Here’s a list of reasons why Momma’s Boy, Mr. Julius, has plopped himself on top of my legs as the heaviest cat weight, so I don’t leave the bed multiple times this year. 🐈

• January

  • Los Angeles to visit family.

  • Hiawassee, GA, to attend Keith & Margo’s Murder Mystery Weekend Adventure with my cousin.

  • Osage Beach, MO, to conduct the MMEA Honor Band

• February

  • Fayetteville, AR, to be a Composer/Conductor/Pianist/Professor in Residence at the University of Arkansas. The flight back got diverted to DTW. 😩

• April

  • Chicago, IL, to see my dear friend, composer/ethnomusicologist Nahla Mattar from Egypt.

• May

  • Washington, DC, to see The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. Not worth it, but I also visited family.

  • Fairfax, VA, for the ComMission Possible 2025 world premiere performance.

• June

  • Geneva, NY, for the 2025 Composer’s Sandbox Summer Intensive.

  • Manila, Philippines, to attend the LA Film Conducting Intensive.

• July

  • Sherborne, England, to participate in the 2025 Sherborne Summer School of Music Wind Conducting course.

• September

  • Los Angeles to visit family during the holidays.

• October

  • Cairo, Egypt, to present at the 33rd Arab Music Conference & Festival. Egypt, I can’t quit you.

  • Spokane, WA, to attend the 2025 College Music Society conference.

• November

  • Minneapolis, MN, to present at the 2025 AMS-SMT Joint Annual Meeting

  • Orlando, FL, to attend (for fun????) the 2025 NASM Annual Meeting

• December

  • Philadelphia, PA, to attend the Penn Museum Gala

  • Washington, DC, to attend The Delta King’s Blues

  • Washington, DC, to visit family during the holidays.

Personal Update

Happy Memorial Day, Citizens of the Universe. I was supposed to go over to a friend’s house for some good times and barbeque, but alas, we have a rain delay. I was going to bring over a huge casserole of Magnolia Bakery’s Banana Pudding, but instead, I distributed the component parts into mason jars to freeze while I composed two dainty servings for tonight.

Anyway, I hope you’re doing well. Here’s what I’ve been doing for the last couple of weeks.

• OMFG I finally finished my piece for the U.S. Navy Band. It is called Protector of the East Sea. It’s possible some Japanese won’t like this title, but I am Korean after all.

Here’s a MIDI mockup of the work.

@whycompose#newmusicdrop #midimockup ⚓ PROTECTOR OF THE EAST SEA⚓ (also #100daysofpractice Season 1 Days 36–40 because I said so)

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• I went to see The Hours again, but this time, Kevin Puts revised his work by tightening up the orchestration. However, the dancers are still distracting. This time, I accompanied some Lehman College students, and for some, it was their first opera. (Spoiler alert: when Richard falls out the window of his umpteenth-story apartment, the audience audibly gasped, whereas the student next to me muttered, “Oh shit.” That my friends, is an appropriate reaction.)

• I attended Reina Hondo’s recital. Congrats, girl!

• I saw the closing night performance of El Niño at the Met. The last time I saw this oratorio, I was about to graduate college and was absolutely transfixed by the three countertenors on stage. (By the way, shout out to grad-school friend Eric Jurenas, who was one of the countertenors in this production.) Now as an opera, it’s the most visually stunning and beautiful production I have ever seen. However, during this viewing, I wondered during the second act if this was the beginning of the end for John Adams since he decided to start writing his own librettos.

• The Lehman Percussion ensemble had their Afro-Caribbean Celebration.

• Huge, huge congrats to my former professor and current pal composer Michael Fiday, for receiving an Arts and Letters Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The Husband™ and I were guests at that ceremony (which included a miniature performance of Laurie Anderson using a pillow speaker as a talk box. I know she has done this before, but let me tell you—the moment was magical). I also ran into my Fairy Godmother. That was fun.

• The Mets lost to the Giants. Boooooooo.

Current Projects

My current project is recovering, thank you very much. I will say that I have many projects in the pipeline, and I hope to share a video of a work in progress in the next week or two.

