Obama = Arts?

On Jan 21, I wrote a bit about Obama and the Arts. Since then, I've seen that Earth, Wind, and Fire and Stevie Wonder have been to the White House. That, coupled with the Inauguration performances bode well for the days ahead. I'm still waiting for him to have a Carter chamber music evening at the White House. Now THAT would be an excellent sign.

Eventually

So, my version of a few days means nearly a week later. Good to know.

So, the next few concerts are:

Feb 27, 730pm Emmanuel Baptist Church, Brooklyn: Black History Month Concert with a rather impressive gospel choir. If gospel is your thing, this one should be fun.

March 2, 8pm at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in the Village: An orchestral tribute to film composer Leonard Rosenman. His music is quite forward thinking compared to most film composers, but is quite beautiful in its own right.

March 5, 8pm at Loewe Theatre on W.4th St: I'll be playing Howard Sandroff's "Tephillah" for Clarinet and Digital Processors. Izzi Ramkissoon will be running the digital processors through a Max/MSP patch on his laptop. It's really a duet of sorts and I promise that it will melt any audience that shows up. Since it's FREE, you can't miss this one.

Finally, a mini-review of Pal Joey: The pit orchestra was fantastic. There were a handful of triplers who played the hell out of their clarinets. I've heard plenty of subpar triplers before and these were NOT them. These guys were fantastic players on all of their instruments. Now onstage...hm...Stockard Channing was quite snarky when she needed to be and Martha Plimpton could really sing. I'm going to leave the rest alone, I guess. Probably smarter...

I've been a little bit ill lately, so I've spent most of my days getting worse. Working from 8am-1030pm doesn't do alot for one's immune system, I promise. Hopefully, I'll get to recover more over the weekend.

Update-ish

It's not really an update if I'm promising to update later, right?

I'll try to throw down a Pal Joey mini-review, a coming-events detail or two, and a general "what's shaking" post in the next couple of days. I'm spending my weekend with clarinet in face a little more than normal, so I'll try to sling some info some evening soon.

It's Aliiiiive!

I finally have a Tephillah patch up and running on my speedy laptop. Wahoo. That means that I can get to practicing the piece with the notated processing and get used to how it's all supposed to work. Fantastic. I've got exactly a month to get it all cranking and ready for primetime so the masses can enjoy it. I've really got to thank Mark Volker for sending me this wonderful patch. I'll be spending the next few days trying to get to understand it. Hopefully, fluency will come fast.

Oh yeah, family concert in Glens Falls this weekend. If you've got time, it's something to do.

But more importantly, I'm doing my part to support Broadway and will be going to see "Pal Joey" tomorrow night after teaching and rehearsing all day. Then I get to go all the way to GF for a 9am runthough. Ack.