I Love Public Online Collaboration

It makes composition so much less lonely. Yes, I’m still sitting alone in my house making things up, but other people can chime in and help me think through neat dramatic issues or musical ideas if they want to. And the best part is that they can participate while I’m still technically alone, which means …

This Rough Magic – Prospero & the marimba

Last weekend Rose Ginsberg (director), Ian Rosenbaum (acting marimba), Victoria Nece (visual effects, including the image for this post that you see on the homepage) and I made this video. Rose and I had been meaning to rehearse and film this piece for a while, and we finally made it happen as part of issue …

You know what’s going to rock? Ian’s show next week.

The first time I worked with Ian for real was on the reading of Summer’s Twilight a little over two years ago. He played Oberon, and he just tore it up. Since then we’ve hatched a few schemes, and sometimes I bring over sketches of sections I’ve written for Oberon to test with him. And …

Rhymes With Opera rocked

That went beautifully. Not that I knew it would. Rhymes With Opera put on a fantastic show last night, and it was just the way I like it. It was a great big party. There was food, there was wine, there was a staggeringly relaxed atmosphere, and there were these amazing musicians onstage playing extremely …

Poems Without Names- full score

I’ve never done this with a piece before, but I’m doing it now. I finished Poems Without Names last night, and emailed the score off to the performers and the poet, Burton Raffel. I really hope he likes it. What I’m doing is this: Here’s the full score of Poems Without Names Let me know …

Poems Without Names is written – but not notated

I agreed to write this piece at a party on December 30th. It’s being performed on March 17 by Rhymes With Opera. Rhymes With Opera Salon 7 PM, Saturday March 17 Christ Church United Methodist 520 Park Avenue, New York, NY FREE ADMISSION The salon’s going to be a wonderful event, with lots of musicians …

The Seafarer hits the Festival circuit

I did not expect to get into the land of film festivals when I started reading Burton Raffel’s translation of The Seafarer in a ratty used copy in my Peabody dorm back in whenever that was. 2004? But here we are. Michael Feldman, who directed the film, and I got to work on submitting our …

Ruckus Amongstus was a huge success!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the two dozen or so people (I never got an accurate head count) who performed in the show, filmed it, recorded it, served fantastic cocktails, and yes, carried a disassembled marimba around in travel bags. We had one hell of a day, starting with loading in and lunch, …

Always Carry Drums

I have a rule about this. It has broader implications, but for me it starts from putting on shows. And it’s this: Always Carry Drums. Here’s what I mean. If you’re putting on a show, and you’re not a drummer, at some point you’re going to be standing around, having totally finished “your bit” of …

These YouTube Videos Are Part of my Libretto

There aren’t any words, but they’re part of a script, not a performance. I’ve talked before about the dumbshow at the beginning of Summer’s Twilight. I don’t want to write a vamp with a few sound effects to be played underneath the mime. I want to score the physical beats of the scene, moment for …

Ruckus Amongstus: or, the rise and fall of the city of Muppet Darmstadt

This is going to be a wonderfully mad show. I’ve been looking forward to the day when the team behind No Signal got back together with some new friends in New York and put on shows again, and that time is finally upon us. This Saturday, 8 PM, at the Exapno New Music Community Center, …

Ian Rosenbaum tries out a monologue

Last night I went over to Ian Rosenbaum’s place, and we went over some of the sketches I’ve got for the new scene 1 of Summer’s Twilight. As usual with a marimba part, you think some things are hard when they’re easy, and you think some things are easy but they’re hard. Sometimes you take …