On Monday, February 15th, Sir Tamas Kocsis and the Orlando Philharmonic under Christopher Wilkins performed "On the Playground" for Violin Solo and String Orchestra at the Margeson Theater in the Orlando Shakespeare complex. This was the third public performance of this work, the others being the Saturday and Sunday beforehand.Tamas is a truly excellent performer. A difficult and challenging work, Tamas' bold toned personality glided through the first movement, sang gorgeously through the arching second movement, and nimbly jumped with...

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Today, at 4pm, Tamas Kocsis and the Orlando Philharmonic presented the first movement of "On the Playground" to an outdoor audience at Avalon Park as the closing event of ArtsFest 2010.A busy day! Especially for my wife, Joy, who started the day early with her church job. Brendon, my youngest, needed to be at the UCF music building by noon so he could warm up for a piano competition there. He had prepared seven difficult pieces, two solos, some piano...

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Last night, the superb violinist Tamas Kocsis presented "On the Playground" with the Orlando Philharmonic orchestra under the deft baton of Maestro Christopher Wilkins. Last night was one of the highlights of my life as a composer. So many aspects 'lined up' for yesterday evening: my wife Joy was there, my daughter Emily, my youngest son Brendon (we couldn't manage to get down to pick up my oldest son Chris), many of my friends, a warm and appreciative audience at...

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This Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Feb 11th evenings have been filled with the lively activities of a healthy arts community of Orlando, Florida. While the Shakespeare Society offers Hamlet on the stages in the north side of the building, the Orlando Opera Chorus rehearse Carmen on the south. One floor above them, the Orlando Philharmonic strings rehearse this weekend's concerts - "A String Romance".There, Percy Grainger, Vaughan-Williams, Holst, Debussy and Elgar are heard and polished. But most of all, they...

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I just learned that the Orlando Philharmonic will perform the first movement of "On the Playground" at this year's ArtsFest! ArtsFest is United Arts of Central Florida's (the funding organization for all of the major to mid arts organizations this part of the state) annual weeklong festival of everything from touring major orchestras to clowns and face-painting in the parks. I'm honored to be featured on their Valentine's Day festivities! Sunday, Feb 14th (Valentine's Day)4PMAvalon Park3873 Avalon Park E. BlvdOrlando, FL...

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I can't know what is important to you about music because music is an internal experience. And, as an internal experience - it is your very own. Oliver Sacks, the psychologist portrayed by Robin Williams in the feature film Awakenings has written about the neurology of music. In his recent book, Musicophilia, Sacks summarizes his research into how our brains perceive music. Unlike brain models of old which theorized that music and sound perception was localized in specific portions of the...

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Friday, December 4th, 2009First United Methodist Church142 East Jackson StreetOrlando, FL "If Ye Would Hear" sounded bright and beautiful last night! Greg LeFils, Assistant Music Director, expertly led the 20 voice Orlando Chamber Singers through my new arrangement of this ancient Dutch carol. Thank you Greg, for your dedication to my work, and thank you Gregory Ruffer, for being open to this and later work! The talented singers who put their hearts and attention to my and all of...

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The Orlando Chorale will perform my new arrangement of "If Ye Would Hear". They'll do the original arrangement in F. I have just returned from the last rehearsal of the concert - they sound wonderful! Say hi if you attend! TICKETS$15 general admission (advanced purchase only; $20 at the door)$10 senior citizen<$5 studentfree for under 12Purchase tickets online: RedChairProject.comPhone orders: 407-786-8624 First United Methodist Church142 E. Jackson St.Orlando, Florida 32801Directions...

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Bartok's 4th String Quartet and the Stradivari Quartet The Stradivari Quartet visited Orlando (Winter Park) Florida on a lengthy US mid city tour this November 6th as a part of Rollins College's Visiting Artist Series. There was likely a number of folks in the audience that were drawn to the fact that all four instruments were made by the Italian master Stradivarius; a fact that was emphasized by Dr. Sinclair's introductory joking about the audience combined not having enough insurance...

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Again, the OPO provided an excellent evening performance of concert faves:Rachmaninoff "Vocalise"Rachmaninoff "Piano Concerto No. 2" with William WoflramShostakovich "Symphony No. 5"William Wolfram's piano playing was almost too perfect. This may have been because the Steinway grand couldn't deliver the bottom resonances in the hall. Perhaps it was because the orchestra had precious little time to rehearse with him and therefore required a metronomic approach to ensure locking parts. Or, perhaps it was the way Mr. Wolfram plays. I'd guess...

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The Atlantic Center for the Arts is a Master Artist residency about 45 minutes east of Orlando in the coastal town of New Smyrna Beach. Elliot Sharp was one of the three master artists presiding over this residency. Lucky for Orlando, ACA provides a free outreach concert by the master artists, this one landing at the White House on Monday October 26th. Benoit Glazer's (the owner of the home) children were joined by several other musicians onstage and several off playing a fun,...

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I've practiced meditation for many years on and off. It is only in the last decade that I have come to have a more regular sitting practice thanks to Peter Carlson who leads retreats, local meditation classes and leads the Orlando Insight Meditation Group. This last weekend I attended a 3 day retreat (actually a day + two half days) in Gotha, Florida (West Orlando). My intention was to reboot my mental turbulence, which has been growing since I've changed positions...

