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Monthly Archives: May 2005

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31-May-05

In a reflective tailspin, as I just submitted my ASCAP+ award application. This ritual is an annual taking stock of the year, in the form of a cold listing of performances, commissions, and recordings, for the purposes of begging for a wee bit more coin from my performance rights agency of choice. There it is, [...]

Songs for Silverman

23-May-05

My Ben Folds fandom goes back to the heady days of Ben Folds Five, when every song was a precious Beatles-derived gem, and the last two solo albums have not disappointed. As a rule, I buy his albums, even the EPs and occasional single for download off of the iTunes Music Store, because I am [...]

Pop roundup

23-May-05

I’ve been doing a lot of copying lately, and that means that iTunes is working overtime. So in the Nobrow spirit, I present some Listening Lately: Ben Folds — Songs for Silverman My Ben Folds fandom goes back to the heady days of Ben Folds Five, when every song was a precious Beatles-derived gem, and [...]

17-May-05

AVENUE X is alive—a streaming live recording from one of the many fantastic premiere performances last week in Chicagoland is now online, courtesy of one of the co-commissioners, the excellent Waubonsie Valley H.S. under the direction of Matt Temple. Also uploaded a bonus track: the hands-down grooviest CHUNK performance yet, thanks to the funk-drenched St. [...]

Tubes and Fans

13-May-05

Get up for the downstroke, people, the world gets two Chunk performances, two days in a row. Last night in Illinois, and tonight with Stuart Sims at California State University Stanislaus. Stuart’s performance, on a program titled “The Art of Cool” (a debatable theme to say the least considering that my square butt is included) [...]

Marathon Man, Pt. 2

13-May-05

The games continued Wednesday where at the crack of dawn I begin work with the indefatigable Jim Kull and the ensembles at St. Charles East HS. Jim had arranged a massive (and what I would normally caution against as ill-advised) Newman-Fest, where he programmed FIVE Newman works, including Avenue X … a circumstance which in [...]

Marathon Man

10-May-05

The high schools … my Goodness, the high schools. Since I’ve been touring around the exploding western suburbs of Chicagoland (all Avenue X, all the time) for a week of clinics, classes, and concerts, a side-benefit has been the all-encompassing insider / bird’s-eye view of the state of secondary education in Illinois. With visits to [...]

10-May-05

Marathon Newman in Chicagoland: Addison Trail High School, Batavia High School, Naperville Central High School, Neuqua Valley High School, Oswego High School, Plainfield South High School, St. Charles East High School, Waubonsie Valley High School, Willowbrook High School … all this week, all Avenue X, all the time. Meet the commissioners, give clinics, concerts, and [...]

news 5/3/05

03-May-05

Upcoming performances include more than a week of premieres for Avenue X starting tomorrow in the Chi-town area by The Chicagoland Consortium members, many of which I will be guest conducting next week, and 2 unrelated performances at Cal State University campuses, both within a few days of each other: CSU Long Beach (Joan DeAlbequerque, [...]

Old Home, Pt. 2

01-May-05

It turns out that the oddest part about conducting your high school band 15 years later is not the fact that your classmate (he of the Guns N’ Roses t-shirts and stone-washed jeans) is now the assistant principal. Nor is it suddenly realizing while sitting in the school cafeteria munching on your (discomfortingly familiar-tasting) lunchroom [...]