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Category Archives: commentary

for MJS

08-Sep-14

Last month, my wife of 12 years passed away after to a year-long illness with breast cancer. While my friends and family have provided a constant flow of emotional support, many have also asked what they can tangibly do to contribute to her memory. With that in mind, please see below, forward, share, and accept [...]

Semper Fi

10-Mar-14

On Feb. 2, 2014 at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center in Alexandria, VA, the President’s Own Marine Band conducted by Maj. Jason K. Fettig played the bejeezus out of Chunk. Someone who works for the government was smart enough to record it, and the Marines are quick enough on their feet [...]

Auteur

13-Jun-13

Look! I made a bouncing ball! This performance was so remarkable, I had to do something special with it. My heartfelt thanks to Maestro Richard Clary, the Florida State University Wind Orchestra, and all the co-commissioners of the wind transcription of Blow It Up, Start Again.

Architecture Dancing

08-Nov-12

Last year my friend Peter Flint, the composer and Director of Avian Orchestra, called to commission These Inflected Tentacles, as part of a program on Botony he was putting together called “Vegetative States.” I was thrilled to do it, as my first piece for them, The Vinyl Six (for a program centering on rock-based chamber [...]

Louder. More Blow Up-y.

11-Oct-12

When I started working on Blow It Up, Start Again last year I swore I wouldn’t transcribe it for winds. I had just come off a string of large-ish band pieces, and had convinced myself I needed a break from thinking about saxophones. In fact, I went out of my way to make the thing [...]

45.4818, -122.6005

29-Aug-12

New longitude…new attitude. And a new normal. So, that happened. They tell me that after 18 years of living in New York City, we moved to beautiful Portland, Oregon. I wouldn’t know. I’m too busy looking for the corner bodega so I can buy overpriced and spoiled milk. It was a harrowing 6 months of [...]

WFMT Introductions

13-Jun-12

If you’re looking for something to take up your precious bandwidth, stream this; the WFMT broadcast of the Orchestra Hall concert last month: “Introductions”, on Chicago’s WFMT, 98.7FM My segment with CYSO’s premiere of Blow It Up, Start Again comes at around 18′. They broadcasted three of the pieces, including The Great Joel Puckett’s glorious [...]

Anarchy Now

06-Jun-12

Take trip through the waveform in the recording of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra’s fabulous premiere performance of Blow It Up, Start Again in Orchestra Hall last month.

Getting excited…

07-May-12

La Vida Twitter

18-Apr-12

Reading from the bottom up, it’s kind of my entire life for the last five years…in Tweets: All My Tweets My favorite bits include the large gap at the birth of my daughter, a live-tweeted 100-mile bike ride completely devoid of hashtags or any other identifying labels so that anyone could know what the hell [...]