# May report



## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

In February, a three movement work for trumpet and piano of mine was played twice by a duo in Georgia. First, they played it on the eastern side of the state and then the western side. I was able to attend the second one where we all went out to eat the night before and tell war stories (musical wars that is).

Then nothing happened until this month. First, a call for scores from a small ensemble in Italy occurred in April. I sent my submission in a week before the deadline. Then just days after the deadline they announced 5 winners with me being one of them. Then a week later they premiered it in northern Italy and it looks like they will repeat the program this week as well. The piece, BTW, is a quartet of clarinet, violin, cello and piano.

Sometimes, strange things can happen. Just last week one such event took place. Last summer I submitted a work for Euphonium and Piano to a publishing firm. That one ignored my requests to really look at it even though they promised. In the meantime I sent the piece to a university euphonium professor. And that too resulted in silence.....so far, that's typical for many of us composers....you get use to it...really! So in Jan. 2018 I sent the piece to a different publisher. And thru last week they too made no contact with me. Then in *one day's time* the following took place (1) the professor sent me an email apologizing for not having replied and truly praising the piece (2) I responded back that I was not offended by not getting a reply until now, then mentioning the company that since Jan was sitting on my submission (3) the professor replies that she knows that company well and that they are going through a rough transition and it may be a long time before they resume, so she recommends another publishing house of which she personally knows the owner and sends a recommendation of my piece to him (4) the publisher says he really likes it and includes a contract for me to sign.

Finally, one of my former students has been teaching public school strings for his entire career. I had composed a piece for middle/high school strings to enter a contest. I asked my former student if he would look the piece over before I submitted it to see if he felt I was on or off the mark for that age group. He said it was perfect and asked if he could actually have his school's string orchestra play it. I said, of course, and a few days ago they premiered it.


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