A mere 17 months between posts - crazy! I am confirming my mid-year resolution to blog more often. :)
So here, in a nutshell, is the activity of the last year and a half and why I have been remiss in blogging more often:
Frost School of Music -- my awesome students at the University of Miami continue to amaze and inspire me. Truly a blessing to work with each and every one of them. For those of you high school seniors who plan to pursue a music major in college, take note: the Frost School is offering a Stamps Scholar fellowship to an incoming freshman woodwind quintet for Fall 2015. This is full tuition, room and board. Outstanding! The fellowships are all individual - one each, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn. Though if you have an awesome quintet already formed you should all consider applying. This happens once every four years so soon-to-be-seniors your timing is superb! You can email me for more info.
Pulse: Having a great time with my trio, Pulse. We have performed in NYC, Washington DC, Paris, and more. Continuing to work with composers to bring new works to the genre - priceless. Pulse has begun giving workshops/presentations on entrepreneurship for musicians, in particular launching new chamber music ensembles. Want us to visit your school for a performance and workshop? We can do that. Email me for info.
Blue Ridge Chamber Music Festival; We are launching a brand new festival in Blue Ridge, GA. An incredibly beautiful and wonderful mountain town. Our inaugural season begins in just a few days June 20-29. If you are in the area check out the website for more info: www.brcmf.com
If you are an avid facebooker and want to keep up with either Pulse or the Blue Ridge Chamber Music Festival you can follow us here:
Pulse Chamber Music
Blue Ridge Chamber Music Festival
Going back to our roots: The original intent of this blog was a forum for clarinet 'masterclasses' and discussion. Let's get back to that! What would you like to discuss? I'm thinking next topic up is articulation. Look for it in the next couple weeks and let me know what topics interest you!
Dr D
Showing posts with label Frost School of Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frost School of Music. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Monday, June 28, 2010
Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium
Last weekend I performed at the Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium. What a wonderful experience on so many levels! For those that may not know, it is a three day symposium filled with performances, clinics and exhibits. The evening concerts included, among others, Stanley Drucker, the Chicago Trio, Dmitri Ashkenazy and Alessandro Carbonare. As you would imagine, all were exciting and inspiring performances.
The exhibits were open all day - Backun, Luyben, Woodwindiana, Muncy, WoodwindBrasswind, Buffet, Yamaha, Selmer, Rico...the list goes on and on! It was such fun to look through all the music, try instruments, mouthpieces, bells, barrels...I am not one to experiment too much with setup. I play what I like and don't change very often. But---this was fun!!
I performed on the final day with the MiamiClarinet Quartet. This group is actually sort of an offshoot of this blog. The quartet included Danielle Woolery, Teaching Assistant and Mancini Fellow at the University of Miami, Dr. Dawn McConkie Courtney, Professor of Clarinet at Emporia State University, and Dr. Michael Walsh, Professor of Clarinet at South Dakota State University. Dr. Courtney and Dr. Walsh are both former students of mine and hold degrees from the University of Miami. They were once my students, they are now my colleagues and friends.
For anyone interested in clarinet quartet repertoire, we played some great new works. The first was Nebulous by Derek Sherron. He is also a former student of mine, and holds a degree from the University of Miami. He is currently pursuing the Master's Degree in Composition at New England Conservatory. It is a three movement work that is exciting, intense, beautiful...a great piece. We also played an amazing work by Scott Stinson, Professor of Theory and Composition at the University of Miami. It is entitled Rage against the machine, and is incredibly exciting. It is scored for two Bb's and two Bass Clarinets, giving it great depth of range and color. We thought we would end by bringing a little Miami to Oklahoma and played an arrangement of mine, Miami Beach Rhumba.
In short, we had a blast and look forward to the next time we can get together. The Symposium was terrific and I urge you to check it out for next year. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend ICA in Austin in a few weeks but I hope many of you will be going. If so, add a comment, I would love to hear about it!
Happy summer,
Dr D
The exhibits were open all day - Backun, Luyben, Woodwindiana, Muncy, WoodwindBrasswind, Buffet, Yamaha, Selmer, Rico...the list goes on and on! It was such fun to look through all the music, try instruments, mouthpieces, bells, barrels...I am not one to experiment too much with setup. I play what I like and don't change very often. But---this was fun!!
I performed on the final day with the MiamiClarinet Quartet. This group is actually sort of an offshoot of this blog. The quartet included Danielle Woolery, Teaching Assistant and Mancini Fellow at the University of Miami, Dr. Dawn McConkie Courtney, Professor of Clarinet at Emporia State University, and Dr. Michael Walsh, Professor of Clarinet at South Dakota State University. Dr. Courtney and Dr. Walsh are both former students of mine and hold degrees from the University of Miami. They were once my students, they are now my colleagues and friends.
