http://ostimusic.com/blog Photos, music, food, and fun from composer John Mackey Sat, 10 May 2008 01:33:24 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en AEJ and I are heading to Austin tomorrow. On Tuesday at 7:30pm, the Hill Country Middle School band, conducted by Cheryl Floyd, will premiere "Undertow," my first piece for young(ish) band. (That links to the new page for the piece. There's no audio yet, but hopefully there ... http://ostimusic.com/blog/hill-country-trip/ Yesterday was my last day teaching at Cal State Long Beach. It was a one-year position, one day a week, generously offered by John Carnahan, and accepted because I'd never taught before and thought it would be fun to see what it was like. The verdict, now that the year ... http://ostimusic.com/blog/bye-bye-cal-state/ Let me preface this by saying that I love attending the Midwest Clinic every December in Chicago. It's a huge gathering of over 15,000 music educators spending five days attending concerts by some of the best middle school and high school bands in the country -- and usually at ... http://ostimusic.com/blog/midwest-another-rant/ I'm back from a quick two-stop trip over the weekend. It started on Friday, when I flew up to the California central valley for a performance of "Strange Humors" with the Lodi High School Honor Band, conducted by David Vickerman. The performance was at PM Hutchins Street Square, which in ... http://ostimusic.com/blog/lodi/ Tomorrow morning, I fly to Sacramento, California, for a mini-mini-residency at Lodi High School. Tomorrow night is David Vickerman's last concert as Director of Bands at Lodi, and I'm honored that he wanted to fly me in to work with the group for their last performance together. David ... http://ostimusic.com/blog/more-trips/ Can't talk now. GTA4. Busy. http://ostimusic.com/blog/fun/ Much of today was spent playing Mario Kart Wii, and Tuesday is the release of Grand Theft Auto 4 -- on preorder from Amazon, so it should arrive around lunch time. I'm supposed to teach on Wednesday, but I'm trying to decide if I should "come down with ... http://ostimusic.com/blog/shall-we-play-a-game/ As some gathered from my hints in old blog entries, and as others noticed after reading all the way to the end of the last blog entry, yes, it appears that AEJ and I are moving to Austin this summer. Texas has been awfully good to me -- as my dad ... http://ostimusic.com/blog/austin-78704/ I'm heading to the University of Kansas this morning to work with Scott Weiss (to whom Redline Tango is dedicated) and Vince Gnojek on their upcoming performance of my Concerto for Soprano Sax and Wind Ensemble. The concert is on Sunday afternoon -- but I have absolutely nothing to ... http://ostimusic.com/blog/kansas/ I just posted a new recording of the last two movements of my Concerto for Soprano Sax & Wind Ensemble. This is just the last two movements -- "Wood" and the "Finale" -- as performed by Timothy Roberts and the US Navy Band, conducted by George Thompson, at the ... http://ostimusic.com/blog/revised-recordings/