epic composer FAIL #40

What makes this composer FAIL so epic?

I was rejected by THE New York Times.

(!!!)

I know, total bummer, right? Because if you've contributed to a news source that is read by hundreds of thousands of people globally each day, who cares if you've never won an ASCAP or BMI Young Composer Award or if your orchestra piece wasn't selected by the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute? Who bloody cares that you have not "made it" yet as a young composer when you have HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE knowing who you are and that you must be super-awesome because you wrote for the New York Times. You could have HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of fans!

(Or hundreds of thousands of haters—that's what I keep telling myself. Sigh.)

* * *

composer FAIL #39

Man, I cannot get enough of these Blik Wall Decals. I think they're cute, but I have a feeling that if I purchased too many of these, my place could become tacky rather quickly.

Anyway, here's the reason why you visited my site in the first place.

Dang, there goes my excuse to visit The Valley.

This is one of three rejection letters for my orchestration of "Flight 710 to Cabo San Lucas." Hm. I don't know what to think other than, "Will this piece ever be performed?"

a cloned chorus

So…I haven't posted in a while because I've been working on an opera. Or…maybe I was thinking about writing an opera by watching various operas like Don Giovanni or The Rake's Progress or Tosca—which, by the way, I haven't seen the third act of the Met Live in HD rebroadcast due to a transmission error, so please don't tell me what happens. And yes, that sucked.

Or…maybe I haven't blogged because I haven't had time to brainstorm something new—and the rejection letters keep piling up.

You see, I don't want this to turn into a complete Composer FAIL Blog. Instead, I'll write about my opera chorus.

My opera takes place in the not-too-distant future where cosmetic cloning, the procedure of cloning a new-and-improved version of yourself, exists.* (I know, this screams science fiction.) According to my librettist, three-fourths of the resident doctors (the chorus) are clones. I've decided that all my cloned characters' voices should be vocoded, but I had the issue of dealing with the lone soprano whose voice will merely be amplified.

composer FAIL #38

Composer FAILs sting more in the summer when you have no job and have to ask your parents for money.

[Picture above: Another awesome Don Kenn Gallery post.]

last recital video

Here's "Bullet Time" with Stephen Goist, Christine Woodbury, Travis Rollins, Claire Whitcomb, Melissa Tschamler, Megan Scharff, Akiko Haga, Lorhel Bomber, and Keita Tanaka. Vince Lee conducting.

composer FAIL #37

I applied for this competition in December, and I finally heard back from them.

I'd like to congratulate my friends Christopher Stark, Zach Zubow, Natalie Williams, and Steven Snowden. Good luck!

[This picture is from the Don Kenn Gallery, which greets my Google Reader with delightful pictures of monsters on occasion.]

classical revolutions

Before the Accent11 Festival began, Rebecca Danard dropped by Classical Revolution Cincinnati at the Northside Tavern with more Gray Goo-ness (2.01).

more recital videos

It must be summer, dude. After the Accent11 Festival and a road trip to Madison and Milwaukee (my first trip to Wisconsin), I realized I should have penned one of those Alex Ross's Hiatus posts. (Of course, he hasn't posted one of those since March 6.)

So...I should probably start posting the rest of my recital videos, since that's what I promised my parents I would do.

[This portrait of all the characters from The Big Lebowski was taken from Andy Rash's Iotacons blog. Since it's now summer, you should check it out.]