The Freudig Singers will perform In Dreams in December 2010.  I’m also very excited to announce that they will  also be recording and producing an album of the work, along with piece by other American Composers.   I will post more details as they become available.

The album Times and Spaces, recorded by the H2 quartet at Blue Griffin Records, was released on May 11th.  It can be purchased through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  You can hear my pieces Chasing the Silence (saxophone quartet) and In Dreams (saxophone ensemble), as well as works by Philip Glass, David MacDonald, John Mackey, and Takuma Itoh on the album.

In Dreams (chorus) was selected for performance at the CMS National Conference in Minnesota in September 2010.

I finished arranging a set of 6 piano preludes I originally composed in 2002.  The arrangement is for four hands and they will be premiered on July 10th at the San Francisco International Music Festival.

Ryan Romine, bassoonist,  premiered Singularity at the Shenandoah Conservatory.

I have been commissioned by the MSU Drama Department to write a song for the play Drunken City by Adam Bock, as well as music for Rob Roznowski’s play/musical called Holy Nights.   Drunken City will be performed in July with Holy Nights premiering in January 2011.

The Psychology of an Emerging Composer (Part I)

Some performers have massive repertoires (For example, strings and piano).  They are often encouraged by their teachers to play this repertoire, believing that their success is tied to it.  Composers are often encouraged by their teachers to write for these traditional ensembles even though the teachers of these same performers, ironically, are often encouraging their students to avoid new music.   Perhaps composers should focus more time on writing for instrumentalists that need more repertoire and perhaps as a result, want to play new music.

What follows is an all too common hypothetical …….

You have written a trio (piano, violin, and cello).   It’s your best work to date.  You are currently a graduate student at Generic State University.  There is a concert pending and you are seeking performers to play your piece.  You approach a cello player (sorry cellists, nothing personal) with apprehension and shame.  You ask the cello player if he or she can play your piece.  You have anticipated and now see the reluctance on his or her face.  It’s subtle but you can read the imaginary cloud emanating from above his or her head.   It reads, ‘Oh shucks…. Ok… Hmmm….’  They say, “How many rehearsals will it take?”  A good performance of your piece requires around 6 or 7 rehearsals.  Of course, to expect that many rehearsals would seem delusional.  You are just hoping for around 3 rehearsals and a performance that reflects your intent.  The cello player says that they will do one or two rehearsals.  You gratefully say, “Yes, thank you so much.”  You accept the one or two rehearsals and hope that it all works out in the end.  You have spent months writing the piece and now you spend hours organizing the rehearsals, trying to coordinate everyone’s schedule.

All too often, this situation ends badly with a performance that leaves the composer both embarrassed and humiliated a unique combination with adverse results for the composer’s psyche.  However, let us channel an alternate reality that isn’t so obvious.

What if they play your piece at the concert and it goes very well.  The audience likes it and the performers love playing it.  Your success and future performances of the piece are now a foregone conclusion……… Only… it never happens.  The cello player, after performing your piece, remarks that it’s one of the best new pieces he or she has ever played, perhaps the best.  The trio has future performance engagements.  He or she talks about programming your piece……. But it never happens.   Why?

We’ll get to that later.

But first, the psychology of being a composer.

What happens to a composer who is always apologizing for the piece he or she has written?  A composer’s self worth is often under attack, performance after performance…. piece after piece.  The composer has spent months, if not a year, investing their entire talent into a work, only to be meant with indifference and apathy.  The piece doesn’t get enough rehearsals.  In a worst case scenario, the performance reflects the lack of rehearsals and doesn’t reflect the composer’s intent.  It’s witnessed by your piers and your family and friends.  You are humiliated and embarrassed.  But you trudge on… writing the next piece and hoping for things to change.

How does this affect your writing?  Do you write more simple pieces to accommodate the lack of rehearsals you have come to expect?  If so, how does this affect the state of composition when you multiply it by the number of composers who are experiencing the same?  Does this encourage an educational environment where composers learn, not only form their successes, but their mistakes?  Do composers feel empowered to take chances or resigned to playing it safe?

No one likes to be humiliated.  Is it not understandable that a composer would perhaps alter the complexity of his or her music?  Perhaps all they yearn for is a good performance… to not be humiliated in front of their piers, their friends, and family.

