August 2010

To tell the sea

August has been a bit of a dash toward the finish line (ie, Labor Day and the start of the school year at Cornish).  Since the Chorus America convention in June, I’ve gotten several new commissions that will keep me busy for the next few years (and then some).  This month, I’ve been working on a second piece for Anthony Trecek-King and the Boston Children’s Chorus.  To tell the sea, like my first piece for BCC, sets a poem by the Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani, in both English and Arabic. As A new alphabet played within and among images of autumn, this one sizzles in the summer’s heat and immerses itself in the ocean’s surf.  Down the road, I would like to complete this cycle for BCC with two more movements that set Qabbani poems about spring and winter, but that will be much later.  For now, I have quite the laundry list before school starts.

I am putting the finishing touches on The Esoterics BARBER: Collected choral works CD.  This highly-anticipated release will be on 10.10.10, at the group’s final VIVIDA concert.  I am also choosing repertoire for the Cornish Conservatory Chorus’ fall semester.  This will be a new journey for me – directing a college choir – but I’m excited about the potential of my students.  Another new challenge for me at Cornish will be my debut as a professor of Early Music History. In college and graduate school, I certainly took enough classes in the subject to be qualified to teach it.  I even studied for a semester with THE Claude Palisca (of Grout & Palisca), but took his class in the year that most of my students were born.  There’s some music history for you!

I will also submit The Esoterics’ 2009 CD release OURANIA to the Grammy nomination committee.  This disc has some gorgeous singing on it (of pieces by Richard Strauss, Heinrich Poos, Donald Skirvin, and Bo Holten), as well as a couple of my own works.  I’m looking forward to see how OURANIA fares with the Grammy voters.  In case you’re interested, you can read about it and listen to some clips here.