Thanks to Linda, Robin and Rob for giving such a beautiful concert last night! It’s great to have this ensemble itching to do new compositions. Bravo!
Thanks, Animé BOP!
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OGC Rehearsal for Reflexions
I was at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Pittsburgh recording the dress rehearsal for the Oakland Girls Chamber Choir performance on Saturday night. The choir, ensemble, and magnificent soprano Laura Very sounded terrific. Back when I was freelancing as a trombonist I performed at First Pres, but it had been a long time, and I’d forgotten how unique the acoustic is there. You expect a large stone church to be very washy, but as music director Anne Smith explained to me, this church was designed around the minster being heard easily from the pulpit at every point in the sanctuary. The result is that text projects with absolute clarity so it’s a wonderful place to sing!
The mics on the stand are a pair of Rode NT2-As in a Blumlein array. I don’t see many people using a Blumlein pair, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. You get the stable stereo image of a coincident pair and some of the roominess of a spaced omni pair, but with just the two mics. The NT2-A is extremely flat in figure eight mode, so it’s very nice for capturing acoustic music. I experimented with using various spot mics over the course of the rehearsal, but by far the best sound in this venue and with these musicians was just the simple stereo pair, so that’s what we’ll do on Saturday night.
Speaking of Oakland Girls Choir…
Pittsburgh School for the Choral Arts, parent organization for Oakland Girls Choir, just published their new Web site, including some tracks from a live recording I made of OGCs’ 2012 Christmas concert. The whole concert will be on a CD to be released next fall, but in the meantime, you can hear some excerpts here.
There are many fine musical moments from this performance, but one of my favorites is Rise up Shepherd by Mark Hayes. It features all three choirs together, from the youngest first graders to the seniors in high school. You really hear the progression and maturation of the girls’ voices, where they started and where they are headed, and yet it’s wonderful and energizing at every level.
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Animé BOP! Screens Virgil Cantini Film, Performs my Score
| April 14, 2013 | ||
| 7:00 pm |
Bellefield Hall Auditorium, Free
L-R: Linda Fisher, bassoon; Robin Driscoll, oboe; Rob Frankenberry, piano
I’m delighted that Pittsburgh trio Animé BOP! will screen Will Zavala’s film Virgil Cantini: The Artist in Public while performing my score for said film live. Will and I have been working closely with Animé BOP! bassoonist Linda Fisher to make some minor revisions to the film and the music so that it’s more suitable to a concert setting. It will run abut 8 1/2 minutes total and include many familiar scenes around the city, clips from Mr. Roger’s neighborhood, and some wonderful glimpses into Cantini’s studio. In short, it’s a film that is truly steeped in Pittsburgh’s cultural life.
Will and I first collaborated in 2009 on the film about Cantini, the founder of Pitt’s Studio Arts program whose sculptures occupy prominent places around the Pittsburgh cityscape. The impetus for the film was the ongoing Artists on Film project cosponsored by Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and we’re delighted that it continues to hold appeal and find new audiences.
Animé BOP! is calling the concert The Pittsburgh Composers and along with Will’s film and my score, it will include Nancy Galbraith’s Incantation & Allegro, James Ogburn’s Complements and Collisions, the premieres of eX (e to the x) by Mark S. Fromm and Semplicemente by Noah Rectenwald, and Robert Frankenberry’s arrangement of Daron Aric Hagen’s Tryst.
I hope you can make it!
Oakland Girls Chamber Choir: Reflexions
I’ll be recording this for Oakland Girls Chamber Choir. These young ladies are amazing musicians. I hope you can come to the concert!
Hot Pick!
Mark Kanny, of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has selected IonSound Project as a hot pick for the weekend of March 8–10. I couldn’t agree more! Thanks to Jack Kurutz for grabbing this image.
The droids you’re looking for…
| March 9, 2013 | ||
| 7:00 pm |
Detail from one of Garth Zeglin’s robotic fabric sculptures for Separate Self.
My newest project, a collaboration with IonSound Project and roboticist/sculptor Garth Zeglin, will premiere on Saturday, March 9, at Bellefield Hall in Oakland. This is Part II of IonSound’s CreatION Sound series with the first installment featuring music by Patrick Burke and Jeremy Boyle’s robotic drum. The project Garth and I created is called Separate Self and features three of Garth’s robotic sculptures basically dancing to the music I wrote. I think you’re going to like it a lot.
My first and lasting impression of Garth Zeglin’s robotic fabric sculptures is that they are elegant and graceful creatures who move beautifully and expressively. I created the music for Separate Self with a clear idea of how the robots would move (thanks to computer simulations Garth shared with me early in the design stage), but also with the thought that many different kinds of entities—including humans—could move to this music and enjoy doing so.
IonSound commissioned Separate Self with the support of a Spark Award from the Sprout Fund. This concert is also the culmination of a series of educational workshops with the Falk and Waldorf schools, and will involve student performers and their created instruments and compositions.
I’m always grateful for the opportunity to work with the marvelous musicians of IonSound Project and for the chance to collaborate with Garth. And I’m particularly grateful to the Sprout Fund for supporting the entire CreatION Sound project.
Tickets in advance: General admission is $12; students and seniors, are $8. Call 412-422-8042 for advance tickets. At the door: general admission is $15; students and seniors are $10. Children 12 and under are free.
Video from the Duffy Institute
It’s hard to believe I got back from Norfolk and 2 1/2 weeks at the Duffy Institute just a little over a month ago. Recently, a wonderful video and article produced by Jake Runestad was featured on New Music Box. The video introduces all the composer fellows, our music, and our thoughts about the institute. I show up around 4:02, but you’ll want to watch the whole thing. Without a doubt, one of the best parts about this year’s experience was the opportunity to dig into 6 other new works in great detail and talk about them with the composers.
Scenes from Final Battle for Love at Virginia Arts Festival
| June 4, 2012 | ||
| 7:30 pm |
Chandler Hall, Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center
Old Dominion University
Free
On June 4th in Norfolk, the John Duffy Composers Institute Singers and members of the Virginia Symphony will perform scenes from the world’s finest baroque-metal professional wrestling opera, The Final Battle for Love. I’ve written a brand new scene titled “The Battle Before the Final Battle” and I’ve revised the scene “Starla.” I’m very excited about the new scene because it means that we get to know all the main characters very early on in the opera.
By way of preview, this will be a concert presentation rather than staged with piano. Also on the program is Jake Runestad’s The Toll. Both pieces will be played twice with discussion in between each performance featuring comments by the iconic John Duffy, Robert Cross (director of the Virginia Arts Festival), and music director Alan Johnson.
The World is Safe for Opera Once Again
- Click for a larger image.
Completed the new scene for Final Battle this week. Rockin’ Robbie holding off Bob Noxious while Lord Poetry prepares to recite a sonnet to Darling Donnis (Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116). This is text I’ve been wanting to set for a long time (the Bob Noxious line, that is).