Steven Bryant

Ok, so I'm way behind in blogging, AGAIN. As soon as I returned from Buffalo (via a last-minute flight to Chicago in order to drive from there to East Lansing with 2 Austrian parents in tow, but that's a whole other story), I had to pack up everything from my house in Bowling Green to drive it all to Arkansas for summer storage, before heading to Austria for the summer. Of course, none of...

...where the Clarence HS Symphonic Band, Chorus, and Orchestra are performing the original version of A Million Suns at Midnight on Thursday night at Kleinhans Music Hall. I hear the hall is beautiful, and I'm really excited to hear this piece again - I believe it was 2002 the last time someone performed it. Both versions require large forces (the original, SATB chorus, band, and string...

Just returned from several days in Jasper, Indiana, where James Goodhue and the rather extraordinary Jasper High School band premiered my new work, Suite Dreams, and followed that up with a performance of Monkey.

The premiere went very well, and I'm extremely excited by the new piece. It went through a major round of revisions in the process, including the addition of humming by most of the...

This past Saturday night, Bruce Moss and the Bowling Green Wind Symphony presented a concert featuring several of my works, including the parody pieces and their corresponding originals. I think I occupied over 50% of the concert, which is a bizarre (and wonderful) feeling. The only difficult thing in this situation is that, instead of just getting nervous once, it was a repeated...

I neglected to take any pictures while I was there, but the St. Charles East HS Wind Ensemble did a fine job with Bloom and Radiant Joy. I conducted Bloom, and even though I totally got lost for two or three bars (and did the round "I'm lost" pattern until I got back on the horse), they played right on through without the slightest hiccup. I really enjoyed conducting the group, but also...

Today, I made the drive to St. Charles, IL through the relentless rain (with some sludgy ice mixed in over the western portion of Indiana), and am happy to finally be firmly ensconced in the Holiday Inn Express. Looking forward to tomorrow's rehearsals and concert. Probably should run through Bloom again... you'd think I'd know my music in detail, but I actually prefer to forget many of those...

I'm off to St. Charles, IL, where Jim Kull and the STCE HS Wind Ensemble will perform Radiant Joy and Bloom. I get to conduct the latter (which reminds me, I need to pack my baton and score...).

Looks like a fun 5-hour drive through snow and rain to the Chicago area tomorrow. Looking forward to being there, but not the trip itself...

FOR SALE: Most of my computer / music studio gear. I'm going totally portable with a new MacBook Pro, and cleaning house in the process. If you're looking to build a powerful music studio, this is your ticket. I hate to let this stuff go - this is the gear I've used for years to make all my greatest hits... ;)

Full list, details, prices.

I never got around to the Midwest recap post, and since I'm supposed to be doing my taxes right now, this is as good a time as any. Eric didn't make it out this year - first time he's missed in something like 11 years (or was it 13?). Definitely wasn't the same without him (for one, I went to sleep a lot earlier...), but we were joined by someone I just never would've expected to see at...

The MSU Wind Symphony's performance Tues. night was a great success - really fine performance. The hall was less than optimal (very dry and the audience is too far from the stage, so there's little impact or presence in the sound), but ironically, I suspect that will make the recording sound quite good. The band played nearly flawlessly, of course due in no small part to VM's superb...

We're back in East Lansing after a quick (but wonderful) trip to Austin, TX. Verena is conducting Radiant Joy tonight with the Michigan State Wind Symphony, which promises to be quite good. The hall is a bit dry and tends to 'sand off' the edges a bit much, but they're playing really well, and anyone in the area should come to the concert if you can! It's at the University Auditorium on...

BGSU is hosting a conducting workshop this week, and today's featured guest and clinician was Leonard Slatkin. I spent the better part of the day and night watching him work with the BG Philharmonia on Brahms 2nd, and then working with a number of student conductors on the same piece, as well as hearing him speak at the conferral of his honorary doctorate from BG. Quite an experience. He's...