# Tying up loose Blog ends & looking ahead



## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

In a couple of my previous TC blog entries, I mentioned two performances I’d be attending and I went to said programs, but I did not share their results with you. In the case of my old friend playing a piece of mine he premiered 30+ years ago, the outer quick movements were a bit sluggish, primarily due to the accompanist being quite challenged by my writing. Oddly enough the two performers seemed in all three movements to be always getting into the groove about halfway through each, so that it felt like nothing clicked at the start of each. It was truly good to see him in person again although Facebook has allowed us to “see” each other somewhat over the previous 5 years.

Last weekend was the premiere of my five miniatures for orchestra. The ad hoc orchestra did a dress rehearsal a few hours prior to the concert and I was able to offer the players some suggestions. They performed it quite well, but not perfectly, and yet it felt good throughout. In other words, they communicated my intentions quite well so that their few small flubs did not hurt. Afterwards, some of the orchestra members, the conductor and I went out for food, beer and lively conversation. That certainly was a delightful bonus.

And for you composers out there in TC Land, the conductor, whose “Call for Scores” resulted in close to 400 pieces submitted for this concert, revealed to me how mine jumped out at him. He said it was because my piece contained several clearly lively movements. He said that over 90% of what he received were exclusively slow pieces and he had no interest in programing all nocturnes.

Finally, this coming weekend I travel to another mid-American state to hear a college-community orchestra play the same 5 movement piece that was premiered 2 weeks earlier. It’ll be interesting to see how a different group does it. As of this minute I don’t know if I’ll be able to attend their dress rehearsal.


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