Xavier Residency and Premiere

I met with the Xavier composers last Tuesday to have an hour-long discussion about composer stuff like how to begin a piece, how I compose, how do you judge if something is good/bad, etc. We had a great discussion, and I wish I could have stayed longer. I hope they invite me back, especially because the students were asked to bring scores and recordings, and we didn't have time for that. Maybe next time.

On Thursday, the Xavier Symphonic Wind Ensemble premiered my piece Motordom. Before the performance, there were some issues with stopping a piano note because the piano lid was only halfway open. (Of course, I'm glad the piano lid was only halfway open because then I would have had major balance issues. More on that later.) The solution: use the pianist's scarf (+ binder) to mute the piano strings.

[If I were John Mackey, I would have a picture that shows the green scarf inside the piano HERE.]

The Xavier group performed well, and I could tell they put forth their best effort. Here are some real photos of the event.

Of course, I don't know why the coloring is different between these two pictures.

Let me just say that I'm sad you guys can't see my tights; they were pretty fantastic.