Most Adorable "Oh, Christmas Tree" EVER

I dare you to find a more adorable rendition of "Oh, Christmas Tree" than performed by our 2 1/2 year-old nephew, Oliver.

A "Typical" Day for this unknown composer.

I've nearly come to the end of my first semester not as a student (to which a good friend of mine pointed out that I should start organizing my life around a normal calendar year rather than an academic calendar) and I've come up a "typical" day in my life as a freelance (aka "unemployed" in the traditional sense) composer.

6:45am My alarm goes off for the first time. I don't know why it's still set for this time, I have nowhere to be. Jac is already up and getting ready for work. I suppose I get up so that my lazy ass gets out of bed before she heads off to work.

7:15am I actually get out of bed.

7:45am I eat half a granola bar, take my vitamins, allergy meds, and drink a bottle of water (First breakfast, like I'm a hobbit)...with Jac while watching the weather channel before switching it over to Mike and Mike on ESPN2.

8am Exercise! Yes, this is something new I've added to my daily activities. I'm nearly 30 and though I'm not terribly out of shape, neither am a Greek god (or am I...?). About an hour of cardio and lifting weights/resistance training.

9:15am Second Breakfast while watching...you guessed it...some ESPN2. My daily dose of the FirstTake show. It's my vice. Sports keep me sane and balances out out what I love to do. It's cheaper than a lot of other distractions...

I also setup my laptop in front of me to respond to emails, edit scores, look through scores/music, check for jobs, update my website, print scores, work on engraving projects, etc...anything that I can do while the TV is making noise in the background. I know this seems like a bad habit...and it kind of is...but it works for me. I can tune it out enough plus much of this is semi-mundane/mindless work anyway. This is also the time when I may work on a particular passage that may have been questionable the day before. At some point, I meander to my office and get a little writing done...or orchestrating...or sketching. Nothing too focused, yet...sort of warming my brain up for the afternoon.

Noonish I realize I still haven't showered. The odor is surprisingly underwhelming, but the cats have both retreated. Hmmmm...send one more email/check the one last article/find that one last website for info...

12:30pm Lunch (or leave for lunch). I'll usually meet Jac a couple times a week for lunch around 1pm...Panera is a regular place. Nothing like a little Bacon Turkey Bravo and a cup of Broccoli Cheddar to let you know that you're not concerned about your health.

1:30pm Off to 1 of 2 Starbucks I frequent during the week to get me out of the house for a chance of scenario and for some much needed caffeine. This is where I get the bulk of my focused work done. It's surprising how much composing can be done with Starbucks muzak in the background.

5pm Head home. My brain literally really hurts after more than a couple hours of composing straight, but I'm able to push it to 3 or more hours straight at a coffee shop and even more if when I really spread it out during the day. I know that doesn't seem like a lot, but I'm just not one of the composers who can work on a piece for more than about 4 hours a day...the exception, of course comes if the piece is nearly finished and you're so locked in, you think 10 minutes have past and it's actually been nearly 2 hours. What's funny is that I used to spend roughly 10 hours at school 5 days a week from about 8am until 6pm) and I get MUCH MORE composing work completed in a short, focused afternoon.

5:30pm Compose a bit more, mostly touch-ups on what I've written or anything I let simmer for a little from early in the day. A sort of cool-down for the day.

630pm Cooking dinner. Yes, I love this. I now have the time to cook dinner more carefully and to make up some new dishes. Tonight it's chicken breasts seasoned with smoked paprika, kosher salt, pepper, garlic, and tarragon...side of mushrooms and broccoli with pasta sauteed in olive oil and seasonings. Salad to boot.

8pm After dinner, I'll write a little bit more depending on a variety of things or if it's been a particularly unproductive and frustrating day, I just turn my brain off and catch-up on one of a million recorded shows on our DVR.

10:30pm getting ready for bed. Yes, we have the prescribed bedtime of inactive senior citizens. Oh, well.

Revising is fun when it doesn't suck

I've spent the last few weeks slowly revising and expanding the Concerto for Violin and Wind Ensemble. I let several months pass since it's completion in April because 1) I can work on it with fresher eyes and ears and 2) I've been able to forget the mental drain from the 4.5 months of intensive work on the piece.

