This Week

Back to uni tomorrow after being off for about 3wks. Got most of the work at least started thankfully and got my septet (now named The Space Within) pretty much finished. I think I'll go over it a bit more and tweek some of the ideas but it has become more substantial than I had expected (150 bars!) though I haven't worked out the playing time yet but needs to be at least 4mins. Its really funky there will be more details on the ideas behind it once I've handed it in. With the work I had to do there was hardly any time for any piano practice which is really annoying. I'm improving but not as fast as I could be.

More news on the SPARK(once I remember what it stands for I'll tell you) opera project. I have a tutorial with librettist Peter Morgan Barnes this week. When I was told the name it rung a bell but couldn't work out why, judging by his site he is very experienced. Any advice from someone with more experience than me is good. I still haven't had a chance to start on the music but I have set aside about month during the summer where I can lock myself in a room if need be.

Also there is a slight chance of getting a piece of mine played at a Cork music concert, I think something along the lines of the concert Daniel and I did the other week. The organiser's friend tentatively mentioned it to me. I doubt I will have a chance to write anything new but if not it will give me impetus to get 'Beyond the Tone' done out fully in Sibelius. Dont know how likely it is but there's no harm in hoping, hopefully get a performance out of it!

Finally, I have the recordings of the full Queen's Composer's Concert and have sent them out to those involved. Really nice recordings and everyone seems happy with them. I'll post links if anyone else uploads theirs. My Quartet No. 1 is on my site here.

Started off this blog thinking there wasn't much to say but as always I managed to surprise myself in how much I can write. Until next time.

Recording

Got the recording of Quartet No. 1 up on my site here. Really pleased with it, best recording of anything of mine so far :). Hopefully get the other recordings and possibly put them onto my site or somewhere for anyone to listen.
Still getting feedback about the concert as well, someone has even asked if I plan to do an electro-acoustic one (hadn't thought of it by maybe).
Thats about all, work on the septet is still coming along nicely and recording samples for my electro-acoustic piece as well yesterday.

This week

This week has been an amazing, though stressful week. Monday and Tuesday was preparing for the Queen's Composers' Concert on Wednesday final rehearsels, getting programs printed and all that kind of stuff. The concert on Wed was a great success, 64 people turned up to it! Also got multiple emails and people saying well done about it. The whole concert was recorded so will have a new excelent quality version of my Quartet No. 1 on my site by Monday also possibly might have links to the other peoples pieces as well for anyone thats interested.
The atmosphere after the concert was great as well with people hanging about for at least 30mins after (much to the porters annoyance).The Head of School has also said it should become a fixture which was the intention anyway. The next one will probably be late November, early December so piles of time to organise it and more importantly write some music!

The other great thing about this week, last night we (SPARK opera company) got £5000 funding to put on the 4 short operas! This was £1000 more than we asked for, its not the full amount that we need but its definitely a massive start. Winning the money is all doesn to Kate Guelke and Marianne McKnight but I think having abotu 20 of the company there helped as well. We have got a venue organised for November time, again piles of time to get it sorted and thankfully for this one all I have to do is write the music. It will be an interesting experience but it is happening!

Oh yes theres also piles of uni work to get done over Easter. Going to be really busy for the next few weeks and months :):).