Steven Bryant

The Blue Monkey, Memphis, TN:

Last night, James A., Walter, and I got to see Human Radio. Human Radio (Ross Rice, vocals and keyboards, Peter Hyrka, violin and assorted electric string instruments, Kye Kennedy, guitar, Steve Arnold, bass, and Steve Ebe, drums) existed from 1989-1992, so this was an unexpected and most welcome opportunity to hear them in a one-time reunion concert. They rocked....

Saturday afternoon, Rob Franzblau and I headed back up from Providence to Amherst, MA to hear Laura Rexroth's joint Wind Ensemble / Symphony Band concert that night. First up was the Symphony Band, taking on Copland's "Outdoor Overture" - I think they were a little nervous at first, but after it got going, they opened up and played quite well. My own Dusk was second, and by this point, they...

Just have a few minutes before I head back to Amherst for tonight's concert up there. Around 6pm, I met with the Brown University Wind Ensemble, and the director, Matthew McGarrell, surprised me and asked if I would like to conduct Dusk that night! Being completely unprepared, I of course said "yes," and off we went! Had some good run-throughs, rescored a couple of things to make up for only...

This Saturday, March 4th, fellow composer and UNT alum Christopher Tucker will do his next-to-final Main Event program on WRR 101 Classical. His guest will be Eugene Corporon, renowned wind band conductor at the University of North Texas, and the program will feature various pieces from UNT's most recent CDs "Poetics" and "Passions", including my very own Stampede and Eric's October. Chris...

I'm off this morning to work with Laura Rexroth's wind ensemble at UMass Amherst on the first movement of Alchemy in Silent Spaces, followed by two days at Rhode Island College in Providence speaking to classes and working with Rob Franzblau's group, culminating in a joint concert with Brown University's wind ensemble (led by Matthew McGarrell) on Friday night (Brown is performing Dusk and RIC...

45 seconds of pure genius from the Salamander Studios hit factory in Memphis, TN. Written, performed, recorded, mixed, and distributed on Sunday afternoon.

"Wrong About Me"
http://www.myspace.com/stevenbryant

James McMurry: lead vox, guitar, backing vox, lyrics
Steven Bryant: bass, lead guitar (all three notes), percussion, ooh-aah vox


people think wrong things about me
but they're wrong about me
no...

I spent Friday evening with the Harding Academy band and their new director this year, Colby Canterbury, working on Dusk. I have to say when I first walked in and saw that about 40% of the band consisted of saxophones, I was slightly worried. Somehow, though, they actually made a solid, warm, non-saxophone-dominated sound as an ensemble - I was really quite impressed with the group!

Aside from...

Heading to Memphis to work with The Harding Academy Band on "Dusk" this evening. Then it's on to dinner with some old roommates from my undergrad days.

Gotta hit the road...more later!

Because of an imminent ice storm, the Arkansas All-State Convention held its concerts today, instead of tomorrow, as regularly scheduled. I drove down early this morning to work with the Symphonic Band, under Rick Blatti's direction, on my piece, MetaMarch. Two nights ago, Rick asked if I'd be interested in conducting the piece, and I of course jumped at the chance. These concerts were in...

Last Monday, I had the privilege and honor of conducting my work Rise with the St. Charles East HS Wind Ensemble at Carnegie Hall. I had a great time working with the group and conducting this piece (my first time!). A special "thank you" to director Jim Kull for inviting me to be a part of this event. Jim has been a big supporter of BCM for a few years now, and this evening was no exception...

Tuesday, Feb. 7th marked my last day of nearly 10 years of affiliation with Juilliard, first as student, then as a staff member. Many different events in my life over the past 10 months or so have converged to bring about this new direction. It was difficult - I've worked with a great number of wonderful people over the years there, and it has been the best 'day job' I could've possibly...

Been traveling and haven't had much internet access...at least, that's my excuse for not keeping things up to date. A LOT has been going on. I'm about to hop on another plane, so this will be quick until I can flesh each one out:

Last week I officially resigned from Juilliard to pursue composing and conducting full time - I do have pictures of the party, and I hope to post some tomorrow.

On...