(text by Rev. Randolph W.B. Becker, set to music by Adolphus Hailstork ( Read more... )

May 16, 2011 ( Read more... )

May 12, 2011

I am conducting both of the performances of the Young Artist Competition winners with Symphony on the Bay at the end of this month. The two pieces being played are the first movements of the Mozart bassoon concerto and Marjan Mozetich’s “Affairs of the Heart”, concerto for violin. In rehearsal without the soloists, the Mozart came ( Read more... )

The monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat is an impressive site in so many ways. The monastery is located probably close to 1km above the valley floor, most of the way up the Montserrat peak. It is built on the side of the mountain face that looks out upon the whole valley, and despite the other hills around it you can see for miles. The monastery ( Read more... )

Today's post is going to be relatively short, because as I start this, we're five hours away from our wake-up. Tomorrow we cross the border into Spain, and spend most of the day on the bus, travelling first to Montserrat and its famous monastery, and finally to Barcelona ( Read more... )

January 25, 2011

This article (I can't figure out whether it was originally from the NY Times or the Bay Citizen, but it was shared on Twitter by @ericwhitacre) is a look at an interesting new way of commissioning a piece. Commissions can get ridiculously expensive (they usually make up the bulk of the income of a composer who survives solely on ( Read more... )

January 16-17, 2011

This "guest article", posted in lieu of the usually entertaining comics at Tone Deaf, makes some really good points. Although it's not the cleanest writing I've ever seen, it does hit home with a lot of things that orchestras continue to do that are contributing to their obsolescence. Or are they? There are some orchestras that ( Read more... )

January 12, 2011 ( Read more... )

January 8, 2011 ( Read more... )

January 7, 2011

In preparing for this spring's conducting appearances, I made a trip to the CMC yesterday to buy a copy of Marjan Mozetich's violin concerto, "Affairs of the Heart", which I had specifically asked to conduct in Symphony Hamilton's May concert, in which it was decided I would conduct both concerto competition winners. This was ( Read more... )