Copley Plaza, after hearing Ann Patchett at BPL
It’s cold in the house now, but sometimes the temp gets above 60 in the sun, so there’s still good walking around weather. School is one month in, and concerts have started as well.
Mid-summer brought some nice performances, in the Vigorous Tenderness series in southern Maine, and at the Bar Harbor music festival. You can hear a clip of the latter piece on my Vimeo page, and the performance was great to hear in the Criterion Theatre on Mt. Desert, with a chamber orchestra accompanying Allison Kiger. Allison had commissioned two versions of this piece, one for trio and one for string orchestra, and she’s played both over the past two summers.
Criterion Theatre
Just a couple weeks ago, I premiered a piece for bass clarinet and video called “Turtle Crossing,” whose subject I described in the summer post below. A basic demo of the piece is also on Vimeo, and I hope to post a live recording soon.
One large project happening this semester is a UMaine residency with Danny Holt, a pianist now living east of here instate. He is working with my students in this semester’s composition course, and will play their short works for his special piano-plus-percussion setup, a unique opportunity for everyone.
The students need to think about choreography for both Danny’s hands and feet…
So, November will be busy, between Danny’s concert and my gigs playing bass clarinet with the Bangor Symphony. Lots of notes in the Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis, I will confirm. Davy was surprised to hear those coming from the practice room.
Hoping the weather stays warm enough to delay turning on the (oil) heat…
