To help myself keep track, here's what I need to talk about:-Words and Music Concert
-Twitter
-Necromancer's Dance
-ALT's CLDP
-Of Montreal concert
-Don Pasquale
-Words and Music Concert
-Upcoming recital

I have 20 minutes to write a lot of stuff, so I might not get it all in this post. (Deep breath...) Ok, go!

I'm in Twitter now. I've discovered it really is a great way to interact with some other people who are passionate about new music and opera. I'm finding lots of interesting articles and links to new music that I'm sharing on there, so follow me: @moberhau

Necromancer's Dance is finished! That's what I ended up naming my orchestra piece. I don't really know what to do with it now, though. Should I just start throwing it at orchestras? Perhaps with baskets of fresh baked cookies?

I applied for American Lyric Theater's Composer Librettist Development Program. I really, really want this - but it's out of my hands now. Wish me luck! If I get this, it means I'm moving to NYC!

This doesn't really apply to new classical music, but - if you ever get the chance, go see Of Montreal in concert. They put on a ridiculously entertaining show. Fun music, and lots of random people in costumes.

A disappointment, then: Don Pasquale at the Washington National Opera. I wasn't expecting it to be the best thing ever - in my opinion, it's one of the worst operas that's in the traditional canon - but I was expecting to at least be amused, entertained, and impressed by the talent. I wasn't any of those. There were a few good moments here or there, but mostly everything was ho-hum at best. What a disappointment.

Not a disappointment at all, though: Words and Music's concert yesterday, The American Composer I. Great works, all by living American composers: Laitman, Rorem, Chipulo, Johns, and Frazin. Johns and Frazin were there - I already knew Terrance Johns, tenor extraordinaire and a really excellent composer, and it was wonderful to meet Howard Frazin. The usual four singers and pianist that make up Words and Music were diminished slightly - the bartone's wife had just had a child, and the tenor (Terry) was really sick. The soprano and mezzo took on most of the concert, with Terry joining in for the ensemble pieces. They also had a terrific clarinettist there, Brian David Jones, who played on the Rorem and two Frazin pieces. All really great stuff - but now I have to run! Memorial Day festivities, and not enough time to write about the most exciting part (for me): the upcoming Songs recital! Look for a post about this soon.
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First and foremost: The composition recital that Kyle, Roc, and I have been working toward is in less than a week! It's tentatively named "Perspectives," (that hasn't been ok'd by everybody else yet). The program is below:

Perspectives
A Recital of the music of Kyle Gullings, Roc Lee, and Michael Oberhauser
The Artist's Inn Residence
1824 R St. NW
Washington, DC
June 4, 2010
8:00pm

String Quartet No. 1: At Best It Sometimes Rhymes (2009)                                     Kyle Gullings
II. Two Music Boxes
III. Emanations
I. There Is a Child
                                                         *Destiny Hoyle, violin
                                                          Kate Northfield, violin
                                                       *Elizabeth O'Hara, viola
                                                           *Diana Curtis, cello
*member of Altra String Quartet

Four Poems (2010)                                                                                     Michael Oberhauser
III. Haiku
IV. Free Verse
                                                       Cristina Verderese, flute
                                                          Henry Valoris, viola
                                                              Roc Lee, piano

Three arias from the chamber opera Oblivion (2010)                                                Kyle Gullings
The Plumtree
Night in Kalapa
Sorrow Is My Own Yard
                                                      Rachel Barham, soprano
                                                      James Rogers, baritone
                                                      Cristina Verderese, flute
                                                         Kyle Gullings, piano

Piano Suite (2005)                                                                                                       Roc Lee
tristesse oblige
sepia
                                                         Hilary Henry, piano

in memoriam Hibakusha (rev. 2009)                                                                       Kyle Gullings
                                                       Kyle Gullings, baritone
                                                        Hilary Henry, piano
                                                                 narrator

The Name on the Door (2010)                                                                      Michael Oberhauser
                                                    Sarah Philippa, soprano
                                                  Katherine Sanford, soprano
                                                    Joshua Brown, baritone
                                                     Elena Forbes, clarinet
                                                       Henry Valoris, viola
                                                     Elizabeth O'Hara, viola
                                                       Yufen Chou, piano



Next part of this post: Encounters.
Working here at the Cosmos Club, I saw that there was a recital by the Vocal Arts Society scheduled one of the days I was working. I had no more work to do, so I could have gone home, but I popped upstairs to see if they needed anything. Turns out the recital was made up of all Lori Laitman's music. There were two singers there... and the composer herself on piano. I mentioned to the woman sponsoring the recital that I was a composer, and she invited me to listen to the recital and meet Lori afterwards. I did both! What a wonderful concert (everyone, look up her "Pentecost." It's incredible.), and what a sweet, friendly person! She and I are actually friends on Facebook now! :)

Part three: Raise
I mean, there's not much to say about this, except that I got a raise at work... and I'm taking on a lot more hours: Instead of working weekends, I'm now working Monday through Friday 9-5. The worst part about this is I had to give up my dogwalking job. I'll miss the mutts, but the extra money will definitely be nice!
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I've been inspired by a lot of things recently.

First, on Saturday, May 1, I went to the University of Maryland, College Park's Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center to see a production of Ned Rorem's Evidence of Things Not Seen. I was absolutely stunned. The piece itself is incredible- stunning music for four soloists- Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor, and Baritone with piano. The poems Rorem picked for the song cycle are incredible, too. All in all, it's 36 songs (solos, duets, trios, and quartets), with poems written by 24 different poets (Whitman, Auden, Wordsworth, Paul Goodman, and many others).

