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Upcoming projects/premieres:

• Nebraska College and HS consortium, 11/2009
• Variations on Ecstatic Waters, Mvt. IV - 12/2009
• Concerto for Cello and Orchestral Winds, 9/2010
• Concerto for Wind Ensemble, 9/2010 (consortium)
• Purdue University 125th anniversary commission, 4/2011
• Piano Concerto - tentatively set for 2011-2012
• Indiana All-State Sym. Band, 3/2014

Upcoming concerts

NOTE: None of my pieces are out of print - if someone tells you otherwise, please let me know.

Blog

WASBE - UNT plays Ecstatic Waters

On Friday, I head down to Denton, TX to work with Eugene Corporon and the Univ. of North Texas Wind Symphony. They're playing Ecstatic Waters next week at the WASBE conference in Cincinnati. The concert is Thursday night, July 9th, at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. In preparation, they're doing concerts on Tuesday (Miami Univ. of OH, Oxford - 7:30pm) and Wednesday (Ohio Univ. - Athens, 8pm). Looking forward to hearing the piece again! This will also serve as my last chance to make any tweaks to the parts before the concert season goes full bore next year - looking at somewhere around 15 different performances of the work in 2009-2010. I believe "W00t!!" is the appropriate exclamation. :)

Labels: Ecstatic Waters, Eugene Corporon, UNT Wind Symphony

Performance Today - Ecstatic Waters

Earlier this week, I did a short interview with Suzanne Schaffer for Performance Today. They're playing UT's performance of Ecstatic Waters on the show this morning (June 26th), and it will be posted on the website, as well. I believe it will be on Hour 2 of the show. Woohoo!!

If you're coming to this page because you heard it on the show, welcome! If you want to hear the work again, it's available on this site, as well as on Facebook.

UPDATE: Turns out it was only a short excerpt (and a very soft, compressed recording, at that). Regardless, if you want to hear the whole thing, you can on my site at the links above. I recommend an extremely quiet environment with a large stereo system, turned to 11.

Ok, back to writing this new piece (in D minor, the saddest of keys).

Labels: Ecstatic Waters, Performance Today, Suzanne Schaffer, University of Texas Austin Wind Ensemble

Dusk at Disney Hall

Apparently Westlake HS is playing Dusk sometime around now at Disney Hall tonight. I had no idea, but ... COOL. Props to John Mackey for the heads-up.

Much more catching up to do : New York was great. MAYWE played their hearts out in Carnegie, and it was great to work with them and their fearless leaders, Robert Ambrose and Laura Moates Stanley. I sincerely hope I can come down to Atlanta and work with all of you again!



The rest of the trip consisted of seeing old friends, including finally meeting the dangerously charming and brilliant Newman/Schlactmeyer offspring, popping in on the Bang on a Can marathon with Jonathan, and checking out all the changes at Juilliard. I took some pictures, but wasn't able to capture it in a satisfying way, so just look at John's pix from his visit a few weeks ago.

I'm flying mostly under the radar while I compose this new piece for the Nebraska consortium. It's not due until August, but I need to finish it by the end of the month. On July 3rd, I head down to Denton to rehearse Ecstatic Waters with the UNT Wind Ensemble before we all pile in the bus and take the show to WASBE in Cincinnati. Concert is Thursday night, July 9th - I have no doubt it will bring the house down!

After that, it's straight from Cincinnati to Austria (well, not really straight - have to go through Atlanta, Munich, and then cab&train to Schladming) for the MidEurope Festival. The word is that Gary Green's doing Radiant Joy with the WYWOP, and Verena finally makes her conducting debut with the group, after running the entire show behind-the-scenes for the past several years!

And then it's to Durham, NC in August! Verena is the new director of bands at Duke University, which kicks total ass. So proud of this girl - came to the US and did both MM and DMA in a total of 4 years, and not even in her native language. That's just one of the many reasons I asked her to marry me. :)

Labels: Disney Hall, Dusk, Ecstatic Waters, Gary Green, John Mackey, MidEurope, Radiant Joy, Robert Ambrose, WASBE, WYWOP

Return to New York

I head back to NYC tomorrow morning for the first time in three years - eager to see the place, especially the transformation of Juilliard. I'll be in town for the Metropolitan Atlanta Youth Wind Ensemble's performance of Dusk under Robert Ambrose, who will also be performing some Newman on the same concert. Oh, it's at Carnegie Hall - forgot to mention that - always nice to have a performance in a decent space...

Anyhoo, I'm excited to get back up there, even for just a brief visit. Perhaps I'll even manage a photo or two of the place.

