If you’re looking for a romantic place to take your hot date on Valentine’s day, I know a great concert you can get into (for FREE!). The premiere of my work, Shadow Rituals, will be performed by the ASU Wind Symphony conducted by graduate student, Matthew Luttrell. It starts at 7:30 PM in Gammage. Hope to see you there!

WIND SYMPHONY CONCERT Feb. 14, 7:30 p.m., ASU Gammage Auditorium

This Valentine’s Day concert includes a variety of works. Martin Province conducts works by Michael Colgrass and Morton Lauridsen. Matthew Luttrell conducts the premiere of Michael Markowski’s Shadow Rituals, this year’s ASU student composition competition winner. Michael Napoleon, concerto student competition winner performs Ingolf Dahl’s Saxophone Concert , conducted by Andy Collinsworth. Kimberly Marshall will be featured on a new setting for organ and winds of Charles Marie Widor’s Toccata .

I’m not really much of a blog surfer but I try to see what’s up in the world of composer, John Mackey every now and again. His blog is usually a novel but is always full of rich Mackey goodness. I read that he recently took an online personality test and, to no surprise, he is… an A+. I guess I can’t complain since it said I was an A-. That’s me. Always doing the least amount of work to still get the A.

Unfortunately, as far as GPA is concerned, ASU considers an A- a 3.67. How fucked up is that? Last I heard, an A was an A and we liked it that way. Oh well. Maybe I should try harder.

… and leave John Mackey alone.

The pdf of movement 1 is now posted. There are a couple of differences between the MIDI and the PDF–an extra beat here or there, etc. Nothing big. Check it out!

Apparently, I have to watch Grey’s Anatomy. Some kind of bomb in a person’s chest? I dunno. It’s all the rage!

…but I’d still rather watch The Office.

I’ve been thinking as I write this string quartet (a good thing, right?). It was originally supposed to be only a 5 minute work for the St. Lawrence group but now, I’m realizing that there’s a lot more music to flush out (you’ll see what I mean when you hear it). I ended movement 1 in a complete contrast to the other 4 and half minutes. It will act as a segway into the next movement. So with that being said, I think I’m going to extend it into either a 3 or 4 movement work. When will I get around to composing those? Probably in 2 or 3 months. But for now, you can download the audio of the first one. I will post a PDF in a couple weeks after I clean up the score and change a few things here and there.

Gotta go. House is on.

Enjoy.

So I was at the mall the other day with Linh, saw this poster and thought it was wicked cool (its from an old movie called Invaders). Some composers, like Eric Whitacre, use pictures or objects as inspiration for their musical works. I think this might be what I use once I start on Dreamland. I probably won’t get around to it until much later in the semester or during the summer. I’ve still got our musical to write!

But for now, I’ve got to kick ass on the marching band show. I’ve got two weeks to put about a third of the show together. It should be a good project; we’ve got a lot of cool people on the creative team.

When I’m not writing that, I’m trying to finish up my first string quartet. I’m not sure what my plans are for it as far as performance goes so I’ll have to think about that later. Look for it in the next 2 or 3 weeks. I’m sure I’ll post a blog entry about it.

As if that weren’t enough, I also have plans this summer (along with Dreamland) to compose a symphonic ballad, Sepia Tones. I’ve been studying Frank Ticheli’s An American Elegy and listening to it a lot lately. Every now and again, I come back to this work to reappreciate its simplicity. It will definitely be inspiration for Sepia Tones. I’m also very anxious and curious as to what his upcoming work, Sanctuary, will be like…