Category: Inspiration
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Libby Larsen: “Your ideal piece”
I can’t say how much I enjoyed deep composer-ly discussion with other five other composers and Libby Larsen over dinner last night. Libby posed perhaps the most provocative (in a good way) question I had heard in a long time: “What is your ideal piece?” Meaning what piece is there, latent in your brain, unexpressed…
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At Chorus America / ChoralConnections 2012
I enjoyed attending the Chorus America conference and ACF adjunct conference called ChoralConnections. Particular highlights: Conductor “speed dating” sessions with 9 conductors Dinner with Libby Larsen Copying and engraving advice from Bill Holab Self publishing panel with Stephen Paulus and Jocelyn Hagen Meeting many other talented and interesting composers
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Listening: Beethoven piano sonatas
Lately I’ve been listening to the Beethoven piano sonatas. While many of them (the early ones especially) are perfectly pleasant, there are several that are truly transcendent and are powerful these many generations later. Why is that? Why do some pieces resonate over time while others are merely nice to listen to? Perhaps these transcendent…
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A couple days of inspiration
The Minnesota Orchestra along with the American Composers Forum put on a Composers Institute each year. This is an incredible program where seven composers are selected from a pool of applicants to have their works premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra in an all-new-music concert. During the week leading up to the concert, the composers have…