i write the songs
a profile of Linda Metzner

by kyra clark

On a cool crisp winter morning I went to meet Annelinde (Linda) Metzner at Early Girl in Downtown Asheville. When I walked in and shook off the cold I noticed a woman sitting at a window seat obviously waiting for someone. I introduced myself and immediately felt comfortable and relaxed with her. I began by asking her where the idea for her business—Annelinde’s Anthems—came from. She simply replied, “This business combines my two favorite subjects, music and people.” Annelinde’s idea is innovative and unique. She composes music, creates lyrics, and designs a CD label just for your personal experience, celebration, or any of life’s cherished moments. She utilizes a multi track digital studio to create a 3-minute song based on the characteristics, feelings, and photos, of the individual or celebration that you want to immortalize with music.

Annelinde gets to use her intuition, taking as much information as she can from people and then pulling it together, expressing their love and emotions pertaining to that event and celebration. “Connecting to people is of utmost importance” she says warmly as she sips her decaf coffee. I get a sense of this, as I feel at ease with her as she speaks. She begins to describe the process of creating this very personal and special gift. Beginning with determining the characteristics are of the person, couple, or event that you want to have relayed in the composition. Annelinde takes that information and transforms it into an accompaniment of real life instrumental music utilizing multi track recording. She then writes the lyrics and melody sheet music. You pick whether you would like a male or female singer. As icing on the cake, she designs the perfect CD label using your photo or personalized image.

Before coming up with this idea, she felt as though she was pulled in this direction. She had done many different things with musical composition and notation, and has over 20 years of experience in the field of music. She has also done improve music for Playback Theatre for the last 9 years, and worked at Carolina Day School for 14 years. She founded the local choral group, Womansong, in 1986. Linda holds several degrees in music: a Bachelor of Music from Furman University; Master of Music Composition from University of South Carolina; College Teaching Fellow in Music Composition at Florida State University. She had done commissioned work for people in the past but really wanted to get more of her music out into the world. She wanted to do more of what she loved, knowing that she want to be creatively pursuing her art, as well as receiving revenue.

Linda was no stranger to the business world, having owned her own business in 1987—the Harmony School of Music—but she still felt a little nervous about starting her new endeavor. I wanted to know what made her nervous and how she resolved those fears. “It looked a little bit formidable to me; what do you need to do to be an independent, sole proprietor of a business? So I made a list of 14 things I had to do which made everything concrete, which at first was a little daunting, then finally you quantify it and you can do it.” She began with the legalities and taxes, utilizing accountants and lawyers to give her some advice on copywrites, insurance and so on. She also used SCORE, the retired counselors to America’s small business. They helped her to create logical steps to follow which eased her nervousness about starting her company. I asked her what advise would she give to those who would like to start their own business. “Know what you have to offer, limit it at first, keep it simple and direct, network with business owners and connect with people.” She also suggests SCORE as a good place to go for classes at low cost and free counseling. What will make her business a success is a slow steady stream of business that she can handle; she is looking forward to working on five songs per week.

I also wanted to know if these compositions were only limited to events or celebrations. “I am open to ideas; I’ve written music for a website, or put music to poetry.” Annelinde’s passion for many years has been poetry and her role models include poets who fought for themselves and their art like Margaret Meade, Alice Walker and Marge Piercy. Setting music to poetry is another of Annelinde’s gifts which she demonstrated with The Mountain Moving Day in October. She loves to hear new ideas. Being in the creative process is very important to her, allowing for that connectedness to those that want to share their life, experiences and celebrations with those they love.

After finishing our breakfast and speaking further I felt as though I'd made a new friend and I became very excited about her business. There are elements of intuition, personal care, appreciation and celebration that go into her work. After meeting her I feel anyone would be very happy working with her. I got a big hug from Annelinde as we said goodbye and bundled up to venture out into the cold morning.

Annelinde’s services include a personalized CD with a 3 minute song based on those chosen characteristics of the event, celebration or person, the tempo and style of your choice, male or female singer; sheet music with lyrics, melody and chords will arrive in 2 weeks. You may reach Annelinde at 828-712-6745 or visit her on line at [annelindesanthems.com]