It's been fun going back and tweaking and fixing things and adding bits and pieces. But the tediousness has sometimes been a bit frustrating, especially when I realized I've spent more than an hour on one short passage. But, I just remind myself that it's for the benefit of the piece, that it's a nice learning process for me, and that most of the time I'm actually excited to do it.

Composers are people, too

I went to the dentist yesterday. My new hygienist, a very nice lady, is very chatty (which makes it a one-sided conversation, considering the sharp metal objects in my mouth). She asked me what I did and I told her that I'm a composer.

She was shocked and somewhat amazed. In the "wow good for you for doing something so nutty and living, you're so lucky" kind of way. I wasn't offended, angry, or anything about it.

I was just...Meh. :/

LeBron James is NOT the King

An egregious error has been made: ESPN has named LeBron James as the #1 player in the NBA.

Are. You. Kidding. Me?!

No argument from me that LeBron is the most talented player. There's no question and anyone who disagrees is kidding themselves. He's too fast, too strong, too big. He has a decent jumper, decent range, great passer, and ball-handler.

But he is not the #1 player in the NBA.

One these guys is not like the others.

In order to be #1, a player needs to have greatness. When I think of greatness, names like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, the list goes on. I'll add Dwyane Wade to the mix, as well. What do all these players have in common? They were All-Star players at their positions, current or soon-to-be hall of famers, many of whom were MVPs (or multiple), had one or more championships, and most importantly, were CLUTCH PLAYERS.

Perhaps the greatest of all time.

I'll even excuse the lack of championships to be considered great. But not that so-called "clutch gene." The desire to not only want the ball in important moments but the ability to make the shot, the block, the steal, THE play to help the team win. LeBron does not possess that gene and people argued back-and-forth for the first 8 years of his playing career. But after his abysmal performance in the 2011 Finals, particularly in the 4th quarter, THE clutch quarter, he came up small, averaging 2 points in the 4th quarter for 4 straight games. That's unreal and that's not greatness.

Even more infuriating is that he's unquestionably the most talented player in the league and yet is unable to make the play in the clutch.

LeBron is top 10, maybe even top 5, but he's not #1. Give me Dwyane, give me Kobe, give me Kevin Durant. Don't give me LBJ in the 4th quarter.

Can't Bite My (Sports) Tongue

I've tried to keep this blog as sports-free as possible (though I've failed on a few occasions) but I can't do it anymore, especially now that I have the time to actually better keep up.

CONGRATULATIONS to my 49ers and to the gritty HC Jim Harbaugh on their win at the vaunted *yes I said vaunted* Detroit Lions on Sunday. Forget the handshake, how about their record at 5-1? (Let's think about this, too: if not for some clutch play from Tony Romo, who IS a clutch player more often than not, they'd be undefeated). Way to go!

"Who's got it better than us?" NOBODY!!

8 Weeks In, Still Going Strong

It's been 8 weeks since the start of the academic year at UT (and pretty much any other semester-based university) and my fears of being nostalgic have proven to be anything but.

I haven't had a break from school since kindergarten. KINDERGARTEN. That's 1987 folks. 13 years of primary and secondary school, 4 years of college, and 7 total years of graduate school, fall 2011 is my first Fall off since the fall of 1986.

It's been GREAT.

Only academia can make you think that leaving the house at 7am and getting back home after 7pm is normal if you're not a business person, attorney, physician, business owner, etc. That not going to school at all is absurd. That if you sleep in on a weekday, you should be flogged.

I'm getting more music written regularly than I ever have before. I have a modest line of commissions set up for the year and have a wonderful and brilliant wife who supports me spending my time writing. (In her words, most non-academic, entry-level jobs might annoy me and she'd have to listen to me complain about it every day. VERY TRUE. :)

I do miss teaching. A lot. I'm itching to teach again, the daily interaction with undergrads or grad students. But I don't miss the grading. I HATED the grading (but who doesn't, no?).

I'm looking forward to applying to another round of faculty positions around the country and get back in the groove, but if the last 8 weeks are any sort of indicator, I'm going to enjoy this academic year, much more than I had anticipated.

Wonderful Trip back from Scrippsies Reunion and Wedding

Just got back from a trip out to Los Angeles to see our good friend Serena get married and to have our annual Scrippsies reunion. Most everyone was there and we had a blast hanging for a few days.

