I noticed that it has been nearly a month since I’ve written. Days have gone by where I’ve reminded myself, “Hm… I haven’t written in awhile. I really should get to that.”
But, you put something off for a day, and the next thing you know, it’s a hundred years later.
Some terribly exciting things in the next couple of weeks, however. This Sunday I depart for Bennington, VT, where I’m wonderfully excited to join the Bennington Chamber Music Conference as a composition fellow. Last June I finished a wind quintet written specifically for the festival, and I’m eagerly looking forward to working with the performers who will premiere the work. I’m also excited to work with the faculty string quartet, who will read my still unperformed String Quartet from 2005. (It’s terribly difficult, but not impossible, as the JACK Quartet proved in a reading of two of the movements some years back.)
My newest project is quickly coming to a close. I’ve been Skyping with Ariela and Karl Haro von Mogel as we put together a little something for a curious little pixie of a character in the shape of a cob of corn with spectacles, Frank N. Food. But, sssssh! That’s all the details I’ll divulge right now. All I will add, is that this project has been so absolutely riveting and fantastic. Collaboration across disciplines is one of my favorite things to do, especially if disciplines crossed aren’t necessarily both in the arts. But, creativity exists in all manner of disciplines, to be sure.
Following that (and I daresay I’ll complete much of my next project next week in Bennington… so wonderful to have a full week engrossed in music for a change) I’ll begin work on a commission from Pittsburgh’s Kristine Rominski, a work for flute, viola, and harp. This instrumentation naturally conjures images of Paris in summer at a cafe with an espresso, soft sunlight tantalizing the face, a red scarf wrapping the neck, bicycles passing by, cobbled streets only just dry from an fall rain, leaves exuding vibrancy, not a cloud in the sky. It’ll be so wonderful to curl up with such a delicate mixture of timbres, and I can’t wait to get started.
If this wasn’t wonderful enough, late in September I’m off to the UK, just for fun. With my dear mum. Of all the countries in the world, I’ve long had a fascination with the UK, and London is a city I hold close to my heart. And I’ve visited lots of cities in my short time. I’ve yet to visit a city I’ve liked more.
So that’s that for now.
Stay cool, though. The weather’s awful this week in Minneapolis. Highs in the mid to upper 20s for the foreseeable days ahead.
Oh autumn, how I yearn for thee. Deliver me a weather more befitting this fool.