What I’m Reading

• Did you know you can get rid of junk results on Google? Thanks to Lexi Temple, she directed her friends to this website Turn Off Google AI Overview

  Set "Web" as Default. Seriously, it’s worth it folks.

• A Black rising star lost his elite orchestra job. He won’t go quietly.

  Josh Jones thought the Kansas City Symphony dismissed him unjustly — and took his complaints public. Supporters say he’s exposing an antiquated system that thwarts promising young talent.

• Richard Sherman, Songwriter of Many Spoonfuls of Sugar, Dies at 95.

  He and his brother, Robert, teamed up to write the songs for “Mary Poppins” and other Disney classics. They also gave the world “It’s a Small World (After All).” I have to admit that Richard and Robert Sherman completely shaped my childhood. In fact, they probably taught me how to scat.

What I’m Listening To

I’ve heard Arirang 아리랑 my entire life. And while I was a child, I may have rolled my eyes a few times during this tune because I heard it millions of times. Now that I’m older, I get teary-eyed. My friend and Korean-American soldier Esther Kang sang and produced this arrangement. She writes on her Facebook,

“What a team. Huge honor to produce and sing in Dan Campolieta’s new arrangement of “Shin Arirang” with Korean American soldiers from The United States Army Band. So grateful for the immense hard work behind the scenes from our PAO team, our amazing music team, and all of the heart that went into this passion project honoring our Korean heritage.

This song is dedicated to my mom and dad. They sacrificed so much when they chose to emigrate to America. Proud to be their daughter and proud to be a Korean American soldier.”

Shopping

• Speaking of Korea, I bought my first hanbok 한복 to wear at my WASBE world premiere. For the record, this is not the first time I’ve worn one, and the one I purchased has a modern flair. I love it so much.

Lately on the YouTubes

Here’s David Kehler conducting the Atlanta Wind Symphony performance on March 19, 2023, of Lichtweg/Lightway. Thanks, David!

That’s it for now. Thanks for listening. <3

Oops—I almost forgot I was making these posts, but it’s because last week, I was in LA visiting family and friends, and there were no exciting concerts for me to go to. However, I got to go to the Getty Villa for the first time, so my new life goal is to own an Italian villa. Or maybe rent one. Or better yet, find a way to live at the Getty Villa permanently. Indeed, there has to be a way to sneak into the museum à la Claudia Kincaid and hopefully find a bed that’s not too old and musty.

TONIGHT, January 26 at 8 p.m.
Vertigo in Concert | NY Phil
David Geffen Hall
Tickets are prohibitively expensive at this point…
The Husband™ saw the ticket price and said, “Wait, you paid $77 each for these tickets?!” I said, “Yeah, they tend to gouge you when showing a film.” I purchased these tickets for half price when I saw the word “Ligeti” for the NY Phil’s 2023–24 season, and my credit card slipped. Bernard Herrmann is my favorite dead film composer, and I’ve never seen this film.

Saturday, January 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Juilliard Orchestra Conducted by Tito Muñoz
Alice Tully Hall
Tickets $35 | Members $17.50
I’m so excited to see my friend Tito conduct again, including Silvestre Revueltas’s Sensemayá. (The orchestra will perform from Munñoz’s version that has a part for “Bombardino o Barítono en Do,” which was never previously published.)

Tuesday, January 30 at 7:30 p.m. MST
Wind Ensemble Concert with A Cappella Choir
Libby Gardner Concert Hall at the University of Utah
General Admission $12.50
U of U Students Free; Students < 18 Free; Faculty, Staff/Seniors/Military - $6.50
So…surprise! I’ll be in Salt Lake City attending this event because I thought I could get Lehman College to pay for my trip during their Winter Quarter, but this performance is occurring after January 25, so I’ll have to wait and see if this trip is covered. No worries, though—I always love a good march.

Thursday, February 1 at 6 p.m.
Yifei Xu: The Other End… — New Music […] for Piano & Electronics
St. Paul’s Chapel at Columbia University
FREE
I’m excited to hear a piece by my composer friend Alex Zhang. Also, the chapel is beautiful.

