157: The Divine Light of Music with Patrick Gutman

by | Jan 19, 2022 | Podcast | 0 comments

Change It Up Radio with Paula Shaw - Episode 157: The Divine Light of Music with Patrick Gutman - Patrick Gutman Music

Today we’re talking about the healing power of music and the importance of identifying, surrendering to, and following the path of what lights you up most in your life.

Today, I am joined by a very special guest who just so happens to also be my nephew, Patrick Gutman. He is a classically trained composer and pianist who writes Film, Concert, Ambient, and Meditative music. Patrick’s music has been performed both in the states and in Europe, including Italy, France, and Switzerland. 

With musical interests that include classical, film, rock, ambient, dance, and electronic music, Patrick often blends these sound worlds together to create genre-expanding music. As a pianist, Patrick has performed throughout Southern California as an accompanist, solo artist, and recording session player, and has won several piano competitions as well. 

In this interview, we discuss Patrick’s journey with music and when he first realized that it was something that lit him up and that he felt called toward. Patrick talks about the power of music and how it can uplift the soul, heal us on an emotional, vibrational, energetic, and physical level, and help us access the fullness of who we are.

We also discuss the importance of learning to trust the flow of life, test the waters, and follow what truly lights us up rather than getting stuck on the details or held back by our self-doubts. Patrick shares how when we are able to let go, give ourselves the room to expand, and let the joy and the fun of following what lights us up guide us, we open ourselves to wonderful things that are far beyond what we could ever have imagined for ourselves.

“To have a desire that you are holding onto but not letting yourself move towards – I don’t know if there’s anything worse than that. There’s going to come a point where you have to test the waters and say, “Well, this is feeling really good. I don’t know how it’s all going to work out. I don’t know all the details, but I do know that my emotions – this intuitive impulse – is telling me, I really want this. I really want to go for it.” I think there comes a point where you just have to make that decision for yourself. “Hey, this is something important to me. This is something meaningful. This is something that lights me up.”” – Patrick Gutman

About Patrick:

Patrick Gutman is a classically trained composer and pianist who writes Film, Concert, and Ambient/Meditative music. His music has been performed both in the states and in Europe, including Italy, France, and Switzerland.

With musical interests that include classical, film, rock, ambient, dance, and electronic music, Patrick often blends these sound worlds together to create genre-expanding music. With an extensive knowledge of music theory (Ph.D. in Music Composition) combined with his personal intuition, Patrick is able to bring a keen awareness and sensitivity to his compositions that allow him to create specific and intentional pieces of music that are as diverse as his musical background and interests.

As a young child, Patrick began piano lessons at age 8 and started writing electronic beats on the computer as a pre-teen. As Patrick continued playing piano through middle and high school, opportunities to perform opened up when he was asked to play keyboard in a rock band. The band was part of the Kids Rock Free music program at the Fender Center in Corona, California, and they performed covers from classic rock bands including Rush, Deep Purple, Boston, Genesis, and more.

Throughout those years Patrick’s band had the opportunity to open up for artists such as The Gin Blossoms, John Waite, Dick Dale, and Gary Hoey. The group also met and performed the pre-show for Steve Miller and even had the experience of playing on stage with rock legend Joe Walsh for a fundraising event for the Kids Rock Free Program at the Fender Center (of which $500,000 was raised that evening). His love for rock music inspired the topic for his Ph.D. dissertation where he analyzed the musical structures and compositional components of The Beatle’s album Abbey Road.

Patrick has scored dozens of short films (both animated and live-action) in addition to writing music for commercials. In Fall 2015 he released his first album consisting of piano and electronic-based music for meditation. In 2016, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles commissioned Patrick to compose a song for Bloomsday, an international day that celebrates the life and writings of author James Joyce. The following spring, Patrick was the recipient of the Hugo Davise Fund for Contemporary Music at UCLA and received a premier of his piece Play-Etude from the NOW Ensemble, a contemporary new music group based in New York.

As a pianist, Patrick has performed throughout Southern California as an accompanist, solo artist, and recording session player, and has won several piano competitions as well, including the MTAC (Music Teachers Association of California) Southern California Adult Piano Performance competition.
 
As a way to bring balance to his intense studies as a double major in both Piano Performance and Music Composition at the Conservatory of Music at Chapman University, in January 2011 Patrick participated in a transformative 10-day meditation retreat in the Colorado Mountains at the Shambhala Mountain Center. His love for meditation combined with his passion for helping others inspired him to write more ambient and meditative music. In 2015 he composed his first meditation album Grief: From Pain to Possibility that was a companion to the same self-titled book that helps people transform their grief into freedom, love, and joy. He is currently working on his second meditation album that will be released in winter of 2021.

As Patrick continued to explore sound as a way to release tension in the mind and body to feel better, in 2018 he partnered with a friend to create Sound Bath Meditations using Crystal Singing Bowls and other instruments. Their duo is called Sound Bath Alchemy and they offer a subscription-based program that hosts weekly live stream sound baths.
 
For over a decade, Patrick has taught a wide variety of musical courses including musicianship and theory, 20th-century pop music, Film Music, and private and group piano lessons. Patrick received his Bachelor’s of Music degrees in both Piano Performance and Composition from Chapman University’s Conservatory of Music. He then moved to Los Angeles where he received his Masters in Composition at California State University, Northridge, and his Doctorate in Composition from University of California, Los Angeles.

Patrick is a fellow of the Cortona Sessions for New Music; the Chamber Music Institute at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; the American Conservatory of Fontainebleau, France; the Talis Festival and Academy in Saas-Fee, Switzerland; and the Screen Music Program in Pavia, Italy.

You can learn more about Patrick and his music on his website: www.patrickgutman.com.

“Let go of the how, stop trying to piece it all together, because we’re just one mind amongst the infinite intelligence that’s available to us. There are a lot more figures and players going in that we can’t possibly even imagine. And that’s where release comes in, because as we can surrender and trust and give in to that, that’s when we stay open. And then, those impulses that start to guide us can lead us to some wonderful things that we would have never been able to force or try to figure out. Through that joy and the fun in following what lights you up, that trust pulls you along.” – Patrick Gutman

Check out the video below to watch our interview:

Resources Mentioned:

Thanks For Listening!

Please share your thoughts with us:

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *