Fall ’11 travel and such

I recently finished “Drum Music,” my new percussion concerto.  (Did you read the huge post about the creation of the middle movement?) Now I’m trying to make a piano reduction of my Soprano Sax Concerto.  I get a lot of requests for this (as in, more than two?), and also for a piano reduction for “Harvest: Concerto for Trombone,” and these both seemed like impossible requests.  How do you reduce things like a percussion break to solo piano?  I’ve no idea, but that’s the current task.  I managed to do the piano reduction for the third movement of the sax concerto, “Metal,” inside of a day, but that’s the easy movement to reduce.  Next up, I’ll try the second movement, “Felt.”

I’ve finally updated the Travel and Performances pages of the site. If you’re doing one of the non-rental pieces, please email me to let me know when, and I’ll add your concert to the list. (I only know performance information for the rental catalog.)

The fall travel begins in a few weeks. Here’s where I’ll be…

September 27-28 : Downers Grove South High School in Chicago. In a first, I’ll be working not only with their wind ensemble as they prepare “Kingfishers Catch Fire,” but also with their marching band, whose show consists of “Hymn to a Blue Hour,” “Kingfishers Catch Fire,” and “Strange Humors.”

October 9-12 : Tennessee Tech University. Eric Willie, the percussion professor there, will give the world premiere performance of “Drum Music,” my new percussion concerto, with Joseph Hermann and the wind ensemble.

October 16-20 : Miami University of Ohio. They’re doing “Kingfishers Catch Fire,” “Asphalt Cocktail,” and “Hymn to a Blue Hour.”

November 2-6 : University of Minnesota Duluth. This is a big festival with multiple ensembles, and among them, they’re performing “Redline Tango,” “Hymn to a Blue Hour,” “Strange Humors,” “Xerxes,” “Sasparilla,” “Kingfishers Catch Fire,” and “Foundry.” That is probably way too much me.

December 5-7 : Temple University. This trip will include performances of “Harvest: Concerto for Trombone” and “Hymn to a Blue Hour.” The soloist for “Harvest” will be Nitzan Haroz, Principal Trombone for the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Comments

Daniel De Kok says

With regard to Harvest, I think it would be reasonable to reduce the Brass and Woodwind parts for piano four hands or two pianos, leave the percussion parts intact, and present it as a small ensemble piece. Just a thought.

Johnathan Doerr says

Thank you so much for working on the reduction for your Soprano Concerto! It's such a relief to me. It makes the piece much more achievable for me to put together and enter into a competition.

Glenn Dawson says

Yet, anyone capable of actually performing Harvest would have access to a full wind ensemble, so why reduce the score? It was colored the way it is for a reason.

C says

I think you should come out to California, San Jose in particular. The San Jose State wind ensemble does one of your pieces almost every semester. IIRC, they're doing Hymn to a Blue Hour for their first concert set this semester on Thursday. Plus if you came out here my boyfriend would wet himself with excitement, and then I'd get to laugh at him for peeing his pants.

If public humiliation isn't your cup of tea, you can hit up the numerous restaurants in the Bay Area. San Francisco alone has a ton of 'em.

Curtis Biggs says

I would love to see Harvest as a reduction for piano and drum-set. I think the percussion parts could translate well into drum-set. I have been wanting to do this piece for a concerto competition, but you need an accompanist to audition before you can play it with the band.

Also, it would make it possible to play in a recital setting if it were for piano and drum-set.

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