoring in either music or some form of computer engineering! I loved watching videos on the latest graphics cards, CPUs, and other computer tech that was available. I even built my own computer from scratch! Still have it to this day. (Though I’m not 100% sure if it will turn on anymore…)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jacklanhardt.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacklanhardtcomposer/