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The blog takes a back seat...

Since I'm not particularly consistent at actual blogging, and in recent times posts have dwindled to simple "here's what I'm up to" (and not even that, in the last two months I've had two premieres and nary a word here!!), I've restructured the front page of my site to pull together my Twitter feed, upcoming performances, and a random photo from my Flickr page, and relegated the actual Blog to a secondary page.

And just to officially catch up:

Oklahoma State was great - the horns made me giggle with joy, and the performance was spectacular. Huge thanks to unsung hero Hunter Lewis for slogging through the unfamiliar world of Ableton Live, Joe Missal for being a great host, and of course the band, who just about blew the doors off of the hall. Which is exactly what I want. :)

Univ. Nebraska Lincoln - went straight from Stillwater to Lincoln, where Carolyn Barber and the UNL Wind Ensemble premiered The Marbled Midnight Mile at NMEA. This was a consortium commission organized by Phi Beta Mu and administered by Jay Gilbert at Doane College, consisting of somewhere around 30 schools from across Nebraska, ranging from very small High Schools all the way up to some college groups (including UNL). As I've mentioned before, composing works for younger, less-experienced musicians, is in itself a daunting challenge, and doing so while still trying to keep it challenging for college-level performers makes it all the more difficult. I think it worked, though! It certainly was well-received, and I was struck by how meditative the music was - even moreso than I had expected. More on the piece coming soon. A big "thank you" to Carolyn and the UNL group for the lovely performance, and to Jay Gilbert, Phi Beta Mu, and the participating commissioners for making the project happen!

UNC Greensboro - it's always wonderful to go to a performance and NOT have to get on an airplane. After this Fall's crazy schedule, I appreciate it even more. So it was a delight to drive the hour over to Greensboro for John Locke and the UNCG Wind Ensemble's performance of Ecstatic Waters. The group was fantastic, and also rocked out on some Chester Leaps In and Radiant Joy. It was sort of a career-spanning concert: Chester Leaps In is my oldest piece (that I'll let anyone hear), dating from 1995 (the band version was created in 1997 at the urging of Eric Whitacre).

Williams College - this was a very cool, completely atypical concert. Steve Bodner has a unique program up there, and I must say, I really liked the whole program and his approach to programming. This wasn't a "band" concert, or even a "new music" concert - it was simply a great, creative evening of music (how often will I be programmed with Andriessen, Adams, Lang, van der Aa, and Debussy all in one?!?), in a cool space (Mass MoCa). The brand new Ecstatic Moments I created for the event worked wonderfully, and I plan to release them for others to use shortly. Williamstown is also a beautiful town in one of my favorite areas of the country, so I hope I get a chance to return there... :)

Michigan State - it's always great to visit old friends, and working with Kevin Sedatole and the MSU Wind Symphony was a fitting finish to the semester's travel schedule. The performance was, as always, truly excellent, and the Mahler Hammer was ridiculous. This must be the biggest Mahler Hammer ever created. I only managed to get a shot with my iPhone, but I hear there's actual video out there of this in action...

Anyone from MSU want to hook me up?

That wraps up the Fall series of performances. The Spring looks to be even crazier - 26 scheduled performances of Ecstatic Waters so far, including the US Marine Band...

From Michigan to Miami

Catching up...

Had a great trip to Michigan for the Univ. Michigan Symphony Band's performance of Ecstatic Waters. Hill Auditorium makes the electronics crystal clear - it was easy (to my ears) to pick out the acoustic vs. the electronics elements, which made the blending more difficult than usual. The band did a great job, made all the more astonishing by conductor Michael Haithcock doing the entire piece without a click track! Not intentionally, of course - for some reason the wireless unit didn't work in performance (could've been as simple as the earpiece not being plugged in all the way - we have no idea what really went wrong), but he got to Mvt. II where the first electronics cue comes, in, and he had no click. Despite this, he held the piece together by simply relying on listening to the speakers. Lesson for everyone else doing the piece - make sure you check that your click track works immediately before the piece begins.

Also gave an in-depth talk about the piece during a seminar at Michigan - 2 hours solid of me talking about this one piece of music. It felt incredibly self-indulgent, but no one fell asleep, so that's a good sign. A little nerve-wracking that Bob Reynolds was there and asking questions (and in fact we may have worked out a persistent orchestrational problem I've had in Mvt. IV!).