Also got a chance to see my old Long Beach pals Jessica and Shura but unfortunately traffic prevented me from visiting Cal State and Carolyn Bremer.

All and all, a nice weekend and a nice relief from the sweltering Texas weather. I was cold all three evenings!

Yet another Personal Best

And I finally broke 90! Woo-hoo!!! (84 to be precise)

Europe, it goes without saying, was fantastic

There's too much to mention from our 8 day trip to Europe, but it was awesome.

Visiting Paris for the first time and England for a second, we crammed as much as we could, seeing the Louvre (highlight!), Musee d'Orsay, the Pompodieu, Eiffel Tower, Cathedral de Notre Dame, Big Ben, Canterbury Cathedral, the Tower of London, etc. etc. etc.

The people were absolutely wonderful. (The French, I think, especially in the United States, get a bad rap.) I was also wonderfully amazed by the public transportation in both Paris and London. SOOOOO efficient and convenient.

And this was my favorite picture from our trip, courtesy of the Louvre:




And my illegal video from the Musee d'Orsay:

Trip Home and Ft. Worth

Had a great time (really!) driving from California to Texas. I hadn't driven that trek yet, but my brother was moving to Ft. Worth and my parents were so kind as to give me their old civic so that Jac and I could have a second car.

I originally thought we were going to leave on a Saturday, but it made sense to leave on Sunday instead (July 31).

The first leg of the trip had us driving down to Claremont, CA for the night. We ended up leaving (of course) about 2 or 3 hours later than we had anticipated, since we needed to make a trip out to Genentech to get something (it was only a little out of the way, but we already had left later than planned and this put us out another 30 minutes or so)

SYS-CMW 2011 Week II

Another wonderful week of music making came to an end on Sunday. We had another great group of kids as part of the Sacramento Youth Symphony Chamber Music Workshop (week II), in its 22nd season!. What was especially nice with the group of assistant coaches this year was the addition of the Tatman twins, two of my favorite players from the workshop from the last several years.

The repertoire this year consisted of selected movements from Grieg's Holberg Suite, the always fun Hoedown from Copland's Rodeo, and a new piece commissioned by the workshop to continue our own composer-in-residence series by my good friend Zack Wilson, Swallow Falls. I was also happy and very honored to have been commissioned to write a piece for the very capable assistant coach sextet (who in previous years performed Brahms' first sextet, among other pieces).

The students and coaches worked as hard as always and us coaches had nice time inaugurating an annual mid-week happy hour!

Pics to come.

Best 9 yet!

Shot a personal best 43 on the back 9 at Wildhorse to improve to my second personal best of 93 (had sort of a crap front 9).

Funny that at Wildhorse one of my worse scores happened the first time I played it (December 2010: 122) and my two best scores ever have happened in back to back weeks (July 19 and 26 2011, 92 and 93).

Yay for improvement on something that ultimately has no real bearing on my professional life (sigh)...

Back from Camp

Worked at week at Sierra Mountain Music Camp up in Nevada City, California. Haven't been there since 2003, when I was counselor. Came back this year as a staff member. All and all, had a nice time. Can't complain: got paid to hang out in the mountains for a week playing music with some wonderful kids, some of whom remembered me from when I was a camper.

Played Spicewood Springs Again

That's three days of golf in a row, sort of an impromptu round/sunset rate with Wilson. Shot my best of the year, 96. A couple of pars on the back 9 brought my average for the back at bogey.

So...104 on Thursday
41 (par 30) on Friday
96 (par 72) today.

At least I'm getting better. A definite improvement over the last year or so. Last I played Spicewood (in December with Stanton), I shot close to or over 120. Almost 140 the last time I played Jimmy Clay!

Love my hometown

Great Time with the Families visiting!!

My parents and brother, Jac's parents, sister, cousin and our 2 nephews all came in to visit for our graduation and it was great to see everyone.

Got to play some golf with my dad and brother, parties, hangouts galore.

And So We Graduated Today

Never thought I'd look this good in pink.

Last day of school

The last day of school has come and gone, so I think I'd like to remember it by chronicling the days' events:

Traffic was great on the drive in. That's always a plus.

