A little down time after exploring beautiful Barcelona. Chance for me to vent on a pair of mild peeves with international travel. First: why do people feel the need to rush on board the plane the moment their seating zones are called? You will have nine hours or so to get intimate with your seat, a seat that will have no respect for you in the morning: as far as I’m concerned, the longer it … [Read more...]

I’m off to Spain tomorrow with the Giannini Quartet, back in a week. At some point I should thank whoever is funding this trip, but I’m unclear who that is right now, so I will wait until I know what I am talking about. In the meantime, here is the itinerary – 4 cities, 4 concerts, 2 classes: MONDAY 18 MAY Composition master class at Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in … [Read more...]

I’ve been in rehearsals with the Giannini String Quartet this past week preparing for their Spain tour, where they will be playing my String Quartet No. 3: Air (2004). Air is an eleven-minute homage to Italian aria, our fragile atmosphere, and our lifelong reliance on the peaceful undulation of our lungs. There is a wonderful recording of it by the Daedalus String Quartet online in all the usual … [Read more...]

Fun stuff happening here, been to four concerts in five nights, all celebrating various aspects of the end of the school year. Meanwhile, the Espina-Browne-Shteinberg Trio is preparing to perform GPS Lady at the Treetops Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut, Sunday, May 3rd.   Check it out if you can, more info here.  And here is some backstory on the piece: One night, driving a rental car … [Read more...]

My blogging has been sporadic to nonexistent over the last few months. After a surprise attack of keratoconus that left me fighting blindness from January to March, I was rescued by a pretty new technology that has me seeing much better. As soon as I made that life adjustment, my computer had a meltdown, which took a couple of weeks to resolve. Now I am back on track – at least today. Curve … [Read more...]

Over the years, many people have told me, and I may have told one or two myself, that you can’t really be a composer and have a family. Now that I’m nine+ years into fatherhood, I’d like to share my current perspective. History gives us conflicting – even paradoxical – evidence. Bach’s twenty-one kids didn’t seem to slow him down even a tad. On the other hand, we should probably be grateful … [Read more...]

  Weather is warming up, but we have a bunch of cool concerts happening here this time of year. Last week it was Duo SF, the Swiss sax-and-piano group, playing new music from Europe by Rico Gubler, Antoine Françoise, Hans-Jürg Meier and Laurent Estoppey.   This Saturday night it’s nu plays new, our contemporary ensemble, reeling out a lineup of premieres by our student composers: Dak Van … [Read more...]

There are a lot of questions you can ask a composer. Here are some: What’s your favorite note? How many times should dynamics change per minute? In a five-movement work, which movements should be slow movements? Okay, these are all silly questions, and not questions anyone has ever asked me, fortunately. One of the things I appreciate about the current era that’s different from when … [Read more...]