It seems that I forgot to include the link for the previous post. Here it is.
Cheese Drumset
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Saturday, October 29, 2005
It's made of cheese.
I wish I could find a recording. But the pictures should keep you amazed for now.
It's made of cheese. - a photoset on Flickr
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
And back again
I'm back from the Payton MacDonald Ensemble concert in New Jersey. The concert was quite a success. We have started doing ensemble versions of Payton's SuperMarimba pieces, complete with looping pedals for the flute, violin and viola. We also made some demo recordings to help publicize the ensemble a little better. I'm lucky to be playing with such an amazing ensemble. Payton, John, Courtney and Jessica are incredibly talented and creative musicians, and playing with them always inspires me.
Still suffering from a little jetlag. It's a little after 2:00 in the morning and I am wide awake. I'm going to go watch a really boring infomercial and try to fall asleep.
I'll be busy this week teaching makeup lessons and practicing for the PASIC performance, but I'll try to get some China pictures up in the next day or two. Here's a self portrait of me at the Forbidden City to hold you over until then. Click to enlarge.
Looks like they're getting ready for a softball game. Yellow team vs. the Red and Blue team. I must have left before it started.
Still suffering from a little jetlag. It's a little after 2:00 in the morning and I am wide awake. I'm going to go watch a really boring infomercial and try to fall asleep.
I'll be busy this week teaching makeup lessons and practicing for the PASIC performance, but I'll try to get some China pictures up in the next day or two. Here's a self portrait of me at the Forbidden City to hold you over until then. Click to enlarge.
Looks like they're getting ready for a softball game. Yellow team vs. the Red and Blue team. I must have left before it started.
Friday, October 21, 2005
Back in the US
I'm back from Beijing and I leave again in a few hours for New Jersey. If you are close to William Patterson University on Saturday night, stop in for a little Payton MacDonald Ensemble magic.
Beijing was great. I'll post pics soon.
Blake
Beijing was great. I'll post pics soon.
Blake
Monday, October 17, 2005
Beijing
I'm in Beijing. So far everything has been wonderful. The weather is perfect and the people are great. WE went to the Forbidden City on Sunday morning. I never realized just how big it was. The concert is tonight adn then tomorrow I am heading out for some shopping and a visit to the Temple of Heaven. Maybe some other things as well.
Back in the States on Thursday night. Then to New Jersey for a PME concert.
Blake
Back in the States on Thursday night. Then to New Jersey for a PME concert.
Blake
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
The Conway Symphony concert went well last night. The soloists all sounded wonderful and everone loved Pictures at an Exhibition. I just wish we had had an even bigger gong.
I play the Frank Sinatra, Jr. concert on Thursday night and then it's off to Beijing on Friday morning. Our visas arrived yesterday (finally) so we will actually be able to get into the country.
Only about 12,000 things to do before then.
Blake
I play the Frank Sinatra, Jr. concert on Thursday night and then it's off to Beijing on Friday morning. Our visas arrived yesterday (finally) so we will actually be able to get into the country.
Only about 12,000 things to do before then.
Blake
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Another week
Another busy week! The Percussion Ensemble concert on Thursday night went very well. There was a good crowd and the students did a great job. We premiered a new work by Andrew R. Stout and the crowd loved it. We'll do it one more time on our November 10th concert. I also did a preview performance of the piece I wrote for Spindrift Percussion. I was really happy with how it turned out. A few final touches and I think that it will be ready for the premiere.
The Conway Symphony is sounding great and the concert on Tuesday night should be excellent. Mozart and Pictures at an Exhibition.
I've also been trying to get ready for the China trip and the Payton MacDonald Ensemble concert the following weekend. It seems like there's always plenty of new (and old) music to practice.
I watched The Office "reunion special" last night. Like the original two seasons of the BBC episodes, it was amazing. Ricky Gervais is brilliant. Rent or buy both seasons and the special and watch them. Part II of the reunion is probably the best series finale I've ever seen (well, Newhart was great, but in a different way). Don't miss the special features on the reunion disc. Hilarious stuff.
The Conway Symphony is sounding great and the concert on Tuesday night should be excellent. Mozart and Pictures at an Exhibition.
I've also been trying to get ready for the China trip and the Payton MacDonald Ensemble concert the following weekend. It seems like there's always plenty of new (and old) music to practice.
I watched The Office "reunion special" last night. Like the original two seasons of the BBC episodes, it was amazing. Ricky Gervais is brilliant. Rent or buy both seasons and the special and watch them. Part II of the reunion is probably the best series finale I've ever seen (well, Newhart was great, but in a different way). Don't miss the special features on the reunion disc. Hilarious stuff.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Shining
Here's a link to a clip that should teach you to never trust a movie trailer again. It's The Shining being sold as a romantic comedy. Brilliant work!
The Shining trailer
The Shining trailer
Back in Business
After school started back I just wasn't able to keep things going on a regular basis with the blog. I think that I should be back to more regular postings at this point. Let's catch up.
