Success

The premiere last night was extraordinary. The orchestra was fantastic. I am indebted to Maestro DePreist for asking me to write this, for programming it, and most of all for bringing it to life last night.

Pictures and such coming soon.

Alchemy update

Had two rehearsals - yesterday and this morning, and it's really coming together. The second movement still needs a little more passion and intensity, but the first and third are sounding fantastic. We have the dress rehearsal tomorrow morning in Alice Tully Hall, and I think that will give them time to pull the final details together. It's been amazing to sit through these rehearsals - it never fails to teach me something new about composition and orchestration, and to remind me of how much more I need to learn. Fortunately, I don't appear to have made any big mistakes... :)

So, the concert is tomorrow night, May 25th, at 8pm, in Alice Tully Hall. As I've said many times before, if you're in the area (NYC), please come! It's free, but you'll need a ticket from the Juilliard Box Office - contact them at 212-799-5000 (ask for the Box Office extension). More info here.

Oh, no pics so far - keep forgetting to take any while I'm listening to the rehearsal...will try to get some during the dress in the morning...

"Alchemy" for Orchestra this week!

I just arrived in NY for this week's premiere of Alchemy in Silent Spaces by the Juilliard Orchestra, led by James DePreist. Concert program here.

The first rehearsal will be this afternoon at 2:30 (well, they started on it yesterday, but this will be the first time I get to hear any of it)...

I'm actually a little nervous. I just hope I didn't screw up any of the parts...

North Little Rock High School / Ron Bryant Memorial Scholarship Fund

Last Thursday night (May 11th), the North Little Rock HS Band, under the direction of Bill Spainhour, held their final concert of the year. This is also the occasion in the past when they would award the Ron Bryant Scholarship to two deserving graduating seniors from the band. Since my father's passing last Fall, this has been renamed the Ron Bryant Memorial Scholarship, and was presented this year by my amazing mother:


Presentation of the scholarship award, Georgie Bryant, Bill Spainhour

Congratulations to this years recipients, Kyrah Brown and Kristen Hale. I hope this helps you to achieve great things in your lives!

The band performed my piece Dusk as well, which I'm honored Bill Spainhour chose to program for this particular concert. I wish I'd been able to be there for it.

If anyone reading this is interested in contributing to the Ron Bryant Memorial Scholarship Fund, here's the relevant information. We appreciate everyone who's given already - your generosity has been wonderful!

Make checks out to the "NLRHS Band Boosters"

Mailing address:
NLR High School
ATTN: Bill Spainhour
101 N. 22nd St.
North Little Rock, AR 72115

Fayetteville Band Week - more pics

As promised, I've got a few more pics from the week to share:



Brett Lawson, myself, and Lewis Clark. Lew is the director at Ramay Jr. HS, and this is backstage at their concert last Thursday night, when they performed "Bloom."



I was sitting backstage just before the Ramay band went on, and I suddenly found myself swarmed by what appears to be the flutes and clarinets. Cool.



Earlier in the day, I got a picture with Tyler, the star Vibraphone player on "Bloom" - thanks dude!



Lew himself sat in on a few of the solo/ensemble numbers, including this percussion ensemble piece, "Brazil." The requested caption for this photo was along the lines of "Harper, eat your heart out!". I pass that along without comment. :)



Here I am getting schooled by the legendary Dean Coale backstage.



Finally, my host, old family friend, and the ultimately indescribable, Richard Wiseman...

Again, I had a great time up there all last week, and I want to thank each of the bands for giving so much energy to my music. I hope you all had as much fun as I did, and I wish you all a fun, happy summer! Perhaps we'll see each other again in the future...

Fayetteville Band Week 2006, Day 4

The fourth and final day of Band Week 2006 was a great success. I thought the band was completely 'on,' and they connected with me throughout Bloom. It was a(nother) satisfying and musical performance, and the audience certainly seemed to dig it! Tyler, who laid down the crucial vibraphone solos at the beginning and end, did a great job - thanks man!

In the morning, we did a run-through and our obligatory group shot:



I have many more pics which I will post later today or tomorrrow, after I get back to North Little Rock. We were having some impromptu fun backstage (led by Cathy Delozier, though I think everyone was starting to feel the effects of nine bands and three concerts in four days, so we were all getting a little loopy...).

A huge "thank you" to all of the band staff throughout the district for bringing me up for this week - I had a really great time meeting and working with all of you and your students. You have a strong program here, top-to-bottom, and it's been a real pleasure to conduct each of the bands this week! Special thanks to Richard Wiseman for coming up with the idea and making it happen, and for hosting me as well (the free wireless rocks, bud!).

More soon - hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!!

