Back from a busy and exhausting trip to Chicago for the Midwest Clinic. I had two great performances, saw old friends, met lots of new people, had some tasty food, a few cocktails, and got into an argument with some dumb-ass drunk who mis-overheard something he thought I said — but I didn’t say. (Him: “You should be careful what you say to people, because you never know who is listening.” Me: “That’s not what I said.” Him: “Fine, but I know what I heard.” Me: “You’re a dumb ass.” It went kind of like that.)

It was good to get home on time — which is a lot luckier than what I’ve heard from friends who were hugely delayed by the weather that arrived shortly after I left. It was also good to sleep 13 hours the night I got home. I’m getting too old for Midwest.

I’ll write a full debrief soon, but today, it’s Christmas Eve, and there are cozier things to do — like admiring what AEJ did while I was gone. She made Loki his own stocking! Is that the cutest thing or what?!

She also made little name labels for our stockings. Cozy time!

Stay tuned for the Midwest debrief, but until then — Merry Christmas!

The Ridgewood Concert Band — only the second group to perform my Soprano Sax concerto — has posted their recording of their premiere. Christian Wilhjelm conducted, and man alive, he did a great job keeping all of the tempos up and holding the monster together. Lois Hicks-Wozniak, the soloist for the performance, sounds just beautiful throughout; Lois played the hell out of the piece. Newman was there and raved to me about her and about the band, and he was right. The energy of the “Prelude” is great; you can hear every tricky alternate fingering in “Felt”; “Metal” is just beautiful, and really sings; “Wood” is hot ‘n’ sultry; and the “Finale” is a fast and exciting, and Lois nailed the cadenza. The band — keep in mind, this is a community band that rehearses once a week, not a college group! — worked like crazy and it really showed. They played like they really loved supporting Lois for those 25 minutes. I really wish I could have been there to hear it live. I’m really happy that at least there’s this recording.

I’m heading to Chicago on Tuesday for the annual Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. I have two performances there this year:
Wednesday, 9pm: US Navy Band with Timothy Roberts, soprano sax, will perform the final two movements of my Concerto for Soprano Sax and Wind Ensemble
Friday, 8:45pm: Harrison High School Wind Ensemble, conducted by David Vandewalker, will perform the second movement of “Kingfishers Catch Fire”

See you there!

Oh, and here’s my favorite new band: Uptown Bill & the Elmos

I’ve recently been accepted into Yale, Harvard, and Princeton. I know you’re as shocked as I am, considering I’m generally an all-around stupidhead, but yes, I’ve been accepted into all three. And I didn’t even apply! They all contacted me individually on their own and asked, “would you come and be a part of our institution?”

Well, their music libraries, at least.

“Breakdown Tango” is going to the Yale music library, the original chamber version of “Strange Humors” is now at the Harvard music library, and both the orchestral and band scores for “Redline Tango” are in the Princeton music library.

After several years of feeling a little inadequate next to AEJ and her Princeton degree, well, no longer! Go Princeton Tigers! (and their awesome marching band, too)