Rising Stars: Meet Macy Schmidt

Today we’d like to introduce you to Macy Schmidt.

Hi Macy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I began my career in Broadway music departments after moving to New York City for the first time at 19. I wanted to climb up the Broadway “ladder,” starting out as a Music Assistant. I was deep in that hamster wheel until the pandemic struck the entertainment industry (and the world) in 2020. After a few months of dwindling hope that things would just pick up where they left off, I realized that nothing was going to be the same and that this was an opportunity to make sure the time wouldn’t go wasted.

In the weeks following the murder of George Floyd, the entertainment industry erupted in conversations around racial and gender equity — it felt like not-for-profit organizations to increase the number of women and people of color in the industry were popping up in every direction. I wanted to find a way to provide tangible paid employment to women (and especially women of color) artists in a time when artists were not able to do their work, and then the Sinfonietta was born. The Sinfonietta is an all-women and majority women-of-color orchestra and production company. We launched with an initial video of an arrangement I’d had swirling in my head for a few years, and it got picked up by national news, leading to calls from brands and commercial opportunities — and then we were just off to the races. Today, the Sinfonietta operates all around the world and encompasses both a production arm and a management arm in addition to its signature performance ensembles.

Personally, the Sinfonietta was a game-changing moment because it led to recognition on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List. From the extraordinary peers I met in the Forbes community, my work quickly expanded to the business sphere, pairing my expertise in the entertainment industry with the business and finance world. Today, my time is split between operating the Sinfonietta and running my own entertainment ventures production company & advisory. This year I won my first Tony Award as a Broadway co-producer and am leaning more heavily into developing work across mediums and disciplines which elevates women’s voices and maintains musical grandeur at the forefront of storytelling.

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?
Certainly not! Starting a large-scale professional orchestra during a pandemic couldn’t have been a bumpier road. Continuing to grow it in a commercial fashion has come with its own financial challenges. I’d say the biggest struggle was finding a way to grow a profitable company while truly respecting and elevating the women whose artistry makes it possible. I’ve learned that profit never needs to come at the expense of artistic exploitation, and we’ve actually found more financial success by prioritizing the monetary inclusion and personal well-being of the musicians we hire, everywhere from providing childcare for the working mothers we employ, to building musicians into profit-sharing via royalties and residuals.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My primary artistic craft is as an Orchestrator and Arranger. This means I specialize in taking existing music — often a simple sketch from composers or songwriters — and expanding it to be written for a large orchestra. I’m not the one writing the music, and I’m usually not the one performing it (except when I have to!) — but I’m the person who does everything in between those two steps. My work on Broadway also includes Music Direction and Music Supervision, roles which oversee the development from a writer’s conception to Opening Night.

I’m most proud of my orchestration & arranging work with the Sinfonietta and the way we’ve been able to use existing, well-known music to craft a new narrative about women’s voices.

It’s not common for arrangers or orchestrators to produce their own headlining work using existing material. As a recording artist signed to Sony Music, it also isn’t common for arrangers/orchestrators to have record deals. Something that I feel sets me apart in the industry is not just executing delivered sketches on assignment but creating something out of nothing, using the craft to tell stories and produce large-scale events around the work, incorporating my own orchestra at the same time.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
To me, success is living in your purpose.

Contact Info:

• Website: thesinfonietta.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/macyjschmidt/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macyschmidt/

Image Credits
Rebecca J Michelson Evan Zimmerman Em Char Studio Impact24 PR Colin Baldwin for Forbes Michaelah Reynolds