A Little About Chuck Seipp
- View Chuck’s CV/Resume (pdf)
- View Chuck’s Personal Philosophy
- Read Chuck’s Panel Discussion on Entrepreneurs in Music
Chuck Seipp is a professional trumpet player in the Washington, DC area. He has played quintet music for years and tired of throwing money away on less-than-adequate arrangements. He decided to start arranging for his own brass quintet and through encouragement from friends and colleagues, began making these arrangements available to others. Chuck, and his wife Julie, started their music publishing company in 1994.
Julie is the mother of their five children, an Occupational Therapist, and active with the children’s music and education in their church.
Chuck regularly has a CJ Seipp Music Publications booth at the International Trumpet Guild, National Trumpet Competition, and Tuba and Trombone Conferences. Chuck has received accolades for his brass quintet arrangements, from performers and audiences alike.
Chuck Seipp has performed extensively throughout the United States and abroad, and has performed with many official Washington, DC area functions. He recently toured and recorded solo trumpet and organ repertoire throughout Europe with renowned organist Diane Bish, appearing also on her Joy of Music television series. Through CJ Seipp Music Publications, Chuck distributes his own brass arrangements to professional musicians. Chuck’s recent recording of his published Wedding Book with Mary Mozelle at The National Presbyterian Church has received high acclaim and serves as an invaluable resource. Chuck is an active teacher and performer in the D.C. area, where he has appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington Opera House Orchestra, Washington Bach Consort, and is leader of The Commonwealth Brass Quintet. Chuck received a BME from Kansas University and holds both Masters and Doctoral Degrees in Trumpet Performance from The Catholic University of America.
He resides in Arlington, Virginia with his family.
Entrepreneurs in Music
In 2008, Chuck participated in an online discussion panel for www.polyphonic.org entitled “Entrepreneurs in Music — and Don’t Forget about Mozart!”. Here is Chuck’s contribution to the panel:
Publishing is something I decided to do myself for a few reasons. I wanted to have control over my arrangements but I soon discovered there is a price a person pays for that. Making the music presentable for purchase, using Finale in my case, was a big job and learning curve as all my music was in manuscript. Then the process of purchasing high quality paper from a distributor, then to the printer to be reproduced at the best resolution possible. Printing can be done at Kinkos but not on the do-it-yourself printers you see when you walk in the door. The machines the technicians operate, which can mass produce at high quality, are the ones necessary for a professional-looking product. Then it’s advertising and the challenge making the music available to the public.
However, the biggest reason for publishing my own arrangements was for direct contact with people. I really wanted to have contact with the musicians that were purchasing and performing my arrangements. I have enjoyed meeting and talking with many talented musicians through this process. I have directly reached more people personally and feel that could be an advantage in the pursuit of a future teaching position. So, it is what you put into it, but I feel I get back much more by publishing myself.
If self-publishing would not have been my desire, I would have been challenged with finding a publisher interested in my arrangements. It’s then the publisher’s job to produce, advertise and ultimately pay 10% of the list price to the arranger of the year’s sales for those arrangements. I also felt there was risk of my music not being made available or promoted, which is totally dependent on the publisher. This is one reason why I chose to have control over my own arrangements and publish them myself. It is quite a job which requires an investment of time and money for my music to have opportunity to make it available to the public.
Publishing my own music was a challenging adventure that happened with a great deal of help and encouragement from many colleagues, especially my good friend and panel member Douglas Richard.