Okay, okay, I know I just posted, but the last post was on a whim, and I told you I have too many projects right? Do you know that my blog was originally meant as a distraction from my stressful life as a graduate student (probably compounded with undiagnosed anxiety)?

So…here’s what’s going on this week.

Tuesday, January 9 at 7 p.m.
Creators in Concert: Canadian New Work
In-person at OPERA America’s National Opera Center AND Livestreamed
Registration for the LIVESTREAM is $35 for members and $110 for non-members (including a one-year OPERA America membership).
Is this technically part of OPERA America’s New Works Forum? I’m not sure, but it’s listed on the website as a prelude to the conference. I’m excited about these selections.

Julia Dawson's Obscura Nox
Composed by Iman Habibi, W.A. Mozart, optionally Mendelssohn
Libretto by Elin Rummel

Mathilde Côté's La nuit est ma femme
Composed by Mathilde Côté
Libretto by Ivan Bielinski (IVY), based on works by Jack Kerouac

re:Naissance Opera's Eurydice Fragments
Composed by Benton Roark, Brian Topp
Libretto by Luke Hathaway, Omari Newton, Teiya Kasahara, Debi Wong

re:Naissance Opera's Inferno: A Hip Hop Opera
Composed by Anju Singh in collaboration with Leo D.E Johnson, Teiya Kasahara, Debi Wong
Libretto by Omari Newton, Amy Lee Lavoie

Soundstream's Garden of Vanished Pleasures
Composed by Cecilia Livingston, Donna McKevitt
Libretto by Duncan McFarlane, Cecilia Livingston, Walter de la Mare, Derek Jarman

Thursday, January 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Angel Island
BAM Strong Harvey Theater
Tickets starting at $37.50
BAM and the Prototype Festival cap off the OP New Works Forum with a new opera production of Huang Ruo’s Angel Island (originally an oratorio). Huang Ruo will also be conducting, with Matthew Ozawa directing and film by Bill Morrison.

Friday, January 12 at 6:15 p.m.
NYC Winter Jazzfest Manhattan Marathon
Next Jazz Legacy
LPR
Friday Manhattan Marathon Pass $65
I’m looking forward to hearing NewMusicUSA’s Next Jazz Legacy kick off the NYC Winter Jazzfest marathon at LPR. Yes, there are other venues, so we’ll see if I want to bounce around (or survive past my bedtime).

Happy New Year! Even though I should be composing (an opera and another wind band piece) as always, why not blog about the cultural events I’ll be attending every week instead of answering emails?

Friday, January 5 at 7:30 p.m.
The Little Matchgirl Passion at the Met Fifth Avenue
Free with Museum Admission
I saw an advert in the mail for this performance after I booked my tickets for a performance of this Pulitzer-winning piece with Death of Classical. Granted, I got to see a performance of LMP in a crypt, but maybe a performance in the Medieval Sculpture Hall will be a nice treat, too. Also—who knew this was a tradition at the Met for a decade now?! I certainly didn’t. I’m failing at becoming a true New Yorker.
(There is an additional performance on Saturday.)
(FYI, the Manet/Degas show will close on January 7.)

Saturday, January 6 at 12:55 p.m.
Nabucco, The Met Live in HD
Film at Lincoln Center $32
I mean, I could see this opera live at the actual venue, but why get a $65 discount ticket when you could see it projected onto a screen for half that price in the same area of the performance?
(Honestly, it’s because the discount performances will occur the week of the Opera America New Works Forum, and I might not have the stamina for everything. Plus, it’s my birthday weekend,™ and I’ll eat popcorn. So sue me.)

Sunday, January 7
Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick
Cost of Admission (free for CUNY faculty/staff/students)
Y’all—this show closes this Sunday. Please go. You will not be disappointed. Make an excuse to go. Say you’re celebrating Coptic Christmas or my birthday. Maybe I’ll buy their publication as a treat to myself.

Hello everyone! Thanks for subscribing to receive updates on Hai-Ting Chinn and my upcoming opera Spacewalk about the first all-women spacewalk.

