Michael James Oberhauser

I tried to post last night, but Weebly was having some troubles and my post didn't save. No worries: I'm redoing it now. Plus, I added more to other parts of the website (a new Compositions Performed page, and a restructuring of the pages of the website)

The first order of business is that the children's musical is finally finished! I finished it last Friday, enjoyed a 3-day weekend of no composing, and was itching to get into some new work this week.
I started with some revisions of Haiku. I've always liked the general sound world of that piece, but there was something about that piece that just wasn't interesting enough. I think I've fixed that now, though.

I've also started work on another piece to go with Haiku: Limerick. It still needs some work, but I think I like where it's going. To come in this set: Free Verse, Sonnet, and possibly something else. For some reason I think 5 pieces is good for this set.

Something exciting for the near future: a City Choir performance. On Sunday, October 25 at 5:00pm we will be performing Mozart's Requiem and Tavener's Little Requiem for Father Malachy Lynch. It's at the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. If you'd like tickets, click here.

The next exciting thing coming up: fall travels! Here's the itinerary:
November 4 - Toledo, OH to visit family and friends
               5 - Ann Arbor, MI to check out the University of Michigan
               6 - another day in Toledo
               7-8 - the greater Chicago area to check out Northwestern University, see friends, and see a performance of my children's musical.

Whew... I think that's enough. I'll leave you with a recording of something I've been listening to lately: Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky. I went to a recital at the Kennedy Center a few weeks ago of Olga Borodina, Ildar Abdrazakov, and the Washington National Opera Orchestra. One of my favorite pieces was Field of the Dead from Alexander Nevsky, which Olga sang. It was incredible. Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC_qyMIqb-s . The piece is sung from the point of view of a girl at a battlefield after the battle. She pays her respects to the fallen soldiers, and promises to marry a surviving soldier. Incredibly heavy, incredibly moving stuff.