What a couple months...

I disappeared for a while. For good reasons, I promise. It's been a crazy month...well, a bit over a month. The basic break down

1) Doctoral Comprehensive Exam- This ate 2 weeks of my life in early October, plus a few weeks prior studying

2) Fulbright application- Turned this puppy in DURING my comps. Yep, I finished my 48 hour essay, had a week of studying for my comprehensive listening test (meaning any piece from any time period, drop the needle style) ahead of me...and what did I do instead? Spent hours almost every night editing and rewriting a Fulbright proposal.

3) eight blackbird side-by-side concert- I organized this bad boy: Found the space, took all the submissions and organized sending them out, did initial judging of each selection (21 entries, done in one night), found the space, negotiated price of space and dealt with logistics, attended rehearsals, helped show 8bb around to all their various coachings (man, their schedule was NUTS!), loaded all the equipment and moved it to the space in a 24' box truck, set it up, tore it down, and then drank...This was a huge project that took lots of help from faculty and students (Shout-out to Joseph Kern for all his work with Musica Nova!)

Won't be doing that again for quite some time!

4) concert with KcEMA at La Esquina, Perceptions and Realities...this was an "easy" one

5) Installed an interactive installation designed with Bobby Zokaites called "The Machine the Sneetches Built," ran the opening, and had to set-up all the tech each morning, then chilled in the gallery in case anyone had questions. This was another huge opportunity thanks to ArtSounds, UMKC Conservatory, UMKC Community Music and Dance Academy, Kansas City Art Institute, and Charlotte Street. It was a resounding success in the community, especially on opening night! There will be photos and video up soon, hopefully.

So, I've been busy. All of these things deserve their own blogposts, and I think I'll get on that. Thanksgiving break starts tonight after we tear down The Machine, so maybe I'll write a bunch and time the posts, or something fancy like that. I mean, that can't be any harder than dealing with WiiMotes

K.A.H!

First off, i've hit 1000 views. doesn't seem like that large a number, but when i started this back in...um...whenever i started it, i never thought that'd happen. or that i'd start averaging over 100 views a month. thanks all. i do wonder how many of you really exist. lol

The trombone concerto has been tabled for the moment. Got a phone call from a buddy of mine demanding i finally finish SOMETHING for him by May. he preferred it be an unaccompanied piece. Aight, i can do that. bye bye concerto which has given me acid reflux. Hello unaccompanied trombone solo!

It's title is K.A.H! I don't normally hit titles first, but this was a must. I'm also a huge fan of acronym names. This one is a double homage- first, to the greatest robot ever fictionally created; Bender. secondly, written in solidarity with everyone else getting royally screwed by the government in the US. Solidarity with Wisconsin in their fight to actually be able to collectively bargain their whole contract, not just their wage (i'm sure they'll lose all benefits soon "to save money." Austerity is BS.). Written in solidarity with those in Michigan that face the possibility of losing local government entirely ("oh, a 3rd party firm decides your town is in a crisis? I (the governor) shall appoint a person in charge of said town, dissolve the government, and give this person totalitarian rule of your town till the 'financial crisis' is over. Bye bye local government, voting, and all public workers!" I do hope they keep one cop around, maybe a fire engine...maybe...).

You can decipher what K.A.H! stands for. I've given a large hint

Later i'll post on content. It led to quite the disagreement. The suggestion was made that i use material from this in my concerto. my answer "that's not really going to work..." this led to about a 15 minute discussion that seriously just went in circles. I hold to my opinion, as it also stems from how i feel about large ensembles (unwieldy cumbersome beasts with coordination issues.). when your theme/basic material is so hard that an elite soloist has difficulty then transferring that to a large ensemble seems...well, pretty damn hard.

especially when you open with multiphonics through a harmon mute. lol