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Pushing Ahead
I’m really pleased to announce that Push, my piece for 12 percussionists commissioned by the Moores School Percussion Ensemble at the University of Houston, received a CAP Grant from the American Music Center. This past fall, Blake Wilkins and the group premiered the work and gave several performances of it on their fall tour. Below is the live recording from their November 13th performance at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. Push was composed this past summer, just after returning from my honeymoon in Turkey. The title refers to the gradual pushing forward of the tempo, as well as the canonic activity on the musical surface. After the slow, spacious opening, the music breaks out into what is probably the most dance-like, groove-oriented music I’ve composed in several years. Thanks to Blake and the ensemble for doing a fantastic job with this:
Push
More info on the piece can be found here.
After a January/most of February spent in hibernation, I’ve got a busy few weeks lined up: Collide-O-Scope Music rides again, with shows in Brooklyn at the Issue Project Room on Thursday Feburary 24th, and in a special performance on Friday March 11th on the Intersections Festival DC at the Atlas Performing Arts Center here in Washington (along with pieces by Cage, Xenakis, Nono, and Chris Bailey, both of these shows will feature some improvised material from me on electronics, and Noah Getz performing my sax and electronics piece Echoes of Amber). On March 19th the League of the Unsound Sound premieres Selfish Houses on Blood Strange Roads, my tribute to William Faulkner’s As I lay dying, in DC at Catholic University, followed the next day by a performance at the Windup Space in Baltimore, MD. The Catholic University Orchestra will attempt another performance of Diaphony (they tried last year, but were thwarted by the snowpocalypse…March 22nd and 25th should be late enough in the season to not be stopped by another few feet of snow). Bassoonist Maya Stone and composer Spencer Lambright are coming up to DC for a show at Catholic University on Wednesday, March 30th, which will feature premiere’s by both Spencer and myself. This will be followed by a roadtrip down to Murphreesboro, TN, for a repeat performance at MTSU on April 7th.
Lots of stuff coming up to announce
If you’re in Indianapolis on Saturday, November 13th, come and see Blake Wilkins and the Moores School Percussion Ensemble from the University of Houston play Push at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. More info on that event here. They’ll be premiering the piece on Monday, November 1st at a special preview concert at the University of Houston before they hit the road for the trip up north.
Closer to home, Pictures on Silence will premiere Plunge, for harp, alto sax, and electronic sounds, on Friday, November 12th on a concert in John Paul Hall at Catholic University in Washington, DC at 7:30pm (free!). As promised in my August post, this piece involves sounds I recorded while traveling this past summer with my trusty microtrack. Most of them come from the harbor in Southampton, UK (the place where both the Mayflower and the Titanic left from!): lots of boats and docks creaking in the waves. Giving in to my long-time fascination with British accents, I also used a bunch of conversations I picked up around town. Pictures on Silence will take the Plunge on what’s shaping up to be a pretty exciting event: lots of electronics, some pieces that involve film, and another world premiere by composer Anna Rubin.
Signals, commissioned by the NOW Ensemble last year, will be played by DC’s Great Noise Ensemble on Friday, December 3rd. Info and tickets to that event can be found here.
On Sunday, October 3rd, Collide-O-Scope Music got off to a great start this season with an opening event at Christ and St. Stephen’s Church in NYC. Along with my piece Surely Some Revelation?, we featured works by Cage and co-director Christopher Bailey. In addition to this first event, we’ll also be putting on another NYC event at the Issue Project Room on Feb. 24th, and on March 11th here in DC at the Atlas Theatre, as part of the Intersections DC festival (Collide-O-Scope’s DC debut!).
Summertime updates
I’m just wrapping up a commission from the Moores School Percussion Ensemble at University of Houston. Director Blake Wilkins, a composer as well, does wonderful things with this group. They’ll be premiering something I’m tentatively calling Push, for 12 percussionists, this fall. More info to follow.
Collide-O-Scope Music will ride again: we’ve got some very cool things lined up for our second season, which we will be ready to announce shortly. I’m also just starting work on a commission from Pictures On Silence, a fantastic harp and sax duo based in the DC/Baltimore area. In that piece, I’m hoping to involve some sounds I collected while traveling in Turkey and the UK.