After the performance, Verena and I spent the weekend in East Lansing, and got to go to the MSU/Michigan game on Saturday, followed by Kevin Sedatole's post-game party at his house (featuring Salt Lick BBQ shipped up from Austin for this occasion). Great weekend seeing old friends and revisiting V's old stomping grounds for the first time since we left over two years ago.

After a brief return home, I'm now in Miami, where Gary Green and the Univ. of Miami Wind Symphony will perform Ecstatic Waters on Wednesday night. We had a rehearsal yesterday, and everything worked great (including the click track!). This is my first time in Miami, and of course we had some excellent Cuban cuisine today at Versailles, and some unbelievably good seafood last night on the water at The Chart House (the Apple Jack Seabass...hooboy was that some good eats). So, things are good here. If you're in Miami, come to the concert Wednesday night on the Univ. Miami campus - the concert also features the premiere of Gary's transcription of Frank Ticheli's Symphony No. 1, with tenor John Bragle singing the final movement - should prove to be a great concert!

Must sleep - have to talk to the conducting students here in the morning...

In Ann Arbor

Arrived in Ann Arbor, MI today for the Univ. Michigan's upcoming performance of Ecstatic Waters. Tomorrow I give a seminar, then we do the dress rehearsal in the evening. The group will sound fantastic - can't wait to hear them in Hill Auditorium: Friday night (8pm; pre-concert lecture at 7:15).

Saturday, we're off to the Mich./MSU game. And lest a week go by without BBQ, I hear Kevin Sedatole is having Salt Lick shipped up fresh from Austin for the post-game party on Saturday. I think that's what the kids these days call an "Epic Win."

UMKC wrap-up

Some observations from last week at UMKC:

1) The band is HOT. The 7 horns in the back row sounded like they were in my lap...and I liked it. It was a fantastic performance, and I can't thank conductor Steve Davis, and his TAs Hayes Bunch and Michelle Van Unen enough for inviting me out and making the whole thing run so well.

2) The BBQ ribs at Oklahoma Joe's are a taste treat, and the Crown Prime Beef Rib at Jack Stack is utterly unbelievable. Only matched by the Hickory Pit Beans, which apparently are Bobby Flay's favorite. I could taste why. Forgive the blurry iPhone pic:


3) Steve Davis treats you right: I had a full-size Jacuzzi in my room. Not some sort of glorified bathtub, this was a completely separate, fully-mirrored affair. Ridiculous... and extremely relaxing (after wading through the extensive instructions):




I had a great time in Kansas City, and can't thank the band enough for playing so well. This was my first visit, but I certainly hope it's not my last. :)

Now on to University of Michigan for the Symphony Band's performance of Ecstatic Waters on Friday night. I expect they will also not be too shabby... :)

The Fall Schedule

Lots of performances coming up, and I'm happy to say I'll be at a number of them. The madness begins this coming Tuesday, as I make my very first trip to Kansas City (eager for BBQ - I've been to Memphis many times, lived in Austin, now live in NC, so KC is the last of the big 4 BBQ holy lands I have yet to visit). Here's a rundown of my travels this Fall:

Sept. 22-25: UMKC Wind Symphony (Ecstatic Waters concert 9/24)
Sept. 30-Oct. 5: Univ. Michigan Symphony Band (Ecstatic Waters concert 10/2)
Oct. 11-15: Univ. Miami Wind Ensemble (Ecstatic Waters concert 10/14)
Oct 27: Cedar Ridge HS (NC) Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band concert (Radiant Joy and MetaMarch)
Nov. 15-17: Oklahoma State University Wind Ensemble (Ecstatic Waters concert 11/17)
Nov. 18-20: Univ. Nebraska - Lincoln / NMEA residency - WORLD PREMIERE of The Marbled Midnight Mile (concert 11/20)
Nov. 20-Dec. 1: UNC Greensboro Wind Ensemble (Ecstatic Waters concert 12/1)
Dec. 2-5: Williams College WInd Ensemble (Ecstatic Waters concert 12/4)
Dec. 5-7: Michigan State Univ. Wind Symphony (Ecstatic Waters concert 12/6)
Dec. 14-19: Midwest Clinic, Chicago, IL

So, those are the ones I'll actually be in attendance. A fuller (though not complete) list of upcoming concerts is here.

What makes this extra fun is flying with all my laptop and audio gear. Airport security loves to see me with my backpack full of cryptic (to them) audio interfaces and cables. Explaining that the big MOTU letters stand for "Mark of the Unicorn" doesn't really clarify the situation any, either.

