Steven Bryant

I finished two new pieces last week. That makes three in the past month. This can't be good for me... The first, Anthem, is a brand new work for Jay Gephart and the Purdue University Wind Ensemble, commissioned to celebrate the Purdue Bands' 125th anniversary. It's 7'30" of joy, featuring twittering flutes, vibraphone, glockenspiel, crotales, piano, etc., finally culminating in a big rock...

Crazy weekend of performances ahead! (Late) tonight, Verena and I drive down to Columbia, SC, for the University of South Carolina Band Clinic, featuring the three USC bands, the Palmetto Concert Band, and hundreds of high school students in 4 honor bands. And almost all of them are doing at least one piece of mine. Scott Weiss and the Univ. of So. Carolina Wind Ensemble kicks the whole thing...

Back in May, 2010, my dear friend Hila Plitmann performed her own concert of songs at the Boston Court Theater in LA. In addition to her own amazing originals, she asked a number of people to arrange some popular songs for her. I was honored to arrange Nine Inch Nails' "All the Love in the World," but her rendition of my own Hummingbrrd was perhaps the most astonishing thing to hear. The

Rod Schueller and the Texas State University Wind Ensemble will perform Ecstatic Waters for Wind Ensemble + Electronics at TMEA (San Antonio, TX) this Thursday afternoon, at 2pm. I'll be there dropping the mad beatz (i.e., pressing the laptop buttons). The program includes first movement of Jonathan Newman's Symphony No.1, and we'll both be in attendance. If you're there, please come up and...

I'm in Columbus, OH for The Ohio State University Wind Symphony's performance of my Concerto for Wind Ensemble. Heard rehearsal tonight, and they sound GREAT. They've obviously been putting in the practice time, and they own the piece. They're also playing a newly-transcribed work, Vigil, by Michael Gilbertson, who's here as well, and Asphalt Cocktail by Columbus' own John Mackey, so if you're...

If you're waaaay up near the Canadian border in New York state, you have the opportunity to hear the second-ever performance of my brand new Concerto for Wind Ensemble. Brian Doyle and the Crane School of Music Wind Ensemble will perform the work tonight (Nov. 22nd) at 7:30pm, in Hosmer Concert Hall. Check it out!

Fellow composer and friend Michael Markowski spent the week with me in Austin, generously volunteering to follow me around TMZ-style with a video camera for the world premiere and recording of my Concerto for Wind Ensemble. This means I now have a LOT of footage that I've managed not to edit together... on top of the footage I shot in the preceding months. I'll get to it, eventually (after I...

The Concerto for Wind Ensemble world premiere performance is posted (look in the dark green box for the "UT World Premiere" link)! Given the surround/antiphonal nature of the work, this isn't quite the same as sitting in the middle of it all, but it still sounds great. The University of Texas Wind Ensemble players were phenomenal to work with, and of course Jerry is always 100% inside the...

I'm in Austin this week for the University of Texas Austin Wind Ensemble's world premiere of my Concerto for Wind Ensemble. Had a great 2.5 hour rehearsal this afternoon - Jerry Junkin and the band have worked their butts off on this piece - all 54,210 notes of it. The concert is this coming Wednesday night, October 27th, and will be simultaneously audio and video webcast thanks to the folks...

A recent exchange with fellow composer John Mackey on Facebook about saxophone samples (he uses the Vienna Symphonic Library series, and I'm currently using the built-in General MIDI samples, which possess the subtlety of a chainsaw) reminded me that I've long wanted to do a post comparing MIDI and live versions of a few of my pieces. I would venture to say that most composers working today...

A review of Ecstatic Waters: "The score could benefit from judicious editing." My "wry impishness" compels me to point out to the reviewer that crystal water glasses are not "electronic," Mvt. III has nothing to do with serialism, and the clarinet solo is not a blues.

I just posted Episode 5 in my ongoing video series. This one deals with Movement III (which I'm currently in the middle of), and shows examples from my sequencing software, Digital Performer. It also showcases my entirely fantastic General MIDI saxophone sound library. Also, that harp ostinato is on an "F," not an "E" like I say in the video. Oops. I suggest you watch it in high definition -...