composer FAIL #11

Congrats to Paul Dooley. I heard his piece at the 2008 Midwest Composers Symposium at the University of Iowa. If you click on the link, you'll notice that this piece has received multiple performances and awards. A young composer merely has to create a super-fantastic chamber work that wins multiple awards, and they'd be all set. Too bad I'm about to start an opera.

play me i'm yours - purple people bridge

Here I am somewhere between Ohio and Kentucky. My guess is that I'm on the Kentucky side since the Kentucky border claims most of the Ohio River. This Purple People Bridge, from the Cincinnati side, transports you to Newport, KY.

Here is the piano (and my purse on the piano bench). Gotta love the sailboats.

And here is my performance of the next variation. And...it's a polonaise! (It's my favorite variation.) I had to adjust the piece a little because the top black keys were not working.

how your ipod can make you smarter (part iii)

I may have written silly posts over a year ago on how your ipod can make you smarter. Now it absolutely has to: I need to study for the odious music history qualifying exam.

Fortunately, I was able to obtain a DVD of many snippets of pieces I should know. I was about to transfer these mp3 files onto my iTunes application, but then I realized I lost my ipod in Colorado.

This loss was a bit devastating; it still is. How could I lose it? Why did I leave it in a hotel room drawer? How was I so stupid to misplace it? And the sad thing is, I grew attached to it. (Yes, it's pathetic to grow attached to inanimate objects.) The last time I had my ipod, I used it to tell time (my cell phone didn't work in Switzerland or during my camping trip in Colorado) and listen to David Bowie tunes.

play me i'm yours - music hall

I didn't quite make it to Oktoberfest in time to participate in the World's Largest Chicken Dance; however, I did manage to buy (and wear) a perfectly silly chicken hat. Hm. Maybe the beer clouded my fashion sense at the time.

Moving along, here is my performance in front of Music Hall. This performance was performed drastically under tempo, so it's probably fortunate that none of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra members were around. Instead, a kind man helped me hold down the pages while I was playing. (It was a bit windy that day.)

play me i'm yours - fountain square west

There were two pianos in Fountain Square. (I'm using the past tense here because most of the pianos in "Play Me I'm Yours" were available until the end of August, and now it's mid-September.) I thought both piano excerpts would be appropriate for the Interludes.

(By the way, do you know what piano variations I'm playing? Eh, you probably do...)

Fountain Square is one of my favorite places downtown. It has a funky fountain. Also, it is the home of...OKTOBERFEST.

Oktoberfest is my absolute favorite thing to do in Cincinnati, and it only happens once a year. Hopefully I'll participate in the World's Largest Chicken Dance at noon today and overdose on beer, brats, and pumpkin strudel. If you're not able to attend, I'm sorry, but enjoy my performance (recorded a month ago).

composer WIN #1 = composer FAIL #10

Well, that sucked. Here I thought I had a chance, but stuff like this happens.

When discouraged, I should turn my attention to Cha Sa-soon, a 69-year-old Korean woman who failed her written driving exam 959 times before obtaining her license. 959 times! What can we learn from this? If at first you don't succeed, Hyundai will give you a free car on your 960th try.

eighth blackbird comp comp makeover

Do you know what today is? The postmark deadline for eighth blackbird's revised comp comp! There was a bit of controversy surrounding the original competition, mainly that composers were being charged to enter the competition. I was okay with the guidelines; some were not. The end result is that they relaunched their competition. I initially wasn't going to participate, but now I think I can! I draw your attention to a certain requirement.

so you're turning 30, eh?

I may have mentioned in passing that I'll be turning 30 in a few months, and that I lament the fact that there are many young composer competitions that state you have to be under 30 to qualify.

Because of this, I now believe every 29-year-old composer feels this undeniable sense of panic to win some prestigious young composer award before their birthday. Why? A couple of over-29 composers told me they went through the same exact thing.

Here's what I have to say about this. Did I initially panic? Yes, I wrote about it (on my birthday). Have I figured out that I can still be a successful composer post-29? Yes, especially after I received this rejection letter. Hey, at least I tried (and arguably I am still trying).

What I'm saying is this: I will try my absolute hardest to do what I love doing most because I was meant to be a composer. I truly believe this. I will support myself writing music, and my goodness, I will write that bloody opera! I won't have to resort to working retail because, frankly, I already did that in my early 20s.

Onward and upward, I say.

cincinnati art museum performance

(This guy looks like he's checking his email, except he's not real.)

Here's a performance of Sounds from the Gray Goo I, improvisation for metal percussion and laptop, as performed by myself and composer/percussionist Tyler Niemeyer at the Cincinnati Art Museum. (Again, ignore the production quality of this video; it was taken with my lowly digital camera, and it was dark inside the museum. However, I was happy I didn't look like I was checking my email or paying bills online.) Tyler is on the left; I'm on the right.

[The above picture is a photo of a sculpture found in the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) building. When I first walked through the building, I thought, "Dang, how'd he get up there?" then instantly realized that, "Duh, he's not real."]

chamberpalooza at the cincinnati art museum

Photo courtesy of 5chw4r7z.com. See note below.

Come to the Cincinnati Art Museum today and hear composer/percussionist Tyler Niemeyer and I jam. We're performing in the Accent10 set of Chamberpalooza. (We're on around 3:20-3:30 PM.)

For a sample of what you'll hear, I point you in the direction of this YouTube clip. (Note: This time around, we probably won't have flying counter rotating saw blades. Sorry to disappoint.)

(N.B. Picture is courtesy of 5chw4rTz, local Cincinnati photographer. I'm totally digging his blog, and you should, too. Visit it now.)

composer FAIL #9

And they keep on coming.

Have you ever had the feeling that you need to apply to every single "young composer" competition because your 30th birthday looms? That's what I'm going through right now. Here I saw a last-minute competition for choral music, and all you needed to do was electronically send one vocal piece (it didn't say choral) and another piece. Obviously, it would be preferable if you sent choral pieces. The problem is, I don't have any. One day someone will commission me to write a fantastic choral piece and I will write one! Who wouldn't want a deconstructed mass or a polyphonic motet based on the word "cubicle"? These are great ideas. (Okay, scratch the last one. "Cubicle" would be an awful and difficult word to sing.)

Dear young composer competitions: please stop making me feel old.

paul performs water walk

Happy belated birthday to composer and fellow native southern-Californian John Cage, who is mostly known for his pieces 4'33" and his Sonatas and Interludes (for prepared piano).

I wish that weren't the case. As groundbreaking as these pieces are, John Cage wrote other pieces. Why aren't we music students required to listen any of the Constructions or my favorite, Living Room Music? (On a side note, I am now getting paid to teach a 10-year-old this piece, and we are both ecstatic. Gertrude Stein would be happy.)

Cage also wrote Water Walk, a piece scored for "solo TV performer." My colleague Paul Schuette arranged a performance of this in Cincinnati that was meant to be broadcast.

composer WIN #1 (kind of)

What the WHAT?!

For the love of god, what did I send? WHAT DID I SEND?!

play me i'm yours - university of cincinnati

Here is UC's piano in front of the Tangeman University Center. Actually, this was the first piano I played because it was...conveniently close to my office. This piano was not in the best shape, the bench was a little low, and the squeaky pedal was a little bit comical. You will see what I mean.