Durham, NC - The Triangle

Verena and I are now happy residents of Durham, NC. We've finally gotten unpacked and are moved in - no more climbing around boxes and eating at the kitchen bar. She's in full swing with the Duke University Wind Symphony, preparing for their first concert on October 1st, and I'm preparing for an academic year full of Ecstatic Waters performances (somewhere above the 25 mark at the moment, I believe!), and about to begin work on three projects - first, chamber variations on Ecstatic Waters for Steven Bodner and the Williams College Symphonic Winds, set for premiere December 4th; second, my cello concerto (for orchestral winds and percussion) for Caroline Stinson, cellist with the Lark Quartet; and third, a brand new consortium, led by Jerry Junkin, to complete my Concerto for Wind Ensemble. The existing work from 2007 will be the first movement of this larger work.

This weekend it's off to hear the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (Friday) and the Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra (Sunday). The former will be led by Larry Rachleff, whom I'm eager to finally meet, and the latter features Terrence Wilson on piano, who was at Juilliard when I was there, and is a phenomenal pianist (I still remember him doing the solo piano version of Petrushka as a student and being utterly blown away).

Perhaps I'll record some Saxophone How-to's this weekend as well. It appears my lack of practicing for the last 15 years won't put me at much of a disadvantage... (someone please tell me that this is satire...please)

WASBE to MidEurope

UNT's performance of Ecstatic Waters at WASBE was a big success. This is the first time I've heard it in performance without running the electronics (did some rehearsals at OSU where I got to listen, but not the performance), and WOW is it exhausting to listen to - in a good way. The group played wonderfully (as always), and I had a great time really hanging out with everyone over the past week - nothing like a 19-hour bus ride to encourage bonding. Thanks to Eugene Corporon for programming it, and to Bob Schwartz and David Robinson for running the electronics, and last but most of all, to Shannon and Jen Kitelinger for going above and beyond in taking care of, and entertaining, me during the entire week, as well as basically running the whole show behind the scenes.

So, WASBE was a lot of fun, and I believe I managed not to sound stupid on either composer panel I was on, so I consider the whole adventure a great success! I even managed to end up riding a mechanical bull at the Cadillac Ranch in Cincinnati after the concert. And yes, there are pictures. No, they're not going to show up here.

Saturday morning I took off for Austria, which involved planes, trains, and automobiles, and now am happily enjoying the cool mountain air of Schladming. The Mid-Europe festival starts this week, and the WYWOP (World Youth Wind Orchestra Project - which defines youth as ages 15-30) will be playing Radiant Joy as part of their concert on Saturday night. Also on the program is John Mackey's Kingfishers Catch Fire, Mvt. II, which I believe will close the concert (as it always should - no one in their right mind would want to follow it on a program). Both works will be conducted by Gary Green, and it should be a great week and a great concert.

Time to eat soon. I want some schnitzel.

The Big Day at WASBE

Been in Cincinnati the past few days doing run-out concerts with the UNT Wind Symphony (with a side adventure last night on the way back from Athens, OH, in which the bus broke down on the side of the highway - fun times!). The concerts have been great, though, and I think tonight will be extraordinary. Made a few more small changes (have removed the bassoon mics and used Bassoon 3&4 as live echos instead of a digital delay, though I don't know what I'll do for groups that don't have 4 bassoons - gotta figure that one out next week). Also some cool stuff with the trumpets (Rob Murray is playing lead and has been very helpful with some suggestions. He also took the very end of Mvt. IV up an octave - can you say high screamin' F? - and it sounds FANTASTIC. Definitely adding that to the score...as an optional part, of course).

I'm off to a composers panel moderated by Martin Ellerby. Just found out yesterday that it's me, Gary Carpenter, and Jennifer Higdon. This is a little higher profile than I had realized...

After that, Jack Stamp and the Keystone Winds play their concert at 3:30, which includes my Radiant Joy and my friend Jim Colonna's 7, which I've never heard live. I hear the group is playing REALLY well, so very much looking forward to that. This will be followed by setup and sound check with UNT, then a quick pre-concert talk with Andy Trachsel and the composers on the UNT concert (Bruce Yurko, David Sampson, Scott McAllister, and myself) at 7pm, and the concert itself at 8pm. Full day!

