Dan Thorpe

I got accepted into an incredibly prestigeous summer school in Italy, where one of my personal heroes (pulitzer prize winning composer Julia Wolfe) is the guest of honour, along with a host of incredibly esteemed faculty from whom I cannot wait to learn. It's a dream come true, a career changing opportunity that I honestly never thought I would get a chance to participate in, at least this early on. As many of you also know, I'm in the US beforehand, too. I've already paid for the hideously expensive tuition, my flights to the US, and I applied for a whole shitload of grants to help cover costs.

But, as the roll of the dice (and that's what it's come down to in Australian arts funding) often determines, I didn't get any funding. As you can imagine, I was and am pretty bloody gutted. It's hard not to feel conflicted about this, as I see established friends with families and mortgages lose their funding with very obvious and immediate consequences. However, the reality is that I'm at a crucial point in my career. The momentum that's building behind me is exciting and terrifying at the same time, I've been cracking away at this music thing professionally for over half a decade now and I feel like I'm starting to get results. To stop that momentum and be stuck back at square one, in a country that doesn't want to fund me (or anyone) and honestly feels like it doesn't want me to exist 90% of the time is totally untenable. The reality is, if I live in Australia or not, commissions (and work more generally) with international organisations is the only sustainable future I have in the arts. Depresso, yes, but also a necessary thing to acknowledge about why this is so important to me.

Obviously the money is a big part of why I'm gutted, and why I find myself making a Pozible campaign for something that funders can't directly participate in (something I feel more than a little uneasy about), but what I also need right now is a vote of confidence. I need to feel like what I do is something that's worth developing and investing in. That I'm not just some massive bludger who whinges when they don't get government funded to fuck off to Italy, but that I've dedicated my life to trying to talk to audiences and listeners about hard stuff, big stuff in the hope that I can help make a space for queer people and sad people in this totally fucked world, and that this is worth investing in and supporting the development of. I'm not just asking for your money, honestly at this point I'd probably be equally served by hugs, but it helps a lot, and I hope I can show you how much it means to me through the rewards I'm offering and through my ongoing love of each and every one of you. 

So here's the deal. The Australia Council reckons I should be charging $300+ a minute to write people pieces for solo instrument/electronics. Admittedly, I've literally never been paid that much money for doing anything, but here's what I'm offering: let me make you something for, like, 20% of that. All donations >$30 will get a little piece of music written for them. If you're a mate who's curious about what a snapshot of you would sound like, then I'll make you something to listen to - probably for piano/prepared piano, or with field recordings, or a combo of those things - record it, and send it to you. If you want to be part of the process then we could hang out and make it together. If you play an instrument and have secretly always wanted a Dan Thorpe piece, I'll write for you. If you're an ensemble who's always wanted to commission me, there's an option for you, too. Also up for grabs are download codes for my LP, and if you're super keen there are also pre-orders and early access to my tape++zine combo Diaphragm, which is coming out on 3BS records later this year, up for grabs. If you're super super keen, you can also book me to come play for you. If none of these rewards interest you, but making a tax deductible donation does, email/facebook me and we'll have a chat about it.

Thank you so much for reading this, and to all of you for supporting me so much as it is. It means so much to me, and I hope I can be there for you when you need it, too.

Ideally, I'd love to raise $2200, which would cover both airfares I was hoping to get reimbursed through funding, and give me money a) to book my flights to milan b) for, like, food I guess? Seriously, it's getting pretty tight over here. My target of $1500 covers my urgent need to pay for flights to and from Milan, but to breath easy it'd be amazing to hit my overflow target of $2200.

Weirdly enough, the thing that's actually meant to be the big challenge of this project - writing a piece for one of my biggest heroes to judge and an internationally renowned ensemble to perform - is done. It's called false cognate and I'm very excited about it. Woo! I also have several follow up performances for the piece organised, too, including legendary Australian new music ensemble Decibel, amongst others. The biggest challenge of what remains is simply raising enough money, which is where you all come in.,