Donna Linklater: Songwriting and Composition, What’s The Difference?

This week SongTalk welcomed Donna Linklater to our studio.

Soprano and composer/songwriter Donna Linklater studied opera with Sylvia Richardson at Brandon University. Toward the end of her studies, she began to focus on new music and was especially taken with the aleatoric music of John Cage which gave her greater freedom of creative expression.

Her solo album “A Singer All Alone” was funded through Ontario Arts Council’s Deaf and Disability Arts program. The album explores themes of social isolation (both forced and desired), sadness, madness, and how society deals with it.

Alongside writing music and performing, Donna’s other great loves are teaching music to children ages infant to 5 years, and making music with her 4 year old, Marvin. She was also the co-chair of CS Info’s board of directors for 2.5 years, volunteered coordinating music events for Mad Pride Toronto, and has had her writing published in the West End Phoenix. She is currently studying early childhood education at George Brown College.

We talked with Donna about:

• the difference between songwriting and composition
• music in movies
• how to use perfect ratios in music, like the Fibonacci sequence, golden ratios and perfect fifths
• Where to search for inspiration
• the attraction of playing indie music
• our episode on Mental Health songs

Website: donnalinklater.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donnalinklatermusic

Twitter: @ddonnaalink

Instagram: http://instagram.com/ddonnaallinklater

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/donna-linklater