However, this is not entirely fair to performers.  More of that in the next post.

Well… it’s time to update my blog.  I heard that updating it every half year is essential to a good blog.  I know that there are some who feel it necessary that their thoughts be heard almost every day.  However, I am a slow writer, so this just isn’t possible for me.  When I compound my slow writing by the fact that I’m a bad writer, a blog entry every day is absurd.  Once a month seems about right.  So why haven’t I been writing lately?  Well, mainly because I’m under the delusion that people are actually reading this, so I have been holding myself to a ridonculous (Californian English)  standard.  Also, the latest bachelor only just finished this past week.

Will I ever write about actual music?  Hmmmm.. yes.   But lets face it…. There is no way that music can ever be as interesting as the bachelor.

We have a guy (Jake) who is perfect for Tenley.  They both have similar “values”….. ie, they are both potential Sarah Palin voters.   She has a body that is….. well….. I wouldn’t mind if Natalie and her had a pillow fight.   And then there is Vienna.  The poor girl has been trashed in the tabloids and in my living room.  She is young, immature, and probably looks at Sarah Palin and thinks… ‘she would have made a great beauty queen when she was younger.’

Natalie and I are completely in love but to make sure, we are going to  bunjie jump off a bridge  to seal the deal.  I think this is what Death Cab for Cutie meant by “fear is the heart of love.”

Women have not understood Jake’s decision because it’s so impractical…. as if practicality has anything to do with it.  He kept referring to “a spark” and for, whatever reason, this has baffled some people.  I keep envisioning countless women who are also in relationships with the wrong or right guy because of this “spark” and yet seem baffled by Jake’s decision that goes against what’s on the paper.  I keep envisioning people who are waiting for that spark and yet are baffled by Jake’s decision which is based on that same spark.  I think people are under the delusion that the spark is an inevitable result of meeting the right person.  It isn’t.  It’s the result of jumping off a bridge.  If it had been Tenley in that harness, you would all be happy…. and in the end, probably Jake.

Commissioned to write a piece for Joseph Lulloff. Saxophonist Joseph Lulloff is one of today’s most sought-after performers and clinicians. Acclaimed internationally for his innovative style and unparalleled virtuosity, Mr. Lulloff has been described by Branford Marsalis as “a marvelous musicia” whose “knowledge of music, along with his ability to embrace music normally considered outside the sphere, makes him a joy to listen to.Mr. Lulloff performs regularly with symphony orchestras throughout the United States and as soloist in many of the most prestigious concert venues in the Americas, Europe, Southeast Asia and Japan.

Commissioned by Christopher Kirkpatrick to write a piece for two clarinets to be premiered at the ClarinetFest in the summer of 2011 in Los Angeles.

Christopher Kirkpatrick is the newly appointed adjunct assistant professor of clarinet at the University of Montana.  From 2006-2009 he was the clarinet instructor at Albion College (MI).  As an orchestral musician he has held the position of principal clarinet of the Jackson Symphony and has also been a member of the Lansing, Battle Creek, Plymouth, and Midland Symphony Orchestras.  Additionally, he has performed with the Detroit Symphony, West Shore Symphony, Brevard Music Center Orchestra, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and the Santa Fe Symphony.  In 2006 Christopher was a performer at the International Clarinet Association Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.

Commissioned by the San Francisco International Music Festival to write a piece for piano duo for the festival in July 2010.  Presented by the San Francisco International Music Festival organization, the first international piano duo festival in the United States honored the legacy of the distinguished piano duo, Milton and Peggy Salkind.

Commissioned by the Low Lindblade trio to write a new piece for violin, clarinet, and piano.

It’s been two weeks and this is way easier than I thought.  I know that couples compromise, but doesn’t that mean you watch whatever she wants?  Not my girlfriend, she is for true equality.  For every episode of Battlestar Gallactica, we watch Veronica Mars.  I know what you’re thinking and you’re right: who wouldn’t like Veronica Mars?  It’s like Magnum P.I. without Tom Selleck, Higgy Baby, Hawaii, a Ferrari, and cold war communist Russian military evil-doers.

I know there is more to a relationship than the T.V., but not if your priorities are wrong.