Sunset with a Soundtrack

I have just a few photos from the concert with The US Army Band on the steps of the Capitol–my debut with the band!  It was a busy day: spent the morning and early afternoon listening to auditions for a new bass for the chorus.  There were several excellent candidates, but we ended up hiring one from the Soldiers’ Chorus of the Army Field Band.  When I got home mid-afternoon, we had a little barbeque at our house.  Lots of family and friends came out to support me and enjoy an evening of great music.

Here I am:

This is me with my old college band director and overall swell guy, Dave McKee!  Thanks, Dave (and wife Charlotte) for coming up to DC for this special day!

 

The Supremes

Okay, this post is way late and I’m going to backdate it, if WordPress will let me.  It’s my blog and I can do what I want.  No one’s reading anyway.

How surreal is it that only the second performance with a new ensemble is in front of the members of the highest court of the land, and that you’ve programmed your own music for it?  People will think I’m a raging egomaniac.  I’m really not, but why not be proud of what you do?

We sang my new arrangement of ‘America the Beautiful’ among other things at a dinner in the great hall of the Supreme Court building.  This in celebration of the end of the court session.  Wish I had pictures but didn’t have the opportunity.  Or a camera for that matter.

No worries, there are pictures of me conducting the band on the steps of the capital!  Those come soon!

Army Chorus on CNN

Here’s a great little video CNN did on us and our diplomatic mission. Hopefully this link will be good for a little while. Too bad I’m so new to the group that I had no part in the story, but I will have plenty of opportunities to do neat things in the future.

Here is the link!

Cloud eleven

I am home after my third day at TUSAB (that’s Armyspeak for The US Army Band). I’m still in observation mode–just sat and listened during rehearsal yesterday, taking my time getting to know the guys. I’ve been given carte blanche to jump in whenever I feel like it, but I think it’s wise to get a sense of where they are and what they do before I, the young whippersnapper captain, jumps in and tries to change everything. (The Army band program is strange; some of these guys have been in the chorus nearly my entire lifetime. They’ve sung for Presidents, kings, queens, popes (just a few days ago), etc. Some serious international bigwigs ask for soloists like Jon Deutsch and Alvy Powell BY NAME. And yet, lil’ ol’ me is their new director. Unbelievable.) Having gotten my uniform ready yesterday, I was able to accompany the chorus to their performance this morning IN THE ROTUNDA AT THE CAPITOL BUILDING FOR THE PRESIDENT AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE AS THEY GAVE THE FIRST CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL IN FORTY YEARS TO THE DOCTOR WHO INVENTED THE CONCEPT OF A MASH UNIT. And Wayne Newton was there, too. That sounds like a joke, but it isn’t. Did I mention this was my third day on the job? Oh yeah and by the way, the chorus is scary good. I wish I had pictures, but I have a feeling there will be other opportunities.

New pieces

I guess things are picking up a little bit.  There’s less than two weeks remaining for the Adjutant General Captains Career Course, leaving only nearly a month until I report to Pershing’s Own.  It will be a great relief to get back into music full-time.

 In the meantime, I did manage to finish a couple of new pieces; pieces that had been on the burners for probably waaaay too long.

The Roarsville Rag is a short grade 4 written for the Rohrersville Band.  I’m really happy with the way it turned out.  I wanted to introduce three melodies that combined for the finale, and I think they really come together well in a satisfying finale.  Once the ending was written and I had all the melodic material ironed out, the expositions were easy.  Two criteria were not met, however: I wanted to deliver the piece last year for the band’s 170th birthday, and also make it a grade 3.  But I discovered that once you decide to write a rag, you’re pretty much locked into writing a fair amount of syncopation.

The other piece I finished was Montpelier Dances, a very difficult woodwind quintet composed with the Montepelier Winds of James Madison University in mind.  I met them at Midwest in 2003 when they gave a clinic.  I decided then that I would write a piece for them, but I cannot remember if I actually told any of them of the plan.  Oh, well.

Anyway, the piece is in five contrasting movements, and each movement features one of the instruments in virtuostic fashion (each movement even features a short cadenza).  Please go to my website and give it a listen; there’s a pretty decent computerized performance until I can get the real thing.

Soon, I’m sure I will beat myself up for not being more productive during this time away from crazy work hours and the wonderful chaos of a house with kids, but for now I’m content with pulling out two slow-going pieces.  There’s no shortage of new ideas to tackle, though, and I think I’ll get started soon (after I do my taxes)!

A major award!

Okay, well maybe it wasn’t an award like an electric leg or anything, but I did receive a very nice and thoughtful gift.

 When I arrived in Ft. Jackson last October, I stopped by the 282d Army Band building to say hello and met the commander, WO1 James Bettencourt.  Long story short–the band played four of my charts for their holiday concerts in December, and I was invited to conduct one, too.  I conducted Army Bells, a piece I wrote for the US Army Europe Band that pits Jingle Bells against the Army Song to see how they’d fight it out.  It was nice to be invited, and fun to get back to doing music, if only for a few minutes.

 So in front of the band today, Mr. Bettencourt presented me with a Certificate of Appreciation and a custom Mollard baton with ‘282d Army Band’ burned into the shaft.  I was given these things in appreciation of them allowing me to be a part of their concert.  Who should be giving who gifts?  I don’t have a camera here with me, so I’ll post a picture later.

