Wind in her sails

BUSINESS leaders, entrepreneurs and corporate textbooks often name passion as an important component in running a successful business.

One man with no shortage of passion and entrepreneurial flair, Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, says that, since 80 per cent of our lives are spent working, it’s not a bad idea to start a business around something about which we are passionate.

However, when Perth-based flautist-turned-composer-turned Hollywood film score writer, Rebecca Lloyd, started her music management agency 11 years ago, she was primarily focused on playing her own compositions publicly and less concerned with making money; let alone building a business.

Ms Lloyd says the limited opportunities for classically trained musicians to secure long-term career employment in Australia, such as a heavily contested chair in one of the nation’s seven orchestras, can jeopardise an artist’s livelihood and their ability to improve technically and professionally.

It was this perceived roadblock that led her to establish Sweetheart’s Music in 1999.

Ms Lloyd successfully managed the nationwide agency (remotely from New York and Los Angeles for three years) with hundreds of musicians and private and corporate clients on its books. But in the end it’s all about the craft – she started writing music at 10 and staged her first concert when just 12 years old.

Four years after winning a prize from the Australian Music Examinations Board at 13 for composing, staging and then performing a ‘duet concert’ (so she and her viola-toting friend could play together), she was the only flute player accepted by the Canberra School of Music (part of The Australian National University).

“I had to raise money to get over there. So I put on this series of three concerts when I was 17,” Ms Lloyd says.

“I was making the coffees and organising and delegating, even though they are my parents and cousins, and performing and organising the accompanists and working out how much I can pay them and still come out with a profit; but at the time I didn’t really think of it as a business.”

She says the development of Sweetheart’s during her time at ANU provided paid work opportunities for her and her classmates.

“While my peers were focused on an orchestral career, which is impossible to get into, I decided to create my own and put on my own concerts like I was doing,” Ms Lloyd says.

She says after weeding out the ‘prima donna’ musicians, the weddings and functions side of the business (which supports the high-risk concerts) has continued to grow, generating about $250,000 in annual turnover.

“You’re doing well if you break even (when staging a concert), but it’s not the point, you make it up with the weddings and functions; the point is you have the opportunity to play,” she says.

Over the years, Ms Lloyd says Sweetheart’s has played for some of the world’s most recognisable celebrities, including John Travolta, Rudy Giuliani, and even the wedding of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban.

It served as good preparation for Ms Lloyd who, after completing a graduate degree in film and television, secured a composing commission from Prime Network (China’s largest television network) in 2002 before being seconded to New York’s World Wide Audio Inc in 2006, which eventuated in composing original scores for more than 20 Warner Bros. feature films during the next three years.

All this from a Wembley based flautist-cum pianist who cites the beauty in the movement of dance as her greatest inspiration ... along with her parents.

“Mum and dad helped me greatly, but I was always pushing them to push me more,” she says.

How tough is it to forge a musical career?

Really, you have to do it yourself. I think it’s a lazy attitude saying there’s no work there. Lots of them (musicians) are prima donnas and I don’t like working with prima donnas – why waste your time with drama when you don’t need it?

What would you do if you were premier for a day?

Bring in daylight saving. Trying to run a national company and talk to the eastern states with that time difference is ridiculous.

Do you have a favourite mantra or quote?

If you want something done right, then do it yourself.

What are your favourite film scores?

I was completely obsessed with The Wizard of Oz and when I heard Star Wars for the first time I just loved the music.