Jared Starr recently sent me the video recording of his performance. Check it out below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwG0uJZ-ngc&list=FLhXRPnulGFg1fVjEUWNBRZg&index=1&feature=plcp
In other news, I’ve just started in on a new string quartet. Details forthcoming . . .
Jared and the orchestra did really well and gave a performance that was filled with life and energy. In addition, it was a great concert all around, with pieces by C.P.E. Bach, Stravinsky, and Haydn. Afterward, I got to have a picture with some key players in the premiere.
Thanks as well to everyone who came! While I was excited to hear the piece, I even more excited to share this moment with you.
Less than a week after the successful premiere of my Clarinet Sonata (Kudos to Jaren Hinckley and Jed Moss! It was an electrifying performance!), A Field Guide to Natural History just received its Utah premiere this past week as part of BYU’s Group for New Music concerts. For those who weren’t there or who want to relive the experience, you now can in image . . .
. . . and in sound:
Many thanks to the performers, Eric Hansen, Ray Smith, Scott Holden, and Ron Brough (whose head is hidden behind a music stand) and, of course, to the Barlow Endowment for making the night possible! As with the Clarinet Sonata, it was another great performance.
In other news, the BYU Chamber Orchestra recently began rehearsals of my still nameless violin concerto. Name suggestions are most welcome.
Lots of things happening these next few weeks. It’s crunch week for my fantasy for violin and chamber orchestra. Earlier today, I sent Jared an update of the solo part. Next week, I need to have the whole thing, so the rest of this week will be pretty hectic.
I needed to take a quick break, though, to plug the upcoming premiere of my Clarinet Sonata. It’s being performed by Jaren Hinckley and Jed Moss at a concert of the LDS Composers Trust on Friday, September 30 at 7.30 pm. The concert will be at the Baldassin Pianos Concert Hall (441 West 300 South, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84101, 801-322-4441). Also programmed are works by Crawford Gates, Marie Nelson Bennett, and Kay Hicks Ward. Seating capacity at the hall is only 100, so if you want to attend make sure you arrive a little early. It should be a great show, and I hope to see many of you there!
Will it be worth it? Just listen to the following clip of the last movement and ask yourself, “Could I really miss hearing this live?”:
I think the answer is “no,” but then again, I’m quite biased. And if you can’t make it next week, it’ll be performed again on October 26 at the University of Utah. The nice thing about next week’s concert, though? It’s free. And if you can’t make either of those concerts, come hear the Utah premiere of A Field Guide to Natural History on October 5.
Arrived on Thursday at the Brevard Music Festival, my retreat this summer for composing and hobnobing with other musicians. The festival includes more than 450 high school and college age musicians. It’s particularly great for composers because it has such a strong emphasis on performing your work.
These details aside, I’m already feverishly at work on a new piece for flute and alto saxophone, featuring a kaleidoscope of patterns and colors. I’m really excited for this piece because it’s both new and old for me. On the new side, it continues the lines of rhythmic invention I explored in A Field Guide to Natural History. On the old side, not only do I feel like I’m writing a response to floboe from last fall but also like I’m finally paying homage to the teacher with whom I’ve studied the longest, Neil Thornock. All these traits will become clearer when I post the audio in a few weeks. Get excited! (I know I am!)
Nine days and four rehearsals later, A Field Guide to Natural History is coming together. On Thursday, it was decided that I would conduct; on Friday, we cut out two more movements; yesterday, we had our first uninterrupted run through; and today, we began to work in earnest on expressive details. Tomorrow will be our last rehearsal in Provo.
As I expected, the guys have done a great job pulling the piece together. I’m also excited for the other pieces on the program. Eric wrote a great one for himself, Dave, and Ron (on bass, clarinet, and marimba respectively), and Dave brought a cool jazz tune of his. All together, Eric’s put together a great recital.
Funny story about the rehearsals: I hadn’t conducted instrumentalists for years, so I was a bit nervous about the undertaking. Last night, I told this to a friend, who was surprised I wasn’t immediately confident at conducting my own piece. “After all,” she said, “you wrote it.”
