The American Composers Forum announced my Kickstarter on their site.  Also, watch out for next week’s edition of the City Pages, as I’ll be placing an ad for the Kickstarter in their music section.  This is all just in time for Twin Cities Pride.  Many thanks to Teri Springer for planting this seed of an idea in my brain’s garden.

The Kickstarter continues to build momentum, but we’ve still a long way to go!  Every little bit counts.  If you pledge $35, you will receive the LP… the whole thing!  If I find 325 people to pledge $35, we will reach our goal of $12,000.  Are you one of the 325 people out there?  I bet you are!

We, all of us involved with this project, appreciate your support.  We won’t be able to do this without you.

(I like to pretend that whenever I write or talk about the Kickstarter that I’m on Minnesota Public Radio doing a pledge drive.  Read this in your head to the voice of Cathy Wurzer or Kerri Miller, if you want.  I do.)

Incidentally, do you support your local public radio station by being a member?  I do.  In fact, I’m an MPR Sustainer.  Isn’t that fun?

Check out New Music Minnesota’s announcement about the Kickstarter I launched for my first album.

We’ve got a humble start to the Kickstarter.  Many thanks to the backers so far who have pledged.  Deadline for the $12,000 goal is 13 July at 9:00pm CST.

Keep spreading the word!

Take a look at my Kickstarter for my very first album, featuring: Via the Void for Pierrot ensemble; Aubades for soprano and piano; Le Triangle d’Or for reed trio; incidental music from the play, The Interrupted Dream; and Ephemeral Movements for piano.

I appreciate your support, whether by your simply spreading the word or through your generous pledge.

$35 – you get the LP
$100 – you get the LP, your name appears on the LP as a “special thanks” credit
$150 – you get the LP, your name appears on LP as a “special thanks” credit, and you get 1 screen-printed poster
$500 – you get the LP, your name appears on LP as a “special thanks” credit, you get 1 screen-printed poster, and you get a lathe cut
$800 – you get the LP, your name appears on LP as a “special thanks” credit, you get 1 screen-printed poster, you get a lathe cut, and your name is engraved on the record
$1000 – you get the LP, your name appears on LP as a “special thanks” credit, you get 1 screen-printed poster, you get a lathe cut, your name is engraved on the record, and I come cook you dinner!  (I make a fabulous curry, by the way…)

Forward!

Now, this is very, very, very early days, but I’m meeting tomorrow with a recording engineer (over biers at Merlin’s Rest) to discuss budgeting for the recording of my very first album. Again, very, very, very early days, and I can’t quite even predict when anything solid or downloadable will arrive in your hands.

Initial plans are to release a double LP album and a downloadable version through iTunes. (I have a thing about CDs. They don’t last long enough, and we tend to think of them disposable.)

I don’t want to reveal what will be on the LP at this point (even though I know already what pieces I’m going to include), as I want to contact performers first. (Those of you who worked with me might be able to guess what I’ll include.)

Unfortunately, this will not be a release of my Doctor Who-inspired, seven-movement work, Music for Orchestra in However Many Incarnations. If all goes well, I would love to make that my second album, as the entire piece deserves an LP in its own right. This first album will feature smaller chamber works. Once I wrap my head around the intricacies of managing a smaller group of musicians, then I’ll start to plan how to manage a 75-member orchestra.

Stay tuned as I announce my Kickstarter to raise funds for this project. I’m really very excited, and I can’t wait to see how tomorrow’s meeting goes!

They’ve arrived!  I’m so excited!  Here’s a taste of the wonderful work of Sarah Steadman.  I think the shots are absolutely gorgeous, and I can’t wait to integrate them into the design of the site.  As soon as they arrived, I just had to post something.  Check out the bio page, too, for another fantastic shot.

I just came from the Studio Z Tuesday Salon, a really cool little venue for composers and performers, and I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.  It’s a joint endeavor through the new music ensemble, Zeitgeist, and the American Composers Forum.  Tonight listeners enjoyed the Laurie Anderson-esque imaginations of Jonathan Zorn, a dramatic kind of tango from a larger orchestral work by Julie Stenberg Zeidel, an experiment in extending the scope of sounds available to a single bass drum by Brian Heller, and a collage of a march featuring quotations from Stravinsky’s ballets by Bill Kempe.

The next salon is on 21 May, it’ll take place at the the usual location in downtown St. Paul, and it’s free and open to the public.

