# As the year moves along



## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Well, I promised in my last blog that I’d report on an orchestra composition contest in which I was a finalist. The short version is I lost. But the experience was quite rewarding and enlightening. Three finalists were chosen and we were given exact instrumentation to compose a new piece. We had three months to not only compose it, but also supply professional quality score and parts. Believe me, the latter was far more time consuming than the former. I don’t know how many times I would reprint a part when I saw a small notational quibble or change my mind about a page turn or decided to add another cue, etc, etc. 

We three composers met in the lobby and got to know each other before the pieces were then read and reheased by what essentially was a chamber orchestra. Afterward we discussed our works and then the orchestra played non-stop through them. Then a panel left for a while to choose the winner. Afterwards, we all (some players, conductor, panel judges, composers) went out for drinks and light food. On the way out of the auditorium, I struck up a conversation with one of the judges. During which he said something that did not register with me (probably because we had just gone 3+ hours of nerve-wracking wondering), namely “The vote was really, really close”. Then later while at the post-celebration gathering he said it privately to me again. Ohhh, It got it! He meant that I just missed being the winner. LOL!

Now on to other matters. As I suggested in previous blogs, I was a tad skeptical about this European publisher actually issuing my orchestra piece (which you can hear in TC’s "Today’s Composers” forum). Well, I received last week the proofs (ugh, some mistakes are needing correction) so it really looks to be happening. Meanwhile the trumpet and piano piece I mentioned in my last blog as receiving two performances (and can also be heard and seen in TC’s “Today’s Composers” forum) has been accepted for publication by a much recorded trumpet player who also runs a publishing company. That will be my 21st published piece (I do not “self-publish”).

I had one more performance a week ago. A premiere of a short, breezy set of variations for trumpet and piano by one the trumpeters I mentioned both above and in my previous blog. There should be two more pieces of mine to be played in 2019. One in October and another in November. Today I received word that a countertenor will be premiering a song of mine in January. I’ll report more about these after they occur.


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