ForrestWorks

I rarely delve into aesthetics on my blog, but I can’t resist posting this. If you have time, and want to think about art and beauty, I recommend reading this, and then thinking about the comparisons to musical art. The applications are obvious, numerous, and profound.

I also recommend reading Joe Carter’s comment, below it, posted on June 23, where he echoes sentiments I’ve learned from Julian Johnson.

Click HERE to read the article and the comment.

My four pieces newly published by C. Alan are now available. (Basque Lullaby for Band, Grafenburg Variations for Band, Sonata for Violin and Piano, and Sonata for Trombone and Piano). I got my complimentary copies today.

Also, C. Alan has a feature about the pieces on the front page of their website- click here.

Now that I’m back from my Pennsylvania trip (which was a great time!), I’m looking ahead to some future things. I’ll be at the Hinshaw Celebration in August, where the gala concert will feature some of my music, and I’ll also be one of the guest clinicians at the Pine Lake Church Music Leadership Symposium, doing some reading sessions there.

Meanwhile, I’m working on finishing up my Te Deum, which is making progress but not as quickly as I had hoped. Once that’s done, I have several other things in the works:

• Three church anthems that have been requested that I’ll probably do- we’ll see.
• A collaboration with Anthony Silvestri on a piece for Tracy Resseguie- it will honor his Norwegian ancestry, and he plans to take it on tour to Norway- really cool!
• Amidst several other personal writing projects, I have a few other church commission projects in the works- one in Texas, one locally in Greenville, and one in California. More on those as they’re finalized.
• Lastly, I’m pleased to announce a commission from the Greenville Chorale for a piece that will honor their 50th anniversary next year. It’ll be a piece for the Greenville Chorale, and the winds and brass of the Greenville Symphony, to be performed next fall at the Peace Center for the Performing Arts. I’m excited to be making this local “hometown” connection, and honored to help the Greenville Chorale celebrate!

I came home from our recent trip to two surprises:

First, my main computer that I use for *everything* was dead…and I found out today it’s the logic board, not just the power supply. Ouch! Thankfully it’s under warranty, so I’ll be without it for a few days (hopefully only 1-2?!) but it’ll be a free fix.

Second, I got a letter in the mail from the John Ness Beck Foundation- this was a year that I wasn’t judging, so my pieces could be considered- and apparently someone put in A Cradle Carol (Beckenhorst Press)- and it won second prize. What a nice surprise- and I won’t have to use any of the prize money towards fixing my computer.

Here’s a low quality mp3 of it:

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