Tonight was deep. I had a lesson with Karl and got a chance to interview him for my music industry project. After that, I headed to Z’ Tejas where I met Dan and Gomez for dinner. We talked about a lot of stuff and have been tossing around the idea of me and Joe Goglia writing next year’s marching band show for Dobson. Let me emphasize that it’s still just a thought and that Jon is still trying to get the other members of the marching band staff excited at the possibilites. After a few drinks, I went back to their place and filmed an interview/discussion with them as I had done with Karl. It should be an interesting project once I’m done getting all my interviews and finally put the short documentary together. My topic is “Classical Music in the Music Industry.” The subject asks questions such as “How do you become successful in contemporary classical music” and “How do we bring classical music into the 21st century” among others. It should be an interesting video; I’ll be sure to post it in a blog entry once it’s finished. Some of the people I’ll have interviewed will include: Jon Gomez, Dan Malone, Karl Schindler, John Corigliano, Jody Rockmaker, Glenn Hackbarth, and Marc Parella. And, if I can catch him, Bob Moody.

Day 2:
Turns out I got sick and slept through day 2.

Day 3:
I woke up, felt better than day 2, and took some more medicine. After only having a bowl of Cheez-Its the day before, I found myself craving something light and filling. I borrowed five bucks from my mom and headed over to Lee’s Sandwiches and had a #22 (turkey and cheese), no mayo, and a lemonade Snapple. This gave me a little energy so I went back home, but bored, decided to head over to ASU to see the line-up of events they had planned for the evening.To my surprise, I ran into the Decamps. Turns out Trey and Mike Decamp’s band Idle Red were planning in the Battle of the Bands tonight against two other groups.Doesn’t Mike have pretty blue eyes? Hard to think that this same bad-ass played Ugly in the Gilbert production of Honk!Anyway, after they were sadly beaten by the other two bands, I headed inside and saved some seats for Karl, his wife, and Kendra. At 8, the concert began with a new work by local composer, Kenneth LaFave, whose latest opera, America Gothic, I’ll be seeing with Linh next Saturday night (Adrienne Turner is a lead–go her!). So far, I’m not really all that psyched to see it let alone hear it… but hopefully he will prove me wrong. After his 23 minute electric guitar concerto for wind band, choir, and blues singer ended, we all turned back on our ears to the main event, Circus Maximus! The piece delivered all we had hoped for. You could actually sense your ears peaking with distortion at the climax of the piece; I don’t know that I had ever heard something so loud without it already distorting through an amp!After the concert, Karl hoped he would get a photo-op with Corigliano to pose with him, Kendra, and me. So we headed back stage and did just that. We then met Eric Shutlz, among other composers, for a few drinks at the Four Peaks Brewery. But Michael, you’re not 21! I know. I’m not even 19! The guy even carded us! I gave him my ID and after seeing 3 obviously over 21 IDs, he saw mine, and let us right in! He must have been drunk… but I just had a Coke anyway even though the rest of them looked at me like, “what? they’ve let you into a bar and you’re not even going to have a drink?!” If I wasn’t driving……… and had money……

I met Linh for lunch at the Wildflower Bread Company because they finally had bisque (so good)! It was delicious! We then headed back to ASU for a seminar John Corigliano gave in Katzin.It was fantastic–he described how he went about developing the concept for his latest work, Circus Maximus, which the ASU Wind Symphony will be premiering (Arizona premiere) Saturday night under the direction of Gary Hill. It’s going to be amazing! He does things in stereo you would not believe. Yes. Stereo. Think of it as surround sound for band. For now, Corigliano says, this is his last work until he really figures out what he wants to do. Circus Maximus comes with a powerful message about the world transforming into the 21st century–a world that frightens us from a fear of not knowing, in a world full of information, technological advancements and terrorism, whether we will be alive six months from now or not. The 35 minute work ends with a gunshot from a real 20 gauge shotgun symbolizing the question mark we all have towards the fate of the world. Deep huh? I managed to get five minutes alone with him in Gary’s office to do a short, very informal video interview for my music business and law presentation. I will be sure to post the entire documentary when I cut it in a few weeks. Of course, I couldn’t leave without a picture of us together!Professor Hill was kind enough to take a snapshot. Feeling kinda high, I walked towards the music building and made plans with Jeremy, my theory TA (whose class I often ditch to sleep in…and Linh always yells at me for that to keep me in line), to watch a movie tonight at his place. In the spirit of Corigliano, we were thinking The Red Violin, or one of the earlier films he has scored. Should be a good time. After that, I met up with Kendra D’Ercole and Karl, my private composition teacher, to take her home. So instead, when he got there, I through in an hour to the meter for him and we sat in on the Wind Symphony’s rehearsal for a good 40 - 45 minutes.Like I said before, it’s going to be a fantastic concert Saturday night. The downbeat begins at 8:30 at Gammage. See you there!

It’s Wednesday night which means I had my music business/law class tonight except, tonight, there was a senior recital going on next door. So, we all attended the recital instead of holding class (which was really good by the way). Turns out I saw a lot of people I know there (or have met before and never formally introduced myself) like Dom Moio (ASU Latin Jazz Ensemble), James Seifert (the choral regional judge who gave me a perfect score on my solo :D), Robert Hunter (band director at MCC) and Dr. Glenn Bennett, the choral director there at Mesa Community College. I had sent him a copy of Echo around the time that school started. He replied back the most enthusiastic out of all the choral directors that I sent it to. So, tonight, I followed up and he was very excited to begin working on it with his a cappella choir. He is planning on starting work on it in January for a Spring premiere! I’m excited to finally hear it performed! Go MCC!

My birthday is coming up! Here are some other cool people who share the same day:

Leopold Mozart (Mozart’s father)
Fanny Mendelssohn (Felix Mendelssohn’s sister)
Aaron Copland
Claude Monet

and others! Just thought that was cool~