Performance blog: NACUSAsf Avenue Winds Concert - June 6, 2009

The Avenue Winds premiered the 3rd and 5th movements of my woodwind quintet Visions of a Landscape on Saturday, June 6, 2009 at the Portola Valley Presbyterian Church in Portola Valley.  Portola Valley is just west of Stanford University.  The members of the Avenue Winds include Melanie Keller, flute and piccolo, Jessica Boelter, oboe, Ricki Nelson, clarinet, Charles Moehnke, bassoon and Cathleen Torres, horn.  A fun fact about this group is that I am friends with Cathleen and we went to undergrad at Cal State Hayward.

The whole concert included movements of 11 different pieces from members of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Association of Composers, USA (NACUSA).  Overall, the Avenue Winds did an amazing job presenting a variety of works.  It is not easy putting together 1 or 2 pieces of new music, but presenting a concert of new/recent works is an unbelievable feat!  My piece was 2nd on the program.  This performance ranks up there as one of the best performances of one of my pieces.  The only other performance that can compare is my cello piece Lines in the Sand performed by Gabrielle Arness at my doctoral recital in 2005.  That was an amazing performance.

I am excited and eager to hear this piece performed in its entirety on Saturday, July 18, 2009 by the Avenue Winds.  I was really excited when they performed the fast movement (5th movement) at the tempo I indicated.  In my experience the faster movements are usually performed slower than indicated and even then the performance is not always accurate.

This is a piece I am really excited about not only because it is being performed by an amazing group, but it is also a collaboration with a good friend of mine and Bay Area photographer Micheal Vickers.  A few years ago Micheal and I discussed the idea of collaborating; my music with his photos.  Visions of a Landscape is the resultant piece.  The five movements are based on five pictures of a similar theme: landscapes.  I enjoyed collaborating with Micheal and I hope we can do it again. 

Listening Journal: June 1-7, 2009

UC Santa Cruz Chamber Music Concert (the part I stayed for) - June 2, 2009

Stepan Rak - Rumba (?) for guitar quartet

William Boyce - Symphony No. 4 - 1st movement (1760) arranged for flute quartet (by Martin Melicharek III)

Brian Bice - Shadows of Dreams (2009) for flute quartet

Kaija Saariaho - New Gates - CD

Cendres (1991/96) for flute, cello and piano

Grammaire des Rêves (1988-89) for soprano, contralto. 2 flutes, harp, viola and cello

Solar (1997) for flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, 2 percussion, harp, piano/sampler, synthesizer, violin, viola and bass

New Gates (1996) for flute, harp and viola

NACUSAsf - Avenue Winds Concert - June 6, 2009 (woodwind quintet)

Nancy Bloomeer Deussen - Woodwind Quintet (1965) - Intermezzo; Waltz

Brian Bice - Visions of a Landscape (2008) - III. Foggy Landscape; V. Seashore

L. Peter Deutsch - Love in the Afternoon (2008)

John Beeman - Adagio and Dance for Woodwinds (?) - I. Adagio

Dale Victorine - Two Mountain Scenes (2008) - Allegro-Mount Hamilton

Greg Steinke - Wind River Country (1986) - IV. Sacagawea

Adrienne Albert - Animalogy (n.) (2007)

Anne Baldwin - Wind Quintet #1 (?) - IV. Allegro Moderato

Robert Stine - Three Pieces for Wind Quintet (2009): I. Allegretto

Stan McDaniel - Across the River (2009)

Sondra Clark - Postcards from Yosemite (?)

Performance blog: UCSC Chamber Music Concert - June 2, 2009

On June 2, 2009 the UC Santa Cruz Flute Choir presented the premiere performance of my Shadows of Dreams. The ensemble consisted of Cheyenne Montalbin, 1st flute, Sarah Hughes and Nick Ross 2nd flutes, Lisa Ryland, alto flute and Hilary Armstrong, bass flute. The ensemble sis a really good job with my piece. This is a piece that demands that the performers be versatile as it requires different playing styles in the various moods.

The whole concert was a mix of the different chamber groups on campus. The ensembles ranged from guitar quartet to a bass quartet. Unfortunately, I was unable to stay through the whole concert. My wife and I had to leave after my piece was performed because we had about a two and a half hour drive to get home.

I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised with the performance. In a previous entry I talked about the final rehearsal prior to this concert. The ensemble suffered from balance and intonation issues. Fortunately during the performance some of those issues were fixed. The ensemble sounded more balanced and phrases that stuck out in the rehearsal blended better in the concert hall.

