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As a kid growing up on the west side of Detroit, music was everything to Patrick Prouty.
One of his earliest memories of falling in love with the art form was sitting under the family Christmas tree, listening to a holiday album from Italian conductor Annunzio Mantovani on his dad’s eight-track.
By the time Prouty entered high school, his music interests switched to rock ‘n’ roll. He learned how to play the guitar and eventually started a garage band with his friends. From that point on, Prouty knew he was going to pursue a career in music.
Decades later, the bassist, composer and conductor is still doing what he loves in the city he calls home.
“That was all I wanted to do, and it continues to be all I want to do,” he told BridgeDetroit. Music just excites me. It’s something that I’m good at.”
Prouty was recently appointed as Detroit’s first composer laureate, which will advocate for and represent the city’s diverse musical heritage, community and spirit. The two-year appointment includes writing music that represents or celebrates the city’s history and outreach to young musicians, Prouty said. He will receive a yearly stipend of $33,500, according to Detroit Office of Arts, Culture and Entrepreneurship (ACE) Director Rochelle Riley.
Musician Patrick Prouty was named as Detroit’s first composer laureate this month. The native Detroiter is a composer, conductor, bassist and teacher. Credit: City of Detroit Flickr
As a bassist, Prouty has traveled the world with Grammy-nominated soul singer Bettye LaVette and blues great Johnnie Bassett.
He plays in the band The Detroit Office of Civil Defense and has composed music for TV shows and movies such as “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “The Good Place,” and “Breaking Bad.” Prouty is also the director of orchestra and choirs at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy.
The musician is the latest laureate for Detroit after artist jessica Care moore was announced as poet laureate in April. Jamon Jordan was named the city’s first official historian in 2021. All three positions are sponsored by The Ford Foundation.
A panel of Detroit art and music professionals reviewed and scored 12 applications for the composer laureate position. The selection panel included Detroit jazz bassist Marion Hayden; pianist, singer and composer Alvin Waddles; Detroit Symphony Orchestra President and CEO Erik Ronmark; and Wayne State University Department of Music chair Jeffrey Sposato.
Prouty talked told BridgeDetroit about some of the things he wants to bring to Detroiters as composer laureate, how he’s made a living as an artist in the city and his favorite Detroit artists.
Editor’s note: This transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
BridgeDetroit: What motivated you to apply for this position?
Prouty: It contained two of my most favorite things: music and Detroit. And I’m a native Detroiter, born and raised. I live in the city, and I’ve been a musician all my life and when I saw that posting, I thought, ‘To earn that title will be just fantastic.’ So I went for it and they picked me. I’m excited to start the process, but also, it’s kind of daunting. I’ve been tasked with this responsibility now to represent the city musically, so it’s kind of mixed emotions, excitement and a little bit of, ‘Do I have what it takes to get this done?’
BridgeDetroit: What are some of the first things you want to accomplish?
Prouty: The laureate position, as I understand it, has two major facets. One is outreach to young musicians and young composers in the city and the second half is writing music that represents or celebrates the city’s history. As far as both things go, I have so many ideas and I am meeting with the other two laureates (jessica Care moore and Jamon Jordan) and Rochelle Riley in a couple weeks to brainstorm and see what we’re going to come up with. I conduct choir and orchestra at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy, and I see firsthand how much talent there is in the city and I want to help these students put their energy into ways that will help them build a career as musicians in the city.
One of the things that the mayor and Rochelle talked about was keeping the talent that’s here because there are many of us that … get some momentum and we move. I can rattle down a list of all these people that I went to Wayne State with in the music program that are musicians that now live in California or New York or Nashville, and so, one of the things with my role is to encourage musicians to stay and make their art in the city.
I want to show young musicians that I’m an example. I made my living here, I hustled here, I made it work here and I’m an artist in Detroit. I’m able to pay my bills through my art and I’m able to stay in a city that I love and I didn’t have to move.
BridgeDetroit: How do you hope to work with young people who want to pursue a career in music?
Prouty: I like to get with them and explain all the mistakes I made so they don’t make them. Then I’d like to show them all the things that I got right. I was lucky I had mentors, both in music and just in life in general. I feel like I’ve learned from watching other people make mistakes. You’re a young person, you’ve got some skills, but you need someone to say, ‘Hey man, this is the way to go about this. Try this. Don’t bang your head on a wall. Put your energies over here.’ I was lucky to have mentors that help me with that so I’m hoping I can do the same. I’m interested in Wayne State, but I’m also interested in students that are in high school, like in Detroit Public Schools or my school, U of D.
BridgeDetroit: When did you begin composing music for movies and TV?
Prouty: I was in soul singer Bettye LaVette’s band for about seven years and my daughter was about to be born and I didn’t want to be on the road anymore. I didn’t want to miss milestones like so many musicians do. I wanted to be home with my family, so I knew that I had to replace some of that income. The reason why musicians go on the road is because it pays better.
I’d already started writing a lot of music, so I just started doing research … and one of the things that came up was licensing your music. I figured out how that worked and I interviewed some people who were in the industry.
A television show has a composer who composes the score, but that’s not the only music that’s going to be in the show. There’s often scenes where they have incidental music in the background. I presented my music to a company in Los Angeles that was interested in my catalog and sent them some music, they loved it and they put it in their catalog for music supervisors. I was very lucky in that my music was placed in television shows right away and those first few placements allowed me to create or find relationships with other music catalogs. I’ve been very fortunate to have quite a few tunes placed in network shows, cable shows, websites, sporting events.
BridgeDetroit: Do you think making a living as an artist in Detroit is easier now compared to when you were growing up?
Prouty: I work more (now) in the city than I ever have. There’s simply more gigs here. People want to be here, people are trying to find ways to move here. Detroit has what Nashville, LA and New York don’t have, which is a lower cost of living. You can be an artist here and buy a home. You can be an artist here and live a quality life. I played everywhere but in Detroit in the early part of my career. Now there’s a new spot, a new theater opening up, this laureate position. It’s just so many new things to do as an artist in Detroit.
BridgeDetroit: Who are some of your favorite Detroit artists?
Prouty: One of my heroes is the great James Jamerson, a bass player that played on all the Motown hits. But I love Stevie Wonder. I’m kind of a Motown freak, Stevie especially, because not only is he a great singer and piano player but his music changed everything. There’s no Michael Jackson without Stevie first. And I’m a fan of local cats who live and work here. The guys that I get to play with, the guys that are in the trenches playing gigs, playing concerts, playing restaurants. Detroit has this amazing wealth of talent that never seems to dry up. It’s crazy.
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