Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Success in Pairing

I'm not a huge fan of bragging about myself.  I know I've made passing mention about a few projects in the last few years, but looking back, it's high time I take credit for some of the awesome things I've been responsible for creating.

It all started shortly after moving to Vancouver.  I had met an exciting poet, Ray Hsu and we started talking about potential projects.  We originally proposed a single project to the Vancouver International Song Institute, but that didn't initially fly. Eventually, the ideal was distilled - let's bring poets and composers together, perform their creations, and talk about the creative experience. That first year, we had a 2-hour afternoon workshop that was incredibly successful, so much so, that it was expanded into a week-long program with a professional concert at the end. Again, the program and concert garnered some serious attention from artists and granting organizations. Plans are in the works to make the VISI Art Song Lab 2012 even more exciting. To date, 15 new art songs have been written and premiered as part of our program!

While plans were in motion for that first Art Song Lab, I approached Corey Hamm (piano prof at UBC) about collaborating with his piano studio. With his support and excitement, we used the same paradigm: pairing pianists with composers this time. Yet again, the collaboration was a tremendous success resulting in the creation, in-depth study/rehearsal, and premiere of 10 brand new pieces for piano. The piece I wrote for this collaboration was particularly successful, receiving several repeat performances, and there are even talks of having it recorded.

Good things come in threes, of course, so I couldn't leave the pairing idea alone just yet; the most recent development is Analyze This: A Composer/Theorist Lecture Recital. I live with a music theorist, and many of my friends are of the analytical persuasion, so I've always seen it as a missed connection that there seems to be some kind of a divide between the two fields. After hosting a meet-and-greet last year, I played matchmaker with my composer and theorist friends.  In a few weeks, we'll have a lecture recital featuring the live performance and analysis of short pieces. Even before it's happened, I've been approached by a performing organization to have the whole event documented.

Of course, I'm also writing my own music and feeling pretty damned good about it, too! Long story short, I feel really good about career-type things right now, and I figured you'd enjoy reading something uplifting for a change...  Don't worry though, there'll be some rants and bitching soon enough!