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May 18, 2005

Dusk rehearsal – Livingston High School

Went out to Livingston, NJ to work with Mike Jedwabnik and the Livingston HS Wind Symphony on Dusk tonight. Their concert is next Wednesday, the 25th, and I'll be conducing Dusk with them - looking forward to it! Tonight was a little rough because we were missing several players (started rehearsal without a trombone section...), but they have a lot of talent and are going to pull of a great...

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May 16, 2005

Newman’s Avenue X

I just heard a recording from one of the premieres of Jonathan's Avenue X from last week. It's as good as Jim says it is. Can't wait to hear it live! If any groups out there reading this are playing at Midwest this year, this is your piece - take a serious listen to it (I'm sure Newm can provide you with the audio upon request)...

Everyone flood Newman's mailbox with congratulations and...

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May 7, 2005

Rolling Stones at Juilliard

Since it's now all over the news, I guess it's no longer a secret: the Rolling Stones are playing 3 tunes at Juilliard this Tuesday, May 10th, about 1pm, to announce their new tour. They're only letting about 150 students onto the Plaza to hear them, so I imagine it'll be a mob scene. I'll try to catch them from the back entrance as they enter through the President's office (I find this...

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April 23, 2005

Veo Lux – The Allen Room

Juilliard's "Beyond the Machine" electroacoustic series culminated tonight at The Allen Room (Jazz @ Lincoln Center), with a diverse group of pieces and approaches to using technology in music. My piece went well, and the quartet deserves a huge "thank-you" for playing their arms off on it. Let's hope we can do the rumored recording session in the near future!

I don't have any good pictures of...

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April 20, 2005

Veo Lux premiere

The premiere was last night, and the players did a great job. The speakers and the venue weren't ideal - lots of midrange, very little presence, muddy, but the piece works, and this Friday at The Allen Room (Jazz @ Lincoln Center) should sound fantastic.


The Juilliard Electric Ensemble (l-r: Christina, Pat, Chris, Nadia) - many thanks - you guys have been working hard on a lot of music for this...

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April 16, 2005

Veo Lux – final recording session

Had a final recording session for the backing material last night, courtesy of the indefatigable Ariana K. After the last rehearsal, we decided to slow the tempo down from 136 to 126 - it locks in better there (if you ever use MIDI instruments to mock up a piece, you'll always end up pushing the tempo a little too much - remember that). This of course meant I needed to re-record some of what...

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April 13, 2005

Buffer size

Rehearsal was decent last night - the players will own their parts by the concert, but I'm worried about the computer. Works fine at home. Take it to rehearsal, plug it in to the exact same gear, same cables, same EVERYTHING, and it suddenly freaks out about a few piddly aux sends to some delays and granular effects, and 2 (count'em TWO) audio tracks. Not like I'm pushing it here.

Somehow the...

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April 12, 2005

Veo Lux is finished… 7:30am

Just finished the parts. Finished writing the piece about 5:30am this morning. Long night. Barely coherent.

Second rehearsal is tonight. Much laptop programming to do before then.

Time to go to work...

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April 11, 2005

Veo Lux – first rehearsal

Had a short rehearsal today to see how some of the electronics will work, and for the players to see the music for the first time (I still don't have the piece finished, but I'm closing in on it). It's going to be a fun piece - it uses some of the same types of rhythmic interplay between groupings of 4 and 3 16th notes that I used in RedLine, but not quite as difficult. I hope to finish the...

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April 9, 2005

Veo Lux part 3

Ru-pei got stuck in traffic last night, so I recorded her tonight, followed by Yumi on violin. Special thanks to both of them for sight-reading on demand in front of the mic - you both rock! I have some good material on hand now, and just need to finish the piece in, oh, about 36 hours. First rehearsal is Sunday, 2pm. I've written precisely 1'28" at this point - I have a feeling it's going...

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April 8, 2005

Veo Lux part 2

First rehearsal is Sunday, and I'm not quite halfway finished. Egad. Here's a screenshot of the Digital Performer file - not really that interesting, but it's all I've got right now...

Veo Lux screenshot - April 7th, 2005

That's mostly automation - the laptop will be making very little actual sound - it just adds delay and gate/stutter/distortion/etc effects to the string quartet.

Tonight:...

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April 6, 2005

Veo Lux

Frantically working on Veo Lux for amplified string quartet and electronics. The premiere is Friday night, April 22nd, at The Allen Room at Jazz@Lincoln Center in New York. The hall is incredible - it has a 50-foot glass wall behind the stage looking out over Colubmus Circle and Central Park. The concert is FREE, so if you're anywhere near the area, you should come. More info here. Note,...

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