Last night I went to the University of Maryland to see their orchestra concert. Professor Mark Wilson invited me and got me a ticket. We sat in the spot that he thought had the best acoustics, and had a chance to talk about the school, my goals, the people I should meet, etc. That made it start to sink in - I'm really going to school again in the fall.

I'll talk about the second half of the program first - Mahler 2. What an emotional workout.  The orchestra and chorus were so wonderful - so much so that I feel like I can't really talk about it. I can't put into words the emotions I felt. (I can say, though, that it was fun to watch various brass players and percussionists run off stage now and then to play the offstage sections. They got a bit of a workout.)

The first half of the program was Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. It was listed in the program like this:

CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Liz Lerman, movement designer
with Keith Thompson assisting.

... Movement designer? Were they having dancers? Awesome!

The stage was empty except for the harps and a few stools. Then the pre-recorded Kojo Nnamdi pre-performance speech began. The orchestra walked on with their instruments - wearing green shirts of different shades, some in khaki pants, some black pants, different shades of neutral skirts, and most barefoot. Then the stage went dark.

When the lights came back up, the most of the orchestra were lying on the stage, "sleeping." The "conductor" (who only rarely conducted) walked on, and was shortly followed by the flutist. She began to play and walk around. The orchestra "woke up" to play their parts - wandered around the stage, formed little circles of solo instruments when just one small group was playing, walked in circles - the bassists even lifted their basses over their heads, mimicking a balletic lift. At first I was wondering if this was going to seem a little hokey, but it really worked. It was a great performance, it was fun and interesting to watch, 

And that was that time I watched an orchestra dance while they played.

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!

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!

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.