My good friend Cari gave me an awfully nice graduation gift of the Omnibus recordings of Leonard Bernstein. YES!!!!!

I got to help one last student with her homework while my cohorts were busy with about 10 other students...yay MUS 605B.

Lunch with my good friends from the theory hallway (best officemate in the world Christine, Emily, Jane, Alex, Scott) at Red River Cafe. How fitting; and what's more, I'll never forget the indigestion (and the cameo by the ever-elusive Lachlan Fife).

Pictures with Christine in our office...sad, but awesome (some pics below).

Greatest joke ever coupled with the discovery of the Barber piano sonata. What an awesome piece. Scott and Stanton will remember this scenario:

I'm plucking around on the piano in their office for a few moments then stop. All of a sudden, Scott says "well, that's annoying." A brief pause by me and I walk out, to the laughter of the office and the whole hallway, in the background Scott saying: "no, no! I wasn't talking about you...come back!" He was in fact remarking on how he couldn't find a recording of Barber Second Symphony on youtube. HILARIOUS.

Our first meeting as directors of "Threat Level Orange" or "Zilker Oad Project" (real name to be decided), with Lane and Stanton.

Beers at Crown and Anchor with the hilarious Josh Shank, Max, Paul Marbach, Stanton, Alex and Scott.

Finally, closed out the evening with a great performance of Beethoven's 7th and other works (including the fantastic solo work of Letitia Jap on Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole) by the UTSO.

Busy, fun-filled, sad, but great last day of school. CHEERS!!

ps...topped it off with my brilliant and patient wife Jac at home, watching the Lakers lose to the Mavs in game 3 of the NBA Playoffs Second Round (Mavs lead 3-0) and a little bit of Iron Chef America, battle Wreckfish.

My Defense was on Friday...

And I passed!!! Which means, this blog is not for not, and I will actually graduate this year!

Sad News

Daniel Catan, world-renowned composer of opera music and all-around nice guy, died last weekend in his sleep.

Prof. Catan was also a visiting professor at UT this semester, serving as both Composer-in-Residence with the Butler Opera Center (they performed "Rappaccini's Daughter" in February) and filling in for Yevgeniy while he is on sabbatical in New York.

Though I didn't get a chance to study with him, I was fortunate enough to have been present at several talks he gave in composition forum about writing for opera. Really nice man and a brilliant composer and gentleman.

Dissertation Complete?

With the defense just days away, I just finished putting the final touches on the written document (bleh) and the orchestrations (double bleh).

Here's hoping that my Last Year doesn't go into its third year...

Violin Concerto Premiere

I'm now a few days removed from the premiere of the 2nd and 3rd movements (and cadenza) of the Violin Concerto and I'm still blown away by the amazing musicianship and hard work of the soloist and all the performers! Speechless, still.

Below is the video from the CLUTCH concert on April 6.

Just over a month...

Until my dissertation defense. I also realized that it's been almost a month since I last posted. Seriously, I thought it had only been a couple weeks.

March 1 - performance of MOVE with the UTUO was awesome (video to be posted soon)

March 6 -- birthday bash...great!

March 10-15 -- went home for a quick mini vacation to see the family and it was great.

March 14 -- the music for the concerto completed. (yay)

And yet another re-post of this awesome video:

D-Day

It may not be as epic and important as storming the beaches of Normandy, but in my small, insignificant little musical world, the date is set.

Friday, April 22, 2-4pm. The dissertation will be defended.

Let's make it official

My wonderful and brilliant wife, Jac, is the first Dr. in our house, as of Tuesday, February 15. Way to go, Dr. Wiggins-Camacho!!! (no, that was not meant to rhyme). Congratulations -- I'm terribly proud and almost as jealous of you!!!! ;)

Caption: I'm pretty sure I said something I wasn't supposed to say when I took this picture (hint: that's acid in the bottle she's shaking at me.)

You Can Always Count on Your Friends

Holy Crap

The Art of Rehearsal

Tonight, I had the chance to lead the UT University Orchestra in rehearsals of my piece (M O V E for orchestra) and Shoshoni Peak by Steve Snowden, both to be performed on the March 1 concert.

I've been fortunate enough to have been on the faculty of the Sacramento Youth Symphony Chamber Music Workshop for the last 10 years. Between that gig and the numerous performances of new music in the last 4 years, I've had the chance to build up rehearsal experience.

