Important Info:

CONCERT – Sunday, January 29th @ 3 pm

http://digitalembrace.info

Follow us on Twitter @Digital_Embrace

Like the concert on Facebook CLICK HERE

Along with the concert itself, I have started a Kickstarter campaign to help raise the money to rent the pieces on the program.  The video below is a promo for the concert and is also used on the kickstarter website.  If you are interested in supporting this project, you can click HERE.  But, the best way to help out is to spread the word about the kickstarter, so feel free to share the link!

More info about the event itself can be found HERE

Learning French:

I have my secondary language exam coming up in the fall at Peabody.  The three options for languages are Italian, French and German – not surprisingly.  However in my high school naïveté, I assumed I would be in California forever, so learning Spanish would be the best choice.  To be fair to Peabody, I could petition to use Spanish on the exam, but in all honesty, I would have to study Spanish just as much as if I was learning a new language…  So I decided that instead of just trying learn “for the test”, I might as well actually try and learn the language of my choice – which happens to be French.  I have been trying to devote at least some time everyday to learning it, but it is NOT easy!

Sitka Fine Arts Camp:

I don’t think I have the words to describe my experience at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp this summer.  It was so invigorating to be around artists of such high caliber and students who were voracious to learn about making art.  I had students in the band who were also taking Shakespeare, Improv, Mime, Animation, Figure Drawing, Rock Band and  Native American Carving in addition to about 55 other subjects!  I was so impressed with not only the beauty of Sitka itself, but the camaraderie of the community to be able to pull a camp of this magnitude off – AND to do it after just inheriting a campus with over “10 years of deferred maintenance”.  It has also inspired me to take up pencil-sketching and doing more with my photography.  You can see some of the pictures I have taken over on my photography page

Life Events:

In addition to celebrating eight wonderful years of marriage to a very supportive and incredible wife, two other major events happened this summer.  Our family flew out to California in June to celebrate the wedding of my brother-in-law.  Much fun was had by all, and we welcome our new sister-in-law into the family!  Also, I became “Uncle David” just this past week in July when my sister gave birth to a healthy baby boy!

The MUSIC I have been working on so far:

Persichetti – Symphony No. 6 – I will be conducting this piece in early October with the Peabody Wind Ensemble.  It will surprisingly be the first Persichetti I have done!  Bucket list: CHECK!

Reich – Music for 18 Musicians – ’nuff said.  This piece changed my life, so happy to be working on it!  This is for the opening concert with the Great Noise Ensemble

Lash – Hush – this will be a world premiere on the same concert as the Reich

Mackey – Redline Tango – I will be conducting this piece in the Spring with the Peabody Wind Ensemble, but it is never too early to start!

For the Johns Hopkins Wind Ensemble:

The fall concert will  explore the many different ways in which composers express spirituality in their music.  The title of the program will be Spirtualis Itineris, or “Spiritual Journey”.  The pieces that I am considering are:

Hailstork – New Wade n’ Water

Colgrass – Old Churches

Hovhaness – Suite for Band, Op. 15

Bach – something by him, haven’t decided yet!

Clark – Hymn of St. James

Copland – Variations on a Shaker Melody

Newman – Moon by Night

McBeth – Kaddish

A good bio

The Cycling ’74 forum on Max’s passing

The Wikipedia page

1. Hipster Composers

This post by Evan Kuchar on chicagonow.com asks the age-old question:  Which composers were hipsters and which were nerds?  If you ever wanted to know CLICK HERE and all your questions will be answered.  (Unless it was about Beethoven or Crumb evidently…)  *sidenote*  I seem to dig the hipster composers more – what does that say about me?

2. Wind Band Composers BRACKET

It’s March Madness, and you know what that means…Time to arbitrarily pit wind band composers against one another in an internet popularity contest devoid of any consideration towards the quality of their compositions.  Sure, some should survive the carnage relatively unscathed, and there are some who will survive that should be “scathed” (?).  Either way, kind of a funny exercise…  CLICK HERE to go to the voting – you might have to find the most recent post in order to vote.  (And if you are a super nerd, go here to fill out your own bracket to compare!)

