I don't have or belong to any band, and I never have. I'm just having some fun creating music, because I love to do it. That's it. Now that the Internet allows more sharing, I'm posting some of my creations for others to hear. Who knows? Maybe someone will even like some of it!

I do not record my music in a studio. I use what basic equipment I have at home; which includes a Yamaha electric piano, Kawaii acoustic piano, Yamaha and Casio keyboards, some guitars, Boss8 digital recorder, reel-to-reel and cassette recorders, CD burner/duplicator, small mixer, and a PC with music editing software.

I enjoy just sitting at the piano and playing whatever comes to me; sort of "ad-libbing" of melodies, harmonies, riffs, voices, even occasional oddities, including "mistakes". Are those real mistakes, or are they intended? Hmmmmm....who knows?

I find this approach to composing music to be more rewarding for me than trying to stick to traditional composition regimens. Besides, it is certainly easier than writing and re-writing music notation, and my hope is that it will also be rewarding to some who might hear it like I hear it. I'm sure not everyone will, but that's ok.

As they say "it is what it is!"

Feel free to offer any comments, suggestions, constructive criticisms, and the like.
Thanks!
w1z11

Br.·. John works in electroacoustic and computer-assisted music composition. His works, composed for traditional and experimental media, have been broadcast and performed internationally. He taught music theory, composition, counterpoint, and electronic music at Miami University and the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. John has over thirty years of saxophone performance experience, including work in blues, jazz, avante-garde, and experimental idioms. He has performed with the US Navy Band, Crane Saxophone Quartet, and The Cajun Connection, and traveled extensively as an instrumental performer throughout the Pacific Marianas and Marshall Islands, Caribbean, and Central and South America. He has studied composition with Salvatore Martirano, C. James Sheppard, Paul Steinberg, G. Roger Davis, John Melby, Paul Martin Zonn, Morgan Powell, and Elliott DelBorgo. John is a level-1 Healing Touch practitioner, and was Director of Pegasus Healing Systems (2000). He also was a s6k producer for Real University News. John lives in a cave in the Shatagee Woods, where he has become transformed into a mysterious Adirondack hermit. He is Founder of The Shatagee Museum of Unnatural History, where he researches esoterika, audio synthesis, algorithmic composition, produces psychedelic techno, develops music composition software, and enjoys the woods.

Michael J Stewart is a composer, pianist, music journalist and web designer. He studied composition, piano and flute at Chichester College, Sussex and continued his musical studies at Trinity College of Music London where he studied composition with Sir John Tavener. During this time he also completed Richard Arnell's course "Composing Music for Films" at the London International Film School, as well as working with contemporary dance choreographers in London.

As a journalist and reviewer he has written for many music journals and record companies including: Music & Musicians, Classical Music, Decca International, Virgin Classics, RCA, Collins Classics, Argo and Warner Music as well as Gramophone magazine, for which he was a regular contributor for 14 years. He was Consultant Editor to The Good CD Guide between 1991-1996.

MJS is an authority on the music of the Greek composer Jani Christou (1940-70) and in 2000 wrote the booklet essays to a 4 volume CD series devoted Christou's music on the Greek label Sirius. The series was granted the Discography Award by the Greek Union of Drama and Music Critics in 2002

From 1996-98 he was administrator and musical advisor at Stert's Art's Centre in Cornwall.

He composes in a mixture of compositional styles ranging from minimalism, maximalism, experimental through to electronic and graphic scores.

•  Powerful, beautiful & interpretive

Ernesto Cortazar II was born in Mexico City into a family of composers. Ernesto's father, Ernesto Cortazar Sr., was an accomplished composer respected in his field and was named president of the Society of Authors and Composers.

When Ernesto Cortazar II was 13 he tragically lost both of his parents in a horrible auto accident. Despite tragedy Ernesto preceded with his intense studies by attending a music academy, and by age 17, he began scoring for movies.

At age 18, Ernesto completed his very first musical score for the motion picture "La Risa de la Ciudad". The main musical composition for this film was Ernesto's piano piece titled "River of Dreams." With this film, Ernesto Cortazar won the award for Best Background Music for a Latin American Film at The Cartagena Festival. Since then, Ernesto has composed musical scores for more than 500 motion pictures.

Ernesto traveled to more than 25 countries and performed his original compositions for political figures such as President Menem of Argentina, Nikita Krushev of the USSR and entertained in such prestigious venues including The Kremlin (USSR) and The Mexican Presidential House.

Ernesto's incredible performance was requested and enjoyed by many of Hollywood's biggest celebrities including Charlton Heston, Danny de Vito, Michael Bolton, Octavio Paz, and The Rolling Stones.

