Great — big! — news! The United States Navy Band in Washington (that’s the big one!) has joined the consortium for the Soprano Sax concerto. Timothy Roberts, the soloist with the ensemble, will lead their premiere in January at the 2008 International Saxophone Symposium just outside of DC. This is all insane. It means that the piece will receive a premiere not just with the Navy Band, but with their guy as the soloist, and in front of an audience including 1200 saxophonists from all over the world. No pressure on this piece at all.

In the mother of all conflicts, I’ll be missing the performance because I’m getting married that weekend. Sorry, Tim! Maybe I should send my dad, a former member of one of the Navy bands, in my place. (Come to think of it, maybe my dad should come to the wedding instead.)

Speaking of the Navy Band… they performed “Strange Humors” on the Capitol House Steps a few months ago. The group is performing at Midwest in December, and they requested permission to perform “Strange Humors” there as well — and Midwest denied the request, because another school performed the same piece at Midwest last year. I hate you, Midwest.

I’ve been orchestrating movement 2, “Felt,” for a few days. It’s going fine, but this kind of detail work takes a long time. I’m on page 22 of the short score, with 20 pages to go. I think I just finished the most dense part, so hopefully things will move along a little more quickly now.

I took a little break a few minutes ago to take a picture at my desk. Our neighbors brought us two oranges from the Hollywood Farmers’ Market yesterday, and rather than eat them, AEJ made them into a sort of orange snowman (an orangeman?) in my pencil holder. Isn’t it… cute?

I think I’m done working for today. 12 hours is plenty, and my shoulder hurts. I need a cookie.