Cornelius Boots –
Woodwind Nature
A tax-deductible group of projects funded by you, the benefactor, and fiscally sponsored through InterMusic SF.
Become a Woodwind Nature Benefactor HERE
2023 Projects Update and Overview
I have taken a more serious look at my role beyond just composer-performer-teacher.
What I am initiating by coordinating, funding and completing these ongoing and upcoming projects is nothing short of a reform movement in woodwinding, as reflected within the brief description directly on the Donation Page — a.k.a. the Benefactor Portal.
This requires serious funding commitments from those in a position to directly and generously support this music initiative. The Artist-Benefactor relationship is just as crucial to the creation of truly visionary art and music as the Master-Apprentice relationship is to the transmission/training of the artistic skills needed to manifest it. Money and support coming in from a source that enthusiastically supports and believes in this pioneering music is like oxygen to both the process and the final results or offerings.
Without overwhelming you in all the granular numbers, I have summarized exactly where the money will be applied in this brief list of interconnected projects. I have about 10 pages of handwritten notes that I could organize and share with you if you want more details (i.e. tell me more about why is it $1500-1800 to edit and post an entire concert on YouTube?) or more numbers, but this list paints a strong picture of the landscape within which I operate daily. Most of them will now be funded through this Benefactor Portal, except when supported directly from individual students or clients (as noted in parentheses).
1 – Repertoire/Compositions
- 60 scores of solo compositions notation in 5 years ~ $800-$1200 per score, solo pieces
- commissions – wide range of $2000-$15,000 (funded directly on its own in most cases)
2 – Albums
- The Wood Prophets’ 2nd album (released October 2023) – $8,000 for writing, $12,000 recording and production
- CB solo album (in process) – $10,000 production, art, marketing, release, etc.
- CB honkyoku album (2025)
- Live album release schedule idea
3 – Performances
- Solo: concerts, meditation, ceremonies, etc. – wide range depending on location and details $500-$3500
- The Wood Prophets: full quartet – $10,000-$20,000 depending on location and itinerary, including rehearsals
4 – Media
- Post-production and posting of all concerts (recent: 3; backlog 6-10) $1500-$1800 per concert (30-40 hr. x $50/hr.)
- Talking or instructional videos for YouTube – $500 ea. (10 hr x $50/hr)
- Blog posts – $500 ea. (10 hr x $50/hr)
5 – Book
- Woodwind Nature: Panstylism, Circular Breathing and the Deeper Dimensions of Reed and Flute Musicianship
- Fall 2024 release plan
- Hiring of Editor, publishing, marketing – $unknown
- Residencies and teaching affiliated directly with the book release
- $45,000-$90,000 at rough approximation of $450 per page (3-6 hr x $50/hr.) for the writing itself
6 – Research
- Library style: books, recordings, periodicals, internet – $unknown!
- Consultations: business people, other woodwinders, fellow creative musicians – $175 – $5500
7 – Teaching
- Black Earth Shakuhachi School
- private (funded directly on its own in most cases)
- visits, residencies ~ wide range depending on location, lodging, etc. $1500-$4500
- online classes and courses (funded directly on its own in most cases)
Capping Word
On this path for about 27 years, I have been able to estimate the lag-time between my innovations/creations, and the “uptake” or spread of enthusiasm and adoption amongst the wider subcultures of clarinet, shakuhachi, woodwinds and creative instrumental music in general. By funding Woodwind Nature as a 5-year dedicated group of projects, at this specific leverage point in time, we should expect to see an accelerated spread of this ethos and, perhaps most importantly, the repertoire. At the end of the day, it is not about me or even about my instruments: it is by the direct experience of other woodwinders as they engage this inner/outer, deep breath, thick tone music and awareness performance practice. Of the beneficial ripples throughout the universe that follow from more people playing this way, I have no doubts.
Woodwind Nature Benefactor Portal
Substantial Recent Projects
One of my first compositions (1996), and the first bass clarinet quartet, now offered as a solo arrangement (2023), one of the seeds of Woodwind Nature planted about 27 years ago! Performed in January 2023 at the very first Low Clarinetfest in Arizona and over two dozen copies sold directly to bass clarinetists since then.
Wood Prophecy – five-part woodwind animism saga (2022)
The debut album of The Wood Prophets, the world’s first and only natural, bass shakuhachi quartet. InterMusic SF grant recipient and member of Chamber Music America and Sempervirens Fund. Album #2 is set for Fall 2023 release!
Starr-Gennett Studio/Factory Concert – Tribute to Charley Patton in Richmond, IN (2023)
A place-based recital of reverence, “The Ghost & the Wood Prophet” event celebrated this historic date in Richmond at the Starr-Gennett Building where the legendary Charley Patton recorded for the first time in on June 14, 1929, 14 songs that forever changed music in the 20th century and beyond