The Singers

I sat in on a rehearsal last night with a choir so good that it has 2 names: The Singers--Minnesota Choral Artists. They ran through their commissioned work, Color Madrigals, Vol. 1. I decided to try something new and try and write a "madrigal-ish" piece on a John Keats text and, by the time I was done, I had 2 shorter ones that both mentioned colors (hence, the title). As you might expect from a pro choir, they sang the H-E-double-toothpicks out of both movements and I can't wait for their first performance. They will be premiered in an interesting joint concert between The Singers and the Choral Arts Ensemble (of Rochester, MN). These 2 choirs are conducted by identical twin brothers Matthew and Michael Culloton. Go figure that one out...

Here's conductor Matthew Culloton brow-beating The Singers into submission and amazing, other-worldly sound (he's not actually 10 ft tall...it's just the photo):













I'm not sure how other composers work but, for me at least, I usually have to make a few changes. Notice the breath I gave the first sopranos before they have to rocket to the high 'B'. I feel stupid when I don't think of those things first...of course they should have a breath. Duh.













Once they ran through my pieces I joined accompanist Lisa Foland at the piano to listen to them sing through Debussy's Trois Chansons. If you haven't heard a good performance of these pieces you don't know what you're missing...vintage Debussy. While I was at the keys I snapped this beauty. The alto with a purple-ish headband and her eyes to the sky is Uber-composer Jocelyn Hagen.

Brownsburg, Indiana trip

Back in March I had the awesome privilege to go and work with the Madrigal Singers of Brownsburg High School in Indiana on their performance of Autumn. Below are some pictures I snapped on my Spring Break working in Indy. These students performed the piece with an amazing amount of integrity, emotion and focus (so much so that you would have a hard time believing they were high school students!). I owe a huge debt of gratitude to them and their amazing director, Debi Prather, for showing me Indiana and bringing my music to life while I waved my hands in front of them. I did a rambling, incoherent interview with the local paper as well. Here's their "fun picture".

The student who first emailed me about their performance, Kelly Lusk, had won a young playwright's award for the second year in a row and one of the nights I was in Indy his new play, We, The Boys, was being premiered by the Indiana Repertory Theatre. A few students picked me up and drove me downtown and I was able to sit right next to Kelly during the show. It was awesome!

Here's Kelly giving a tremendous thumbs-up during a tremendous performance. Those actors really brought his script to life. If I'm ever commissioned to write an opera or oratorio (a pipe dream, I'm sure) he is who I'm contacting about a script. He emailed me a few days ago to let me know that We, The Boys is going to New York. Way to go, Kelly!



















Here are my rides to the performance: Phil, Jenni/Jennie/Jenny and Jessica. We had a good ride from Brownsurg into downtown where we talked about the crappy cars that high school students drive. Apparently Phil's enormous van (that I'm sad to say I didn't get to see) looks a little like a vampire from the front and ironically drips red fluid wherever it goes (you might want to get that checked out).

The Madrigal Singers came out in force to support their brother. The student in the corner (whose name, I believe, was Jennie/Jenny/Jenni) is sporting the "Kelly Lusk" t-shirt the students wore all day. I also received one of these awesome shirts (on the back it says "Dynasty" because he has won the award both years it's been in existence).















The premiere took place in the amazing Indiana Repetory Theatre. Here's just the lobby:

And they served some crazy-delicious hors d'oeuvres. If I remember correctly the punch that went with them was called "Age of Innocence." It was really good...even if the name was a little lame.















For some reason these statues are in the middle of downtown Indianapolis. Who can resist running with the herd?















After the Madrigals and I performed Autumn they got all gussied up and threw down with some smokin' hot show choir moves. This is what they wore in the first half of their show (there was a lightning quick costume change midway that I was so flabbergasted by I failed to take a picture). In fact, they were so good that I'm pretty sure you could rightfully say I "got served".















Thanks to all the people I met during my days in Indianapolis. It was an amazing experience and I had an enormous amount of fun. Go Bulldogs!

Dumbsaint

This is my very first post as an official blogger. I suppose I should say something interesting but instead I'm just going to write something quick to see if the whole process works. For that I will simply explain the name of what will eventually become an endless series of nonsense and diatribes: I named this blog "A Crazy Dumbsaint of the Mind" based on something Jack Kerouac wrote in his Belief and Technique for Modern Prose. If you haven't ever seen it you should google it and read his 30 techniques for writing.

There we are. Blog created. More to come later. Much more.