Conversations with Joshua Maynard

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Maynard.

Hi Joshua, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Growing up in Colorado Springs, CO, my first exposure to music was playlists of Led Zeppelin and Kings of Leon played over the stereo system of my father’s kitchen. When I joined choir in junior high, I had no idea I was starting a journey I could never stop. I was in my eighth-grade year when my teacher first encouraged me to compose a choral piece of my own. That night, I got to work and brought in my ideas the following day — a crude, undeveloped song I’d thrown together knowing nothing about writing. Nonetheless, he provided a few tips to improve it and handed it out to all the students to learn and perform. Five years later, I would be conducting my own works at the University of Colorado Boulder, sung by a choir I founded called the Renova New Music Ensemble. It was through the positive mentorship from my high school director and a burning desire to hear what was possible when human voices worked together that I developed my writing during the years following my first rudimentary exploration into composition. When classes shifted remote in 2020, I experimented with forming a vocal group with peers to fill the need for music in my life. Then, when I arrived at CU Boulder wanting to continue collaborations and found no vocal groups dedicated to performing works by student composers, I formed one. Since then, I have gotten to work with ensembles such as the Colorado Vocal Arts Ensemble, the University of Wyoming Bel Canto Choir, the CU Boulder Chamber Singers, Lírios String Quartet, the Denver Playground Ensemble, the Eklund Opera, and more. I am continuing my work in composition at the university, and plan to earn a masters degree in choral composition to inspire students to dream — the same way my mentors did for me.

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?
My parents were divorced for as long as I can remember, jostling me and my two siblings between their houses — homes with vastly different atmospheres and religious expectations. When my stepfather died of leukemia just after my 14th birthday, the already ramshackle family structure I had all but fell apart. Shortly after, I left the church in which my family raised me, unconvinced that any god could let such a cruel illness kill one of the kindest men I ever knew. I found the much needed stability and home I craved in my high school peers, but a falling out during my senior year landed me in a state of poor mental health that continued through my first year of college. It was in creating my own choir — a vessel to hear the music in my head manifested in real life — that I was able to regain my footing and come to terms with all that had happened before.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The trait to which I attribute both my successes and often my great frustrations is my refusal to give up on my ambitions. It took me six years to write my first novel, “The Four Sunrises” — the result of the tiniest spark of an idea at the age of 13. I guess I have a habit of jumping into the deep end without a life jacket, embarking on a 225,000 word journey of interweaving stories before I had written anything larger than a school paper. Draft after draft, I worked with family and an editor to refine the ideas I had, until I finally released the novel in March of 2022. 18 months later, I published its sequel, “The Venom of Gold” (by JC Maynard). Similarly, I am always juggling dozens of music projects at the same time, from the choir I direct to commissioned for groups around the Rocky Mountains. I live and breathe choral music, but have ventured into many other genres as well, from orchestral music to big band jazz and electronic film scoring.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I feel the world of choral education and performance sits on a precipice. Many directors looking to change the status quo try to find ways of making mainstream the niche, avant garde compositions and practices — or worse, they propell the politicization of the art by programming and commissioning works that demand a single viewpoint, or check off diversity boxes to feign open-mindedness. The problem with this over-intellectual pursuit of music or activism through public university arts is that it gatekeeps and divides everyone who was not already interested in either thing. The change instead that I hope will happen is the fervent engagement of amateurs and students as both writers and leaders within their choral communities. From what I have seen, there is no lack of creativity anywhere you look, but few realize it is even an option to write for these ensembles until they are provided exactly that opportunity. As my eighth-grade instructor did for me, I created at CU Boulder a choir specifically dedicated to student works, and the rate of vocal composition both inside and outside the program has skyrocketed. Too often the road to composition exposure is littered with competitive competitions, and there are not enough voices advocating to work with those just starting off. As someone who was at one point “just starting off,” I want to encourage the brave pursuit of musical growth and discovery.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jcmaynardstudios.com/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jc.maynard
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/@RenovaNewMusicEnsemble

Image Credits
Gracie Fagan, Dustin Rumsey