Today we’d like to introduce you to Arthur Gottschalk.
Hi Arthur, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started at the University of Michigan in an accelerated pre-med program, but transferred into Music Composition after two and a half years. While studying music and completing all my degrees there, I also worked as a studio musician in the Detroit area. After accepting a faculty position at Rice University, I continued to work in recording studios, most notably at ACA with legendary engineer Bill Holford. I started working in record production, and merged my company with that of Tommy DeVito, famed founder of The Four Seasons, headquartered in Las Vegas. After leaving Las Vegas to accept a position at Columbia University, I returned to Houston and founded Modern Music Ventures with two local partners. We purchased the historic Sugar Hill Studios from Huey Meaux, the Crazy Cajun. All this time I continued my academic career and my vocation as a writer of serious music, and retired from the studio in 2002. But I continued to work as a freelance producer, and as an expert witness in numerous copyright and other music business cases in federal courts. My work as a composer of serious music has taken me all over the world, and my work in the record industry continues as well. Lately, I have partnered with my longtime friend Paul English, and with other local talents, to produce a series of recordings that document the musical output and creative genius of Dave Brubeck, assisted by his son (and former classmate of mine), Chris Brubeck. The Voice of Brubeck, Volumes I and II, are available on Navona Records (https://www.navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6668/)
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I selected a career that has no regular or fixed hours, so time management is of the utmost importance. Luckily, my time as a student, putting myself through school by earning a living in the music industry, taught me most of the lessons I’d need to manage a multi-pronged life and career. The hardest part turned out to be managing my personal life and interpersonal relationships. Most relationships foundered upon some rather tough rocks, though I am happy to say that I finally found peace and prosperity in that regard as well, thanks to friends and the intervention of the woman who became my wife, Shelley. Of course, being in the entertainment business meant learning to deal with rejection as a matter of business, nothing personal, and learning to deal with some of the more unsavory aspects and individuals in the business as well. So far, so good. I am more than glad to be able to turn these experiences into lessons, for the generations of students to whom I have taught Music Business and Law. https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/category/composers/a/arthur-gottschalk/
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
First and foremost, I am a creator if music. My life and career has put me in a position to write many types of music, and for many purposes. In addition to the concert music for which I am trained and to which I have dedicated my life, I have composed and/or arranged music for film, television, radio, advertising, ballet, theater, rock, country-western, Tejano, mariachi, salsa, soul, R&B, and especially jazz. This has led to an incredible cross-culturization, and my “serious” concert music uses style now as just another element on my palette, or tool in my box. I call what I do “pan-stylistic”, but recently a critic at a New York radio station called me “genre fluid”, which I think is pretty clever. I consider the wealth of popular music styles that have developed over the centuries in the United States to be the fabric of who I am as a creative musician, and not to be dismissed. To my mind, The Great American Songbook may be this country’s finest contribution to World Art that has been made yet. My “Requiem: For The Living”, is a prime example of this. It uses the Latin Mass for the Dead, troped with commentary from many of the world’s religions and spiritual thinkers, from the Upanishads to Duke Ellington.It incorporates musical styles from Renaissance polyphony to Big Band Swing, Hazzanut to Pop Balladry, and much in between. Check out the recording by the St. Petersurg Symphony and Choir, available in the Navona label. Check out https://open.spotify.com/artist/3BnBT2b7F9InYjrJyrncVc to stream or download this and other works by me.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Two particularly influential books have been “The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind” by Julian Jaynes, and “The Uses of Enchantment” by Bruno Bettelheim. Everything composed by J.S. Bach, Mahler symphonies, Strauss waltzes, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Bartok, and perhaps the greatest two composers in terms of their lasting influence upon my thought and work, Dmitri Shostakovich and Charles Mingus. Most receently, I am proud to have produced the No Kings Concert on October 27th at Houston’s MATCH Theater. https://matchouston.org/events/2025/no-kings-concert
Contact Info:
- Website: www.arthurgottschalk.com
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IbSfPG2rJk
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/search?q=arthur%20gottschalk
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3BnBT2b7F9InYjrJyrncVc
- Other: https://www.navonarecords.com/artists/arthur-gottschalk/
