Michael Zapruder
September 18th 2008

Pandora’s Curator

Pyramind and its students were blessed to have an amazing musician, label head, and overall music lover, Pandora’s curator Michael Zapruder present a 2 and a half hour lecture in one of the best events of this year’s “Planning for Success” series a few weeks ago.

Michael began with his early years in music in Washington, DC, when he stumbled on his love for composing and performing at a pretty young age. After traveling to Tibet and spending time in school, Michael’s music career flourished and in 1999 by composing and writing a bunch of songs, which would later become his “52 songs” project, where he posted a new song a week for a year, he gained some recognition and improved his overall songwriting and production.

He talked about how as anyone can write or record songs, but that it really takes releasing a record to transcend from a novice to an artist. He felt that his “52 songs” project helped set the stage for that growth, but it wasn’t until his “This is a Beautiful Town” album project in 2002, that he really felt that he had established himself as a true artist.

He also talked about getting on board with Pandora, long before it was even called Pandora, and how while working for this “start-up” he had to endure and wait for the company to grow. He talked about times when they were not sure if the endeavor would even continue to exist, and now has been acting as Curator for this very successful music site the past few years.

Overall, Michael stressed a need to follow, support and embrace all of the aspects of an artist’s or producers’ performance, and production, as once we put our music out to the world, it is very hard to “take it back”. His vision and insight were a breath of fresh air in what seems like a hazy and sometimes lazy industry. Michael Zapruder is not hazy or lazy. On tour across the USA for the next month or so with his band, in support of a new album “Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope”, Michael really reached many of the students, as was apparent as the Q and A session lasted close to an hour. We hope to have him back again soon!