Madison, WI and Duluth, MN

This afternoon I'll be on my way to WMEA in Madison, WI, where the Univ. MN Duluth Wind Ensemble under Mark Whitlock will perform Suite Dreams on Thursday morning at 11:30. Immediately after that, I hop on the bus with the UMD band and we drive six hours up to Duluth, where I'll spend Thurs. night through Monday morning in residence at the Twin Ports WInd Festival. I'll be conducting something like five of my pieces with five different bands in three concerts over three days.

I should look at my scores...

Well THAT was fun!

The Ecstatic Waters performance yesterday here at UT went really well. I'm still a bit stunned by it. We had one problem with feedback in the Bassoon mics (same thing that happened at Bowling Green - in the same place I think), which is weird in that it never happened in any rehearsals, but has now happened in both performances. Something to figure out for the future. Other than that, though, the band really stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park (to use a seasonally appropriate sports metaphor).

And now I'm kind of bummed - I've gotten spoiled hearing this piece several times a week for the past few weeks, including two performances, and now I don't get to hear it again until next February and March.

More details later and, if it's possible, a recording, perusal score, program notes, the whole nine yards. I do have another piece due in one month, so I can't really let up just yet...

Ecstatic Waters LIVE webcast 10/26/2008

Ecstatic Waters will be webcast live from the University of Texas Austin Wind Ensemble concert on Sunday, Oct. 26th.

You can listen here (it's only a LIVE webcast - it will NOT be archived online):

http://winds.music.utexas.edu/eventDetails.aspx?id=9525

DATE AND TIME:
4:00 PM CST, Oct. 26th, 2008

Bowling Green recap

Got back yesterday morning from Bowling Green, and headed straight from the airport to rehearsal at UT for this Sunday's concert. More about that shortly.

It was great to be back in BG - sort of a second home to me after spending a year in residence there, and this was my third time at their New Music Festival they hold every October. The premiere was a success, and John Harbison, even came up to me afterward and said it held his attention throughout the entire work, which was a nice affirmation. The band worked hard on the piece, and the overall effect was dramatic and what I'd hoped for. A few things went wrong that never had before (as is always the case): got some feedback in the Bassoon mics at one point, some sync problems between the band and the playback, etc., but these are the growing pains of dealing with this type of music. Integrating electronics into live concert music is always a challenge, and to do it on this scale with 60-70 people in the ensemble, only compounds the likelihood Murphy's Law will be enforced. So, it was a definite success, and a big thank-you to Bruce Moss and the BGSU Wind Symphony for giving the world premiere of the piece! Best wishes for the rest of the semester - now you can take out your earplugs... :)

Off to Bowling Green, OH

After rehearsal today at UT, I'm off to Bowling Green State Univ. for the premiere this Thursday night of Ecstatic Waters, and then back here immediately for the second performance on Sunday! Not sure I'll be taking many pictures - I have some button-pressing I have to do for the piece...

Concerto for Cello and Wind Ensemble

Announcing a new consortium by world-class cellist Caroline Stinson, for cello and orchestral winds. Caroline is an extremely versatile and truly fantastic performer - she's toured with Bang on a Can, is a member of the cello quartet CELLO, was personally invited by Pierre Boulez to work with him as part of an exchange between Lincoln Center and the Lucerne Festival on Elliott Carter's Triple Duo, and regularly performs solo and chamber recitals all over the world.

THE PROJECT: This will be an unusual consortium in that it seeks to bring together symphony orchestras and top wind ensembles to co-commission a new work for cello and orchestral winds (i.e. the wind section of an orchestra, or, from another perspective, a concert band minus the Saxes and Euphonium). If you're interested in participating in this project, check out this PDF. I'm extremely excited she has asked me to write the work, and believe this will be a unique project, to say the least. Please contact one of us if you have any questions!

Ecstatic Waters rehearsal at UT

Just got out of rehearsal for Ecstatic Waters - this is the first time we've done the whole piece...and it's going to work like gangbusters. This is also the first time we had the mics on the clarinet and bassoons, which is going to be quite cool. The clarinet sounds exactly like I'd hoped, and once we get the tempo locked in at exactly 60 bpm, the bassoons will work great.

I'll have real confirmation that all this is going to work on Wednesday, when we do the piece in Bates hall for the first time, but so far, it really seems to work. The electronics blend and mesh with the band far better than I'd hoped. There's still a lot of work for the band to do (lots of notes for them in this 21-minute piece), and I need to tweak some things, but since I came up with an end for Mvt. III last night, I finally feel justified in saying the work is finished.

No time to rest, though - the JWECC 2009 consortium deadline is Dec. 1st.... ! Excited that I'll get to hear Newm's Concertino there!

2008-2009 residency schedule

I have a fair amount of travel coming up this year, so thought I'd post it in case anyone reading this is in the area for any of these and wants to come to a concert and say 'howdy.'


10/21 - 10/24: Bowling Green, OH - premiere of Ecstatic Waters (10/23) - Bruce Moss, BGSU Wind Ensemble

10/26: Austin, TX - performance of Ecstatic Waters - Jerry Junkin, UT Wind Ensemble (not technically travel since I live here)

10/29 Madison, WI - WMEA Conference (UM Duluth performs my music)
10/30-11/3: Duluth, MN - Twin Ports Wind Festival - 3 days of concerts - I'll be conducting somewhere around 3000 of my pieces (slight exaggeration, but only slight)

11/18: Dallas, TX - Dallas Wind Symphony performs Stampede

11/19-11/21: Fort Collins, CO - Co. State Univ. ensembles perform Suite Dreams and Rise.

12/15-12/20: Chicago, IL - Midwest Clinic - Penn HS performs Radiant Joy

1/16-1/17: Bay Area (CA) - CMEA regional convention - TENTATIVE

2/11-2/14: San Antonio, TX - TMEA - 5A All-State Symphonic Band performs Alchemy in Silent Spaces: I - the logic of all my dreams on 2/14 under the direction of Michael Haithcock

2/20: San Marcos, TX - Texas State University composer in residence

2/25-2/26: St. Charles, IL - Jim Kull and St. Charles East Wind Ensemble perform Ecstatic Waters

3/1: Dallas, TX - Greater Dallas Youth Wind Orchestra performs Radiant Joy

3/12-3/17: Japan - JWECC convention world premiere of a new work (on Saturday, 3/14) in Okazaki City.

3/25-3/28: Austin, TX - CBDNA National Convention. Jerry Junkin and the UT Austin Wind Ensemble performs Ecstatic Waters

5/2: Conway, AR - Festival of Winds honor band and Little Rock Wind Symphony - composer in residence

Me and Allen Vizzutti

...sort of.

Just found out the VCU (Virginia Commonwealth Univ.) Sym. Wind Ensemble will do Radiant Joy tonight, and are also featuring guest artist (trumpeter) Allen Vizzutti on the program. Cool. Will probably be a worthwhile show - if you're in Richmond, VA, go!

Tonight at 8pm. Here's the info. Live web stream at 8:00PM EST at www.themusicpage.com.

Loki, Norse god of mischief

Loki is over for a visit for a few days. Yesterday, he came face to face with a potential playmate (and by playmate, I mean "meal"):



Yes, I've devolved to cat-blogging. But he is cute.

Back to work on tweaking the electronics tracks for Ecstatic Waters. Maybe Loki can help...