Fayetteville Band Week 2006, Day 3

Today is my one day "off" in relative terms - no concert tonight. Went to Ramay Jr. HS this morning to work with Lewis Clark's group on Bloom. They sound good - in some respects this might be the hardest of the three pieces happening this week (it has fewer exposed moments than "Dusk," but is the longest of the three and requires a maturity of phrasing and sense of long-range musical arc that might make it more challenging to really "get inside of."). There are some of the normal intonation problems (I didn't make it easy on any ensemble - having all the flutes sustain a Bb for the entire opening is never going to be easy to pull off), but they seem to dig the piece and are with me the whole way on tempo and shape. I'll get a few more minutes tomorrow morning with them, and then we're up for the third and final concert of the week!

After lunch with Lewis, we headed over to Holt Middle School, where Dean Coale and Richard Wiseman (missing from yesterday's picture) were working with the 7th-grade beginner band. I have to say it was amazing to watch them work - 158 7th-graders with instruments/weapons in their hands, and they pulled music and a (at times) steady tempo out of them by sheer willpower. I admire and respect all of the directors here (and everywhere) - you spend an enormous of time and energy in an activity that can best be described as 'herding cats' - all so eventually, somewhere down the line, they can make some real music. Your dedication makes what I do possible, and I can't thank you all enough.

Ok - taking the rest of the day off. More tomorrow, plus pictures of the Ramay group!

Fayetteville Band Week 2006, Day 2b (The Concert)

Didn't manage to post after the concert last night, but it went quite well. I took "Dusk" a little slower than we had been in rehearsal, and the band followed me wonderfully. The climax was really satisfying and powerful! I need to study the score to "Bloom" for rehearsal this morning, so I'll just offer a big "Thank you" to the band, and I wish you all the best! I really enjoyed working with you - you're a great group of musicians and I hope you all keep music in your lives, even if it's only 'on the side.'

Also a word of thanks to the band staff who've made this whole week run so smoothly:


Lewis Clark, Brett Lawson, Barry Harper, me, Corey Walker, Cathy Delozier, Tom Stout

More soon!

Fayetteville Band Week 2006, Day 2

This morning I went to the high school rehearsal again (8:30, on the tail end of a powerful lightning and thunderstorm - some crazy lightning arcing through the mountains on my drive to rehearsal - I loved it).

We only had time for a single run-through, which is all I wanted to do anyway - they know the piece, and I don't like to run things into the ground. I'm looking forward to the concert tonight - they'll be great. Here we are at the end of rehearsal:



After rehearsal, I spoke to the Theory class. Actually, it was the Theory class plus the choir - big group! The theory people just took their AP exam - I looked at an example test. Egad. I don't know how well I'd do on a lot of that stuff these days. Anyway, I think it went over well - I played Hummingbrrd, Loose Id for Orchestra, the first movement of Alchemy, and part of Veo Hex, and we talked about a number of different things related to music and composing. I enjoyed talking to the group - hope they felt the same about being there! If any of you are reading this, and you think of a question you didn't get to ask, or you just want to hang out with other musically-inclined people, here's the BCM Forum I mentioned today - please come by and join up!

Onward to tonight's concert at the Walton Arts Center featuring the three (THREE!) High School bands - show starts at 7pm - come by if you can!

Fayetteville Band Week 2006, Day 1b (The Concert)

Short post-concert recap - it was a great evening - the three bands all put on a good show and it seemed like both the bands and the audience were having a good time. The 7th-grade band did a fun tune called "Rock to the Max Mr. Sax" with the sax section out front grooving on a memorized soli part. The 8th-grade band did a piece called "Engines of Resistance" by Larry Clark which had some unexpected harmonic construction in it that I liked - seemed like a good example of an atypical and interesting piece for young bands. I dug it. The 9th grade band took the stage and played well, just like the previous groups. My turn came to take the podium, and we were off! It was grooving fine until somewhere about 2/3 of the way through, something got off - not sure exactly what happened - but, I think we collectively added a bar to the piece. It was frightening at first, and then exhilirating when I realized everyone was following me and we were all back together again - amazing! The band actually showed their maturity in that moment and pulled off some magic - I don't think anyone but me and band even knew anything had happened! With that hiccup behind us, we sailed to the ending and a rousing bit of applause from the audience!


Cathy Delozier managed to capture a few pics from just offstage during the performance!

So, day 1 was a success! To Tom Stout, Cathy Delozier, and the Woodland Jr. High 9th grade band: I had a great time working with you today and tonight. Hope you had fun with the piece, and please keep making music!!

Fayetteville Band Week 2006, Day 1

Friday, my brother and I took a quick trip over to Memphis to visit my old friend Mac, and for some BBQ and music at the Beale Street Music Festival (happened to see Bryan Adams and Train, the latter featuring an unexpected keyboard solo using Clavinet run through a "wah" pedal followed by an abrasive-as-hell mono-synth lead patch, which was worth the price of admission alone).

