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: