Composing and Careeers

Alright, here's the news, times two:

1.) Today I completed The Two Coffins for tenor and grand piano. It's an art song written for my friend and colleague Timothy Ballard, who is slated to give its premiere in September. This is the first piece in my CC21 Project, which uses Creative Commons as a marketing tool to generate performances in 21 states over 21 weeks. Click through to read about the project and download the PDF score for free! (Contact me for performance info.)

2.) Today I received my official offer letter from the University of Texas at Tyler, where I will be starting as an Assistant Professor in Music Theory and Composition in August! Five weeks left of summer teaching, one week to move, and one week to orient myself before the real thing begins! Here goes.

Uphill

Tomorrow will mark the fourth of four competitions I have failed to enter this year, each due to having large ambitions, not enough focus, and no "fall back" pieces to submit. I hope to make a concerted effort to enter a large number of competitions next year, as I only have two years remaining as a student!! AAAH!!

So... this has not been a good week for composing. Or maybe not a good month... or semester? No, that's not true. I've challenged myself a lot, and I've grown a lot in the process. Of course, the trade off is that I'm writing at an even slower pace than usual.

I am serving on a composition faculty search committee, starting up a CUA Composers radio show (premiering 4/11!), and researching the role of dramatic timing in William Bolcom's operatic adaptation of Arthur Miller's play A View from the Bridge. There, those are my excuses.

In other news, Opera Alterna, a new DC-based opera company founded by director Jay Brock and soprano Sarah Filippa, recently performed Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in the Callan Theater at CUA. While a lengthy review is neither possible nor needed now (as the run is over), suffice it to say that this inaugural production was a solid start for the area's newest opera company. Be on the look out for more of their productions in the future!

What I've been doing this week

Wow, only a few minutes shy of one week between posts. This is no way to attract a dedicated readership to a new blog! Okay, here's my excuses:

I'm really busy! (I know everyone always is.) No, really, though.

Note: you can refresh your memory about these projects with my earlier post on current composition projects, below.

By Monday, I am scheduled to have the following three projects completed:

1.) Create electronic music for a two-minute student film trailer (at least one week overdue)

2.) Orchestrate the 4½- minute piano-vocal version of in memoriam Hibakusha (for recorded concert performance Nov 30)

3.) Orchestrate the two-minute "Fall Interlude" from my thesis musical The Eden Diaries for full orchestra (for a Nov 26 reading - my first original piece ever played by full orchestra)


This past week I finished two composing projects: 1) She Gestures, a 6-minute piano piece with a "gestural" texture (see my next post, Compositional Techniques #1, above), and 2) transcriptions of three Christmas pop tunes for a concert. Also, I sadly decided to officially postpone two other stalled projects (the organ solo piece Beauty, and Set 'Em Up for jazz band).

Gilgamesh is fun but not a priority yet. Sadly. 'Cause it's fun. :(

So, for you brave souls who made it to the end of this largely list-based rant about my busy life... here is a look forward to my upcoming (planned) posts:

1. Compositional Techniques #1: Part 1 in a series of posts describing my various approaches to music (that is, how, when, where, with what, and maybe why do I compose?)
2. [Insert Snappy, Clever Title Here]: Something insightful about the usefulness (or not) of applying genres or other labels to music, classical and not. Or something hip like that.
3. Samuel Barber Notebook #1: Part 1 in a series devoted to the works of Samuel Barber. I have decided to listen to all of Barber's 48 works before Spring semester (at least the ones I have free access to), and this series will offer my reactions as well as my own musical journey as I work through these pieces.

Peace.