Marsha Schweitzer, bassoonist, arranger, and author, was featured in the January 20, 2026 Copyright Alliance blog “Creator Spotlight with Composer and Author Marsha Schweitzer”. As an experienced musician with over 45 years of professional experience including Associate Principal Basson with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Schweitzer shares her experiences as a creator and with copyright infringement. Looking back toward the start of Schweitzer’s venture into arranging, she said:
“My first arrangements were published by two very small woodwind publishers, both of which are now out of business. Very soon thereafter, around 1980, I became my own publisher, DBA “Music For Winds.” Nothing much has changed since then. Traditional publishers, in music as in the literary world, rarely accept works that don’t already have a large market following, guaranteeing minimal risk to the publisher. Except for school music markets, most composers/arrangers self-publish.”
Even though the Copyright Alliance interview concludes with no clear answers, Schweitzer affirms that “if a person has a calling to pursue an artistic career, nothing will stop them, no matter how dismal the economic outlook.”
Schweitzer is a member of the Copyright Alliance, the unified voice of the copyright community, representing the interests of thousands of individual creators and organizations across the spectrum of copyright disciplines.