composer FAIL #30

photo courtesy of b u g t r a i n e r

Composer FAIL blog turns 30! It's my 30th rejection letter! I finally did it (about 4 months after my deadline).

Total bummer.

So...I'll be staying home this summer trying to find a job and hopefully composing a (non-funded for now) aria or two, and my cats will love me more for not leaving them. Also, I'll be having another recital of my works at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center the first weekend of July, so stay posted for that.

pictures from austin part 1

Here are some pictures of Austin from my trip. I am fondly thinking of Austin right now, especially because I was stuck at the Minneapolis airport for over 9 hours. (!!!) Snow outside my window does not make me happy, but Austin did. Here you go.

amc and mtc merge

Just found this out this morning. (My Blackberry wouldn't stop blinking at me.)

From the American Music Center

From Meet the Composer

Also:

The three national organizations currently serving the new music field are the American Music Center, Meet The Composer, and the American Composers Forum (ACF). With the realignment into two organizations, AMC will transfer its membership services to the Minnesota-based ACF, headed by President and CEO John Nuechterlein. The ACF will thus become the leading national new music membership organization and provider of professional development to composers, while continuing its own work in commissioning, residencies, and its innova® recording program.

Say hello to New Music USA.

edited recording of the flight 710 reading

Finally.

After listening to 16 tracks, I finally have a workable edited recording of "Flight 710 to Cabo San Lucas" for orchestra. Now it's time to let the world know.

Flight 710 reading by jenniferjolley

With CCM Phil; Chia-Hsuan Lin, conductor.

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Pictures of Austin will be posted soon!

gamma-ut and turanga leela

Again, if you're in Austin, you should swing by the Gamma-UT Festival concert and hear a performance of "Flight 710 to Cabo San Lucas" with Joanna Martin, flute; Kyle Wehrman, cello; Joel Love, piano; and Hermes Camacho, conductor. 7:30 PM CDT, free.

Do you know what's cool? If you're not in town, you can see this online live. (Yes, I told my dad about it. Hopefully it will work out for him.)

Or, if you're in Cincinnati, you could hear the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra perform the Turangalîla Symphony.

Sadly I'm missing this. I have never heard this piece performed live, unless you count the time a few days ago where I sat in on rehearsal and discovered that the ondes martenot was initially lost in transit.

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Pictures of my Austin trip will be posted soon, including my trip to the LBJ Library and Museum and quite possibly a picture of a doughnut as big as my head. (I'm in TEXAS; what were you expecting?)

travel dates

Get this: I actually have some travel dates lined up...as a composer!

This Thursday (tomorrow!) I leave for Austin, TX for the Gamma-UT Conference at the University of Texas, Austin. There my piece "Flight 710 to Cabo San Lucas" will be performed on Saturday, March 26 at 7:30 PM (CDT).

(I am sadly missing eighth blackbird in concert this week! They have a performance tonight in Austin, and they leave the next morning when I arrive. This is a total bummer...)

I will return for a few days (to start my last quarter of classes), then on April 1 I leave for the Green Mountain State.

On Friday, April 1, the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble will perform my piece "Flight 710 to Cabo San Lucas" at the Unitarian Church in Montpelier, 8 PM (EDT). They will perform this piece again on Sunday, April 3 in Burlington at the FlynnSpace in Burlington, 8 PM (EDT).

(Are you starting to see a pattern here? I'm calling this the "Flight 710 WORLD TOUR.")

composer FAIL #29

photo courtesy of b u g t r a i n e r

Well, I'm getting close to obtaining 30 rejection letters. It's too bad I'm almost 4 months past my deadline.

Shucks. I guess ICE won't be performing a small sitcom-length opera about Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

(Of course, maybe if I propose writing an opera, I should submit vocal music as part of my portfolio.)

In other news, CCM posted a press release of the piece I will be writing for CCM Phil in April 2012. Write that down, everyone: APRIL 2012. With Bruckner 8.

composer FAIL #28

photo courtesy of b u g t r a i n e r

Adding to my pile of opera rejections.

I was a little disappointed with this rejection: after swearing to enroll in comedy writing school because there was no proof that I had the ability to write a funny opera, (Oh, I was serious. Clown School, not so much.) I came up with a more constructive plan to study with Michael Ching, noted opera composer who recently had his new a cappella opera A Midsummer Night's Dream premiered by Opera Memphis.

explanation of composer FAIL #21 part 2

I think I may have calmed down a bit from this particular composer FAIL that now I may write about it. (Or, maybe I finally have the time to constructively write about it and share it with my tens of readers.)

To recap, the main reason why this grant was rejected was because the committee didn't believe I had hard evidence of how I would complete my "double-helix" concept in my future opera. (Did I have hard evidence of this? No, but that's because I would like to have funding discovering this double-helix concept. Spending time to work on this would be a little more beneficial than...working McMicken Ave.)

There are other reasons.

One musicologist committee member was a little concerned about the genre of opera I was going to write. This person proclaimed that comic opera is such a genre - Mozart, Donizetti, and Rossini all wrote amazing comic operas. Am I competent for the challenge? How does the committee know it's going to be a success? How do they know it will be funny?

composer WIN #3

Well, dang. This award is internal, but to have a good college orchestra rehearse and perform a new piece of mine? And Mark Gibson is going to conduct it? I'm pretty excited.

So...I have to think of an idea for this piece. I work better (read = faster) if I have a concept in mine. Here are a few that I came up with.

my chamber music gym buddy

This is a current picture of my office piano. Normally the music stand is empty, or it's occupied with a theory textbook or workbook, mainly so I can bumble through musical examples for my students who see me. Now it has a copy of my latest tape piece (I have to record the toy piano, celesta, and muted piano parts SOON) and Brahms!

Here's a confession: I used to play piano a little more frequently, but I don't anymore because I don't practice. Or I switched to composing. Or I've been doing too much schoolwork, or grading, or wasting my time doing other frivolous things.

I knew this was a problem when one of my former students was talking to me after a concert and she said she wasn't quite sure what my main instrument is. I think something inside me died that day. (I mean, is my playing *that bad* when I play the piano for my theory classes?)

composer FAIL #27

#askacomposer was a ton of fun yesterday. Hopefully Ask the Musicians will do this again. Until then, I received my first rejection letter from a potential employer!

Yeah, there was probably no way in hell I would be asked to interview because I'm not ABD yet. Such is life.

teaching theory with super mario bros

Today I will be participating intermittently in #askacomposer on Twitter. Due to popular demand, #askthemusicians has dubbed March 4 as #askacomposer day. If you're a composer who wants to join in on the fun or a person who has questions for composers, visit this site on how to participate.

In the meantime, I will show you how I taught my theory class certain musical concepts.

Secondary Dominants

composer WIN #2

"Here's Carol from our viola section" 

I think grants should be included in this category, especially since I've been annoying my office mates with my cartwheeling down the hall. (Not literally, of course. Don't be silly.)