WASBE - UNT plays Ecstatic Waters

On Friday, I head down to Denton, TX to work with Eugene Corporon and the Univ. of North Texas Wind Symphony. They're playing Ecstatic Waters next week at the WASBE conference in Cincinnati. The concert is Thursday night, July 9th, at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. In preparation, they're doing concerts on Tuesday (Miami Univ. of OH, Oxford - 7:30pm) and Wednesday (Ohio Univ. - Athens, 8pm). Looking forward to hearing the piece again! This will also serve as my last chance to make any tweaks to the parts before the concert season goes full bore next year - looking at somewhere around 15 different performances of the work in 2009-2010. I believe "W00t!!" is the appropriate exclamation. :)

Performance Today - Ecstatic Waters

Earlier this week, I did a short interview with Suzanne Schaffer for Performance Today. They're playing UT's performance of Ecstatic Waters on the show this morning (June 26th), and it will be posted on the website, as well. I believe it will be on Hour 2 of the show. Woohoo!!

If you're coming to this page because you heard it on the show, welcome! If you want to hear the work again, it's available on this site, as well as on Facebook.

UPDATE: Turns out it was only a short excerpt (and a very soft, compressed recording, at that). Regardless, if you want to hear the whole thing, you can on my site at the links above. I recommend an extremely quiet environment with a large stereo system, turned to 11.

Ok, back to writing this new piece (in D minor, the saddest of keys).

Dusk at Disney Hall

Apparently Westlake HS is playing Dusk sometime around now at Disney Hall tonight. I had no idea, but ... COOL. Props to John Mackey for the heads-up.

Much more catching up to do : New York was great. MAYWE played their hearts out in Carnegie, and it was great to work with them and their fearless leaders, Robert Ambrose and Laura Moates Stanley. I sincerely hope I can come down to Atlanta and work with all of you again!



The rest of the trip consisted of seeing old friends, including finally meeting the dangerously charming and brilliant Newman/Schlactmeyer offspring, popping in on the Bang on a Can marathon with Jonathan, and checking out all the changes at Juilliard. I took some pictures, but wasn't able to capture it in a satisfying way, so just look at John's pix from his visit a few weeks ago.

I'm flying mostly under the radar while I compose this new piece for the Nebraska consortium. It's not due until August, but I need to finish it by the end of the month. On July 3rd, I head down to Denton to rehearse Ecstatic Waters with the UNT Wind Ensemble before we all pile in the bus and take the show to WASBE in Cincinnati. Concert is Thursday night, July 9th - I have no doubt it will bring the house down!

After that, it's straight from Cincinnati to Austria (well, not really straight - have to go through Atlanta, Munich, and then cab&train to Schladming) for the MidEurope Festival. The word is that Gary Green's doing Radiant Joy with the WYWOP, and Verena finally makes her conducting debut with the group, after running the entire show behind-the-scenes for the past several years!

And then it's to Durham, NC in August! Verena is the new director of bands at Duke University, which kicks total ass. So proud of this girl - came to the US and did both MM and DMA in a total of 4 years, and not even in her native language. That's just one of the many reasons I asked her to marry me. :)