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April 27th, 2006

Conducting Again.

How I’ve been neglecting the blog! Haven’t had time or energy recently, but there’s a slew of items in the works.

The upcoming performance of my new fanfare for the Washington International School, it turns out, will not only be a premiere, but a very rare conducting appearance for me. I was asked yesterday if I would do it, and, flattered, I agreed.

If my memory is correct, I haven’t conducted in public since 1998, and before that only rarely. For a long time it was something I really wanted to do, but that interest waned as I gained experience. Turns out, I may have the ear training and other musical skills that are required, but not the others: leadership, time management, sparkling personality, floppy hair.

Maybe it hasn’t sunk in yet, but I’m alarmingly calm about the whole thing. It’s only a two-minute piece for a small brass and percussion ensemble, and someone else is doing the real work of running the rehearsals. Also, it’s my old school, so I’ll be among friends.

The fanfare will be performed during WIS’s 40th Anniversary celebration at the shiny new Roundhouse Theater in Bethesda, Maryland on May 12th and 13th.

Care to comment?

March 14th, 2006

Another Sentimental Commission

My alma mater, the Washington International School, is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. How kind of them to ask me to write a short fanfare for the occasion. Like my last commission for Letter To Hungary, I’m very happy to do it for sentimental reasons.

There’s only one problem: What’s a fanfare?

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