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I've heard from the Orlando Chorale that "If Ye Would Hear" rehearsals are going well, and that I am invited to hear a rehearsal in November. A few changes to the score that were encouraged by Greg Ruffer, the director,  were:1. Tenors and Basses tessitura is on the high side, and the highest notes called for in those parts may be beyond a good church choir2. The Tenors prefer reading in the G clefSo, I've prepared a new version of...

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I've been attending Benoit Glazer's Timucua concerts for quite a while, and it's about time I share them on my blog! Why?Because they are one of the most wonderful things one can experience - anywhere: a paragon of community, family and music. This Sunday evening, Larry Och's Sax and Drumming Core stopped in between their tour stops at the Dali Museum in St. Pete and their next stop in Buffalo, NY. This kind of audacious programming is not unusual for these concerts!...

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Central Florida just hasn't gotten the news from the rest of the country that the classical music business is having a hard time. The Orlando Philharmonic is alive and doing well, thanks to great leadership. Music Director Christopher Wilkins seems to have a gift at knowing his audience - as well as knowing just what will delight them in surprise. The seasoning opening concert is a perfect example: who doesn't want to hear Beethoven's Ninth? The pairing with Brahm's light and...

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 Dan Goleman describes the "Social Brain" in Appendix B of his well known book,  Social Intelligence: The Revolutionary New Science of Human Relationships (Goleman, D., 2006, p.332) this way "All primates live among others who can help meet the demands of life, thus multiplying the resources available to any single member of the group - and putting a premium on smooth social interactions. The social brain seems to be among Nature's adaptive mechanisms for meeting the challenge of survival as...

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In "Wiring a Web for Global Good", UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown delivers a strong point that empathy is alive and well on Earth and a Global Society is in reach thanks to current technology. In general, we are too busy with our daily concerns to worry too much about events beyond our personal horizon - that is, until an image is placed before us that we simply cannot ignore. Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden believed that a global ethic supporting...

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Play the Finale realization with score"If Ye Would Hear", the work to be premiered this December 4th at 8PM by the Orlando Chorale, is only one step from delivery to Gregory Ruffer. I need to 'sit' on the work for a few days and see it with a fresh ear, as I spent most of Saturday working towards its completion. As always, there are likely many details that I will catch yet: unclear accidentals, missing dynamics, crowded page spacings, etc., that...

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Meditation Practice, Learning Practice and Art Practice Self understanding is important in media literacy  In this 2009 "Media Literacies" presentation at the Reboot Britain conference, Howard Rheingold told of catching his best student answering email during his lecture via a hidden camera in the back of the room. This led him to consider that some students can multitask efficiently while others cannot and banishing open laptops would be counterproductive. The computers were not the problem, but the students' lack of judgement about...

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Music Literacy and the Brain Dr. John Medina states in Brain Rules that the brain is a sequential processor and that multitasking is a myth. He suggests that what we think multitasking may be is actually simply task-switching. He produces research results to support this theory: that forcing the mind to do multitasking invites stress, that multitasking usually invites four times more errors than uninterrupted single task activities. Dr. Medina believes that driving and talking on a cell phone is an...

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If Ye Would Hear is coming along. Didn't have much time to get to it this week until yesterday. I'm now calibrating the ending (not down yet). As you can hear in this realization - this is a middle of the road Christmas cheer setting - with some tasty chords. In these cases, simpler is better (without getting too simple for fun). I hope this setting finds lots of willing voices. Flash version QuickTIme movie version (15MB)...

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I've decided to share several collections: CDs, SACDs, books, etc. and other things that I LOVE. Better than (!) actually coming over and looking through my CD collection and bookshelves. I hope you take a look and say to yourself "hey! I love that CD too, or that book, too! - I think I've gotta send him a message and share my thoughts on it".  I hope that is the case. The software to make this all happen is called...

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Web 2.0 in EducationThe Jonassen Triangles (Jonassen, Rohrer-Murphy, 1999) beautifully relates relationships of technology, society, teaching and learning in this image model. Transformation (learning) is a result of action (Production) from subject through object. Learning by producing. Tools and signs (symbols) are the fulcrum on which the production provides leverage facilitating production from subject to object (think of a tool as a band-saw in shop class, or the result of research like a term paper). The brilliance of this model is...

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I have started a delicious.com shared bookmark library at http://delicious.com/klistener. Please join and share yours with me!...

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"If Ye Would Hear" for the Orlando Chorale is progressing nicely. Listen to it here. I've decided to move away from the original melody. Verses 1,2,4 and 6 are beaming with the joy of Christmas at home: food, merriment and warmth. But Dora Greenwell contrasts this kind of Christmas in these odd verses to the kind of Christmas that many people experience that is rarely sung about: barren, hungry, cold and weary. The last verse, Dora sings "See ye let each door...

