Early March Activities

WestfieldFestivalOfMusic_Poster

The first two weeks of March will be a busy time for me! In addition to presenting my research about Ellen Taaffe Zwilich at the Society for American Music National Conference on March 7 (see an earlier post about this event here), I’ll be making trips to Westfield State University for their Festival of New Music on March 2 and Mansfield University for a residency with the Cadillac Moon Ensemble on March 10.

 As part of the Westfield Festival of New Music, the Boston New Music Initiative will be performing my First Praise.  I am very excited to work with the talented musicians of BNMI again and am fortunate they have chosen to present the work for the second time this season (the first being the Parma Music Festival/SCI Region I Conference back in August).  The concert will also feature works by Taila Amar, James Crowley, Sungji Hong, Cody Kauhl, Rodrigo Lima, Jeffrey Shivers, and Frederic Rzewski performed by BNMI and by the Connecticut-based Generous Ensemble.  In addition to participating in the concert, I will also be conducting a masterclass at the University and am greatly looking forward to meeting with the students.  

The following week I will head to Pennsylvania for a short visit at Mansfield University, where I will also have the opportunity to work with students.  While I am at the University, the NYC-based Cadillac Moon Ensemble will also be in residence and will be performing a program featuring premieres by Andrew Walters and myself.  Having heard a reading session this past week that included my new string duo You, As You Were Before You Existed and a number of other works written for the CME, I can guarantee they will put on a great show!

As if that was not enough to keep me busy, I’ll also be in Connecticut for the weekend portion of the Women Composers Festival of Hartford on March 6-9.  (Check back soon for a post about this staple of the Hartford music scene.)  I hope to see you at one or more of these fantastic events!

SCI Journal of Music Scores

My sextet First Praise has been selected for inclusion in the SCI Journal of Music Scores.  Published by European American Music, the Journal of Music Scores is a juried anthology of music written by members of the Society of Composers, Inc.  I am honored to have my piece included alongside the following works:

Corey Keating – As the Night Blooms
Philip Schuessler – Monochrome Variations
Nolan Stolz – Princess Kaiulani
Bryce Cannell – Refractions
Federico Jes Bonacossa – Rivir
Jay Batzner – Silhouettes, Receding
Jacob Walls – Whitening Thirst

Check back for more details about when this volume will be available!

SCI/ASCAP Student Commissioning Competition

I am excited to report that I was chosen as the Alternate Winner for Region II in this year’s SCI/ASCAP Student Commissioning Competition for my work First Praise.  A full list of the winners can be seen on SCI’s website at http://societyofcomposers.org/index.php.

Parma New Music Festival/SCI Region I Conference

parmaOn August 15-17, I will be heading up to Portsmouth, NH to participate in the Parma New Music Festival/SCI Region I Conference.

My friend and frequent collaborator, Mike Lunoe, will be attending to perform my “St. Teresa in Ecstasy” for solo gyile on Friday, Aug. 16 at 11 am.  The concert will be held at St. John’s Church in Portsmouth, NH and is free to the public.  If you can’t make it out (or if you want a preview of the piece), you can check out one of Mike’s previous performances of the work on Youtube.

Additionally, the Boston New Music Initiative has selected the Pierrot ensemble version of “First Praise” for inclusion on their concert at the festival.  That event will be held at the same venue at 2 pm on Aug. 16.

Lastly, I will be presenting my paper “Disruption and Development: Pitch Processes in the Music of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich”.  The paper is a small portion of my dissertation research, on which I am currently hard at work.

A full schedule and other important information can be found online at Parma’s website.  Hope to see you there!

“First Praise” Wins Robert Starer Composition Award

My First Praise for mixed chamber ensemble was recently honored with the CUNY Graduate Center’s Robert Starer Composition Award, which is given annually to an exceptional student work. The official Music Department announcement can be viewed here.

First Praise was written for the Cygnus Ensemble, who premiered the work in 2012 during a residency at the Graduate Center.  The work is scored for flute, oboe, violin, cello, guitar, and mandolin.  An alternation version for Pierrot ensemble was premiered in this past January on the Firebrand Concert Series as part of their local composers spotlight.