It's amazing to think back on all the adventures from this year. Graduating from Brigham Young Unversity, touring with the BYU Wind Symphony to Mongolia, South Korea, and Japan, attending the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival as an emerging composer in New York City, returning to Illinois and Tennessee for the summer, and beginning my Masters program at the University of Miami shows how busy the year has been.
But my composing life featured my first concert of solely my music, my first four completed commissions (including one to be performed in just two weeks and a fifth commission from the American Guild of Organists to be written next year), my longest continuous work at 14 minutes (Stone in Hand), my first two orchestral pieces (listen to the BYU Philharmonic Orchestra read my work And it fell), my first repeat performances (Improvisations IV was performed the most at three times this year on three different instruments), and the completion of 14 pieces total--many of which were recorded in audio and/or video or premiered. I also created this website and began the revision of my earlier scores to make my music accessible to everyone on the internet. I consider this year a success, but I hope to keep up with this pace!
As the new year approaches, I look forward to making resolutions to work even harder to write music that inspires and enlightens. I believe that music is a powerful force to help people feel important feelings and have a vision of the human experience (and that experience to me reflects eternal truth). I hope that I can learn how to better express these sentiments and point others to notice the beauty in all the sounds we hear. I'll commit my goals to writing in my January post!
Finally, to start the new year, I will be having my own concert January 15th at the Bede Chapel on the University of Miami campus. It features wonderful performers from the University of Miami and Julia Lougheed, who will perform in the piece she commissioned, Stone in Hand. The concert will premiere Stone in Hand and a piece I wrote over the summer for the Imani Winds to read, Oh, That Light!. If you are in the area, I'd love to see you there. If not, I am looking into video streaming possibilities, so keep posted on Facebook.
Best of success to everyone on your resolutions this upcoming year!