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. :)

Ecstatic Waters, edited mp3

I've just posted an edited mp3 of UT's performance of Ecstatic Waters at CBDNA. The biggest difference is the electronics - the recording didn't capture the electronic tracks very well because of the mic placement. I've layered in the original electronics, so they're much more present and clear - this is a better representation of how it sounded in the hall. If you downloaded the original mp3, I recommend you throw it out and download this one - it sounds much better!

It's the last link in the dark green box on this page.

Ecstatic Waters CBDNA mp3

I've posted the entire performance from last week's CBDNA conference. It's one, 25Mb mp3 download. The link will pull the entire file to your computer, and then you can open it in iTunes, or whatever program you use to listen to mp3s. I haven't edited it at all. NOTE: Because of the mic placement to record the ensemble, they didn't pick up the electronics as loudly as they actually were in the hall. This is most noticeable in Mvt. IV, where the quirky, 'mechanized' groove kicks in - it's difficult to hear on this recording, but was more present in the live. Recording a work such as this adds a whole new dimension of complexity...

The link to download the mp3 is on the Ecstatic Waters page, along with the old link to UT's performance from last October. I also have a new perusal score up that reflects all the changes since last October.

BTW, John Mackey has a great recap of our concerts and some remarkable pictures up on his blog - though I suspect if you're reading this, you discovered his site long ago... :)

Ecstatic Aftermath

Last Friday night's performance of Ecstatic Waters by UT at CBDNA was fantastic. I haven't written anything before now because 1) I'm exhausted, and 2) I don't really know what to say, beyond that it was fantastic, and part of an amazing week of music. Verena's transcription of Corigliano's Mr. Tambourine Man was stunning, in no small part because of soprano Hila Plitmann. The Michigan State University concert the next evening was equally impressive - piece after piece of really great and thrilling music. Asphalt Cocktail rocked even harder than I thought it would (and I expected plenty of rockin' to begin with). John made me envious (again) with his ability to lay down a complex yet satisfying groove with concert percussion and band. I *must* get me some of that. Carter Pann showed us in Concerto Logicthat he's ridiculously talented with the piano chops, and oh yeah, he also writes some decent music (!). Ricardo Lorenz, on faculty at Michigan State, burst onto the scene with his masterful first work for band, El Muro. Finally, Bolcom's new Symphony was impressive. I still feel a little ambivalent about some of the structural choices (the seemingly disparate clash of different musical moods and material didn't quite rub me the right way), but it was still a hell of a piece.

There was much more to the week, but I'm exhausted, and am in no mood to attempt real reviews of the music - not my job or my area of expertise. I'm eternally indebted to Jerry Junkin and the UT Wind Ensemble for playing the hell out of Ecstatic Waters. I'm a little sad that the piece's run at UT has come to an end, but I look forward to all the planned performances around the US next year! Mostly, though, I'm itching to get back to composing - haven't written a note since I finished Axis Mundi last Fall. Speaking of which, the recording is coming...today!

Ecstatic in Austin

Tonight's the night: Jerry Junkin and the University of Texas WInd Ensemble will perform Ecstatic Waters as part of the national CBDNA conference. If you're coming to the concert, get there early (having a ticket is no guarantee of admission). If you're not in the area, but want to listen online, it will be streamed live here:

University of Texas Austin Wind Ensemble, March 27th, 2009.

CBDNA begins... (plus the radio show download)

Familiar faces are swooping into town from everywhere, as the national CBDNA conference gets underway here in Austin. It's nice to go to one of these big conventions...and still be at home. In fact, I've lived in or near the city of each of the past three national conventions - New York in 2005, Ann Arbor in 2007 (I lived down the road in Bowling Green), and now Austin in 2009. If this continues, that'd mean I'll be in Seattle in 2011, but that doesn't look likely at this point.

Last night the first wave of the Japanese contingent arrived, in full party mode. I treated them to some snacks at Moonshine Grill, and introduced them to Shiner Bock and Shiner 100. They seemed to approve. :)

More this week, I'm sure - my big concert is Friday night with Jerry Junkin and the Univ. of Texas Wind Ensemble. Family and friends from all over are coming in for the group's performance of Ecstatic Waters, as well as the world premiere of V's new wind band transcription of John Corigliano's Mr. Tambourine Man on the very same concert. Hila Plitmann (that'd be Grammy-Award-Winning-Vocalist-Hila-Plitmann) is here to sing the premiere, and she sounded unbelievable in rehearsal today. It's going to be a hell of a night. In fact, the whole week has some of the most exciting programs I've ever seen - premieres and pieces by many of my friends and contemporaries, as well as William Bolcom's new symphony on Saturday night. All the gory details here.