Ernesto Cortazar found even bigger fame being the #1 artist on the #1 music website in the world. Out of 130,000 artists Ernesto leaded the way with over 14,000,000 downloads to his compositions on MP3.com fromm 1999 to 2001 and his sites were visited for more than 4,000,000 viewers.

Including the U.S., Ernesto sold over 30,000 CD's to 69 countries without any record label, management company or agency.

In 2001, Ernesto moved from Los Angeles to Tampico, Mexico to live his last years near his family. Ernesto Cortazar II died in 2004 but his legacy remains with his music and his two sons, Ernesto Cortazar III and Edgar Cortazar, who are succesfull songwriters on the Latin Market.

I come from California originally. Now I'm living in Middle Tennessee, about an hour or so from Nashville, Music City. Most of my music is instrumental. My style is predominantly considered electronic, and many people also tell me they hear a bit of video game influence. It's cheerful sounding dance/electronica. Listen to a few of them, let me know what you think! Some may think my music sounds a little like DJ Taka, and maybe some older Richard Jacques.

Right now I'm in the process of uploading many of my songs to this Project Opus page. Also, check out my website http://www.nathanallenweeksmusic.blogspot.com. I'm letting people stream these songs for absolutely free!

A Little More About Nathan Allen Weeks

I started really listening to music in my late teens. I started out on great progressive rock like Yes, Spock's Beard and Kansas. Since then, I've developed an interest in many different styles of music. All kinds of stuff from Swirl 360 and Rooney, to early 20th century classical from Stravinsky, to the Beatles, to video game music, movie soundtracks, and a bunch of good music in between.

I started playing keyboard in the late 90's and I've been playing ever since. It's a skill I recommend to every musician, because these days you can emulate just about any sound you would hear in the real world using a synth. I would say my style gravitates towards Dance and Electronica, though my passion is to make it with more heart than those styles usually have. Maybe a kinder, gentler electronica? Back in 2003, I finally released my first full length album, Popularity Not Included, using nothing more than my keyboard and some computer software for recording and drum beats.

I love the fact that you can produce a quality musical work these days with basically just a computer and an instrument. For recording software, I used Cool Edit Pro. It works great, and Pro Tools is just too much of a learning curve for me. In 2004, I released my second CD, Regeneration, which was a little more melodic and better sounding than the first. It also features some of my best work to date. In April 2008, I released my 5 song CD, The Next Overrated Thing, which is my first to include vocals. It's also a bit of a change from my previous CDs, leaning more towards pop and rock styles, as opposed to electronica.

Anyways, enjoy all the music, and if you want any of it on your hard drive or mp3 player, the songs are pretty cheap to download. Besides the fact that you'll have it on your hard drive if you buy it, it will be a high quality mp3, slightly better sounding than what you can stream here.

Be sure to check some of the other artists out on this site.
I will always believe that the best music out there is the stuff you've got to look for.

The term "justmegan" plain and simply began as a stage name that was used to represent an 18 year old girl, Megan Carlson, a singer/songwriter from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. This name has remarkably evolved from a one-woman-band to a tight, rock and blues group, with each member offering an essential, irreplaceable talent.

You might ponder, "is that a typo?" No! You have read correctly. "justmegan," all lowercase letters and one word, to boot, is completely deliberate. What started as a clear indication of a young woman establishing herself in the musical world, has grown into a close-knit group of musicians completely using their individual talents to accentuate her original songs. Together, they have created a very unique sound that blends blues, rock, and indie music with influences from various other genres to become quite the musical force. The name was originally intended, "Just Megan." to be certain people would know there was, in fact, just Megan: her guitar, her vocals, and her raw implausible gift for writing deep, melodic songs of well beyond her years. Her paradigms were entirely shifted, as her hopes of having a full band to support her music had finally come to pass. "I love to create independently. But, by no means am I the lime-lighter type. I firmly believe that as an artist, you have to be willing to be a team player and work together and compromise. You can't do it all on your own. When that begins, sadly, it's reflected in your music. They don't say two heads are better than one for nothing!" Carlson chuckles. "Besides, there's no feeling better than other musicians wanting to play TO you! It's easy to go strictly acoustic all the time," she articulates.

In June of 2006, the band released their first album as a unit, Blue Avenue, gaining a whole new entourage of fans and radio stations, as well as a well-known author from Alabama, "Quillan." "[The album] is a well "put-together" project [with] excellent music, well written lyrics, and good photo work. I highly recommend it," he raves.

In addition to writing and performing inimitable tunes for all types of listeners, the band is extremely passionate towards using music to benefit assorted organizations. In the past, a track off their debut album was featured on a compilation disc to benefit cancer research. Most currently, the band is working with Illumina Records. Their latest endeavor was participating in a "Rockers for Life" campaign to promote drunk driving awareness.