As promised, I will post updates here, so please mark your calendars for Saturday, October 21, at 7 p.m. ET.1 Hai-Ting and I will present a libretto reading of our upcoming opera Spacewalk and preview some musical excerpts from the show at the National Opera Center’s Marc A. Scorca Hall. The event will be live-streamed if you can’t make it in person.

My idea of possibly writing and producing an opera about the first all-woman spacewalk began as a project while participating in the BMP: Producer Academy during the pandemic. What a beautiful, inspiring story, I thought. Strangely, we were living in isolation in solidarity with the astronauts on the International Space Station. Or maybe they were living in solidarity with us.

I didn’t think I would be writing this opera anytime soon; this is one of those fun projects I would have on the back burner because very few people see me as an opera composer and would not be commissioning an operatic work from me shortly. However, I knew I had to make space for it, and maybe applying for some grants would not be a bad idea.

So, huge thanks to Opera America for awarding me (and Hai-Ting Chinn) a 2023 Opera Grant for Women Composers: Discovery Grant supported by The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. We needed funding for a libretto reading and a preview of a couple of arias from the project, and we got it. And I am thrilled that this opera might be happening.

In other news…

• I may have deleted all my videos and content while switching my regular YouTube channel to a branding one. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I am not proud of this, mainly because I lost all of my comments and a performance of an Annea Lockwood Piano Burning. Sigh. That being said, could you please do me a favor and re-subscribe (or subscribe if you haven’t already)? The good news is I have brand new score videos online. They look so beautiful, thanks to Ashley Killam! (Seriously, she is magical.)

• I will teach music composition again at Interlochen Arts Camp this summer from June 23 to August 6. Will I have performances? Possibly. Did I buy new navy blue dresses so I wouldn’t look like a dork? Yes, yes, I did.

First composer cat submission from Alex Shapiro.

I was in NYC this past week attending a workshop for the Carnegie Hall Lullaby Project (more on that later) AND squeezing in concerts that included music by Frank J. Otieri and Daniel Felsenfeld.

And now my luggage smells like onion bagels because…I brought back onion bagels to Ohio.

Next week I will bring back le pain des amis because…I will be checking out IRCAM…in Paris…soooooo…I understand if you hate me now, even though I'm acting like this on the inside:

No worries though, I still get a boatload of these:

My semester ended on Mother's Day, and while I should be writing (and always be writing), a couple of monumental things have happened in my life (besides writing…sigh):

1. I finished watching Parks and Recreation. (Why haven't I watched this show sooner? Does this go into the #lifefail category?)

2. I was interviewed by Dennis Tobenski, a cool composer and vocalist whom I've known online for years but oh my goodness we finally got to video chat.

So, click here for the interview, and thanks for listening.

So I am serious about having you guys send me your composer cat pictures. You can email me via my website. Or send me a PM.

Due to my age, I cannot apply for this again, which is unfortunate. Oh well. Onward.

Guys! Send me your cat pictures. I am serious.

Guys. I am so close to a hundred FAILs and this is actually exciting. What should I do to celebrate a hundred fails? Eat tacos? Bake a cake? Have a martini?

(Of course I remember that maybe my original goal was to obtain one hundred composer FAILs before I turned thirty. Oops.)

Yes, guess what: I wasn't chosen.

Hm. Should I apply again?

That's my music on the stands!

Tonight (and tomorrow, and the next day) the sixth grade kiddos at Mason Intermediate School under the direction of Micah Ewing will be world-premiering my piece "Last Stage to Red Rock."

I'm kind of excited. The kiddos are excited.

(One kid thought my piece sounds evil.)

But HEY, I finished the piece. And I wrote a piece that was both challenging and fun to play.

So, obviously I'm now an expert on writing Grade 1 band music (no, no I'm not), so I will give you some tips.

First, eat something.

Second, here are some guidelines the director gave me.

• The performance duration could not be longer than 2'30". That's because their embouchures and attention spans would run out. Seriously.

• There were ranges that I had to stick to. (Long story short, the kiddos could play an octave at best.)

• The meter can only be common time.

