The End of Saint Nicolas...

In Benjamin Britten's cantata entitled Saint Nicolas, there are two hymns sung by the choir and the congregation (the audience). The second of the two occurs at the very end of the piece, after Saint Nicolas has died. While the entirety of Saint Nicolas is beautiful, I know I will always hold these last few lines very dear.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head
Amen.

The version by the Adelburgh Festival Choir is the one I have- it's an excellent recording.

In this darkness with my frozen hands...

Partch Ensemble performance = Success! All the pieces sounded fantastic- the program featured music by both Partch himself and by various other composers (students as well!). I know that if I go somewhere else for grad school, I won't be able to play on Partch instruments again.

I'd love to cover some Partch stuff here at some point. Check out this documentary in the meantime.

Upcoming graduation...

In honor of my upcoming graduation from college, I'm going to revamp this blog to include new things... such as my adventures in the "real world", whatever that may be. Plus, I really want to get into painting and lomography. Plus, I will probably have more time to write in this darn thing.

Stay tuned for the BIG COLLEGE RECAP... last performances, fond memories, maybe some not-so-fond ones (what, really, a 65 on my fugue assignment??). Of course, I have to get into the Verdi and Comp Recital thing. Indeed.

For now, today is my last Harry Partch performance... my group will be performing "Soldiers", one of Partch's Eleven Intrusions. Of course, I will be playing adapted guitar, given the choice between an instrument I am bound to break and a totally awesome slide guitar.

This week at MSU- Orchestra, Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band, Campus Band, and MSU Chorale and Singers. We will be performing Saint Nicolas by Benjamin Britten in Chorale, which will be my last of about seven major chorale performances (and a handful of small ones). So many last shows this month. Jazz guitar night last Thursday, Partch today, Chorale on Saturday, jazz big band next week. I'm gonna miss them when I'm living in a box under the Brooklyn Bridge.

My Recital

So, everything has come together pretty nicely. In just a little over twelve hours, it'll be time for my senior recital.

Just gotta get some sleep now.

Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated...

Okay, so it's exactly ONE WEEK until my recital next week at the Cali School of Music. Hoo-ray! Though I've hit approximately 584 snags, me and my crew of awesome musicians have been chugging along. This show is gonna ROCK, I can feel it.

So, for those who are interested, the program will consist of a solo guitar piece, a short piece for marimba and vibes, two jazz tunes, a piano trio, a solo piano piece, an intermission, a choir piece, a string quartet, and four songs. Bitchin'.

Stay tuned for more.

It's Been A While

Let me fill you in on my life on a very impersonal way.

1) I'm a better bass player than I thought.
2) Verdi Requiem was a huge success.
3) My composition recital is about a month away at this point.

So, I think I'll regale/bore all of you/none of you with word on my recital preparations. Things should get more interesting once I have videos up. At this point, you probably don't even know that I compose music.

So check out my myspace page for now- myspace.com/acmenescompositions

Let me fill you in on things I intend to do in the coming weeks/months, in no particular order.

1) Arrange my Piano Trio #1 for the MSU Classical Guitar Ensemble
2) Have a successful recital.
3) Get my hair done.
4) Post more videos/audio clips of my music//launch some sort of website.
5) Graduate
6) Go to grad school

Just about to sing the Verdi Requiem...

I wanted to update before, but I was fighting to get my hair looking good.

Wow. The choir has been working on the Verdi Requiem since September. Now we are being called to go on. This is going to be amazing.