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To where should creative educators look to find the keys to successfully preparing students for the 21st century? Probably not in education literature - but by watching how 2.0 transforms business. Clay Shirky has been focusing quite a bit in the first chapters of Here Comes Everybody on how 2.0 has already changed societies and how business world. Creativity is a key word to the new models. He suggests that creativity has been squashed dormant in our larger corporate systems...

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Being a judge of compositions for Steve Goldman and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra's  Young Composers Challenge has been a wonderful experience through the years - and this year was no exception. Fellow composers Steve Goldman, Stella Sung, and Dan Crozier and I judged 44 works from about 3PM to 1AM this morning. First, we each received a score, and a MIDI realization of the work was played. The whole while, we made notes on the scores themselves, on a...

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Since June, I have been earning another Master's Degree, this one in Education. It is my first online degree program. Our fourth month class, called Emergent Technologies In A Collaborative Culture, requires us to develop over 40 connections to blogs relating to education. I have received permission from our teacher, Dr. Seigel, to employ this journal as my site. My reasons for doing so are to 1) create traffic on my own website, and 2) to begin to weave my...

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Finding a Christmas song is not easy for me! I originally though of setting "Welcome Christmas" carol from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas", and I might do so someday. That song still makes me believe in the good of all people just as it did when it first aired in 1966 and I was 8 years old. Remember how all the town held hands in a circle around the bare tree and sang their hearts out? I'm still waiting to...

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   Jonassen, D.H., Rohrer-Murphy, L (1999). Activity theory as a framework for     designing constructivist learning environments.  Educational Technology Research and Development,47,(pp. 61-79).   •  Timothy Leary's The interpersonal, interactive, interdimensional interface •  TED Talks presentation by Howard Rheingold "Way New Collaboration" Dr. Leary and Rheingold are examples of thinkers who can recognize paradigm change on a large scale while it is just beginning to occur. Such changes are invisible to most people, but highly profitable to those who listen. Both men were explorers of the mind...

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Gregory Ruffer, the Director and Co-founder of the fine Orlando Chorale has asked that I submit a new Christmas work for this year's December 4th concert under the auspices of their Emerging Composer's Initiative program. Though I am further along in my career as a composer than the ideal candidate would be, I am grateful for his offer - and, especially a performance.  So, what to write? Not an easy choice. Christmas is a holiday season that connects us with so...

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Gregory Ruffer, the Director and Co-founder of Orlando Chorale, took some time out of his crazy schedule (he's working on his Doctorate in NYC) to give me a call to discuss the a capella work "Over the North Jetty". After looking at the score and hearing the realization of the work, he decided not to publicly perform Over the North Jetty. Though he liked many aspects of this piece, he was not comfortable with asking his choir to perform the hand against...

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Happy Crazy, for Bb Clarinet and Piano is being revised AGAIN - the third time! The first version was written for Keith Koons in 1999, who helped me with Earth Caoine back in 1995. The second version was written in 2005. Third time's a charm! I'll attempt to make the work more memorable by 'staying in one place' a little longer. I'll also thin out the piano part - too thick and difficult. When the revision is done, you'll see...

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Joyful Play is the first movement of the On the Playground violin concerto for strings that played at Lincoln Center. I began the task of transcribing the work for piano in the spring of 2005. I quickly realized that the work could not be translated by a single pianist. I also realized that it would not get performed very often as a work for two pianos, so I set it for one piano, two players (referred to as 'piano and...

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"Come Fly With Me"  Though a few months have passed, the March 14th Saturday evening concert by the Orlando Chorale hasn't left me. Gregory Ruffer again prepared a really enjoyable evening that really pushed the ensemble. Ten pieces were performed, all of them from modern times - and TWO of them were world premieres. Mr. Ruffer - may the universe shine upon you and make you happy! How many ensembles are willing to do two world premieres in a single...

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The unearthing of Starboy continues with Starboy Meets the King. This work employed a processed Bill Bruford 11/8 loop with and upon which I built a frightening driving array of sounds, the most interesting 3 tracks of a woman's voice. The words of the woman are unintelligable, being reduced to short bursts of sound gated from the drums. I have also agreed to remix my brother Kevin's new recording "Water". What a joy it is to be working on music with...

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Last month, my trusty Mac G5 computer was mortally wounded by a falling 7 lb. agate ball, quickly followed by Tannoy powered speaker. My son was not hurt (by the falling objects, or by me). VOT Engineering, owned by Brent Hughes, had just wired the room for surround, and I had just purchased a used Apogee Ensemble - all to get back into creating surround sound electronic music, too. Darn. After a couple of MacDoctor bills and numerous new drives over several...

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This is my first blog entry in my life.So, why not start with what's going on?Joy and I have just returned from a concert by the Orlando Philharmonic. Tomight's concert was titled "Lincoln's Year": Bacon: Ford's Theatre; A Few Glimpses of Easter week, 1865Beethoven:Symphony No. 5- intermission-Ungar: Ashokan Farewell Sung:Lincoln's BattleTapsGlass: CIVIL WarSCopland: Lincoln PortraitVery interesting programming by Maestro Christopher Wilkins to open a concert almost entirely filled with modern American composers with Ernst Bacon. "Ford's Theater" is a set...

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