The most important thing I've learned? Keep the big picture in mind the whole time and know how much to nit-pick and when. I use the following analogy to describe some bad rehearsal technique: someone trying to perfect the frosting and get it perfect -- before the cake is baked. So, it may not be perfect, but get as much out of the group at THAT rehearsal as you can. Be productive and LET THEM PLAY. Run the piece as much as you can. The more they do, the better. Don't focus on perfect phrasing if it's out of tune, or worse, not rhythmically correct. Don't work on the perfect entrance or the perfect dynamic until the piece makes sense to them.

It was the first full rehearsal of my piece and I only had 30 minutes with the full complement, but we were able to get through the piece...twice. I rehearsed just enough for them to get he picture and to know what they need to practice. Focused on tempo and repeated over and over "we'll fix those notes later," suggesting that 1) I trust them enough to fix their own mistakes outside of rehearsal and 2) that there are notes that need to be fixed. We ran the whole piece from start to finish at the end of the rehearsal and, of course, it wasn't perfect, but they got to hear the piece as a whole and get a better sense of how the piece flows, how the music all relates to each other, how all the parts fit, and most importantly, they get a chance to know what to work on. Nothing worse than "supervised individual practice as a group."

Anyways, not to say I've perfected my rehearsal technique...far from it. Still have got lots to learn. But at least it seems I'm on the right track...

So, to review...

1) Let them play and get a feel for the piece as a whole.
2) Goals for any given rehearsal should start broad and become more detailed as the rehearsal or subsequent rehearsals progress...a lot of things will get fixed on its own through repetition. If done properly, they won't "practice mistakes."
3) Focus on rhythm and articulation, dynamics, and intonation first and foremost. Phrasing, character, and some of the other more subtle things get better if the above four things (in order) are perfected.
4) Allow things to fix themselves (initially)...see "let them play" above.
5) Keep instructions clear, short, and sweet. Don't say "this should like an alpine mountain" when "it needs to be softer" or "more legato, less space in between each note" is clearer and to the point.
6) Don't say "good" unless it actually is good.
7) Congratulate and compliment when warranted.
8) Always be aware of the time and adjust rehearsal as necessary.
9) Don't be afraid to tell players that it didn't sound good (saves time and they often appreciate the professionalism of "it's behind" or "pitches are quite locking in...you're tending to be sharp or flat," etc.).
10) Keep the rehearsal interesting - don't focus on one group of instruments too much, involve all the players as much as you can, and KEEP THEM PLAYING! PLAY PLAY PLAY!!!

Super Bowl XLV Champions

The Lombardi trophy is heading back to Green Bay. Congrats, Packers...and congratulations to Aaron Rodgers (who should've been losing with the 49ers!...)

M O V E for Orchestra Premiere

Last night was a great success! The strings nailed the rhythms that were giving them a bit of trouble before and it went practically flawlessly (please excuse this terribly awkward sentence). The remainder of the program was absolutely fantastic, which included the rip-roaring Schumann Konzertstuck (featuring UT professor of horn, Patrick Hughes and 3 of his fabulous grad students), the beautiful Respighi Adagio con variazioni for cello and orchestra (which I'd never heard before, played wonderfully by recent UT grad, Liz Lee), and Strauss' epic Death and Transfiguration, complete with Superman theme.

I was stupid and didn't bring a video camera or take pictures and the recording is not yet ready, so instead I'll simply re-post one of my favorite youtube videos below.

Congratulations all around to Wes Schulz and the 2010 American Prize-winning Texas Chamber Group Orchestra!!

Who wants to live in Portland, anyway?

I'm bummed a bit, but actually a little more baffled by the wording of this rejection letter. I understand what they're trying to say, but it's almost like that they're not sure why I don't have an interview...oh well.

Everyone's a critic

Made the "mistake" of posting a simple, straight-forward and mostly sarcastic comment about how a flute solo is not appropriate when writing a piece about The Gates of Hell (after Rodin's sculpture).

Here was the ensuing facebook escapade:

Thanks for listening, Milton. RIP.

