Help Fund a New Euphonium Piece by Diverse Composer

Katherine Needleman Fund for Music

Raising a Commission Fee for a New Work for Euphonium and Piano

5-8 minutes and suitable for contests

Written by a Composer of Color who is Gender Marginalized

In November, 2023, international euphonium star Steven Mead blocked me nearly immediately after I commented on a photo of him sitting on an all-male jury. Recently, I covered the 2024 Jeju International Competition for Brass and Percussion, where Mead served on an all-male euphonium jury of seven in the context of 26 men out of 28 jurors total. The euphonium contest featured works by all white men, including at least one piece which the competition advertised on its repertoire list that Mead sells on his euphoniumstorenet. (Mead later indicated in a comment on my Facebook page that he profits from sales and thanked me for the publicity.) All 12 finalists, and all 12 prize winners of the competition, were men. Mead insists he has never discriminated against any women.

Mead’s online performance toward me (blocking me and then returning to comment heavily with his business page, EuphoniumStore), making fun of Tourette’s syndrome, and his illogical and clueless commentary are enough red flags that I would normally decline his invitation to have a video meeting of “just you and me.” You can read it all on my Substack @katherineneedlemanoboist.

However, while I know such a thing will be a complete waste of my time, I am willing to donate my time to the euphonium community and making it a safer place for women and other marginalized people. The first step toward that is amplifying these voices, rather than pretending they don’t exist and that everything is fine for these people simultaneously, as if both things can be true at the same time.

It is my goal to have this conversation and charge admission. I would like to charge $5 per person to watch this conversation. Mead says we got off on the wrong foot. It will happen September 1, 2024, time TBD. It will be broadcast live but also archived if you cannot make it live.

With that money, I will begin fundraising for a 5-8 minute piece for euphonium and piano suitable for contests. It will be written by a composer of color who is either female or gender marginalized.

You can Venmo me $5 @katherineneedleman or PayPal me $5 at kkneedleman at yahoo dot com (two k’s). Make sure to include the email address where you would like to receive the link for my conversation with Steven Mead with the payment and “euphonium piece” in the payment memo. Of you can do it. I will enter the smaller offline payments (where I don't have to pay fees) here so we can all see how much money is raised.

I expect the commission fee to be $2500. If 500 people sign up for the conversation, that’s taken care of. I will take care of the contracts, the organization, and the fundraising. (Mead has declined my offers to be included in this harder work.)

Regardless if Mead shows up for the conversation, the money raised will be used toward this commission. In the unlikely event that excess funds are raised, it will be used by the Katherine Needleman Fund for Music for further similar commissions and support of marginalized young players. KNFM is in its infancy, but I have a wonderful board of advisors in place and am certain the euphonium piano piece which is forthcoming will be an excellent one.