Steven Bryant

Didn't manage to post after the concert last night, but it went quite well. I took "Dusk" a little slower than we had been in rehearsal, and the band followed me wonderfully. The climax was really satisfying and powerful! I need to study the score to "Bloom" for rehearsal this morning, so I'll just offer a big "Thank you" to the band, and I wish you all the best! I really enjoyed working...

This morning I went to the high school rehearsal again (8:30, on the tail end of a powerful lightning and thunderstorm - some crazy lightning arcing through the mountains on my drive to rehearsal - I loved it).

We only had time for a single run-through, which is all I wanted to do anyway - they know the piece, and I don't like to run things into the ground. I'm looking forward to the concert...

Short post-concert recap - it was a great evening - the three bands all put on a good show and it seemed like both the bands and the audience were having a good time. The 7th-grade band did a fun tune called "Rock to the Max Mr. Sax" with the sax section out front grooving on a memorized soli part. The 8th-grade band did a piece called "Engines of Resistance" by Larry Clark which had some...

Friday, my brother and I took a quick trip over to Memphis to visit my old friend Mac, and for some BBQ and music at the Beale Street Music Festival (happened to see Bryan Adams and Train, the latter featuring an unexpected keyboard solo using Clavinet run through a "wah" pedal followed by an abrasive-as-hell mono-synth lead patch, which was worth the price of admission alone).

Headed back to...

Yesterday morning, I had the pleasure of working with Bill Spainhour and the North Little Rock High School band on Dusk. This is as close I can get to "my" old high school (this one and mine were merged into one huge school the year after I graduated, so my actual school no longer exists). This is also the band room I basically grew up in - it was where my father was band director throughout...

I've just returned from East Lansing, MI, where I had a fantastic week. The performance of "Dusk" was really, really, good - it was the slowest I've heard, and the first time I think any conductor has trusted him- or herself to take it at the right tempo, including myself. Verena brought out an incredibly heartfelt performance from the band, and I'm extremely pleased with how the whole thing...

I'm in East Lansing this week. The Symphony Band, under Dr. Wesley Broadnax, will be rehearsing and making an impromptu recording of Rise this afternoon, and then tomorrow night Verena Mösenbichler and the MSU Campus Band will perform Dusk on their final concert of the year. Thursday, I speak to a couple of seminars about this whole composing thing I do. I'll try to snag some pictures in the...

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...