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)