Steven Bryant

Movements I and II are finished, copied, and ready for delivery. Tonight, I finished orchestrating Mvt. III, so all that remains is getting it into the computer and doing the parts - no small task. There are entirely too many notes in this movement...

Here's me giving a video update on the piece earlier this evening:

Alchemy for orchestra update, April 19th, 2006 (Quicktime MOV, 1.2Mb)


The...

A few days ago, I saw on my upcoming concerts page that West Jordan High School Wind Symphony was performing Dusk on their Regional Band Festival. I e-mailed their director, Chelle Leyva, and she e-mailed back with one of the best e-mails I've gotten - this really made my day. She's graciously allowed me to post it here:

"I just have to tell you that "Dusk" has made a world of difference in my...

Last October, I visited Bowling Green State University and heard the band perform Alchemy in Silent Spaces, and the orchestra perform Loose Id, as part of the annual New Music and Art Festival. It was a fantastic weekend, and out of that grew a potential future collaboration.

Well, it's now official, and I'm proud to announce that I'm spending the 2006-2007 academic year as Visiting Artist in...

Last Monday, my dear friend Zoe Browder and I met at the Juilliard recording studio to finally record RedLine for piano. I wrote this piece at her request back at the end of 1999 (the actual date of completion on the piece is December 31st, 1999), and she premiered it about a year later. She's played it a few times since, including at a recent BargeMusic concert in Brooklyn, but we'd never...

Yesterday, Laura Rexroth and the UMass-Amherst Wind Ensemble performed the first movement of Alchemy in Silent Spaces at the CBDNA Eastern Div. Conference in Montclair, NJ. First of all, they sounded great. I heard them a couple of weeks ago when I visited Amherst, and they sounded good then, but they've definitely "gelled" as an ensemble since then. All the pieces were markedly more...

Tonight, Lt. Commander (ret.) John Pastin and the Rowan University Wind Ensemble played the sh*t out of RedLine for winds. I'm floored. I'm honored that he and the band devoted so much of their time and energy into pulling this piece off. To everyone in the band: you're awesome. THANK YOU. You all played a great program - RedLine alone was more than enough to chew on. That fact that you...

I have a way-too-early flight in the morning to New York (well, New Jersey), to attend the CBDNA Eastern Division Conference, where the Rowan University Wind Ensemble is performing RedLine under John Pastin, and the Univ. of MA-Amherst Wind Ensemble (whom I recently visited) will perform Alchemy in Silent Spaces: I, under the direction of Laura Rexroth. The Rowan Univ. concert is Thursday...

Last night. Loud. Liked it. Satisfying.

Led me to some deep thought about the visceral vs. the intellectual.

This will come back later. If present nebulous plans come to fruition, in just over a year.

Back to doing my taxes...

It's taken me far too long, but I've finally posted a PDF study score and streaming mp3 file for Dusk on the website. If you're interested, go check it out (the links are in the green inset box).

While I'm on the topic, here's a sketch I found for the climax of the piece. I have no idea when I wrote this, but it's essentially what ended up becoming bars 32-41. Nothing particularly...

Yesterday morning I had the privilege of working on Dusk with the Fayetteville HS Band. Their director, Barry Harper, generously let me have the entire hour to sightread the piece with the group.



There was an audible amount of fear and trepidation when we started, but by the end of the period I could tell the band had begun to get into the piece a bit. I'm not sure whether or not the crazy...

Last night I heard the Univ. of Arkansas - Fayetteville Concert Band and Wind Symphony perform, and they chewed through a LOT of music! I only have a second this morning, but suffice it to say I thought both groups were really solid, and I'm looking forward to hearing one of them do some of my music (nudge, nudge :)! The whole evening had a nice musical progression to it, and I thought the...

I'm driving up to Fayetteville for the University of Arkansas Wind Symphony and Concert Band concert tonight. On the program is John Mackey's new Turbine (UA was one of the members of the commissioning consortium for the piece). Looking forward to hearing it live!

Tomorrow morning I'll be at the local high school band's rehearsal - we're going to sightread Dusk. I might then be going to...