Meet JJ Eboli of Hollywood Recordings and Little Composers Academy

Today we’d like to introduce you to JJ Eboli.

JJ, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Music always played a big part in my family. My parents, siblings, cousins… we all played the piano, inspired and taught by my grand-aunt, who was a former dean of the Music and Arts School at the Federal University in my home city, Porto Alegre, south of Brazil. The Sunday dinners at my grandmas’ house were always filled with a lot of music. I started my piano studies at the age of five and picked up the violin when I was seven.

Performing in orchestras throughout my teenage years gave me a lot of foundation to later deepen my theory studies and turn my passion for music into my profession. Since my college major was in advertising, putting my compositions to work was an easy transition, and I started writing music for commercials.

During college, my first job in the industry was as an in-house composer at an established music house. Right after I graduated from school, I had the opportunity to open my own business with three other partners to provide original music and audio to all kinds of productions. Commercials, films, TV shows, theater, radio, concerts, runway shows, websites…

Our success was being measured by all the awards we and the advertising agencies that worked with us were receiving. And it didn’t take long for one of the top marketing universities in the country to invite me to create and teach courses about producing music for advertising. Back then, I was 26 years old. But I was too young to settle. I knew I wanted to do more things, face new challenges, experience other perspectives and learn, learn and learn more. So, I decided to pack my stuff and head to Los Angeles!

I enrolled in the Film Scoring program at UCLA and started my career from scratch in La, La, Land. After graduating with distinction, I was selected to the prestigious Mentorship at The Society of Composers and Lyricists. I’ve been living in LA for 13 years now, and my music has been featured in several TV shows, films, and commercials around the world.

Channels like CBS, HBO, The History Channel, A&E, VH1, Spike TV, WWE, Amazon Prime TV, Hulu, … to name a few. But then, something else came into the picture. During my son’s last year in preschool, I was constantly hearing other parents’ opinions about music lessons. I noticed that there was a big demand for quality music instruction for children and teens that prepared them for the future.

Even here in LA, kids were being taught music the same way their great grandparents were. So, the entrepreneur in me saw an opportunity to bring all the experience I have as a professional music composer, and as a former college instructor (and some private piano lessons during my school years) to help kids learn music and music production in a much more effective and fun way.

So, today, I happily split myself into two businesses. I keep my music composer career going strong while I run the Little Composers Academy.

Great, 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?
The moment you decide to become an entrepreneur, that you will be your own boss, I guess there’s no smooth road, right?! Even when everything seems to fall into the right place, there’s always some degree of uncertainty, especially regarding the future. It’s all on you! But I definitely can’t complain about the road leading to where I am right now.

In all these years, I was always surrounded by really special people, who helped me tremendously in reaching my goals. Were there any roadblocks? Challenges? Hard times? Of course! Like anything in life. But if you’re having fun during the journey, and have a good supporting system to propel you above and beyond the obstacles, it’s all that matters.

Please tell us about Hollywood Recordings and Little Composers Academy.
I have two separate endeavors that revolve around the same passion: music. One is my career as a composer, writing music for TV shows, films, commercials, games, and several other types of media and performances. Since I started in this business, I was lucky enough to interact with people who made me grow in every stage of this journey.

I had the most brilliant mentors, teachers, partners, classmates, clients and friends who helped defining who I am as a music composer and collaborator in any given project. Also, the fact that I come from Brazil influences my compositions in a very unique way. My career as a composer, without any doubt, gives an edge to my music education business.

Every single student that enrolls in the program gets an individually tailored plan created by me, after a detailed assessment of their specific wishes and needs. All my experience using cutting edge technology, interacting with top people in the entertainment business, A-list composers, musicians, directors, music supervisors, and editors, is brought in to design the best approach we should take with each student.
Their interests, learning style, goals, personalities, musicianship and current level, are all taken into consideration when putting together a lesson plan. Little Composers Academy is definitely not a place where one size fits all. Every individual has his/her own musical path, and our role is to be there along the way providing the tools, enabling each student to reach their particular goals.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I have great memories from my childhood. I definitely had an amazing time growing up. Music and sports were both big for me. I was always fascinated by film music.

I used to listen to film scores and tried to play them on the piano. Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Trek, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Superman… these were some of my favorites. But I definitely wasn’t the kind of guy who would be indoors all day long. Playing sports was also very important to me, and still is.

I think that in order for me to focus and be more productive, I need to spend some time outdoors. If you want to talk about music? Awesome, I’m all in! But it doesn’t mean that if you invite me to play soccer, go surfing, play beach volleyball or tennis, I’m not gonna be as excited!

Pricing:

• Little Composers Academy: rates start at $249 per month

Contact Info:

• Website: www.HollywoodRecordings.com & www.LittleComposersAcademy.com

Image Credit:
Kristin Anderson Photography

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