Return to New York

I head back to NYC tomorrow morning for the first time in three years - eager to see the place, especially the transformation of Juilliard. I'll be in town for the Metropolitan Atlanta Youth Wind Ensemble's performance of Dusk under Robert Ambrose, who will also be performing some Newman on the same concert. Oh, it's at Carnegie Hall - forgot to mention that - always nice to have a performance in a decent space...

Anyhoo, I'm excited to get back up there, even for just a brief visit. Perhaps I'll even manage a photo or two of the place.

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 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

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!

Dusk for Symphony Orchestra

I transcribed Dusk for symphony orchestra last weekend, and had the good fortune (thanks to the efforts of Donald Grantham) to have the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra read it yesterday. They did a fantastic job, and I'm happy to announce you can hear it on this page, or at MySpace (same recording in both places). The piece will be distributed by Hal Leonard (but still published by me), exactly the same as the band version, and will be available late this summer. I have a few corrections and revisions to make to the score, and then will post a perusal version on the site sometime in the near future.

Yesterday was a busy day: last night, Jonathan Newman invaded San Marcos, Texas last night, where he was the 2008 guest artist with Rod Schueller, Caroline Beatty, and the Texas State University bands. They did three of his pieces, and WildKoba and I headed down that way to catch the show. I'm sure details will be forthcoming on Jonathan's Notebook in the near future.