Once again, thank you so much to Mr. Bettencourt, First Sergeant Harvey, and all the members of the 282d “Victory” Band for allowing me to be a part of your concert last month!

NBA/Merrill Jones results

I haven’t written anything for a while in this forum, but there’s a very good reason for that–there’s not a whole lot to report. I’m in the purgatory of Army schooling, and it’s not a music-rich environment to say the least. But after a few very slow months, an eventful day today…

Two days ago I received notice that Black Tie Blu-bop didn’t win the NBA/Merrill Jones Band Composition Contest and that my submission would be returned under separate cover. Fine. But today I get a letter from Frank Wickes saying that the committee thought my piece was “excellent” but exceeded their Grade III/IV requirement (an accurate assessment–it’s a solid Grade V). So he forwarded the score and CD to Wingert-Jones for publication consideration even though the piece didn’t win! What a classy thing to do; I sent a quick email of thanks. W-J should have a look in a month or so. Even if it doesn’t get selected, it was a meaningful gesture from the judges not to simply throw out the piece as ineligible.

This good news led to a friendly call to Dave McKee (Virginia Tech marching band and symphony band director, and good friend), who said that Grafton High School’s performance at VMEA was fantastic. It totally slipped my mind! Hopefully Darren will come through and get that recording to me.

Though I haven’t been productive, I’m still at least trying to write. I figured I would be able to write a lot of music while I didn’t have the distractions of home during the course, but I was mistaken. I talked with my wife earlier and I think she’s right: I have the time to write, but without the immersion in and exposure to a musical environment, I’m not getting anywhere. Note to self: never apply for the Rome prize; you’ll only waste everyone’s time.

At least I am nearly done with my woodwind quintet and there will be much rejoicing when it’s finally finished. I don’t see another one in the forseeable future.

Return to the States

I haven’t posted anything new for a couple of months because a) I was overwhelmed with all the tasks involved in moving your family and all your stuff back from three years of living overseas, and b) there wasn’t anything to report anyway.

Galaxy Portals was not a winner of the Dallas Wind Symphony Fanfare Competition this year, but I still think they’re a pretty good band (wink).

But some good news has come my way recently–the Grafton (VA) High School Band will be performing Black Tie Blu-bop at the Virginia Music Educators Association In-service Conference in November! Their director, Darren Kirsch, is an old Virginia Tech classmate of mine. I am looking forward to meeting and working with his band sometime in the very near future. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend the performance itself, but I am honored and excited that my piece is getting out there!

There’s also news about a possible upcoming commission, but I won’t divulge any details since nothing has been confirmed, and I certainly don’t want to jinx the possibility. I’ve probably said too much already…

Inspiration

While we were waiting for permission to take the field for rehearsal the day of our World Bowl performance, the band spent a fair amount of time hanging out in one of those huge concrete tunnels that leads directly to the playing field from the outside.  And when you’re waiting around with nothing to do for over an hour, and you have a horn in your hands, you’re going to noodle.

Our trombones and horns started playing Mahler 3.  At the time, I was out on the field, but you could hear this huge sound coming from the tunnel, even though this was a reasonably large stadium with a lot of ambient noise.  One particular passage coming from that huge echo chamber sounded like something that would work well in the Meyerson lobby in Dallas…wait a minute…let’s think about this…

And that’s sometimes the way things happen.  Just a couple of notes in succession of people just fooling around can catch your ear in a unique way and start the creative juices flowing.  I had no intention of entering the Dallas Wind Symphony fanfare competition again; I thought the success I had before would be tough to top.  But just a week has passed since that moment and I have a decent start on a piece that only has to be two minutes long (but it is due in two weeks–can I work that fast?).

So, dear reader, you may expect a posting of my next fanfare effort, Galaxy Portals, coming soon.

World Bowl XV

I originally planned on using this blog to post only things related to my own composing and arranging efforts. But I thought it would also be alright to comment on events that are a result of my role as a military musician. By virtue of my position, I get to do some pretty cool things!

Exhibit one: Yesterday, the US Army Europe Band & Chorus participated in World Bowl XV by playing the anthems and a terrific halftime show. In the game, the Hamburg Sea Devils defeated the hometown and critical favorites, the Frankfurt Galaxy something-to-something. Never mind that, we reached an audience of 48,000, plus whoever watched on the NFL channel!

First, a field’s-eye view of the band in place:

Here’s a shot of me conducting the American anthem:


..and here’s me conducting the German anthem (please keep in mind that when you’re on a Jumbotron screen the camera adds 800 pounds):

 

…and a few shots of the band and chorus during the halftime show. On the other side of the fifty-yard line are several teams’ worth of scantily-clad cheerleaders that are in no way affiliated with the United States Army or this happily married man.

It was a great thing for the Band & Chorus, and also for many families, especially mine. The wife LOVES football and got to teach my son quite a bit (we’ve been missing out on football for three years now–you can’t just stay up all night when you have little kids). And the daughter loved seeing the cheerleaders. Her cheerleading outfit covered her belly button but she says she can show it when she gets “older.” Don’t count on it, kid.