All-in-all this was a very positive experience for me. I wish I could be there on June 5th as the ensemble is scheduled to play the piece again at the flute studio concert. I trust that they will do as good of a job. Greer has promised to get me a recording of both performances so we will see.

I would like to thank Greer Ellison for the opportunity to write Shadows of Dreams. I hope to work with her in the future.

Listening Journal: May 25-31, 2009

Edgard Varése - Intégrales (1925) for chamber ensemble

Frank La Rocca - Divertimento (1990) for 2 piano

Frnak La Rocca - Meditation (1991) for piano

Anton Webern - Four Pieces for violin and piano, op. 7 (1910)

Kaija Saariaho - Laconisme de l'aile (1982) for flute

Kaija Saariaho - Noa Noa (1991) for flute and electronics

Kaija Saariaho - Adjö (1982) for soprano/percussion, flute and guitar

Kaija Saariaho - Caliban's Dream (1993) for baritone, clarinet, mandolin, guitar, harp and contrabass

Kaija Saariaho - Du Gick, flög (1982) for soprano and piano

Rehearsal Blog: Shadows of Dreams - May 28, 2009

My wife and I made the 2-1/2 hour trek from Modesto to Santa Cruz for a rehearsal of my flute quartet Shadows of Dreams.  I really did not know what to expect from the ensemble.  The are a wide range of abilities and levels in the group.  I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised that by the end of the rehearsal the group was playing together as a cohesive unit.  I could tell that they are excited about performing my piece.

I was warned in advance by Greer Ellison, the ensemble director, that the tempos were going to be taken faster than indicated.  The tempos were being performed by about 20 beats.  Of course as the composer I was hesitant at such a dramatic change, but I figured that if it was going to give me a better performance, then it would be fine.  I would rather have a good performance at a faster tempo then a mediocre performance at the slower tempo.

When I arrived, Greer and the ensemble were excited to meet me.  I have to admit that this was the first time I came to a rehearsal as a "guest artist."  I was flattered by how nice everyone was and how receptive they were to my comments.

Like most rehearsals this one started off rough.  The ensemble did not have time to warm up and that was apparent.  After a while the group started to get better.  Balance and intonation were problematic at times, but that is the case with most young performers.  The group has been working with a student conductor.  Which is good because there are some timing issues that would be difficult for a young ensemble without a conductor.  Unfortunately, the conductor had to leave half way through the rehearsal.  At that point Greer took over the conducting duties.

While she was conducting, Greer inadvertently took the tempos slower than they had been rehearsing.  It was at this point when everything seemed to click.  Phrasing became smoother and the mood and feeling of the piece started to show through.  The students even commented on how they started to understand the piece better.

I wish there were one or two more rehearsals before the concert on June 2nd.  That is always the way.  Hopefully the group will communicate with the conductor about slowing the tempo before the dress rehearsal.  I am confident that they will do a good job with my piece.  I am looking forward to the concert.  I am also looking forward to possibly working with Greer on future projects.

Dream Cycle

In previous posts I mentioned that I am now working on the 3rd song for Dream Cycle for alto voice and piano.  I wanted to take the opportunity to give some background about the piece.

This piece began in 2002.  After I completed my master's thesis I needed something else to work on.  In a conversation I had with my friend Nicole Davis it was suggested that I compose some songs for her.  We decided on the following texts:

A Dream by Edgar Allen Poe

Echo by Christina Georgina Rossetti

Mutability by Percy Bysshe Shelley

A Dream was composed in Spring 2002.  Echo composed in Spring 2006 was completed on May 26, 2006.  Now it is Spring 2009 and I have started on Mutability.  I have a couple other texts in mind for more songs.  It all depends on how this one goes and how the cycle shapes up as to whether or not I compose more songs.  Either way, I will finally finish my Dream Cycle.

Working out the introduction

I spent some time today working on the introduction to the 3rd song of Dream Cycle.  The text I am using is Mutability by Percy Bysshe Shelley.  I have been stuck on the idea that I need to compose a song with a faster tempo.  The first song, A Dream, has a tempo of a quarter note = 56.  The next song, Echo, has a tempo of a quarter note = 68.  I tried working on some ideas with a tempo of approximately a quarter note = 108.  I could not envision how I would be able to develop these sketches.  

I ended up slowing the tempo down a bit to a quarter note = 90 and I was able to do more with the sketches.  I was able to compose the introduction to this song.  It took me a while to settle on the order of the ideas.  I tried the fragments out in different combinations to see which I liked the best.  My next task is to push forward and work on the vocal part.  I envision the melody using slower rhythmic values, sitting on top of the quicker moving accompaniment.