Listening Journal: September 21-27, 2009

Kaija Saariaho - Je sens un duxiéme Coeur (2003) for piano, viola and cello
Olivier Messiaen - Chronochromie (1960) for orchestra
Max Bruch - Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, op. 26 (1868)
Olivier Messiaen - Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus (1944) for piano - X. Regard de l'Espirit de joie
Iannis Xenakis - Dmaathen (1977) for flute and percussion
Walter Hartley - Metamorphosis (1975) for clarinet and piano
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Sonata in A Major (1787) for violin and piano

Lessons learned this summer

This summer was by far the busiest I have experienced compositionally.  From May to August I received six performances on my music.  Only three different pieces were performed, but each were performed twice.  As can be expected there was a wide range in the quality of these performances.  However, this year I did have some top-notch professionals playing my music.  The Avenue Winds performed my woodwind quintet Visions of a Landscape in two performances (June 6th and July 18th).  Violinist Philip Santos performed my violin piece also in two performances (May 18th and August 22nd).  Both sets of performances were great.  I am really happy to have had these high-quality performances.  These are recordings that I am willing to go back and listen.

As a student, I relied on student performers who would give good, but not great performances.  It is not that they are incapable of such, but at that point they are too busy with school and other commitments to really learn the piece.  Also, most of these performances we done for free or for food.

This was really only the second or third time I paid someone to play one of my pieces.  In the past I was always hesitant because I was afraid that I would be paying for a mediocre performance.  I have come to realize that the performers will do their best with a piece they are hired to play.  Their reputation is as much at stake as mine.  Basically, if they want more work, then they will do a good job.  I am very pleased with the performances by the Avenue Winds and Philip Santos.  I now have a couple of great recordings of my music.  This is a lesson well learned.

Performance blog: 7th Annual Festival of Contemporary Music - August 22, 2009

Each year fellow composer, John Bilotta and I organize and run the Festival of Contemporary Music (FCM).  Every season we host two concerts in the summer.  The 7th Annual FCM was scheduled for Saturdays August 8th and 22nd at the San Francisco Community Music Center.  I founded this Festival in 2003, in part, as a vehicle for my music.

This year I programmed my violin piece Glimpses of the Moon.  After I heard Philip Santos perform this piece at the Seventh Annual Glenn Glasow Memorial Concert I knew I wanted him to play my piece at the FCM.  Fortunately, Philip graciously agreed.  He was eager to have another crack at this piece.

The plan was to work with him a couple of times over the summer, but even the best laid plans can fall by the wayside.  This did not take away from the performance.  Philip did a masterful job working his way through the unmetered phrases.  He took charge of the piece and made it his own without ignoring my intent.  I could not ask for a better performance under these circumstances.

The next step is to find the time and the money to record this piece with Philip.

What I Did on my Summer Vacation Part 2 (July & August 2009)

By the time July 1st rolled around summer was half over and four of my six scheduled performances had occurred.  As a matter of fact June 7th until July 17th was the slow period compositionally for me.  I mean, I had a lot to do to prepare for the 7th Annual Festival of Contemporary Music, but I did not have any performances lined up and I did not do much, if any, composing.  The was due in part to the fact that for the second summer in a row my wife and I moved.  This was not exactly what we planned on doing this summer, but with my promotion and transfer to Stockton, CA (about 40 miles away from Modesto) it was a necessary evil.

My next performance this summer took place on Saturday, July 18th at the 2009 San Francisco Chamber Wind Festival.  The Avenue Winds were set to premiere my woodwind quintet Visions of a Landscape.  All five movements were performed on this concert.  Prior to the concert photographer Micheal Vickers and I set up a display of the five photographs we used in this collaboration.  This display was setup so that people could view the photos on the way into or out of the concert hall.  All-in-all the concert was wonderful.  The performances were great and I am very pleased about how my piece turned out.  For more thoughts and details about the Festival check out the Performance Blog entry about this concert (posted September 22nd).

Two weeks after the San Francisco Chamber Wind Festival the 7th Annual Festival of Contemporary Music began.  The FCM is my pet project.  The Festival began in 2003 and this year was entering its 7th season.  This year we were hosting two concerts, the 9th and 10th concerts in the Festival's history.  The two concerts occurred on Saturdays August 8th and 22nd.  This year we decided to space out the two concerts by two weeks for two primary reasons.  The first is to give us a little rest between events.  Also, and more importantly, we thought that there is a greater chance for returning audience members if the concerts were spaced out.  I think that it worked.  The audience for the concert on August 22nd was at least as big as on the 8th.  It seemed to me that the audience may have been bigger (more on that in a future posting).

August 22nd also saw my last performance of the summer.  Philip Santos performed, once again, my violin piece Glimpses of the Moon at the 7th Annual Festival of Contemporary Music.  The performance was great.  I could tell that he was really starting to better understand the piece.  Philip's performance was full of nuance and subtlety.  I am very happy with the way this performance turned out.

So this was my summer.  It was very busy, productive, exciting and eye-opening.  This period of time was the first in which I was really glad my wife and I moved down to California from Oregon last summer.

