Unplugged until Friday

I will be away from the internet from today through Friday. If you e-mail me, I'll answer when I return.

I've almost finished Mvt. IV of the new piece. I'm inordinately excited about this one - amplified, effected bassoons and solo clarinet, in a delicious 12-tone serial groove. It's sort of Webern meets Radiohead.

Now I need to figure out how Mvt. V works. And I need a title...

World premiere: October 23rd, 2008, Bowling Green Wind Symphony, Bruce Moss, conductor (Bowling Green, Ohio)
Second performance: October 26th, 2008, The Univ. Texas Wind Ensemble, Jerry Junkin, conductor (Austin, TX)

WYWOP 2008

The World Youth Wind Orchestra Project gave their concert last Saturday night to a packed house and a well-deserved standing ovation. They rocked Stampede and brought the house down by closing with Maslanka's Give Us This Day.

To everyone in the WYWOP - I really enjoyed working with you and thank you for working so hard on Stampede - it was a blast to hang with all of you. Here are the photos from the week, as promised!

WYWOP 2008 photos

If you weren't in the band, these will mostly be meaningless and boring. If you want to see more pictures from my time in Europe, go here. I will be adding more as the summer continues. For now, I'm 'underground' composing, so no updates for a little while.

Circus Maximus and more

The UT Wind Ensemble arrives today for their concert at MidEurope. They'll be performing Corigliano's "Circus Maximus" - can't wait to hear it again! After that, the WYWOP will give their concert, which includes my piece, Stampede. The band is sounding fantastic this year, and it should be a great concert.

Also, I've added more pictures from the past week.

Hohenwerfen und Dachstein

The last few days we've visited Hohenwerfen Castle (outside of Salzburg) and the top of the Dachstein mountain (well, almost the top - you have to have ropes and gear to go the last 300 meters). Saw a fantastic falconry and bird demonstration at Hohenwerfen (they were flying right over our heads at insane speeds - none of the pictures I took are cropped - there were *that* close). Then we drove up to a traditional restaurant for lunch - the sign at the bottom of the hill said 4km, but they neglected to explain that they meant *straight UP*.

On Saturday, Michael Hancock (conductor, clarinetist, and all-around great guy) and I headed up to the Dachstein, which is one of the large mountains in the area (being in the Alps, it's not alone). The bus ride was nearly an hour up the mountain, and *then* we took the cable car the rest of the way - up to 2700 meters (that's 8850 ft). There's a glacier up there, with year-round skiing and snowboarding. It was also slightly chilly and windy (i.e. freezing). And spectacular.

Pictures are here.