The piece is broken into three movements: Part One: Beginnings, Part Two: Middles, and Part Three: Ends. It's an hour and 40 minutes of incredibly powerful music. The singers and pianists (they switched off every couple songs) were incredible. I was so moved.

I want to write songs again. The last song I wrote just because I wanted to and not for a class or anything was in 2007. I think I need to add a song cycle or at least a handful of songs to my list of things I want to compose soon.

Other inspiration: This morning, my web browser had, on its home page, a story about a young woman who wore the same little black dress every day for an entire year, but styled it differently every day. (Without going too much into detail, the dress could be worn backwards. It had buttons down the front -or back, depending on how you look at it. She wore different things underneath, and different accessories to make 365 strikingly different looking outfits.)

I also kind of want to do something every day, like little black dress girl and my friend Kyle with his Haiku-a-day that he wrote while he was in Hawaii.

My idea is to start a new piano piece and write one measure of it every day for a year. My plan is to write it all in 4/4 at about 80bpm, which would make the entire piece  18 minutes and 15 seconds long, assuming I don't change tempo at any point. I also think I'll break it into four movements, based on the seasons. I'll try and write a measure each day before I go to bed, reflecting on how I felt that day, what I was thinking about, the weather, or whatever else. I'm also planning to not look back at too much of the music before - perhaps only look at the past 5 measures each time - to make the composition more in the moment. When I'm finished with a movement I'll look back and made minor edits to make the whole thing more cohesive.

The summer solstice this year is on June 21- I'll start work on the new piece then!
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The University of Maryland, College Park, has a strong dedication to performing new works. The Maryland Opera Studio has performed an impressive number of new operas and american operas. Most recent on the list was Shadowboxer by composer Frank Proto and librettist John Chenault. This piece, commissioned by the University of Maryland at the goading of director Leon Major, is an opera based on the life of boxer Joe Louis. The opera shows Louis as a hero, but a very human hero.
 
So what?
 
That might be a little harsh. I really did enjoy my evening at the opera. It did most things well- the music, the singers, the pit, the set, the lights, the staging... all spectacular. There was just something lacking in the drama. It wasn't focused enough on any issue, and it wasn't made personal enough. Of course, this is coming from someone who had only heard the name. Joe Louis has never been a hero of mine, and I don't really care much for boxing. Even for people not too interested in boxing such as myself, though, there should have been a more satisfying dramatic arch.
 
Proto's score was probably the biggest star of the evening. A handful of people left at intermission- that's understandable, the tonal language was difficult and perhaps a little tiresome at times. Proto did an excellent job of keeping it fresher than many contemporary composers do, though, with the inclusion of jazz into the score. Every time the sparse, but amazingly effective setpiece in the back was flown out a bit to reveal the jazz band behind, the mood changed. It definitely helped keep my attention in a first act that might have been a bit too long.
 
The entire cast was very strong. There were no real weak links, but there were no real standout strong performances, either. I was mostly impressed by how well everyone worked together, both vocally and with their acting. If I had to pick a standout, I might pick mezzo-soprano Adrienne Webster as Marva Trotter, Louis' first (and second) wife. Her singing was very clear, as was her diction. I also greatly enjoyed her slight jazz stylings here and there. It didn't hurt at all, though, that she had the two best arias in the show: her flirty first act aria and, especially, her powerful divorce aria in the second act. Another very strong performance in the cast came from bass-baritone Jarrod Lee as Old Joe. He sang the entire show... difficult lines and phrases that always sounded very melodic and inspired by the action... and he never showed the slightest bit of fatigue in his voice. His physical performance was also very impressive. I also very much enjoyed Andrew Owens as Reporter #1, but he didn't have much of an opportunity to show off his voice.
 
As I mentioned above, the ensemble work was more impressive than the solo passages. The three reporters, the three beauties, and Jack Blackburn, Julian Black, and John Roxborough were all excellent working with each other. Surpassing all of that, though, was the chorus. The chorus added a great deal to the show- they snuck in sometimes and you barely noticed they were singing, and when you did, the effect was pleasingly eerie. They had to switch between more classical singing and jazz singing rather quickly. At times they were a little difficult to hear, but the effect of their voices and their presence was still there. Proto's choral writing is excellent. I'm sure it was difficult for the chorus, but their hard work and the hard work of the chorusmasters really paid off.
 
The orchestra and the jazz band were also very strong. Everything felt very together and synthesized, even from the orchestra in the pit to the band at the back of the stage. Kudos to conductor Timothy Long for that very impressive feat. Everything felt natural and easy. Proto's orchestral writing is also excellent.
 
On top of great acting and great music from everyone on, below, and behind the stage, everything looked fabulous. Leon Major is brilliant. Absolutely everything worked in this production. It's difficult to pick out favorite aspects, it was just so spot on. The set and the lighting added so much... the obvious but very effective squares of light at many times instead of the common circle of light, the projections alternating with shadows of the singers cast on the walls from floor lights... all incredible things that came from the collaboration of Major, scenic designer Erhard Rom, lighting designer Nancy Schertler, and projection designers Kirby Malone and Gail Scott White. (The only projection I didn't much care for was the radio projection. Kinda silly.)
 
This is Proto's first opera, and Chenault's first libretto. I hope they collaborate again, or at least work in their respective fields again. Shadowboxer is almost a great opera... almost. I really enjoyed it, though.
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