It was funny to see all the RIP Milton Babbitt status updates on my composer and music friends' facebook profiles yesterday. Obviously not haha, but after all the negative things we may have said about the man's music, there was a definite sadness in everyone upon learning of his passing early Saturday morning. Nothing but respect and admiration for his contributions to music and, in particular, avant-garde music in the United States.

And that's how it should be.

Thanks for listening, Milton. RIP.

The AP Story here

Composer DOUBLE Fail

In honor of my friend's blog, Jenn Jolley, who's series of Composer Fails (30 fails by the time she hits 30 yrs) is sheer self-deprecating genius, I've decided to post what she might consider a double fail.

One of the places that I applied for a job rejected me outright back in December...but to *make absolute sure* that I knew that I was no longer considered for the position, they sent me this via email about a week ago (to protect the innocent, the name of said school has been blotted out):



The letter seems straightforward and boring enough, so what's the big deal? On second thought, I came to the following conclusion -- The first rejection, especially coming after just under 2 weeks of submitting the application, basically said "you're sooooo not right for the job." This second letter adds to the first by saying also "We hate your face."

Sheesh. Why do I suddenly feel like Billy Madison in this scene?:

Really Have Gotten into this duo

Pomplamoose (playing "Expiration Date")

(Hint: You've seen them in the rash of Hyundai Christmas Commercials that just aired)

First week of my last semester

It's about time. I was starting to become the music grad school equivalent of this guy:

Except for everything that made that movie a raunchy flick. So instead of unlimited boos, sex, and drunken parties, replace with unlimited papers to grade, the need for boos, and late nights writing music and grading papers. Who'd watch that movie? (did I mention grading papers?)

Still need to get into a groove, but have now taught 2 of the orchestration courses for the semester. It's strange lecturing on something other than theory, but at least I know it already.

But...I still don't have my materials! CD, Textbook, and workbook still hasn't arrived, but finally will on Monday. Luckily, I was able to procure a textbook and things for the first week and create the syllabus with little trouble.

Ah, the joys of academia.

Here's to a great last semester in school. EVER.

The Feats of Incovenience Composers Go Through

...for something that ultimately may not be chosen!

The Symphony in C has an annual competition for "young" composers (really meaning anyone under 30...shouldn't they increase this number to at least 35 or 40?). The due date was this past Saturday.

One concession: Naturally, most composers wait until the last minute to submit anything because, let's be honest...it's in our nature. I feel I've improved upon this over the last few years by "tricking" myself into doing something last minute by moving the date a few days earlier. This is more useful for writing music so that I don't lose that edge (I use this word loosely) the music has when forced to write on instincts. But for postmark dates and other mailings, it's just meant to overcome laziness/procrastination.

I meant to send out the package on Thursday (2 days before postmark), but completely forgot until Saturday (day of postmark) around noon.

Printed out 2 scores on legal size paper. No problem. But I didn't have legal size hard covers. Formatted them on 11x17 hardcovers then printed...so far, so good. A sample part needed to be made and I decided to try it out on 10x13 instead of my usual 11x14...still no problem. Just everything needed to be cut. Needed blank CDs...at school. Needed binding supplies...at school. So at about 3:30pm, around 90 minutes before the post office's last pickup, we headed into Austin.

Ran into traffic...duh. Got to school at 4:07. Made the CDs and bound the scores...but the paper cutter won't fit paper larger than 12 inches vertical. Whoops. Off to Kinkos. 4:30pm we get it cut but realized I left my bindings and pliers at school. Purchased some at kinkos for a buck (highway robbery). Cut everything and off to the post office.

5pm...we make it just in time, but I completely forgot to include an SASE. Dumb on my part. We drive out to the last pickup area (turns out to be the central Austin Post Office) before 8pm...finally get everything sorted. It's now 6pm.

It all gets in and postmarked on the correct day, but a lot of it has less to do with procrastination and just being dumb/bad luck on my part. Lesson learned? Not likely.

Haven't seen this in 10 years...

George Lucas' inspiration for Star Wars...

Happy New Year!

If everything pans out, this will be the most epic of semesters.

First up: the premiere and then subsequent second performance of M O V E, by the brilliant Wes Schulz and Alejandro Guittierez, first with the Texas Chamber Group and then the University of Texas University Orchestra (UTUO).

Come see the premiere on February 3 at 7:30pm at Concordia University in Austin, Texas.