Despite all evidence to the contrary, I am still here, still alive, still kicking (though after yesterday, my legs are unbelievably sore), and still running The Creative. Now that these past two weeks are over, however, I actually have the time and mental power to post.
I'll start with a brief recap of the highlights of the past couple of weeks, then move on to the usual recap of my creative activities.
Let's go back two weekends to the Capital Area Young Ringers Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina. What an amazing day with a bunch of talented young ringers! We spent most of the day rehearsing five numbers, which we then performed at an afternoon concert for family, friends, and anyone else who wandered in off the street. Despite the fact there were students ranging from 3rd grade clear up to seniors in high school, and students who had played no more than a month alongside students who had been playing for years, the group all came together in the end to give a very moving and well-played concert.
Then last weekend I was in Kokomo, Indiana for the 29th Annual Kokomo Handbell Festival. Choirs from six area churches came together, practiced throughout the day, and played an evening vespers service featuring the seven numbers we had worked on all day. It was a truly incredible day, and I can't go on enough about how well the directors had worked the numbers with their choirs. Every festival I go to, there are always a number of choirs who just aren't prepared, don't know the music, and, frequently, don't seem to realize it; that wasn't the case here. It was so nice for me, as conductor, to be able to spend my time making music with the ensembles, not teaching notes and rhythms.
Outside the world of conducting, I took my elementary school's Math Bowl team to competition (8th in the state in their division), practiced with and performed with 2 of my wife's groups at school for two separate concerts (one of which was yesterday during our district's elementary Fine Arts Festival, which put us at one school from 8:30 in the morning until 8:30 last night preparing, setting up, hanging artwork, performing, and tearing down artwork ... hence the sore legs), plus took care of all the regular church services and one extra one back on Ash Wednesday. With all of that, plus preparing for the impending arrival of our son (less than three weeks now!) ... well, needless to say, The Creative had to take a temporary back seat.
However, for the next couple of weeks, at least, things look clear, so we'll hope to get back to regular posts at regular times. In the meantime, here's the rest of this week's Summary:
Music -- I did actually manage to get a little composing done, though, of course, not as much as I'd like. I worked a bit on a Palm Sunday arrangement for Lorenz, one that hopefully will be released in compatible editions, meaning I have to write the piece for smaller groups, then adapt it so larger ones can play it, as well. It's always a fun challenge ... provided I can actually pull it off.
I also threw together a quick organ postlude I played last week in church -- nothing spectacular, and definitely something that will need edited and tweaked before I even consider trying to get it published.
I'm also starting work on a Christmas piece, one that a publisher has expressed interest in. The deadline for it (and for a lot of other projects) is looming large, so I need to get cracking on them. Thankfully, this coming week is a pretty wide-open expanse of free time, so I'm hopeful I can get a couple of these projects off my plate.
Writing -- A couple of weeks ago, I had the foresight to put a copy of Fealty and Fire on my Kindle Fire, which meant that I was able to spend a good part of my trip from Raleigh back home two weekends ago tweaking and making notes about the book. It's still a fair way from completion (if I can get some composing projects out of the way, there's a chance we can shoot for May, but I wouldn't hold my breath), but it's at least taken a step closer.
Publishing -- A couple of my newer pieces have started to be advertised, and two of my very newest ones are up on the Lorenz site. One is an adaptation of a choral arrangement of a couple of different Christmas tunes called Christmas Toys on Parade, and the other one (something I'm really excited about) is a set of five tunes called The Bread and the Cup -- the pieces are designed for Communion, and are full of repeats within pieces, as well as segues to the next piece, which will let choirs adapt the pieces for whatever length and style they wish. I actually borrowed the format from a book from Lorenz that did the same sort of thing but with piano. I'm really hopeful it will see some good sales, as I think it will be really useful for an awful lot of choirs.
I'm sure much more has happened these past three weeks, but right now, the whole thing is a blur, so we'll leave it at that. It's great to be back, great to have some time to think and breathe, and great to be able to share once more with all of you. Here's wishing you all a wonderful and creative week, and we'll look for you back here on Wednesday!
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