A Ceiling Full of Stars

I've finally gotten around to starting up a real YouTube channel and posting video there. The first video I posted was A Ceiling Full of Stars performed by the UCA Percussion Ensemble. My students gave a wonderful performance of the work.



The work was premiered in Spring of 2009 by the Texas Christian University Percussion Ensemble with Brian West conducting. The video above was recorded just a couple of weeks later.

We also performed the work at the Arkansas Day of Percussion at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. This fall I have been lucky to have had a number of performances of the piece, including one by the LSU Percussion Ensemble at PASIC in Indianapolis. It was also performed by the percussion ensembles at the Eastman School of Music, Ithaca College, the University of South Carolina, East Central Oklahoma University, Florida State University, the University of Georgia, the University of Central Florida, Northwestern University and Jacksonville State University. I'm excited that there are also quite a few performances scheduled for the spring.

In addition to the live performances, there are two great recordings of the work coming out soon. On December 1st the TCU Percussion Ensemble's recording of A Ceiling Full of Stars will be released on their CD Escape Velocity. In the spring of 2010 the FSU Percussion Ensemble, under the direction of John Parks, will release it on their CD Ten Windows. You can get a preview of that recording by heading over to my website.

A Ceiling Full of Stars, along with most of my other compositions, is now available from Steve Weiss Music.