I’m spending long days on the orchestration of the new piece. I had been worried that it was going to be a really tricky scoring job, but it’s not so bad, because the “short score” was pretty-much a full score. My mother is coming to visit for a few days starting on Wednesday night, so I’m hoping to finish the score by then, but that may be a little optimistic.

It now looks like I’ll have either two or three performances at Midwest this December — one on Wednesday, and two on Thursday. Those are ideal schedule slots, as it means Shattinger Music will have at least a full day to sell scores after even my last performance, and I’ll have just as long to schmooze. I’m a fan of the schmoozing.

This is still up in the air because directors are permitted to change their programs until September 15, but as of the moment, two groups have programmed works — “Turbine” and “Strange Humors” — and a third group may do “Redline Tango.” That third group has it reserved, which prevents any other ensemble from programming it, but no word has come officially from the ensemble. If that one happens, it will be huge. I’m not saying anything else about it until I know for sure, so as not to jinx it.

One little bit of exciting programming news is that the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra of Norway will perform the orchestra version of “Redline Tango” on October 5, conducted by Andrew Litton. This will make a total of three different orchestras who will have performed the work, all thanks to Litton. (Litton did the piece with the Dallas Symphony in 2004, and the Minnesota Orchestra in 2005.) I think I’m going to print some “Andrew Litton Rules” T-shirts.