work day

Well...it finally happened. Opera writing is essentially (and maybe officially) over for the foreseeable future as I've started in earnest on next season's commissions. Today it's working on finishing up the piece for The Singers: Minnesota Choral Artists. It's a fairly extensive revision of an older work for men's chorus called To Sing You To Sleep. It uses a text by German poet Rainer Maria Rilke and I'm glad to be giving it some TLC. It's always been a favorite of mine and I'm sure I'll post more on that piece as the January premiere gets closer.

I've also started jotting down some ideas for my choir and oboe piece for Flower Mound High School in Texas. I wrote when god decided to invent for them a few years ago and had my face blown off at the premiere. They are soooo good. The challenge now lies in the fact that I know exactly what director Mark Rohwer can inspire these students to do.

Here's a random picture of a kid I met in Coniston, England a few years ago.