I just got a call from Robert Battle. Turns out we got a grant from the American Music Center to have live music for his upcoming New York season, and there’s even enough left over for the company to commission a score from me. So, keep an eye on this space for updates on that!

Robert also told me about this new review of “Mass.”

In other news… After much thought and writer’s block, I’ve sort of abandoned The Alamo Polka. I couldn’t come up with an intelligent way to mix cowboy music and polka without the piece becoming excessively jokey. (A friend also pointed out that he, not even being Texan, was somewhat offended by the title.)

So, with AEJ’s help, we have a new idea.

I still want to write a polka, but rather than mixing it with cowboy music, I’m going to mix polka with Middle Eastern music.

What’s the result?

“Lawrence Welk of Arabia”

We’ll see where this takes us…