There are some exciting performances of a few different chamber pieces of mine coming up in the next few months. My percussion piece, “the day after,” will be performed at the University of North Texas and Brooklyn College. The piece is for 6 players of mostly pitched percussion (marimbas, vibraphones, glockenspiel, but also some drums too). It was originally commissioned by the award winning University of Kentucky Percussion Ensemble, and received its premiere there last spring. Brian Archinal, the main force behind the original commission, has recently completed a fantastic recording of the piece. He recorded all 6 parts for all 3 movements. Not bad! Please visit Brian on MySpace. My audio page will be undergoing some major renovations in the near future, and I plan to get this piece and others up there as soon as possible.

Also in the future is another performance of “sCrAmBle sUiT” at the MATA Festival (Le Poisson Rouge) in early April. I wrote this piece for the NOW Ensemble almost 2 years ago, and they’ve been playing it ever since. It has evolved quite a bit since its premiere in May 2007, both from rewrites on my part (both substantial and minor - I can’t seem to help myself!) and from the interpretation by NOW. I’m really looking forward to this concert and I hope you New Yorkers out there will come and hear it.

The Philip Glass Ensemble performance of “Music in 12 Parts” in San Francisco (Davies Hall) a few weeks ago was fantastic. After the performance, Philip himself declared it the best performance of 12 Parts in the history of the ensemble. Considering it was finished in 1974 and been performed countless times since then, I was honored to be a part of the experience. And an experience it is. I don’t think that there is a performance equivalent in the history of composed music quite like playing a 4 hour piece with exactly 1 bar of rest. It’s demanding physically and mentally, but it also feels great. As Andrew Sterman (woodwinds since 1991) says, “It hurts so good!” There are some pictures from the performance here.