For anyone interested in clarinet quartet repertoire, we played some great new works. The first was Nebulous by Derek Sherron. He is also a former student of mine, and holds a degree from the University of Miami. He is currently pursuing the Master's Degree in Composition at New England Conservatory. It is a three movement work that is exciting, intense, beautiful...a great piece. We also played an amazing work by Scott Stinson, Professor of Theory and Composition at the University of Miami. It is entitled Rage against the machine, and is incredibly exciting. It is scored for two Bb's and two Bass Clarinets, giving it great depth of range and color. We thought we would end by bringing a little Miami to Oklahoma and played an arrangement of mine, Miami Beach Rhumba.
In short, we had a blast and look forward to the next time we can get together. The Symposium was terrific and I urge you to check it out for next year. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend ICA in Austin in a few weeks but I hope many of you will be going. If so, add a comment, I would love to hear about it!
Happy summer,
Dr D
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
A New CD to listen to!
Listening to music is an amazing, enlightening, inspiring and emotion-provoking experience. As musicians we listen to music for so many reasons – to enjoy, to experience, to learn, to study, the list goes on. We should listen to those pieces that we love and cherish; we should listen to those pieces that we don’t yet know as well. We should always be striving to broaden our musical horizons. Listening is an ideal way to do this.
The reason I’m writing about this is that I just heard a new recording that is dear to my heart on many levels and I want to share it with you. It is entitled Wolf Rounds, and was just released by Naxos as part of their Wind Band Classics series. (NAXOS 8.572439) The performers are the Frost Wind Ensemble at the University of Miami, Gary Green, Director, with Glenn Basham, violin and Tim Conner, trombone, soloists.
The pieces on the CD are Ladder to the Moon, by Michael Daugherty; Concerto for Trombone and Wind Ensemble, by David Maslanka; and Wolf Rounds, by Christopher Rouse. The performers are of course from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, so all of the clarinetists are/were my students. The conductor and soloists are friends and colleagues at UM.
The composers are all inspiring, the pieces fantastic and the performances incredible. Ladder to the Moon is based on the urban landscapes of Georgia O’Keeffe. It is scored for solo violin, wind octet, double bass and one percussionist. It is high energy, exciting music and Glenn Basham, solo violin, is fantastic. (as is the clarinet soloist!)
The Trombone Concerto is incredibly beautiful and heartfelt music. It was written as a memorial to Christine Nield-Capote whose passing was a terrible loss to all who knew and loved her. She was a very special musician, teacher and friend and she is terribly missed. Along with beautiful trombone playing by Tim Conner, there is a solo cello line, played by Ashley Garritson (UM graduate student) which is simply stunning.
The CD ends with Wolf Rounds, which was premiered by UM at Carnegie Hall in 2007. It is based on a series of circular musical ‘loops’, cycling and overlapping. Mr Rouse describes this idea of loops bringing to mind wolves (lupus) circling their prey, which in turn brings to mind the circular nature of the piece – hence the title Wolf Rounds.
I hope you will take a few minutes to listen to this wonderful new music. Each piece is a tremendous addition to our wind repertoire. And as a last thought I will say, since most if not all of us reading this blog are clarinetists – there is some GREAT clarinet playing on this cd!! And to those of you reading who performed on this recording – congratulations to all of you, I could not be more proud of you.
Dr D
The reason I’m writing about this is that I just heard a new recording that is dear to my heart on many levels and I want to share it with you. It is entitled Wolf Rounds, and was just released by Naxos as part of their Wind Band Classics series. (NAXOS 8.572439) The performers are the Frost Wind Ensemble at the University of Miami, Gary Green, Director, with Glenn Basham, violin and Tim Conner, trombone, soloists.
The pieces on the CD are Ladder to the Moon, by Michael Daugherty; Concerto for Trombone and Wind Ensemble, by David Maslanka; and Wolf Rounds, by Christopher Rouse. The performers are of course from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, so all of the clarinetists are/were my students. The conductor and soloists are friends and colleagues at UM.
The composers are all inspiring, the pieces fantastic and the performances incredible. Ladder to the Moon is based on the urban landscapes of Georgia O’Keeffe. It is scored for solo violin, wind octet, double bass and one percussionist. It is high energy, exciting music and Glenn Basham, solo violin, is fantastic. (as is the clarinet soloist!)
The Trombone Concerto is incredibly beautiful and heartfelt music. It was written as a memorial to Christine Nield-Capote whose passing was a terrible loss to all who knew and loved her. She was a very special musician, teacher and friend and she is terribly missed. Along with beautiful trombone playing by Tim Conner, there is a solo cello line, played by Ashley Garritson (UM graduate student) which is simply stunning.
The CD ends with Wolf Rounds, which was premiered by UM at Carnegie Hall in 2007. It is based on a series of circular musical ‘loops’, cycling and overlapping. Mr Rouse describes this idea of loops bringing to mind wolves (lupus) circling their prey, which in turn brings to mind the circular nature of the piece – hence the title Wolf Rounds.
I hope you will take a few minutes to listen to this wonderful new music. Each piece is a tremendous addition to our wind repertoire. And as a last thought I will say, since most if not all of us reading this blog are clarinetists – there is some GREAT clarinet playing on this cd!! And to those of you reading who performed on this recording – congratulations to all of you, I could not be more proud of you.
Dr D
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