Headed back to Little Rock, repacked, and came up to Fayetteville yesterday afternoon for a laid-back gathering of the school district's band directors and better halves at Richard and Ginny Wiseman's house (who also happen to be my wonderful hosts). This was all in preparation for "Band Week 2006" up here, featuring three nights of concerts, with me as guest conductor and composer on all three! This morning, I began the day at Fayetteville High School with Barry Harper's group, where I worked with the band on Dusk. This is the same band that had sight-read the piece several weeks ago, and while they did a good job with it that morning, it was light-years better now. Props to the horns and low brass for bars 34-35 - they sounded PERFECT - I love that moment, and the balance and blend of that final cluster chord is exactly what I'm looking for. It's going to be a great concert Tuesday night, and I look forward to refining a few little things at rehearsal tomorrow before we put on the show.

Here's the back of the band, with me flapping my arms in a good imitation of a conductor:


But first, we have the Woodland Jr. High School band, under the direction of Tom Stout and Cathy Delozier. After the HS rehearsal this morning, I headed over to Woodland to rehearse the 9th-grade band there on Interruption Overture. The band sounded really solid, especially once we worked out who was playing the vibraslap and triangle parts! The big thing I wanted to communicate to them is that this piece is supposed to be FUNNY - it's got some really goofy moments (see "vibraslap" above), and I think I made it clear that it's supposed to sound totally 'over the top.' I didn't put a kick drum and brake drum in there for nothing....

I think they're ready to rock tonight - I know I am!

Here we are after rehearsal. I completely forgot to get a shot of us doing "starburst" formation with "jazz hands"... maybe next time...



So, if you're in the NW Arkansas area, come out to the Walton Arts Center tonight at 7pm for the concert, and if you can't make it tonight, tomorrow night (same band-time, same band-channel) will showcase the HS bands, and Thursday night will close out the week with the Ramay Jr. High bands (which I'll get to meet on Wednesday).

So far, I've had a great first day with these bands, and I look forward to the rest of the week!

North Little Rock High School

Yesterday morning, I had the pleasure of working with Bill Spainhour and the North Little Rock High School band on Dusk. This is as close I can get to "my" old high school (this one and mine were merged into one huge school the year after I graduated, so my actual school no longer exists). This is also the band room I basically grew up in - it was where my father was band director throughout the 1970s and early 80s, so it was a nice sort of homecoming.

The band sounded good - we worked on the tempo and the whole 'intensity/focus' thing, which is critical the effective performancce of the piece. As I told them in rehearsal, if you really play the piece properly, you will be exhausted by the end. I think they got it, and it was really starting to come together by the end of rehearsal. Their concert is next Thursday night, May 11th - unfortunately, I won't be able to be there, as I'm conducting three concerts up in Fayetteville, AR next week, including one at the exact same night and time. To the band: I'll be there with you in spirit - I wish you a great concert, and I hope you enjoyed my arm-waving with you yesterday!

I forgot my camera, but one of the flutists had hers, so we shot some group photos. When I get a copy of those, I'll post them...
UPDATE: We have pictures! I put them at the end of the post...

Sidenote: I finished Alchemy for orchestra last evening, and delivered, score, parts, and all to Juilliard. WOOHOO!!!

Now, off to Memphis for a day for their annual music and BBQ festival, "Memphis in May." I'm ready to get down to tha' bone on some a dem ribs...



The band!


Director Bill Spainhour, me, and Pat Lindsey


Bill's idea - me with the "Charging Wildcats" banner in the background. The mascot name came from when the two high schools were combined - this school was the Ole Main "Wildcats" and the one I graduated from was the Northeast "Chargers"...thus, "Charging Wildcats." Like I mentioned above, this is as close to going back to my old high school as I can get...

Michigan State University, part 2

I've just returned from East Lansing, MI, where I had a fantastic week. The performance of "Dusk" was really, really, good - it was the slowest I've heard, and the first time I think any conductor has trusted him- or herself to take it at the right tempo, including myself. Verena brought out an incredibly heartfelt performance from the band, and I'm extremely pleased with how the whole thing went! Here's the obligatory post-concert pic with the conductor:



The next night, we were treated to a concert featuring several of composer Dana Wilson's pieces, including two sax quartets, a woodwind quintet, a wind band piece, and the premiere of his new concerto for bassoon and chamber winds. Some great stuff - I think his sax quartet "Howling at the Moon" was my immediate favorite. The band piece, "...the harder they fall" was a cute recasting of the story of David and Goliath with narrator, and I thought it worked really well. The integration of the narration and music was really tight (conductor Isaiah Odajima played no small part in that, as well). Dana also happens to be a really warm, friendly guy, and we had a good lunch cha ttogether earlier that day.



It was a fun week, and I enjoyed meeting Dr. Whitwell (in his final appearance as the director of bands at MSU), Dr. John Madden, Dr. Wesley Broadnax, and Isaiah Odajima, as well as the graduate conducting students - Jim, Tim, Gabe, Nate, and of course, Verena. Hope you all enjoy summer - I'm sure I'll see you next year!

I must sleep now. I finished Alchemy for orchestra a few days ago, and finished doing the parts tonight. I need to compile/convert them into PDFs, and will deliver them tomorrow. WOOHOO!!!