I also hear JM has a brand new camera, so expect many pictures from this corner of the web. I'm just eager to finish off the week with an Asphalt Cocktail.

Lastly, here's the radio interview I did last week: Knowing the Score, with Dan Welcher. It's a 68Mb download, FYI. One small misleading bit (that I neglected to tell Dan - it's my fault, not his) - I'd just returned from Japan when we did the interview, but not for a performance of Ecstatic Waters, as Dan mentioned, but for the premiere of a brand new work, Axis Mundi, which, if you're one of the two people who read this blog, you will already know. Enjoy!

Ecstatic in Dallas

Jerry Junkin and the UT Wind Ensemble just blew the doors off the Meyerson with Ecstatic Waters tonight. Holy cow. I've been extraordinarily fortunate to have had such time with, and access to, one of the very top wind ensembles in the nation, if not the world, and am infinitely grateful to Maestro Junkin for taking on the challenge of this work. I can't WAIT to do this again at CBDNA here in Austin on March 27th!

The whole concert was smokin' - Sunil was once again spectacular on the Bolcom (which is a piece I'm really growing to like - I'd never heard it before last week). And of course John Mackey's Kingfishers Catch Fire closed in excellent fashion - the antiphonal trumpets are satisfying as hell. I think it's the perfect closer for a concert - it sort of cleanses the palette with a huge dose of extra-happy at the end of an evening of ups and downs, and leaves everyone full of joy. Also, I can't get the tune out of my head - it's been replaying constantly for the 3 hour drive back to Austin tonight. Thanks for that ear worm, Mackey...

Now, it's time for a couple of hours of sleep, and then V and I have an early morning flight to Tokyo, for the JWECC premiere of Axis Mundi...

Bolcom Caught Fire...

...at ABA last Thursday night. I rode over to the ABA convention with Verena and AEJ on the band bus (hooray for band bus trips!), to hear the UT Wind Ensemble give their concert at Texas A&M. It was a hell of a concert - for me, the biggest highlights were Sunil Gadgil's absolutely astounding performance of Bolcom's Concert Suite for Alto Saxophone and Band, and John Mackey's Kingfishers Catch Fire, which I'd never heard performed live. I must say, as exciting and feel-good as it is on a recording, it's 10 times that live. The surround trumpets are extra satisfying (though I could use even more - I think Mackey should call for at least Circus Maximus numbers). Jerry Junkin does a very cool alteration of the final trumpet entrance that involves them entering in a slow pan that circles around the audience from left to right. I dig it...and will likely steal it for the final movement of my Concerto for Wind Ensemble, whenever I get around to doing those other movements.

The UT Wind Ensemble gets no time to rest - they have another concert this Tuesday at the Meyerson Symphony Center. My own Ecstatic Waters will make an appearance on the program as well this time (the website above is out of date and doesn't list it). The concert is at 7:30pm at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. I know I always say this, but seriously, if you're in the DFW area, you should come to this concert... :)

Ecstatic in Illinois

I'm back in Austin tonight, after boarding a flight in the snow in Chicago, and walking off the plane into 86 degree heat 2 and half hours later. Good to be home... :)

Last night, the [wind ensemble of the] Fighting Saints of St. Charles East HS gave a very successful performance of Ecstatic Waters, after a FULL first half consisting of Newman's Avenue X, my own Dusk, Joseph Spaniola's Escapade, and Wataru Hokoyama's Fanfare. Oh, and they also played RB Hall's march, Independentia to close the concert...because Director Jim Kull is crazy - uh - ambitious with his programming. ;) I think he's addicted to stress, because Ecstatic Waters alone is a big production to perform! Many thanks are due to John Mizanin for making the sound setup flawless, Gil Wukitsch for keeping me from getting lost in the score, Jim Kull for taking on this project to begin with, and the band for working so hard and rising to the challenge of this music. You all did a wonderful job, and I had a great time! I hope all y'all stay warm up there! :)

Now, gotta practice Radiant Joy - I'm conducting it with the Greater Dallas Youth Wind Symphony at the Eisemann Center in Richardson, TX, on Sunday!

