The big premiere of “Turbine” is in less than two hours. I’m almost bouncing off the walls here in the Holiday Inn in anticipation. The dress rehearsal last night here at Vanderbilt was awesome. The hall here is fantastic, and I can finally hear everything that’s happening in the piece. The hall is bright, but fairly dry without being at all “dead.” The hall in Lexington on Wednesday for the “unofficial” premiere was far too wet for the piece, and also too loud, causing the piece to sound acoustically distorted by the third bar. Here at Vanderbilt, though, the piece sounds massive — but not quite distorted. It was loud enough, though, that at last night’s dress rehearsal, Rick Clary (who was the previous director of bands at U. Kentucky) came by to hear his old group, and when he heard the third bar of “Turbine,” he burst into uncontrollable laughter, just from the shock of the massive sound attacking him from the stage. I’m hoping that was a good thing…

I should have a good idea of the success (or lack thereof) of “Turbine” in just a few hours. If it fails, it’s through no fault of Cody Birdwell and the U. Kentucky players, who are just playing the hell out of the piece. I’m cautiously optimistic, but there’s no way of knowing how the conductors here will react. Will they think it’s exciting — or assaulting?

After the premiere, I’m going to work with Robert Ambroise’s group from Georgia State. They’re playing “Redline Tango” tonight at 8pm. That’ll be fun — and a whole lot less stressful!

I’m off! More later…