Today we’d like to introduce you to Miriam Cutler.
Hi Miriam, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My interest in music started as a child…I grew up in a very musical family in Altadena and played instruments from the age of eight years old. I played piano first, then clarinet in the school bands, and of course guitar. In high school, I discovered folk dancing and world music and a whole new world opened up to me. When my friends found out I played clarinet, my performing career started in various ethnic music groups that accompanied folk dancers. This went on during college as well. UCLA had a great ethnomusicology department and I explored it. But I majored in Anthropology because I had a huge curiosity about the world and everyone in it, so much so that I pursued graduate school in my major – also at UCLA. I loved it and continued playing music on the side – branching out into my own generation’s popular music – The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Bonnie Raitte, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and so many more. I always wrote songs and used music as a form of personal expression, but didn’t ever perform my own music publicly. I was in college during the 1970s, so it was a turbulent and exciting time of change. I became so involved with social justice advocacy that I left graduate school early and went to work for public interest lawyers as a researcher/investigator. It was amazing!
We brought attention to so many important issues: forced sterilization at County General Hospital, Medicaid fraud, redlining of neighborhoods by banks and insurance companies and so much more. It was my dream come true. But of course, all during this time, I started playing in bands…my own feminist group with several friends – Alice Stone – a rag-tag combo of theater people and musicians who were highly entertaining a pretty popular – riding the wave of 1970s second-wave feminism. Then there was its counterpart, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo which was very popular in the early 70s in LA. Quite a juxtaposition to put it mildly. With Alice Stone, I wrote most of the music and arrangements and also learned how to produce records. In Oingo Boingo, I was inspired by the seriously great musicianship and wild theatrical performances! That’s how I spent much of the 1970s. But I could never earn a real living. I decided to get a job. By the 1980s I was working at Live Wires Entertainment (singing telegram company) creating acts and commercial productions for product promotions….quite a shift for me. But I was learning about business and that I had talents that were marketable.
After a couple of years with a steady paycheck, I moved on. A friend and I pitched a swing band for entertainment at the Vine Street Bar & Grill and the owner loved the idea. We had a steady gig playing the most fun music as a 4 piece hot swing group and 2 additional singers. We put on a show 4 nights a week to enthusiastic audiences – a dinner set and 2 shows. After a couple of years headlining, I suggested that we expand to offering other performers, and with Etta James and Mose Allison, a new wonderful jazz club for LA was born. I stayed on to help book the club into the 1990s and performed with my swing band now and again. During that time I Co-produced live jazz albums on Polygram Records including Joe Williams (nominated for a Grammy as Co-Producer), Nina Simone, Shirley Horn, Marlena Shaw.
It was in the late 1980s that I started getting gigs writing and recording music for little films and corporate videos. So began my foray into the world of film scoring. I had some recording equipment from creating song demos and finally an album for Swingstreet. Plus, I was fairly well known around town as a performer after so many years and people started approaching me with little projects. So I was able to merge into film scoring quite naturally. The first time I put my hands on the keyboard while watching moving picture, I was utterly smitten. I spent the next 10 years being a working composer with a steady income…but eventually, I realized that I was utterly uninspired by most of the work I was getting. I knew I had to find something else but had no idea what. I had really strayed from the values that inspired me now found myself ensconced in a commercial world, and I wasn’t happy.
Whilst mulling this, I went to a screening one night and met a documentary filmmaker. We talked for some time and he told me about his project. It was a strong social justice theme and I was blown away and very excited. He lived in San Francisco, and I made an excuse to go visit him. It was a very low-budget independent film, but we clicked and it was amazing. I had no idea that he was a very well-respected documentary filmmaker. The film premiered at Sundance, and he invited me to come. I was introduced to a whole new world of passionate and committed international filmmakers. The film won 2 awards and we were the toast of the documentary filmmakers. Working on the film and that experience at Sundance literally changed my life. I became very clear about what I wanted to do. From then on, I aspired to become part of the documentary community and have been working on films that inspire and satisfy my need for purpose. That was 1997. Since then I have been able to express my passion for this work on projects for HBO, CNN, PBS, SHOWTIME, theatrical releases, a couple of Oscar nominations (for the films). I’ve been nominated for 3 Emmys, been a featured artist on Grammy Award-winning album, and have remained excited about my work for over 30 years.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Do you know anyone that has tried to make a living as a musician and/or composer? Has been able to have a sustainable career and livelihood over 30 years? Plus, stay true to their values and operated fairly out of the mainstream entertainment industry? Yes, it’s been bumpy and very very very hard work.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
More recently, my career has evolved beyond writing music for film and media. I have also been a consultant, co-produced a couple of documentary films, and continued to engage as an active participant in both the film community and the music community. In June 2013, I joined the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and currently serve on the Branch Executive Committee. I’ve served on the TV Academy Music Executive Committee.
In 2014, I was also invited to represent Documentary Film abroad for the US State Department’s Program, American Film Showcase, curated by USC School of Cinematic Arts. I have also been Composer in Residence at Columbia College of the Arts twice, taught a semester at California Institute of the Arts. I’ve presented workshops in person and remotely at USC, UCLA, Sundance Institute, Beale Institute /Eastman School of Music, Chapman College, Loyola University, and internationally at the Hollywood Music Workshop in Vienna, in Iceland, Vancouver, Borneo, Georgia, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Jordan, Poland, Denmark/Faro Islands, Trinidad/Tobago with many more to come. I was a longtime Advisor/Sundance Documentary Composers Lab, juror for Sundance FF, Spirit Awards, AFI, Camille Awards, International Documentary Awards, and more. Past TV Academy Music Branch Exec committee member, long-time former SCL Board Member and Co-Founder Alliance for Women Film Composers. I currently serve as an advisor for Reel Change Film Fund/New Music USA which provides grants to up-and-coming diverse composers who qualify.
I have been scoring films for some 30 years, and my love of all things music and film has inspired me to share my passion and experience by presenting workshops focusing on the creative collaboration between filmmakers and composers and how that enhances the process, productivity, and quality of the score.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
Horseback riding and taking care of horses at Eaton Canyon Stables in Pasadena.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.miriamcutler.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/miriam.cutler.9
Image Credits
Mark Hanauer – studio images and head shot (standing in garden)
