Santa Barbara Premier

It happened tonight! The SB premiere. I am quite thrilled with not only my piece but also with the entire performance. The concert was organized by Scott Cazan. Props to him for a job well done. The concert was put on at a local arts collective, fishbon. This is an amazing group that puts together some great events. I can't wait to see some more!

The concert was very downtown complete with wine and beer afterward (Margaret, who manages the local co-op's made guacamole and my dearest made deviled eggs). Here is a shot of the corner where the cellist played, notice the box lit with red lamp! (Yeah he sat up there!)
Maybe I should explain that the violist and cellist were positioned in the front facing opposite corners and violinist was in the back, facing into the corner (They were all in their own space).

My composition is entitled "pq", which is short for physical quiet (pq looks much better, hence it is the title). The composition removes the ability for me the composer to control the vertical alignment of notes by having the performers control the rate at which they play their part be controlled by their breathing. The performers loose the ability to control their individual sounds because they are listening to music over headphones. In the end, the audience rationalizes and puts together the piece, based on the sounds that occur. I was particularly fortunate in this performance to have the piece end with an Amtrak come screaming by and sound it's horn. I could not have planned or imagined it any better than it did happen. Here I am working the sound board.


Finally I want to emphasize my confidence in realizing that I have ended up at the right school. Tonight, one of the composition faculty premiered on scratch turn table, for a piece he wrote, because he has been bugging his students to write for turntables and they haven't. So Jeremy Haladyna took it up!