Awesome Premiere

I have now been described in print, in Dutch, without my having submitted a bio in any language. The venue for yesterday’s premiere of Finishing The Rose had very short notice that I was coming to the performance, and managed to sneak in a hastily written bio that they assembled themselves. In Dutch. I trust …

Finishing the Rose is Finished!

Thanks first to the commissioning consortium without whom this project wouldn’t have happened, and you wouldn’t have a chance to hear the piece performed so many times in the next year: Ian Richter Hanna Van Rooijen Zachary Herchen Elisabeth Halliday Ben Learish Sean Meyers Tyrone Page Ana Kupstas Thanks especially to Ian for being the …

Composing on Trello

I’ve never written a piece using a project management tool before. It’s almost certainly not for everyone, but I totally love it. The best part is being able to easily sort & rearrange my notes. With a paper notebook, or loose paper, you can’t move individual sentences around. I tend to write out verbal descriptions …

Ian is organizing a consortium

Hey there sports fans. Ian Richter is organizing a commissioning consortium for my new saxophone and soprano duet, Finishing The Rose. I wrote about my initial thoughts before Thanksgiving. I really like the way Ian is structuring the consortium, with very low fees for co-commissioners, and even lower for students. For a composer like me, …

How to be Machaut

So I’m writing this piece for Ian Richter and Hanna van Rooijen. It’s a saxophone and soprano piece, meant to be performable alongside Lori Laitman’s saxophone and soprano pieces. In fact, that’s how they’re going to premiere it in March of next year while Ian is still on his Fulbright). And it’s kinda weird. It’s …