Up-and-Coming

A bunch of things are ramping up here in Bloomington with a bunch of new pieces and upcoming performances peeking over the horizon. First and foremost, in "Pleased To Announce™" news, I've been selected for an American Composers Orchestra Earshot Reading with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. The orchestra and their music director Andrew Constantine will perform my short and snappy concert opener Nijinsky Dances on February 7th. This has given me the opportunity to look back over this piece and fix some odds and ends that didn't quite work when I initially wrote the piece (i.e. Rob, you don't need timpani, and low tom-toms, AND bass drum. We get it. It is a bass drop). This also allows me to explore more of the midwest and break off my east coast horse blinders. More info can be found at the Fort Wayne Philharmonic website. 

Secondly, I just finished a big ole' flute sonata, Drifts and Currents, for Noah Cline which is getting premiered on April 14th (happy birthday to me). Rarely do I feel stable in how a piece comes out. Usually it takes me a month or two (if ever) to really come round and "enjoy" the piece, if that is the right word. I need some sort of distance...let the piece go out into the world on its own and report back. However, this piece is something I'm actually really looking forward to. I think it does some things musically I've been trying to do for awhile now and I'm crossing my fingers all these ideas work out. 

As it stands now, my desk is flooded with sketches of a new work for the Indiana University Concert Band (getting premiered in Fall of this year). I'm throwing a zillion ideas at the wall and nothing is sticking and somehow, this is making the idea of the piece as a whole blurrier and blurrier. Gonna go on a walk in the snow to clear my mind of all these subpar ideas. I'll leave it here on a ranting note.