• Rhythmic values can only include whole notes, dotted half notes, half notes, quarter notes, and eighth notes (only in pairs). This also applies to rests.

• Eighth notes or rests should be composed in multiples of two (no isolated eighth notes or or synchopated eighth note rhythms) that are either repeated pitches

• The keys of B-flat major/G minor and E-flat major/C minor may be used. Modes within these key signatures are also acceptable.

When I was done writing the piece, I sent the school a PDF of my score and parts. Then I was asked to provide my Sibelius score so the director could upload it into SmartMusic.

I learned that SmartMusic is an interactive application that helps students practice their music at home. They can play along and the program uses a pitch tracking device that can tell the kids if they're playing the correct notes. This also logs their practice time.

Welcome to the twenty-first century.

Susie Ling's composer cat Archer. (I wonder if I should have a call for pictures of composers' pets…)

GUYS.

I'm up to 91 of these failures.

I should have a celebration at 100.

Thoughts?

(Also I need to post these immediately after I receive them: I'm starting to forget how/why/what I submitted.)

Thanks to my friend Hajnal Pivnick, these dudes (as part of the Face the Music) had two coachings with Kronos Quartet and two performances of works by me, a premiere by Wu Man, and Elena Kats-Chernin.

With friends (and kid quartets) like these, who needs acceptance letters?

So the University of Toledo had me over as their guest composer as part of their CoCA Unboxed 2016 Festival. To prove it, they created a ridiculously huge poster.

All in all, they were the best hosts, the students are wonderful, and I had some really great performances of my work. Here are some photos.

A quick note about the University of Toledo's Women's Chorus: two-thirds of them are freshmen, and they sang the crap out of Prisoner of Conscience. If you look at the libretto, you would know it took courage to sing this piece. In other words, I don't think I would have sung this piece when I was a freshman.

From Paul Octavious's Instagram.

I think I applied to have them commission me? Maybe? Question mark?

PLUME!

In this edition: I should be doing my taxes, but…

Honestly, I never thought I'd be writing this blog post anytime soon, and I'm sure I can honestly say all of us are in shock to hear that Steven Stucky is dead.

At 66.

From brain cancer.

(which can go f*ck itself if you want my honest opinion).

I can't claim that I've studied with Stucky nor can I claim that I had a direct relationship with him, but I can say this: he was the first "big" composer I met.

I met Steven Stucky in high school (yes—high school) thanks to a most-excellent conductor Christopher Russell who taught classes at the then-named Orange County High School of the Arts. Stucky was our guest composer who visited our symphonic lit class and presented his music.

And again, I never studied with the guy, but he had a profound (albeit indirect) upbringing as a composer. And everyone is right when they say he was the most generous and kind human being on this planet.

So, I will honor Steven Stucky in the best way I know how:

Now, please go listen to his music.

Originally I had a goal of posting a blog post once a week per semester. (I want to bring the blog back!) And I still have lots to write about, including my Vermont Symphony Orchestra trip (I have lots of pictures), the most awesome New Music Gathering, and even something about David Bowie (because that was devastating), but alas…why are all my deadlines on January 31/February1???

So anyway. I am behind two blog posts. Therefore, I am resorting to my old tricks:

1. But it was the last year I could apply! And I wanted a free trip to Hong Kong!

2. "If you happen to be in Hong Kong…" Again, the whole point was so I could be in Hong Kong. Note to panel: I'm not in Hong Kong. I'm nowhere near Hong Kong.

3. Pfffffffft.

I don't have very many photos from this year's Midwest Clinic 2015 trip (although I suppose I do have this gem) nor do I have much to say, but I must tell you guys I went to the Shujitsu Junior & Senior High School Wind Ensemble Concert.

Okay.

So what do I know about the Japanese:

They have this app (that yes, I pathetically play on my phone when I need cuteness in my life):

You can totally judge me.

They have a fabric spray that smells like a cat's head, just in case you're missing the real thing. (Um no, I don't have this fabric spray, thanks for asking.)

And…their middle and high schoolers can freaking play.

Excuse me while I go cry in a corner because their sound is so amazing. (I don't think this video does them justice.)