As if this now 22 year old front woman for "justmegan" isn't busy enough with creating music, she is a recent college graduate teaching elementary students, in addition to creating digital art for an accomplished author, while continuing to photograph as a side hobby. Her vocals have been compared to those of Pat Benatar, Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac, Tracy Chapman, Chrissy Hynde of the Pretenders, Blondie, Joan Jett, Jewel, Ani Difranco, Lisa Marie Presley, and most recently, Aimee Mann.

Currently, the band has just released their second album, I Get What I Want, and their music is being played on over 100 FM radio stations, as well as numerous Internet stations, podcasts, and XM/Satellite radio. For more information, or to hear sample tracks, visit www.justmegan.net or check out their myspace site at www.myspace.com/justmeganmusic.

We are also currently on TONS of sites so please be sure to check them all out! (listed below)
Visit www.justmegan.net to see them all!

Composer, Sound Design, Filmmaker, Songwriting and General Mayhem.

Born in San Diego, California in 1980, Devin Anderson has studied classical piano, composition with Prix de Rome winner Jim Heinke, film music with composer Hummie Mann and attended The Seattle Film Institutes 40 week Total Immersion program. Twice. He also plays bass with former PCP Berzerker members, Eric Hunter and Rod Bailey, in a currently unnamed rock group, and frequently collaborates with his wife, singer and saxophonist J. Marie Anderson.

As a composer, in addition to scoring his own directorial debut, a short entitled ‘Folie à Deux’, he has composed music for several independent pictures, including but not limited to Wisconsin born filmmaker Jack Bennett’s surrealist film ‘Synthetik’ (which received it’s award-winning World Premiere at The Beloit International Film Festival in January of 2008) and Tim Boyd’s film ‘Uniforms’ which starred members of popular group Death Cab for Cutie.

He has provided music for two promotional films produced by The Northwest Film Forum, the regions first and only non-profit organization for the film arts. He has composed concert works in various genres, including solo instrumental works, vocal works, and chamber ensemble, and recently was commissioned to compose for an Art Exhibition of egg tempura painter Nathan DiPietro.

He has just completed musical duties on a short film, again for director Jack Bennett, entitled ‘The Neu Transients’. The picture runs 5 minutes and is a memorial to the City of old now over-run by condos and commercial construction, and uses the Seattle cityscape, the music, and the film’s two lead actors (Benjamin Moody and Astrid Benet) to explore ideas of reflection, space, rhythm and transformation. The work premiered at the Northwest Film Forum as part of their City Symphony program on November 19th.

His score to ‘Folie à Deux’ was awarded the Gold Medal for Excellence at the 2008 Park City Film Music Festival under the catagory Best Original Music - Short Film.

His particular type of electronic-rock (?) songs are strange, somewhat crude, and personal - rough first-take all-to-human vocals, with consistantly surreal lyrics, laid over intricately crafted, orchestral-like backing music and boiled to a simmer.

He hopes to continue being involved in film and music until his death.

Experienced composer and sound designer working in the London area. Written the scores for several independent British films.

•  Haunting...

Vinson grew up in a musical family near Washington, D.C., studying classical piano from age seven until switching to the drums when he was 12. He played drums for three years in the All-County Jazz Ensemble during high school and subsequently held the drum chair in the University of Pennsylvania Big Band during college. After graduating from UPENN with a B.A. in Economics, Vinson came to New York City in the early 90's to study music at the Mannes College of Music in Manhattan, where he studied with Marvin "Smitty" Smith (of The Tonight Show Band), Vernel Fournier, and Norm Freeman (of the New York Philharmonic).

Vinson has performed in many clubs in the New York Metropolitan area, including the Blue Note, Smoke, Sweet Rhythm, 55 Bar, Birdland, Smalls, Detour, Cornelia Street Cafe, Cleopatra's Needle, and Trumpets of Montclair, NJ. An avid composer, Vinson also teaches privately and served on the staff of the Stanford Jazz Workshop in California from 1999-2001. He has toured throughout North America and Europe with his groups and others, and he appears on Matthew Fries' CD, Song For Today (TCB) and the Ganz Brother's release, First Steps (Extravaganza). Vinson also has three CDs out as a leader, Live@147, Consilience, and Awake.

In addition, Vinson has also worked with or played alongside with many of the great musicians in jazz, such as Grover Washington, Jr., Dakota Staton, Clarke Terry, James Williams, Donald Brown, Harold Mabern, Jr., Jamil Nasser, Ron McClure, Bob Mintzer, Russell Malone, Peter Bernstein, Mark Turner, Terell Stafford, Eric Alexander, Jim Rotundi, David Hazeltine, Joel Frahm, Dena DeRose, and Vincent Herring, and Candido Camero, among others.