On another note, Sarah says she’s ready to send me my photos from the shoot we did.  I can’t wait to see them and post them and incorporate them into the design of this site!

Lastly, I’m nearly finished with the second movement of the Duo for Percussion I’m writing for Sean Kleve and Jennifer Hedstrom.  I hope to get that all engraved and sent to them soon so I can begin work on the third and final movement.

Actually, I thought of something else just now… so, this is my last point.  (On a side note of side notes, the original title of this post was simply Studio Z Salon.  It’s now what you see above because of a certain freneticism.)

Now, where was I?

Oh yes… last weekend I met with some old college friends from Winona State, and we discussed a little project we’ve had in mind for some time.  (I’ve listed the music I’ll be writing for this project as Shorties in my works list.)  It’s a really cool little idea where I’ll be writing four to five little movements for two violins, viola, and piano, and during the performance of each of the little works a bit of performance art will happen over some tiny food stuffs in a coffee shop located in some town.  (Is that vague enough?  I don’t want to give too much away too early.)  Anyway, it’ll feature the machinations–so to speak–of artist Matt Semke, who is also quite a brewer of beer, too.

You put something off for a day, and the next thing you know it’s a hundred years later.  Yesterday I had a fabulous time with Sarah Steadman and her apprentice Britta as we went around Northeast taking headshot pictures of me.  We spent most of our time by the Grain Belt Studios, but we also made some quick side trips to that pink lamb mural by Broken Bow to add some local flare and the Northeast Riverfront to get some fabulous shots of me with the gorgeous Minneapolis skyline.  (If ever they made a version of Portlandia that takes place in Minneapolis, that pink lamb simply must appear in the opening credits.  What would we call the show?  Minneapolita?)

(I’ve tangented…)

I’m embarrassed to admit that until now I’ve been using shots of myself that I’ve taken using this little digital camera from 2006, but no longer anymore!  I can’t wait to see how the photos turned out.  Fabulous, to be sure!  I also can’t wait to post them and incorporate them into my site.

Anyway, thanks Sarah for your fabulous work!  I had a great time!

And I highly recommend Sarah if you’re looking for a photographer for any kind of occasion!

On a side note, we were going to head out to do this in March, but we had to cancel for bad weather.  It looked like we might’ve had to’ve re-scheduled again due to rain, but we stuck it out.  It was actually fine for most of the time, but there were just a couple few minutes where we were shooting in some drizzle that bordered on rain at times.  But, I prefer damp spring and fall days to anything summer brings, so the aesthetic of the grey will compliment my favorite kind of weather!

Clocks in Motion, a percussion ensemble based in Madison, WI, is on tour 24-27 March.  They’re performing in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.  You can catch a preview concert in Madison this Friday 22 at 5:30pm in Mills Hall.

Sean Kleve and Jennifer Hedstrom, who’ve commissioned from me a percussion duo for stacked marimba/vibes and piano that I’m currently writing, perform in the group, and they graciously sent an invitation along for me to join them for the tour.  Sadly, I won’t be able to attend, but the least I can do is announce their performances here.

I wish them all the best as they embark!

There was an image floating around Facebook lately that I came across, and I absolutely fell in love with it.  I simply had to get a real-life copy of the work, and I was so pleased to find that the artist had her own website and that she sells her art online.

I’m talking about artist Jenny Parks, who–among other things–is a fan of (you guessed it) Doctor Who.  I highly recommend you take a look at what she has on her site.  I purchased her Doctor Mew poster and buttons for an extremely reasonable price of $18.00.  The poster and buttons do not disappoint, and Jenny wasted no time sending my order; I had it in a few days.

It’s always so wonderful to come across a fellow artist whose love of a television show inspires some very cool stuff!  I haven’t posted about my own Doctor Who-inspired work for awhile, so do check out the performance of the first two movements of my symphony.

Last night, Jake Runestad hosted a fabulous little salon at his home, and I had the pleasure of meeting Reinaldo Moya, Paul Rudoi, and Abbie Betinis.  I shared my piece for Pierrot ensemble, Via the Void, and we also listened to Paul’s Song of Sky and Sea and Reinaldo’s Fragmentum II.  We all agreed that we had a fabulous time, and I especially enjoyed the amiable and effortless conversation we all had.  We talked of turning this into a regular little affair, so I await eagerly for our next salon!  (Or… as Jake put it, “composer geek-out session.”  Rather apt, that!)