Today was the first day of classes at ASU. I suppose it wasn’t all bad. Dr. Shinn is a nice guy for music theory, I like my Western Civilization teacher, Dr. Lynass, a lot. I’ve always liked history. Calc II is gonna be fun, I like my teacher there too. He’s like a nicer, shorter, buffer version of Mr. Swigart. Then I had my composition seminar class. Dr. Rockmaker is a hoot. What a character; I can’t wait to get to know him better.

The composition studio has some cool things planned for the year. For instance, we’re teaming up with the ASU dance studio to do some collaborative works for a concert sometime around Halloween. That should be fun. I’m considering bring back an old piece I started over a year ago for two saxophones and piano, revamping it, adding drum set, and write it with choreography in mind.

We also have the chance to have our works (for string quartet) read by this really well known string quartet who will be ASU’s string quartet in residence for a while. I forget who they are but I’ll find out! They used to be at Stanford University, though.

And, perhaps the most awaited of all, Professor John Corigliano will be in town November 10-12th (just days before my 19th birthday!). He will be visiting campus mostly because the ASU Wind Ensemble will be performing the Arizona premiere of his latest masterpiece, Circus Maximus (which, as I’ve learned, has nothing to do with the circus I was thinking about). Should be a good time! Maybe he’ll invite me to Juilliard…