Labels: Dusk, Jonathan Newman, Metropolitan Atlanta Youth Wind Ensemble, New York, Robert Ambrose

Grade 3 for Band

First things first: the Festival of Winds honor band students this past weekend in Conway were great, and joyfully endured an all-day grueling rehearsal schedule, followed by a great concert that night. Several of them had even stayed up the entire night before for Prom, and still performed admirably. It was quite an experience for me, too - I'd never done a full honor band, conducting (nearly) all the pieces, from beginning to end. This was also my debut conducting someone else's music - namely Eric's Sleep. I thought it all came together wonderfully at the concert that night. I also had the great pleasure of conducting Dusk with the Little Rock Wind Symphony, who were superb. Huge "thank you" to Karen Fannin, the various section leaders, and Hendrix students who organized and ran the day so smoothly. I really enjoyed myself, and it's an added pleasure to get to perform my music at "home" (now that I've traveled and lived in numerous far-flung places, 30 miles from where I grew up counts as "home").

Now that I'm back in Austin, I'm madly beating my head against a compositional brick wall trying to figure out how this next piece will sound. Composing is never effortless, but there's a special, particular challenge in writing works for small high school ensembles in that fabled "grade 3" category. The added challenge this time is that this work is being commissioned by a mixed consortium of schools (in Nebraska), ranging from some tiny high school groups through several college ensembles. Finding a solution that is 1) playable and enjoyable for the smallest, least experienced group, 2) challenging and interesting to the most advanced, college group, and 3) music that I'm still fascinated with myself, is proving to be quite a test. I have a number of ideas I'm fleshing out, but still not sure any one of them is the Right Idea. Regardless, the premiere will be on November 19th at the NMEA convention, by Carolyn Barber and the Univ. Nebraska-Lincoln Wind Ensemble.

Which is why I shouldn't be procrastinating here on the blog!

A much more productive procrastinating activity will the UT Wind Ensemble concert tonight. Composer Carter Pann is in town, playing his new piano concerto with the group tonight. We took him out for his first Trudy's experience last night, and then piled on the Amy's Ice Cream. Hopefully he now has enough calories to make it through the concert tonight...

Labels: Festival of Winds, Hendrix, Karen Fannin, Nebraska consortium, UNL

Festival of Winds Concert, Conway, Arkansas

I'm heading to Arkansas this weekend for the Festival of Winds Honor Band and concert on Saturday night (May 2nd). This is a joint concert between the honor band and the Little Rock Wind Symphony, both of whom will be performing my music (with me conducting!). In addition, I'm conducting Eric Whitacre's Sleep with the honor band - my first time to conduct someone else's music! The festival is organized by Karen Fannin, director of bands at Hendrix College, and the conductor of the LRWS. Showtime is 7:30pm, Saturday night, at Staples Auditorium on the Hendrix campus in Conway, AR. Come out if you're around!

Labels: Bloom, Dusk, Eric Whitacre, Hendrix, Honor Band, Interruption Overture, Karen Fannin, Little Rock Wind Symphony, MetaMarch, Sleep

Ecstatic Waters, edited mp3

I've just posted an edited mp3 of UT's performance of Ecstatic Waters at CBDNA. The biggest difference is the electronics - the recording didn't capture the electronic tracks very well because of the mic placement. I've layered in the original electronics, so they're much more present and clear - this is a better representation of how it sounded in the hall. If you downloaded the original mp3, I recommend you throw it out and download this one - it sounds much better!

It's the last link in the dark green box on this page.

Labels: CBDNA, Ecstatic Waters, mp3, University of Texas Austin Wind Ensemble

Ecstatic Waters CBDNA mp3

I've posted the entire performance from last week's CBDNA conference. It's one, 25Mb mp3 download. The link will pull the entire file to your computer, and then you can open it in iTunes, or whatever program you use to listen to mp3s. I haven't edited it at all. NOTE: Because of the mic placement to record the ensemble, they didn't pick up the electronics as loudly as they actually were in the hall. This is most noticeable in Mvt. IV, where the quirky, 'mechanized' groove kicks in - it's difficult to hear on this recording, but was more present in the live. Recording a work such as this adds a whole new dimension of complexity...

The link to download the mp3 is on the Ecstatic Waters page, along with the old link to UT's performance from last October. I also have a new perusal score up that reflects all the changes since last October.

BTW, John Mackey has a great recap of our concerts and some remarkable pictures up on his blog - though I suspect if you're reading this, you discovered his site long ago... :)

Labels: Ecstatic Waters, John Mackey, mp3, University of Texas Austin Wind Ensemble