Most recently, Liana and I gave a recital at UCA. We did four pieces together (Big Tooth Aspen by Halim El-Dabh, Hot Water Burn Baby by Roshanne Etezady, Kembang Suling by Gareth Farr and Intimacy by Halim El-Dabh) and we each did a solo piece (Liana did Air by Toru Takemitsu and I did Sonic No. 7 by Halim El-Dabh). We had a good crowd and as far as we could tell, things went well. A lot of people liked Intimacy. Many said it was their favorite piece. We were glad to hear that because it is such a difficult piece to pull off. Technically it is not that difficult, but the pacing of the work and the interaction between flute and marimba presented us with quite a musical challenge.We rehearsed that piece far more than any other piece on the concert.
We programmed more El-Dabh than we might usually play becuase we leave for China in about two weeks to perform an entire concert of his music at the Central Conservatory in Beijing. It is part of a symposium called "Asia Meets Africa". The entire website for the event is in chinese, but I'll find the link and post it soon.
A word of advice...if you are going to China apply for that visa early. I'm not sure why some countries have to make it so difficult to get in. Chinese visas have to be applied for in person at one of three locations in the country. If you can't go in person you have to hire someone to go for you. We had to send off visa applications, order forms, consulate and service fees and our passports to a company in Houston who will walk everything through and then express mail them back to us later this week. A real pain (and expensive). In China's defense, I think that in many countries it is much harder to get a US visa.
Things at UCA have been busy. I have 11 majors (including 3 grad students) and I'm teaching 6 non-majors as well. Plus 5 hours of percussion ensemble a week and Pedagogy and Rep classes. Add the practicing, composing and travel to the mix and things get pretty crazy. I did finish the new work for solo marimba/percussion and percussion trio. It still needs some minor adjustments, but I'll be doing a "preview performance" on October 6th. I also found out that two students at Rutgers University will be doing my piece Vertical River on their percussion ensemble concert on the 6th. Always exciting to hear in advance that someone is performing your piece. There have been a lot of performances of the work, but I usually don't find out about them until after they have happened.
Today I have a rehearsal all afternoon on Cloud Forest and Bob Becker's Prisoners of the Image Factory. I really like Bob's music a lot. Prisoners is great but I think that my favorite in Turning Point. I will probably program that one or Mudra for one of the spring concerts.
Also on the concert we'll be doing the world premiere of a new work by Andrew R. Stout caled The Lost. If you are close by UCA, come on out at 7:30 this Thursday and check it out.
Later,
Blake
Most recently, Liana and I gave a recital at UCA. We did four pieces together (Big Tooth Aspen by Halim El-Dabh, Hot Water Burn Baby by Roshanne Etezady, Kembang Suling by Gareth Farr and Intimacy by Halim El-Dabh) and we each did a solo piece (Liana did Air by Toru Takemitsu and I did Sonic No. 7 by Halim El-Dabh). We had a good crowd and as far as we could tell, things went well. A lot of people liked Intimacy. Many said it was their favorite piece. We were glad to hear that because it is such a difficult piece to pull off. Technically it is not that difficult, but the pacing of the work and the interaction between flute and marimba presented us with quite a musical challenge.We rehearsed that piece far more than any other piece on the concert.
We programmed more El-Dabh than we might usually play becuase we leave for China in about two weeks to perform an entire concert of his music at the Central Conservatory in Beijing. It is part of a symposium called "Asia Meets Africa". The entire website for the event is in chinese, but I'll find the link and post it soon.
A word of advice...if you are going to China apply for that visa early. I'm not sure why some countries have to make it so difficult to get in. Chinese visas have to be applied for in person at one of three locations in the country. If you can't go in person you have to hire someone to go for you. We had to send off visa applications, order forms, consulate and service fees and our passports to a company in Houston who will walk everything through and then express mail them back to us later this week. A real pain (and expensive). In China's defense, I think that in many countries it is much harder to get a US visa.
Things at UCA have been busy. I have 11 majors (including 3 grad students) and I'm teaching 6 non-majors as well. Plus 5 hours of percussion ensemble a week and Pedagogy and Rep classes. Add the practicing, composing and travel to the mix and things get pretty crazy. I did finish the new work for solo marimba/percussion and percussion trio. It still needs some minor adjustments, but I'll be doing a "preview performance" on October 6th. I also found out that two students at Rutgers University will be doing my piece Vertical River on their percussion ensemble concert on the 6th. Always exciting to hear in advance that someone is performing your piece. There have been a lot of performances of the work, but I usually don't find out about them until after they have happened.
Today I have a rehearsal all afternoon on Cloud Forest and Bob Becker's Prisoners of the Image Factory. I really like Bob's music a lot. Prisoners is great but I think that my favorite in Turning Point. I will probably program that one or Mudra for one of the spring concerts.
Also on the concert we'll be doing the world premiere of a new work by Andrew R. Stout caled The Lost. If you are close by UCA, come on out at 7:30 this Thursday and check it out.
Later,
Blake
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