Ecstatic Waters across the Midwest

Last night, the Ohio State Symphonic Band under Rick Blatti gave a great (by all accounts I've heard) performance of Ecstatic Waters. I heard the dress rehearsal on Tuesday, which was fantastic, not just because they played the piece well, but because this is the first time I've ever been able to sit and listen to the entire work live without pressing buttons on the laptop. Big thanks to Pete Tender and Rich Clark for running the electronics, to Rick Blatti for being a part of the consortium and putting the whole thing together (literally - see Mahler Hammer below), and the band for working so hard on the music!

I wasn't able to be there because I'm doing the piece with the St. Charles East HS Wind Ensemble tonight. We had a good rehearsal this morning, despite me missing one of the cues (they kept going and did just fine, but a stressful few moments!). They've also programmed my Dusk, and Jonathan Newman's Avenue X, which they also commissioned a few years ago. Director Jim Kull is one of the biggest BCM supporters out there!

Wish us luck tonight, and come to the concert if you're in the suburbs of western Chicago: 7:30pm, St. Charles East High School!


Rich and Pete running the laptop at OSU


Mahler Hammer, custom built by Rick Blatti. This was the second incarnation. The first was apparently smashed through in a prior rehearsal...

GDYO Wind Symphony

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure to rehearse my Radiant Joy with the GDYO Wind Symphony. Conductor David Kehler invited me up to work with the group, in preparation for their March 1st concert at the Eisemann Center, in Richardson, TX. I admit I was a bit nervous - this is my first time to conduct Radiant Joy, but the band played wonderfully, and forgave me for getting lost a couple of times... :)

This is a great group of kids - extraordinary level of playing and really good attitudes, even if not all of the music is to their liking (Ellerby, Mvt. III, I'm looking at you). If you're anywhere near the Dallas area on Sunday, March 1st, you absolutely should come to the concert. The fun begins at 2:30pm!

And on that note, March 10th, at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas: Jerry Junkin and the UT Wind Ensemble will do my new Ecstatic Waters for wind ensemble+electronics. More about that soon.

Ecstatic Waters perusal score...

...is posted on the Ecstatic Waters page, in case you're interested.

Music for the New Year

Just in time for 2009, I've posted Ecstatic Waters on my Facebook page. Perusal score coming soon.

And if that's not enough for you, Salamander Studios has posted TWO new songs, Don't Get Angry and Mouth for your new year celebrations. Recorded last May, they're finally seeing the light of day. Details about each song are available on Salamander Studios' MySpace page, as well.

Happy and Healthy 2009 to you all!

Midwest 2008!

I'm in Chicago this week for the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. On Wednesday, at 1:00pm, the Penn High School Symphonic Band will be performing Radiant Joy. And on Thursday at 11:30am, the Lockport Township High School Wind Symphony will premiere Eric's Libertas Imperio for symphonic winds and electronics. I'm particularly eager to hear this in light of all my recent work on Ecstatic Waters. Lastly, the USAF Band of Flight will play a portion of my First Light on their reading session Thursday evening at 5:30.

So, if you're at the convention, please say 'hello' and I look forward to seeing you there. Also, I strongly encourage you to go by the MidEurope booth and speak with Johann, Sieglinde, or Verena Moesenbichler about their festival. Imagine Midwest, but instead of Chicago in the winter, it's in the Austrian Alps in summer...

Axis Mundi

Finished the new piece, Axis Mundi, for the Japanese Wind Ensemble Conductors Conference this past weekend. The piece is a study in intertwined opposites. Mvt. I, Apatheia, is unvaryingly soft, never rising above a p, and opens with around 80 seconds of solo marimba. Mvt. II, Hêdonê, is the opposite - relentless, ferocious, and rarely below f in volume. While I have them labeled Mvt. I and II, I envision them as working in either order, or even spaced apart on a program. They are entirely self-contained works, yet completely related - Apatheia is built entirely from a single chord progression from Hêdonê.

Soon, I hope to get back to Ecstatic Waters, and post both it and Axis Mundi here for perusal.

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...

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!

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...

Ecstatic Waters

Ecstatic Waters
I. Ceremony of Innocence
II. Augurs
III. The Generous Wrath of Simple Men
IV. The Loving Machinery of Justice
V. Spiritus Mundi (epilogue)

Score and parts are complete and delivered.

For any other piece, I would be finished, but now I must fine-tune, massage, mix, and determine exactly how I will trigger the electronics. And maybe even practice my part on laptop!

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Aside: I think six antiphonal trumpets are satisfying, and rocked my socks off. Mackey is legit. :)