• Tempo 1: eighth note = 144
• Tempo 2: eighth note = 216
• Tempo 3: eighth note = 288

You will notice that Tempo 3 is twice the speed of Tempo 1. In Tempo 2, 2 eighth notes are equal to 3 eighth notes in Tempo 1 (3:2). The same goes for Tempo 3 to Tempo 2 (3:2). Because of this obvious interrelationship, and my upcoming performance of the piece, I wanted to get these burned into my brain! I currently have seven different recordings of Symphonies of Wind Instruments, so I set out to discover if any of these conductors were close to the written tempos. I used a “tap-tempo” feature on my iPhone “Tempo” app from Frozen Ape and began to track all three tempos in each recording. I soon realized that many of the conductors were taking a different (often more indulgent) tempo in the final chorale of the piece, so I added a 4th Tempo to see if that proved interesting. The recordings I studied were as follows:

Detroit Chamber Winds and Friends – H. Robert Reynolds, conductor







Nash Ensemble – Sir Simon Rattle, conductor







Netherlands Wind Ensemble – Thierry Fischer, conductor







United States Marine Band – Col. Timothy Foley, conductor







Prague Chamber Harmony – Libor Pesek, conductor







Berliner Philharmoniker – Pierre Boulez, conductor







Columbia Symphony Winds & Brass – Robert Craft, conductor




There are also 2 versions of Symphonies of Wind Instruments – the original 1920 publication and the revised 1947 edition.  I included both in this study since the tempo indications are the same in both revisions.  I also included information on how much each tempo deviated from Stravinsky’s markings in order to come up with a “total deviation” score.  Considering the fact that the tempo does fluctuate occasionally and the metronome “tap-method” is not exactly 100% proof positive, I included a “handicap” of about +/- 5 clicks per tempo, which brought the total deviation score down by 20.

Well without further ado here are the results…

(This is BY NO MEANS a commentary on which recording is “better” or even which one I prefer, but merely a quasi-statistical look at tempo in Symphonies)

*Foley’s score was actually 10, but with the handicap it goes to 0*

Opening Tempo I:
BEST:  Foley/Rattle
WORST:  Boulez/Pesek

Tempo I (Chorale)
BEST:  Foley/Boulez
WORST:  Pesek

Tempo II
BEST:  Foley
WORST: Boulez

Tempo III
BEST:  Foley
WORST:  Reynolds/Rattle

1920 Original
BEST:  Foley

1947 Revision
BEST:  Craft

Widest Margin of Deviation
Presek – Tempo I (Chorale) – nearly 40 clicks under!

Interesting things to note:
*   The Reynolds and Ratttle recording tempos are very similar
*   Pierre Boulez also has a video with the LSO – the tempos are the same…
*   ALL the conductors took the final chorale a little under tempo, though some more than others.
*   Reynolds, Rattle and Boulez took Tempo III under by about 25 clicks or so

For anyone who is interested in seeing my spreadsheet data, let me know and I can send one to you.  Any feedback is welcome.  This was not meant as strict science, but merely as a teaching tool for me as I study this incredible piece!

Unfortunately, Armando injured his shoulder in the process of putting on this giant Andriessen piece, and he has graciously asked if I would conduct the ensemble in the next concert.  The chance to work with these fine musicians was reason alone to accept this opportunity – and then I found out about the music!

This upcoming concert focuses on pop music’s influence on “the music”, to use a recently coined term by Alex Ross.  For anyone who has known me at all, you will know that this concert is right up my alley!  The program is as follows:

Stephen Gorbos – Signals

Ryan Brown – Warhorse (complete with lyrics from metalmaker.net!)

Steven Mackey – Deal

Joshua Bornfield – I See It Coming (songs after Radiohead)

The Mackey piece will feature DJ Sparr on guitar and the entire concert promises to be really fun! It will be at 7:30 on Friday, December 3rd in the Ward Recital Hall at Catholic University. If you are interested in tickets, go HERE.

CLICK HERE for more info!

I cannot begin to say how much I have enjoyed working with M is for Man, Music, Mozart!  We will unfortunately not be presenting the piece with its video counterpart directed by the great Peter Greenaway, but it is available HERE if you would like to see it!

I was also blessed to have a wonderful ensemble, including the beautiful and talented Amanda Bloom on vocals.  They have been great to work with and have really tackled the piece head-on, which will make for one hell of a performance.

If you can make it out the performance, I highly recommend it!

In other news, I will also be working at Johns Hopkins University as the Director of the Wind Ensemble and Pep Band for the Homewood Arts Programs.  I am looking forward to starting with the Hopkins students and experiencing my first ever Lacrosse Game.  Pep Band at lacrosse?  Who knew?

I have also included the concerts I will be conducting on in the upper-right frame of the website.  Click on any event for more information!

Many thanks to all involved with the project, especially Sigur Rós for letting me work with Ára Bátur!

HUGE Thank You to all the members of the Oregon Wind Ensemble for doing the premiere and recording!

Conductor: Robert Ponto
Choir coached by: Dr. Sharon Paul
Piano Solo: David Vickerman
Horn Solo: John Dodge
Trombone Solo: Marisa Smith
Flugelhorn Solo: Randall Johnson
Bassoon Solo: Nate Helgeson
Production and Recording: Lance Miller