Website Updates

As a composer, more often than not you have to do everything for your music except perform the piece.  However, there are many times where the composer plays his or her own piece.  While there is value to that, I feel that it is more rewarding to have someone else interpret and perform my music.

One aspect of being a composer that I neglect or have difficulty maintaining is my public relations.  Until recently I did not make the extra effort to establish connections and solicit performances of my music.  One aspect of my PR that I have been spending a lot of time on lately is my website.  I recently came across "Yahoo Media Player" a module for my website that has made streaming audio much more manageable.

As a result I decided to give my personal website a facelift.  I am trying to give it its own identity that is different than New Music Forum.  I have been uploading numerous mp3s, pdfs of scores and pictures.  My hope is that it will act as an agent of sorts for my music.  This site will give people the opportunity to explore my music and possibly create more performance opportunities for me.

Here is a link to my website: http://newmusicforum.com/BrianBice/BrianBice/tabid/56/Default.aspx. A permanent link is located on the left.

Performance blog: San Francisco Chamber Wind Festival - July 18, 2009

I was fortunate this year to have a piece selected for performance at the 2009 San Francisco Chamber Wind Festival.  This Festival is put on every year by John Bilotta and takes place at the San Francisco Conservatory.  There are two ensembles-in-residence at the Festival: Avenue Winds and ChamberMix.  The Avenue Winds is a woodwind quintet that performs a many different concerts each year throughout the Bay Area.  As you may recall, this is the same ensemble that performed the 3rd and 5th movements of Visions of a Landscape on June 6th.  ChamberMix is a mixed ensemble consisting of approximately 6 performers.  This group is founded and run by Martha Stoddard, who also plays flute in this group.

The piece of mine that was selected for inclusion at this year's Festival was Visions of a Landscape.  This piece is the result of a collaboration with photographer Micheal Vickers.  The Avenue Winds performed all five movements of my piece at this concert.  This performance was scheduled prior to the Avenue Winds/NACUSAsf concert on June 6th.  When I found out about the NACUSAsf concert I submitted Visions because the ensemble was already going to learn my piece.  If I could get another performance, then why not?

As a whole the Festival was great!  All of the performances were of high quality.  Another great thing about the Festival was that most of the composers were in attendance.  The Avenue Winds did an amazing job performing my quintet.  It is very gratifying to have professionals perform my music.  As I mentioned in my blog entry about the June 6th concert, it is such a great feeling to hear an ensemble accurately perform a fast movement at the indicated tempo.  Now, I would like to add that it is satisfying to hear a high-quality performance of my music whether it is fast, slow or in between.  This is a valuable lesson I learned this summer.  Not only with this piece, but with other pieces as well, but that is for another blog entry.

This was just another great experience I had this summer.  There were many good pieces performed on the Festival.  One that sticks out in my mind is a solo bassoon piece by Bruno Siberchicot called Chamans.  This along with another another piece I heard later in the summer has really inspired me and given me ideas for future projects (again I am getting ahead of myself).  As I look back, I think this summer will prove to be a huge step forward in my career.

Performance blog: UCSC Flute Studio Recital - June 5, 2009

On Friday, June 5, 2009 the UCSC Flute Choir undertook, once again, Shadows of Dreams.  The performance was a part of the the Flute Studio Recital.  This was one of the rare times in which I did not attend the performance of one of my pieces.  My wife and I had already made the two and a half hour journey to Santa Cruz twice in the span of a week.  One time for a rehearsal and once for the premiere.  I did not have the time, or the money, to travel once again to hear them play my piece, though I kind of wish I could have.  I did receive the recording so I was able to hear this performance.

Upon listening to this recording it was clear that it was not as strong of a performance as the one on June 2nd.  The concert took place at the end of the school year and I could tell that fatigue was setting in.  All in all I will say that I am not disappointed with the whole experience.  I had a lot of fun composing the piece, meeting the performers and hearing the performances.  Thank you Greer Ellison and the UCSC Flute Choir. 

A look ahead at some Fall projects

In trying to get motivated to compose again after a long, busy and sometimes stressful summer, I have been thinking ahead to what projects and pieces I will work on in the coming months.  The first thing I am going to do is complete Dream Cycle.  In previous posts I have noted that I am currently setting the text Mutability by Percy Bysshe Shelley.  In the cycle I have already set A Dream by Edgar Allen Poe and Echo by Christina Georgina Rossetti.  I am also considering 2 additional short texts by Walt Whitman I Dream'd in a Dream and A Clear Midnight as interlude songs, songs to fit in between the 3 main texts.

My next project will be an orchestration of my large chamber ensemble piece Playing in the Shadows.  The idea for this project came from a call for scores for the 2010 New Music @ ECU Festival.  Normally, I do not compose anything for a specific call for scores.  To me it does not seem like a good idea.  If a piece I am composing or want to compose happens to fit a call for scores, then I will consider submitting it.  For example, there is a call for scores that would be good for Dream Cycle so I am going to consider submitting to that call.  Also, I want to do this orchestration project because I have been wanting to revisit this piece and this is a good way for me to do so.

There are other projects/compositions I am thinking about working on.  Right now these are the two that I will be working on in the immediate future.