Steven Bryant

Announcing a new consortium by world-class cellist Caroline Stinson, for cello and orchestral winds. Caroline is an extremely versatile and truly fantastic performer - she's toured with Bang on a Can, is a member of the cello quartet CELLO, was personally invited by Pierre Boulez to work with him as part of an exchange between Lincoln Center and the Lucerne Festival on Elliott Carter's Triple...

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...

I have a fair amount of travel coming up this year, so thought I'd post it in case anyone reading this is in the area for any of these and wants to come to a concert and say 'howdy.'


10/21 - 10/24: Bowling Green, OH - premiere of Ecstatic Waters (10/23) - Bruce Moss, BGSU Wind Ensemble

10/26: Austin, TX - performance of Ecstatic Waters - Jerry Junkin, UT Wind Ensemble (not technically travel...

...sort of.

Just found out the VCU (Virginia Commonwealth Univ.) Sym. Wind Ensemble will do Radiant Joy tonight, and are also featuring guest artist (trumpeter) Allen Vizzutti on the program. Cool. Will probably be a worthwhile show - if you're in Richmond, VA, go!

Tonight at 8pm. Here's the info. Live web stream at 8:00PM EST at www.themusicpage.com.

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
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...

Wow - it was great to hear Eugene Corporon and the UNT Wind Symphony do the complete Parody Suite last night. This is the first time I've heard them all collected in a single set. Bruce Moss did all four of them on a program at Bowling Green when I was there, but they were interspersed with the originals they quoted, so this was the first time I've heard them all in...

So, the Big Piece is basically finished - still need to finish the parts for Mvts. II and III, and squeeze the electronics down into a performable package, but the music is all there - about 21 minutes long, and 62 pages of 11"x17" score. I'll post more about it very soon.

In the meantime, I'll be at the University of North Texas tomorrow night (Thurs., Sept. 25th) for their Wind Symphony...

Finished up a fun week at Marktoberdorf (pictures here, including my Krummhorn lesson), returned briefly to Austria to repack, and have returned to the USA. Now I'm heads-down focused on finishing the Winds+Electronics piece (I really need a title, don't I?). I'll resurface when the piece is finished and give the full rundown on it. I'm proud of what I've created so far...

Wednesday night is a special night at this festival in Marktoberdorf - everyone puts on a show, which included PDQ Bach, a Krummhorn quartet, double-reed rendition of YMCA, and an Obi horn (which would translate roughly to a "Home Depot horn"). And then we all moved down to the beer cellar where I was cajoled into playing very bad piano and singing drunkenly with a large chunk of the band.

I...

I'm now in Marktoberdorf, Germany, giving a week-long composition masterclass as part of the Bavarian Summer Music Academy. This is in conjunction with a wind band component, which is currently rehearsing four of my works (Suite Dreams, Dusk, Stampede, and MetaMarch) for their concert Saturday night. They're all in sectionals at the moment, so I can hear the clarinets rehearsing Suite Dreams...

I will be away from the internet from today through Friday. If you e-mail me, I'll answer when I return.

I've almost finished Mvt. IV of the new piece. I'm inordinately excited about this one - amplified, effected bassoons and solo clarinet, in a delicious 12-tone serial groove. It's sort of Webern meets Radiohead.

Now I need to figure out how Mvt. V works. And I need a title...

World...