New Projects

To keep myself busy during the spring and summer, I now have a few projects which I will be devoting my time to.

1. My YouTube page has been horribly neglected over the last year and a half. I haven't had many new videos to post. Today, I created a video for my new recording of the performance of silence. To better utilize YouTube as a potential place for more people (and potential commissioners) to access audio of my work, I am going to start working with musicians around the country to record small works of mine to be placed on YouTube. These recordings will be given 'mini-recitals' of 3 works at a time. To help facilitate this, I am going to look for funding to help with the overall logistics and planning of the videos themselves. I think there is something positive that could come out of YouTube for me.

2. I will be contacting musicians in Indianapolis and look at hopefully starting my own small ensemble which I can use to also record my works and those of my peers at the Chicago College of Performing Arts.

For my readers, I am placing a link to the YouTube video for Silence.

Silence - YouTube Video! Click Me!!!

Handling Performances While Being Sick

This week has been a blur for me. This past Monday I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with bronchitis and walking pneumonia. It was horrible. I slept from Friday afternoon through to Tuesday afternoon. Ended up missing most of my classes this week - luckily, I informed my professors of my sickness and they were gracious to excuse me. The premiere of my piece, Silence, was on Tuesday (audio from the concert below). The performance was amazing. Sadly, while I was in attendance, I wasn't in attendance. My mind was far more focused on getting better and prepping for the two finals that I had this week.

Silence - Click Me!

If you'd like to comment on the performance, you can visit the posting on Young Composers Music Forum:

YC Silence - Click Me!!

I was greatly appreciative of the wonderful musicians who rehearsed with me (and took it upon themselves to meet when I couldn't be there due to being sick). They were amazing.

Mezzo-Soprano: Meredith Godsall
Oboe: Taylor Nelson
Horn: Josh Rosen
Violoncello: Sarah Zilonis

I was also impressed with a few of the other pieces on the program by my colleagues in the composition department at the Chicago College of Performing Arts. When I get my last final done on Monday, I'll rip the audio and share their amazing works with my readers here, but here is a list of some of the other amazing pieces:

A Cadenza Prior to a Revolution - Daniel Fawcett
Devil Wings - TJ Russo
Story of the Eye for Solo Flute in 13 Parts - Daniel Souphis
4 Songs - Dominic Frigo
Nay Nava - Parisa Sabet

I hope everyone is ready for the holidays! Merry Christmas!!

Finals, Performances, and Moving

The next two weeks are going to be grueling on me. On Tuesday, I have the performance of Silence! for mezzosoprano, oboe, horn, and violoncello. Next week I have several finals to take: musicianship: aural skills, piano skills, theory. To top those off, I will also be relocating for the Spring and Summer back to Indy to work to pay off the housing costs incurred by living on campus for the Fall Semester.

Needless to say, I've not had much time to post on here. I'm sure my readers FULLY understand. I'll be sure to post the audio from the performance once I have it.

Bad Day...

Today has been a fairly bad day. I went to work this morning at 9 am, after having only gotten a few hours of sleep. I had this feeling last night that something was going to happen today - and thus, just couldn't sleep. Well, sure enough, after about an hour and a half of work. My boss asks me to gather my things and come to the conference room. There, I was terminated for not meeting the sales quota for the past two/three weeks. The impact of the termination is still fresh on me - I guess I'm sort of wrought with fear. What am I going to do now? What can I do to possibly raise the money I need to remain at school for the spring semester? How can I raise that money in less than a month?

I don't want to let this experience taint the success that I've had here the last few months career wise:

1) I've had readings of my work.
2) I've composed several new works that, I feel, are my best works to date.
3) I have a performance of one work coming up on December 6th.
4) I've finalized the contract with a publisher from Europe. This publisher will publish my work for the next 5 years - with distribution in Europe and America.

For once in my life, I am actively living as a composer - doing what I always wanted to do. I feel that these little obstacles that come up are minor at best and, hopefully, that things will work out so I can maintain the growth that I'm experiencing in my craft. Time will tell though. It's not going to be an easy time coming up. Most I can do is face it head on and persevere. The rewards in the end make this time of struggle important.

In closing, I want to wish my readers a very Happy Thanksgiving! Despite the setbacks I've had the last three months, I'm still grateful for all that I've experienced and all the positive things that have happened. I'm also grateful for my step-mother, Barbara Woodruff, she has stood strong by me and has aided me as best she can in this trying time. And I'm grateful for all the wonderful people in my life. Thank you all, I wouldn't be in Chicago right now if not for all your pushing. I promise I will try to make this work and will do my best to make everyone proud. I love you all.

Video of my Reading!!!

As promised to my readers, this is a reading of my Fanfare for Brass Quintet. The group is the Gaudete Brass. While the work was not chosen for their program, they provided this awesome reading which was recorded! Thanks!! I hope my readers enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiAR4EoGTio

Seeking Donations to Help Pay Remaining Balance!

After talking with several people and discussing my situation with Student Accounts, I have set up a WePay Donations page to help raise money to help pay the remaining balance. I'm not comfortable asking for assistance from people -particularly monetary assistance. I was brought up to work hard and earn what I want in life. This is something, I feel, I have exhibited up to this point. So, I'm just going to try this and see if it works.

To Help Pay Jason's Remaining Balance Fund

Reading of two of my works

I have been having an amazing time up here in Chicago despite the stress in dealing with financing. So far, I have had two of my works read in our composition seminar: Falling Ash for solo flute and Fanfare for brass quintet.

Falling Ash started as a piece with very little programmatic inflections. I named it falling ash out randomly. As I got into composing the work, however, the title seemed to direct the overall flow and development of the ideas. In that vein, the work focuses on 1 lone ash ember as it descends to the ground. Rising up and falling down. Zooming in to see the intricacies of movement every now and then. The reading of the work was good. The opening was a bit too airy - not what I wanted. The tempo marking I indicated asked for Rubato and the flautist was able to provide that, somewhat. All in all, a good reading.

The Fanfare for Brass Quintet was one of the most difficult pieces I've written. I had the initial idea, which opens the piece in the Horn, sketched weeks before. The final version was the result of about 9 previous attempts at writing for the ensemble. The work itself looks at two contrasting ideas and superimposes them on top of each other towards the middle of the work. The reading went well. The only issue they had was my use of the tuba descending on triplet sixteenths AND a few notational errors in the score - mainly beaming issues.

All in all, I really enjoyed hearing both of these works being read by live instruments. I think I learned a lot from the experience!

Hope my readers are having a good morning!