Whoa, it’s July. Almost August
Hi! So I’m currently up at the beautiful MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever experienced. There’s chickens, there’s amazing lunches. Aaron Copland wrote The Red Pony score in my studio. In short: It’s great. I’m working on a new piece for Present Music in Milwaukee here. I am setting six poems by the amazing James Wright. More soon, but the premiere is in November.
This past May saw a LOT of premieres. The big news was the premiere of The Pieces that Fall to Earth, commissioned by the LA Phil and text by Kay Ryan. It was premiered by John Adams, Hila Plitmann and the LA Phil New Music group. Here’s us:
Here’s some great reviews from the LA Times, and Musical America.
In other news, May and June also saw the premiere of two big Sleeping Giant Projects. In May, Sleeping Giant presented a collaboration with the amazing Theo Bleckmann and the Albany Symphony. My contribution was a piece called “Four Naomi Songs,” a setting of poetry by Bill Knott. The results will be posted online soon! Here’s a review for the whole show.
In June, eighth blackbird premiered “Hand Eye,” our collaborative work for at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival. My piece “South Catalina” is my contribution. Here’s a review. And Memory Palace received a really great review in the Free Press as well in a stellar performance by Chris Sies.
Finally, my partner in life and crime Sarah Goldfeather has formed a new ensemble called Exceptet. They just played the hell out of my piece Recovering. He’s a vid:
There are available for weddings and Bar Mitzahs.