So, Magnum Opus was performed at the Kennedy Center. It doesn't get much cooler than that. It went really well- everyone performed well, the room was packed, and everyone seemed to really like it.

But... I'm pretty much Magnum'd out now. Time for some new stuff!

My children's musical is almost done... one more song to write, and then it's on to orchestration.

Next I'm moving to the instrumental world for a while- finishing up my orchestral piece, and writing a few more chamber pieces to go with Haiku. (That one needs a little editing, too...)

After that, I'm moving on to some new operas! More details about these to come... but I'm working with somereally great people. My friends Peter and Maria are each writing me libretti.

Whew, ok, back to work for me!
 
Summer, con't. 08/05/2009
 
Wow. So, Magnum Opus went really well in the Fringe Festival. Read the reviews that I have on the Magnum Opus page! I'm so proud of the production staff, singers, musicians, and well, yeah, myself. We actually made money on the production after good houses most shows, and a sold-out, standing room only last show. My colleages and friends with their own shows in the Fringe Festival (Eli, Gregg, John, and Dr. Simpson) did really well, too. A highly successful Fringe Festival showcasing a lot of Catholic University's talents!

Magnum Opus isn't done though: it's going to be in the Page to Stage Festival at the Kennedy Center at 7:30pm on September 5. This time will be more of a staged reading, though. I'm very excited, though- an opera I wrote is being performed at the Kennedy Center!

The other news is my new children's musical. It's moving really slowly, unfortunately. It'll get done, though. I really need to step up my game to get a job and pick the doctoral programs to which I'll apply.

Oh, also, I've joined the City Choir of Washington. The first concert I'm singing with them is the score to the movie Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. We're singing with orchestra at Wolf Trap toward the end of this month. I'm excited about that- it's fun to sing in elvish, hah.
 
Summer so far... 06/13/2009
 

Work has been going pretty slowly this summer. I'm about a third of the way done orchestrating my new orchestral piece... which still doesn't have a name. I need to think of something cool for it. But, either way, the work is taking longer than I expected it to.

I'm going to end up re-orchestrating Magnum Opus for the forces I end up with in the pit. I'm looking forward to having a different set of colors to work with.

I plan on starting work on my new children's musical commission in early July. That means I have to get the orchestra piece and Magnum Opus done before then. Yikes.

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Andrew Bird. Yes, it's not "classical" music, but I hope anyone would agree with me that he's very interesting and inventive. I don't want to talk about it too much, I think you should just give him a listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dJcr1brx_Y

Let me know what you think!

 
I'm a master. 05/18/2009
 

I graduated on Saturday. It feels strange to finally be done with that degree- only one more. I'll be Dr. Oberhauser in four or five years. Yikes.

Now I'm home at my parents' house in Ohio for a week or so. It's nice to relax, see some old friends, and not have to worry about anything for a while.

So, I have some exciting stuff coming up this summer!
-Magnum Opus in the Fringe Festival
-Magnum Opus in the Page-to-Stage Festival
-writing music for a new children's musical

More information about the musical soon... but I will say that it's great to be working with my college friend, the amazing Sarah Portz! I'm really looking forward to this project. 

 
 

This post is gonna be a little short, just wanted to say a couple things real quick:

The performance of Haiku was last night, and it went pretty well. The musicians were Sophia Musleh on flute, Julian Rieder on percussion, and Daniel McCarthy on viola.

I'm working on a piece for full orchestra. So far I have about 2 minutes written in short score, which I'll orchestrate next week. I'm gonna work today and tomorrow to see if I can get a little more than 2 minutes... pretty sure I won't be reaching the goal of 8, though, by Monday.

I'm also working on other movements to accompany Haiku. I'll eventually have a handful of chamber pieces based on poetry forms. I'm probably going to include sonnet, free verse, and limerick. Nothing's set in stone yet, though- just ideas.

Also, big news: Magnum Opus is getting a second performance! It will be at the DC Fringe festival this summer. It's going to be produced by Opera Alterna. I'm so excited about this! Once I know the exact venue and dates I'll put them on here.

 
Haiku 03/06/2009
 

I'm nearly finished with my new chamber piece for flute, viola, and percussion: Haiku. The whole piece will be about 5 minutes long. It's organized in a large ABA' form, where the two A sections each take up about 5/17ths of the time of the piece and the B section takes up 7/17ths - or, the rest of the time. Therefore, the piece has 5 - 7 - 5 proportions, like a haiku. Each of the larger sections has a small 5 - 7 - 5 proportion, though the two "5" sections are not as thematically similar as in the large ABA'.

In this piece I'm trying to evoke Japanese sounds without going too far and sounding like a parody. I think I've succeeded so far... I suppose the real test will be hearing it played by actual instruments.

I've also been playing around with mirror images in the piece. There are a lot of places where it looks like certain sections of the score are mirror images of other sections, sometimes in canon with each other. It doesn't quite sound like just a mirror image all of the time, but it's somewhat interesting visually. I think so, at least.

I'll probably finish this up today. Then I have to do some brainstorming with a potential (or, likely) future collaborator!

Also, does anybody want to give me a job for next year? I'd appreciate it. :)

 
Post-Opus 02/17/2009
 

Well, Magnum Opus is done. I'm extremely happy with the production. The audience seemed to really like it, and I couldn't be happier with the outcome. If you'd like to see the recording of the 3:00pm performance on Sunday, February 15, click here.

Now I'm already working on my next projects... but I have some catch up to play on homework first. My new projects are expanding a work that I've already done for Joy of Motion Dance company from 2 minutes to 4 minutes; a 5 minute chamber piece for flute, viola, and percussion; and a symphonic concert opener that'll be approximately 8 minutes long. That's a lot of work for the next few weeks... I'll be as busy as ever.

 
 

So Fall Semester is over. I've gotten a lot of work done so far this year, but I still have a lot more to do. Magnum Opus is half orchestrated. I have most of my musicians and tech people lined up. The rehearsal schedule is pretty much done. Over the break I need to finish orchestrating, finish finding people I need to find, make parts for the musicians, make rehearsal scores for the singers, make a few full scores, and get spaces for all of the rehearsals.

Also while I'm home I plan to write something new. I don't know what for sure yet, but I just need to write something. I'm thinking of a few ideas... something for clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and piano, perhaps. Or maybe something for chorus. Or for full orchestra. Or maybe I'll start working up some ideas for my new big projects I have in mind. Either way, I want to create a good portfolio for my doctoral program applications.

I've decided that I'm not going for my doctorate right away next year. I need some time off from the academic world- hopefully I'll find a way to make money and still stay connected to the musical world while here in DC.

Well, that's it for today. Time to pack for my flight home!

 
MT Scenes! 10/14/2008
 

Hey, I was just sent the link for the streaming video of the performance of my class's musical theatre scenes from a few weeks ago. These were so much fun! (In case anyone's interested, my scene is about 47 minutes in.)

http://digitalmedia.cua.edu//events/video/asx_dsp.cfm?event=4400&stream=4742

 

 
 

I finally have a complete cast for Magnum Opus! I'm really excited about it. It's basically the cast of one of the opreras I music directed this past summer, plus one more baritone. It's even the same director as the other opera!

We had our first rehearsal tonight. I'm making a recording of scenes 5 and 9 to send in for a competition. Scene 5 involves Melpomene, Polyhymnia, and Robert, and scene 9 involves the same three plus Schumann. It was great to see everyone again, and the rehearsal went really well- I really like working with Amy, she's a great accompanist. I'm even more excited about this opera now than I was before today!

I put the cast list on the Magnum Opus page.