Dilet­tante Music

So, some breaking news from across the pond: I have been chosen as one of three finalists in the Dilet­tante Music Dig­i­tal Composer-in-Residence com­pe­ti­tion. (The other two are Chiayu, a Taiwanese composer studying at Duke, and Aaron Gervais, a fellow composer/drummer from Canada.)


As part of the competition, the London Sinfonietta has recorded my submitted piece, 1986, and starting on October 20th, the polls will be open for the people (that's you!) to choose the 2010 Digital Composer-in-Residence. The polls will be closed and the winners announced on November 5th, culminating in a live performance of all of the works by the London Sin­foni­etta that night at Wilton’s Music Hall in London. Check out the event listing here, and keep an eye on the Dilet­tante blog for more information.

This morning, there was a feature on the competition on BBC3's Music Matters, which you can listen to here for the next seven days. It includes clips of all three finalist's works—all very different—as well as (earlier in the show) very interesting interviews with the Bang On A Can composers, Steve Martland, and a feature on In C.

Watch this space for more updates on interviews, podcasts, etc., as well as information on how you can vote!

On Speaking Softly

Sorry things have been so quiet over here for the past few months. In addition to my dissertation--which is going well, but definitely still-going--I've been writing a lot of music, and getting ready for the season, which now feels very much in full swing. Newspeak just got things going last night for our Oct 29 show at The Stone, and before that I was participating in a mini-residency at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where I gave a talk to the grad composers, coached the percussion ensemble, and had a piece performed (amazingly!) by the UM Symphony Band under Michael Haithcock.

Kicking off the season was the launch party of The Coterie, a new opera company founded by my wonderful Librettist Royce, and a stellar performance of Speak Softly by Line C3 as part of the New Amsterdam Records new Archipelago series at Galapagos. Here's the video:



Aren't they great?!

Anyway, I will try harder to stay on top of this blog, but please be patient if every now and then I clearly phone it in by posting an "interesting quote" that I clearly dug up while doing dissertation research. (Anyone up for some Clement Greenberg?) Seriously, though, there are some (as yet unannounced) things that will definitely make appearances in this space, so I promise to only phone it in on occasion.

Happy Autumn!