“The composer in me wants to think that it’s happening because I’m tapping into the deepest part of our collective psyche with my music,” said Whitacre, who grew up in Reno and lives for the moment in Los Angeles with his singer-wife, Hila Plitmann, and their 5-year-old son, of his exploding popularity. “But the marketer in me thinks maybe it’s the hair.”
Unlike many composers with burgeoning careers, Whitacre chose early on to retain copyright control over most of his works and avoid hefty publisher commissions by self-publishing with the aid of a distributor. He entered into a deal with a traditional publisher in 2007 (G. Schirmer) only under terms that would allow him greater copyright control than is typical and was marketing himself online long before other composers understood the power of the Internet. (Today, Whitacre streams all of his works at ericwhitacre.com free and maintains close contact with his fans through social media.)
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