Building My Portfolio
When I quit teaching to become a composer I envisioned waking up every day, going to the piano, toiling all day long writing the most beautiful melodies the world has ever heard, and sending my finished manuscript off to let other people deal with editing and selling part while I just live off the royalties. Now I look at it much differently.
Last Summer’s To-Do List
My first summer of being a full time composer was taken up mostly by preparations for hiking the Appalachian Trail, starting in Maine. My second summer of being a full time composer was taken up by moving. My third summer of being a full time composer (this summer) was going to be the most productive time ever!
On Being a Visiting Composer, Part 2: The Concert
In the last year I have had the pleasure of being at concerts as a visiting composer fifteen or twenty times! The nerves don’t come an hour before the performance, as they used to, but about the time my piece is about to start my breath shortens, my pulse starts racing, my brain goes a million miles an hour…
On Being a Visiting Composer, Part 1: The Rehearsal
I recently dropped in on a band rehearsal for one of my pieces at my alma mater, The University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Things have changed a lot since I graduated over a decade ago. The faculty has changed quite a bit as have the facilities. There is a new performance hall on campus, the Faulkner Performing Arts Center, which is where the rehearsal was happening…
“New Music” TM
In 2018, I stumbled into the Twitter “New Music” scene. Somehow I hadn’t kept up with the contemporary classical scene after leaving college…
Are you playing something by a living composer? Let them know about it!
When I was a band director, you can count the number of times I let a composer know we were playing their piece on one finger, and that was because they came to visit us (and that wasn’t even my idea).
Now that I am composing full time, I think about how much I would appreciate someone letting me know that they are playing my music…
My Daily Composing Routine
When I talk with people about my life as a composer, I am often asked what my routine is from day to day. Well here you go!
That time I played the “Percussion 2” part on Persichetti’s Symphony No. 6
I was just remembering the time that I was tapped to perform one of the percussion parts of Persichetti’s Symphony No. 6… as a trumpet player.