Jordan sits down with conductor, pianist, music producer, and creative entrepreneur Charles Czarnecki for a conversation about what it means to sustain an artistic life in the real world.
Charles reflects on a career that has moved through Broadway, Carnegie Hall, arranging, producing, consulting, and immersive storytelling, but the conversation keeps returning to a quieter question: how do we keep art central without asking it to consume the whole of a life?
Together they explore career blocks, intuition, family, spirituality, and Charles’s idea of the artist as a kind of ‘householder’ — someone committed to creative practice while still tending to relationships, work, and the ordinary responsibilities that make a life.
About Charles
Charles Czarnecki is a Creative Entrepreneur working in international entertainment industries as a music supervisor, music producer, conductor, orchestrator, vocal arranger, pianist, executive producer, curator, creative consultant, development/marketing consultant, and pitch ninja.
Impressing his early mentors and teachers at a very young age, he has worked as a professional music director, conductor, and pianist since the age of 16. He made his Broadway debut conducting Jersey Boys and his Carnegie Hall debut conducting, orchestrating, and vocal arranging for the New York Pops, both in 2006.
His clientele as a creative consultant, music producer, and personal music director range from Broadway stars to Hollywood visionaries. As a music producer, his work spans theatrical cast albums, concept albums for film, jazz, pop, rock, and classical, rounded off with a wealth of world music. His clients and core professional network include Rock ’n Roll Hall of Famers, Tony-winning performers, Grammy-winning artists, and world-renowned studio musicians.
Czarnecki is currently focused on philanthropic, innovative, and immersive projects that blur the lines between theater, television, concert, and film, pushing the envelope with how storytelling and technology can make profound connections to the human spirit. He is the founder and artistic director of the web-based creative resource CZMaestro, and the first collaborations under his immersive production company Next.Gen.Immersive are forthcoming.
Notable projects from 2020 and 2021 include orchestrations and arrangements performed by Joshua Bell and Larisa Martínez, the world music album Pèlerinaj, and Lift Every Voice and Sing 2020.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Classical Piano Performance and Psychology from Purchase Conservatory of Music and a Master’s degree in Classical Piano Performance from Manhattan School of Music. A proud Polish-American and passionate advocate for diversity and cultural understanding, he is based in Berlin and New York.
Show notes
- Charles’s podcast, Le Chat Noir Journal, on Substack
- Le Chat Noir Journal on Apple Podcasts
- Charles’s website, czmaestro.com
- Charles on SoundCloud
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