Her logic reminded me of the time in sixth grade when I wrote this tie fighter video game in QBasic. The premise was simple: You’re a tie fighter at the top of the screen. You had to hit the x-wings and a-wings flying and shooting at you before they reached you. I installed it on a computer in my classroom, where, to my teacher’s dismay, it became quite popular. After a few weeks, people were surprised I didn’t have the high score: “After all, you wrote it.”
“But writing it doesn’t mean I’m good at it,” I protested.
Some things never change.
About a year ago, Eric Hansen and I talked about my writing him a chamber piece with the tentative title Book of Imaginary Beings. One year and a Barlow commission later, we held our first rehearsal of the piece—now titled A Field Guide to Natural History—in E251 of the Harris Fine Arts Center. The piece premieres two weeks from today at the 2011 convention of the International Society of Bassists in San Francisco.
Before I report on the awesome work Eric Hansen and the gang are up to, I thought I’d post some facts on the work itself and the compositional process.
By the numbers—
More Trivia—
To be continued . . .
I just got word that “Summer Has Ten Thousand Stars” was distinguished as a finalist in the 2011 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Though it’s not an official award, being a finalist is no mean feat considering there were nearly 750 entries this year, so all in all, I’m pleased with the result.
In case you haven’t heard the piece yet, you can check it out here.
In case you haven’t been following my concert schedule (though that’s silly—of course you have!), the next six days will feature four performances of my music, including one night, Friday, when I have two performances. If you’re here in Utah, you have no excuse not to see one of these shows. They’re going to be great! So . . .
Tonight and Tomorrow (March 31 and April 1), BYU’s Contemporary Dance Theatre is putting on its “New Works New Voices” concert featuring choreography by Annie Garlick to my recent piano trio, “Gorre and Daphetid.” She’s created a powerful dance, “Reaching the Threshold,” that responds to the sadness of when one is helpless while loved ones suffer. The rest of the evening will be fabulous as well. Show starts at 7.30 pm at the BYU Richards Building Dance Studio Theatre. Tickets are $6; you can order them here. Also check out the article in the Daily Herald.
. . . But, as promised, there’s more!
Tomorrow and Tuesday (April 1 and April 5), Tara Hill and Mark Witmer will be premiering the first movement of my Clarinet Sonata. Tomorrow night’s performance is part of Tara’s senior recital. She’s assembled an exciting program that, in addition to my piece, features composers as far flung as Max Bruch, Elliott Carter, and Bela Kovacs. The concert starts at 9.30 pm in BYU’s Madsen Recital Hal, leaving you plenty of time to see “New Works New Voices” beforehand. Oh, and it’s free.
Finally, for those who will miss this weekend’s performances, as stated Tara Hill and Mark Witmer will be reprising their performance for the BYU Student Composers Recital on April 5. The concert starts at 7.30, is free, and will be followed by refreshments and witty banter.
I hope you all can make it to at least one of these concerts to see some really great music and dance!
I
The past few weeks have been an exciting time for me. At the end of February I took a trip out to London to check out music schools. While there I was fortunate to meet many wonderful professors at King’s College London, the Guildhall School, the Royal College of Music, and the Royal Academy of Music. Between the time I spent, the warm greetings I received, and what I heard of the music making at these schools, I got some very favorable impressions of all of them. Moral of the story: if they’ll have me, none of you readers of my blog (all three or four of you) need be surprised if I end up in London soon.
I also got to catch a concert of the Philharmonia perform Debussey’s La Mer and Ravel’s La Valse. Sitting in that concert, I realized that I’d never actually heard a world class orchestra perform before. The difference between them and what I have heard was phenomenal. (And to think it was just a routine, season concert.)
II
In other news, my piano trio “Gorre and Daphetid” was read and recorded by Curtis Macomber, Chris Finckel, and Stephen Gosling while I was away in London, and the recording was a wonderful “welcome home” present. I had written the piece in collaboration with my dancer friend, Anne Garlick, for a performance in April. Stay tuned for more news as the premiere of her choreography approaches! In the mean time, you can listen to the music and read more about it.
Update: I just found out the dates for the dance concert: Thursday, March 31 and Friday, April 1.
III
The premiere of my organ piece, “In and Through All Things,” is coming up at the end of March. If any of you happen to be in Moscow (Russia—not Idaho) then, I encourage you to go. Doug Bush is a fabulous organist, and I expect the premiere and the concert to be wonderful.
