Aspen, Bel Air, Napa, Oregon, Brooklyn, Seattle, etc. etc.

Heading west today under the soft purple glow of Virgin America cabin lighting as I kick off the madness of summer 2012. It’s a nice mix of business and pleasure, though, beginning with a bachelor party in Napa and a 60th birthday celebration up in Eugene. Later this month, I’m heading back to the foundation house in Bel Air where I’ll put the finishing touches on my Second Piano Quartet and dig into the Third Symphony, as well as catch up with friends, buy wine in grocery stores, and trot out my finest formal swimwear at the W Hotel in Hollywood (one hopes). Then it’s back to the east coast to execute a move from West Philadelphia to Brooklyn (!!!) before shipping off to Aspen for the festival and then celebrating a dear friend’s wedding to another dear friend in Seattle.

Life uncertainty levels are at an all time high, but for the time being, things are looking up.

Foundation Music (for orchestra)

Planes & plains; headed home.

This past summer I had a month-long residency at the Creative Kids Education Foundation in Bel Air, California, and one of the projects I worked on there was an overture to a short operatic film for the Portland 48-Hour Film Festival. I subsequently expanded that into a new piece for large orchestra, which was recorded last week by the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Gier in the conservatory’s beautiful new Lenfest Hall in Philadelphia.

Score

New recording: Piano Quartet

A new recording is available of my piano quartet “slowburn/fastburn” (2011). It was premiered by a quartet from the Curtis Institute, presented by the Penn Composers Guild.

(mp3 download)

Amalia Hall, Zoë Martin-Doike, Eric Han, Vivian Cheng

Viola sonata studio recording

 

View from the page turner’s post. 

I’m excited to post the brand new studio recording of my Viola Sonata, “the dreams we dream for the city of roses”. Recorded in December at Oktaven Studios in NYC with Jessica Meyer & Steven Beck, engineered by Ryan Streber. Streaming audio & download link are below.

For those in Philadelphia, they’ll be giving the Philly premiere next Thursday (10/13) at 8pm in Amado Hall on campus at Penn.

Download

ALSO: Video from the recording session is available on YouTube.

New Recording: Missa Brevis

Finally getting around to sifting through recordings from the 2010–2011 season. Here is the complete audio from my Missa Brevis for the Virgin of Guadalupe. I’m conducting the Choir of St Mary’s Episcopal Church accompanied by an ensemble of excellent musicians from the Curtis Institute at the Philadelphia Cathedral in December 2010.

Festival Mass recordings, first installment: Gloria

Below is a recording of the Gloria from my Festival Mass that I conducted last month in Philadelphia. The whole thing ran about 75 minutes, so I think I’ll post excerpts over the next few weeks.

For the enthusiasts, a score is available here.

The Choir of St Mary’s Episcopal Church and the Choral Scholars of the Philadelphia Cathedral are joined by soloists Sara Ann Mitchell, Julia Teitel, and Ricky Torres-Cooban and musicians from Temple and the Curtis Institute.

Festival Mass for the Great Vigil of Easter

Monday, April 25. 8pm. Philadelphia Cathedral (38/Ludlow)

World premiere: Festival Mass for the Great Vigil of Easter. 

Choir, soloists, brass, strings, percussion, organ. 70 minutes.

Choral Scholars of the Philadelphia Cathedral
Choir of St Mary’s Episcopal Church
Players from Curtis, Temple, &c.
Composer conducts.

NYC recording session: Viola Sonata

I had a wonderful recording session this weekend with Jess Meyer and Steve Beck from counter)induction at Oktaven Audio in NYC. I’ve thrown together a short video with clips and stills from the session as well as a bit of rough-edit audio. I can’t say enough what a thrill it is to be able to work with musicians of this caliber; it’s the sort of experience that makes a composer want to write more, and to do so with a level of care and attention to detail commensurate with that of the players. Artistic collaboration, at its best, brings everyone up a notch or two. Hopefully a finished cut will be available sometime in January. Until then, enjoy my debut as a film director.

New recording: Sextet: Water Music (2010)

 

A new recording of my Sextet: Water Music (2010) is now available. The piece was commissioned earlier this year by the Syzygy New Music Collective, and was performed this weekend at Penn by musicians from the Curtis Institute of Music. [Arbitrary water-photo taken in Santa Cruz, CA Nov. 2010].

Enjoy!

Missa Brevis preview…

Here’s a sample clip taken from a dress rehearsal yesterday. Also, great write-up from Penn Communications here.

Choir of St Mary’s with musicians from the Curtis Institute: