I didn’t take a ton of interesting pictures the past two months–lots of teaching and organization and tech support. But here’s the interesting bits of the middle of the fall semester.
I finished writing a piece for Bassoon and Electronics. This isn’t what it’s called now, but it was called this very briefly (more info on that piece coming up in the next few days)
I started work on a contrabassoon piece, and I’m using a tool I developed for tracking the composition process (which I have a presentation on next week at CMS, which I need to finish). Here’s a quick shot of me composing while on an NDSU Press field trip (staying at Nineteen26 Campground and Lodging in Steele, ND).
(That same field trip, the NDSU Intro to Publishing class printed, folded, collated, and trimmed 275 copies of this year’s chapbook. I drove the van and drank a lot of coffee.) Here’s a photo of the group (courtesy Allan Burke):
A few weeks later, we took the same class to Altona, Manitoba, to tour Friesens Corporation. Friesens is one of Canada’s largest book printers. Here we are next to several tons of rolls of paper. I drove the van and drank a lot of coffee.
We turned Festival Concert Hall into a Black Box theatre again for our fall Thundering Heard! student composers recital. This year we’re trying to build an audience with New Music Punchcards.
Ooh! Also, the NDSU University Symphony Orchestra premiered my work The Uncertainty of Joy. (https://vimeo.com/1018999619, at about 50:30. Updates to the website coming soon!)
Back at home, we got a new gate for the backyard (we lost the old one when we expanded the garage door at the beginning of covid times)…
I hit 1,450 days on Duolingo…
Bartleby claimed more of Erin’s furniture…
And Erin went for a stroll.
Next week I’m off to the 2024 College Music Society/Association for Technology in Music Instruction conference, at the Washington, DC, Hilton. That’s right. Washington, DC. During election week. I can only assume that the conference hotel was cheaper for those dates.
From the inbox:
Dear composers,
Thank you all for your submissions to the Trans-Pacific Trio call for scores! We would like to extend a special thank you to those who composed music specifically for our ensemble. Part of our reason for this call for scores was simply the lack of repertoire for our instrumentation, and it means a lot to us that you took this opportunity to create more pieces as options for us to play! We also want to acknowledge that many of you wrote worthy pieces that we were unable to program this season, but certainly hope to play in the future!
2024-2025 is rare in that the Trans-Pacific Trio is all residing in the same location for the entire season. For this reason, we wanted to give preference to submissions that included all three members of our group. The works we have selected for our “Trios Only” concert in early February are the following:
For Clarinet, Bassoon, and Piano:
Angelo Bruzzese – Lumen
David Snow – A Baker’s Tale
David Vayo – Seis Cosechas
Bernie Walasavage – Trio
For Voice, Clarinet, and Piano:
Carter Crosby – Enacting Travesty
Nicole Knorr – Waiting to Speak
Kyle Vanderburg – Letters to the Poetry Editor (III and VI)
Because we received so many excellent pieces, the Trans-Pacific Trio has decided to incorporate several of them into an additional concert in May. The pieces we have selected for that concert include:
Paul Ayres – The Cloths of Heaven
David Crumb – Soundings
Allen Molineux – A Terse Terzetto
Concert dates and venues are being finalised, and will be posted on the Trans-Pacific Trio page of my website once confirmed:
https://www.marialordknivetonmusic.com/trans-pacific-trio
We will be in touch with those of you whose pieces we have programmed for this season!
Maria Lord-Kniveton
Trans-Pacific Trio